Scheduled to compete for the annual Shell chess championship game, my daughter Jerika was in a hurry because she woke up late and might miss the free ride provided by the municipal government. It was a windy 8th of August, 2009 and nearly a hundred participants from our municipality joined the annual Chess event. Pass 8am, I thought my Jerika was already late but alas, the driver was nowhere to be found. Around 9am the driver arrived with a big bus enough to accommodate the raging elementary and secondary student participants with their respective buddies. Off they went to SM city: the venue of the chess championship game.
Teeth-grinding day
I did not go with my Jerika because I have so many things to attend to at home. Jerika arrived at around 9pm and was happy to announce she won 3.5 games out of 4. Not bad for an amateur player. And since the championship was scheduled for two days for the 7 games, the Sunday of August 9 was another teeth-grinding time. The game was scheduled to start at 10am and the driver was again nowhere to be found: t’was already pass 8am. A furious me asked the head of the group about the late driver…again. And this time, it’s no longer funny. The scheduled game was the final 3 and the venue was an hour ride from our municipality. Imagine the time to be raced? It’s already passed 8 plus another hour plus the traffic, blah, blah, blah…I was already fuming mad. And since I don’t want to waste the game, I decided to commute and go with my daughter despite my busy schedule. And since there were other players who were also soon-to-be champions, I told them to go with me and not mind the transportation expense. Off we go: 24 participants plus me and my two daughters, a total of 27.
Race against time
We rode a half-full jeepney fifteen minutes before nine. Remember, the final “lap” was to start at 10:00am. And since the jeepney was doing lots of stop-over to look for more passengers, I decided to transfer to a big bus to race against time. And t’was the right decision because we arrived at pass 10am and again, we ran till we dropped.
Arrived safely and… won
We arrived at SM at around 10:30 and hurriedly told the participants to rush to their respective chess tables notwithstanding the pressure of being tardy. My Jerika was able to manage a tie in spite her only 10 minutes remaining game. And the rest of the 24 were all winners in their own right. Imagine the pressure, but it’s worth it. My Jerika won 6 (5 plus two ties) games out of 7.
