Cevdet Kızıl ; "Hasbahçe Rıfat Demir Tournament" Champion

In 2001, Hasbahçe Chess Club had decided to organize a chess tournament in the name of Rıfat Demir who had to leave the club. I had also joined this tournament since Rıfat was one of my best friends in Hasbahçe Chess Club. Speaking some for the atmosphere of the competition, it was a very cold and rainy day. Moreover, because the tournament would continue until 7:30 pm, it was becoming colder and colder (winter season) by every passing minute. To tell you the truth, I was able to survive in this tournament with much difficulty.  In fact this was not surprising considering the fact that the tournament had been held at the club's garden and I only had a T-Shirt on. Anyway, after starting the tournament, I had beat my opponents in the first round group and ranked 1st. However, semi-final games were much more difficult for me and I could hardly beat Gurkan Ekin (Chess Champion and Captain of Istek Mustafa Kemal Ataturk High School) after many games. Our games were full of struggle and I could eliminate Gurkan Ekin in the semi finals with an overall score of 5:3. Then, in the final round, my opponent was Bora Altınordu who was a titled player with many chess trophies in his career. In the first game of the final round, I was playing with the black pieces while Bora was playing with the white ones. Bora had really played very well and gained a significant advantage in our first game. He was very close to win, but the games of the tournament was on 5 min. blitz and Bora was not as fast as me, so he lost that first game of the final on time although he had a great advantage. So, after my win with the black pieces, I had a full self-confidence now while Bora was very disappointed. He had lost a game which he had to win for sure so he would now continue the tournament with a very low morale. His sad feelings, disappointment and low morale did affect our second game as I had expected. By the help of this situation, I had gained a material advantage in the middlegame of our second duel and after gaining this advantage, I was able to keep it until the end of the match. Bora, discovering the loss in the endgame's next moves had resigned and the overall score for final games was now 2-0. This meant that I was now the chess champion of Hasbahçe Rıfat Demir Tournament and had gained my title back in Hasbahce Chess Club. Finally, the trophy above was awarded to me for my success in the competition.