Player of March: Sameep Dahal

Learning chess moves

I learnt how the pieces move around the age of 7–8 years. Funnily enough, I did not learn chess moves with the intention of playing chess. As a kid, I was interested in solving various brain teasers. Once, I had visited my uncle where he asked me about the 8 queen problem (to place 8 queens in the chess board so that none of them attack each other). This was how I learnt about how the queen moved and subsequently about the other pieces as they were lying around.

How often do you play chess?

Nowadays, I play chess very often online (chess.com and lichess). Mostly I play blitz online. Occasionally, I also play events organized by Lauttasaari chess club and chess club here at Aalto. Likewise, I am also very keen in puzzle solving and thus regularly play puzzle rush survival mode.

Joining a chess club

When I came to Finland, I started to miss playing chess over the board. So I started looking online for what chess clubs are there in Finland where I could join. This is when I encountered the blogs of Lauttasaari chess club. I liked the fact that the club organized casual chess games every week and the location was also very convenient for me.

Achievements in chess

In my undergraduate studies, I had won a team tournament by participating in an inter college chess tournament. I recently also managed to win the Lauttasaari cup of autumn 2022.

A sweet win

I find defeating high rated players on lichess who Berserk against me very sweet. I defeated an IM online. While objectively I was much worse out of the opening, I was happy that I could hang in and stretch the game.

A lucky win

During the Lauttasaari cup, I won a game where my opponent missed checkmate in 1 on move 25.

A bitter loss

There must have been many, specially those caused my mouse slips.

The worst blunder

Incorrectly sacrificing a piece due to missing the opponent's defense is the blunder I find the worst.

A memorable chess experience

My most memorable experience was when I played my first tournament back home at Nepal. It was the first time I was facing a rated player and I had managed to outplay him in the middlegame and win the game convincingly.

Playing style

I feel my strength is tactics and weakness is lacking proper opening knowledge and ending up in bad positions out of the opening.

Motto in chess

Enjoy the game and try to win in the "Tal style".

Chess idols

Carlsen, Kasparov and Fischer are the names that come to mind. I enjoy watching the games of all the super GMs.

Favorite time control

Online blitz 3'+0", over the board blitz 5'+03".