Player of September: Petr Veselý

Learning chess moves

I learned when I first started visiting a club at the age of 13 or 14.

How often do you play chess?

Twice a month.

Joining a chess club

SK Žamberk was the first one I joined. Soon we re-established with a few friends our, then inactive, home club – TJ Spartak OEZ Letohrad.

Achievements in chess

I just enjoy the game.

Your best game

Hard to remember. I prefer to play blitz so can’t really say.

A sweet win

Nearly every victory is sweet.

A lucky win

In the good old times of no-increment time control I was fighting for 6 hours against a solid opponent. I finally achieved a winning position with a one piece advantage, but I only had 2 minutes left against 15 minutes of my opponent.

Well, after some more moves, my opponent spent about 10 minutes of his time, but I finally blundered and lost a queen. Nevertheless I managed to win the game on time, having just a single bishop (able to checkmate) against many pieces of my opponent...

A bitter loss

Every single one of them :-)

The worst blunder

There were plenty and there will be more. Only yesterday I lost a queen free of charge in a rapid game :)

A memorable chess experience

Playing simultaneously against 8 players (60 minutes each). It was lot of fun & I did pretty good actually.

The most precious scalps

A made a draw against then world's number 49 Evgeniy Najer in 2008 Czech Open blitz tournament.

Opening repertoire

English for white, Scandinavian & Czech for black. I would like to say all of them due to patriotism – I am a Czech national, living in Scandinavia using English for communication :)

Well, the truth is I play Czech Benoni due to my nationality, the rest is just a coincidence.

Playing style

I am defensive player. Weaknesses: opening. Strengths: endgame.

Favorite time control

Blitz, superblitz – BUT with NO increment(!). Spending time wisely is part of chess strategy.