I took up chess to lift my spirits during a tough time, but I wasn’t prepared for what would come next. By Jasmine Paton, 20
I reached across the board, moved a piece and then announced, ‘Checkmate!’
‘You got me again!’ my
dad Alex chuckled.
I was nine years old, and Dad was teaching me how
to play chess.
To begin with, he beat me a lot, but I really enjoyed
the tactical sparring and it wasn’t long before I was winning our matches.
Chess was such
an absorbing game. When I played,
I could block out everything else.
As time went on, however, school
and exams got in the way and I stopped playing as much.
Then, when I was in my teens, Covid struck and the country went into lockdown.
It was a tough time.
Unable to see my friends,
I felt my life had stopped and I sank into a depression.
Dad and my mum, Camilla, tried to help.
But it wasn’t until they suggested taking up a hobby could help that a lightbulb went on over my head.
Of course! I thought.
I went online and found
a website called chess.com, which matched chess players in a virtual game.
I created an account, calling myself Ivor.
No one will know I’m a girl, I thought, assuming
I’d be taken more seriously as a man.
Within seconds, an opponent popped up and we started playing.
The game worked its magic on me and, for the first time in months,
I was completely absorbed by something.
I managed to beat my
first opponent easily, then the next, and the next.
Weeks went by and I played all sorts of people around the world – and
I trashed them all!
It really lifted my spirits.
'Who is this person?'
But one night, when I logged on, I got a shock.
I challenged a new opponent called Chess
Goon, and they beat me!
Feeling a bit annoyed,
I asked for a re-match.
We played again
the following night
– but I was defeated
a second time!
Who is this person?
I wondered, desperate to beat them.
I went online to
see if I could find
out more, and I soon discovered that Chess Goon was a man called Anthony. He lived in New York
and he made chess videos.
No wonder he’s so good!
I thought.
We had a re-match and, finally, I got to tap out the word I’d been longing to say.
Checkmate!
Well done! he replied.
Given my profile name,
I reckoned Anthony probably thought I was a man, so
I decided it was time to come clean.
I’m Jasmine, I told him. I’m a teenage girl!
I thought you were a middle-aged man! Anthony typed in reply.
It turned out Anthony was 25 and worked in finance, but he loved playing chess
as a hobby.
From then on, we played every evening, until finally
I became good enough to beat him regularly.
As the months passed,
I found myself really looking forward to our matches.
Every time Anthony logged on, I felt a little spark, and
it was clear that we shared more than a love of chess.
We swapped numbers and started talking every day.
‘I really want to meet
you,’ Anthony said.
‘I want to meet you too!’
I replied.
So he flew over from New York to my home in London.
We spent every moment together and, by the end of the week, we were a couple.
I was sad when he had to go back to America, but we vowed to make things work – and now, two years on, we’re still together.
We visit each other as regularly as we can and, one day, we hope to take our relationship to the next level.
My story inspired Mum, who is a TV producer, to create the new BBC show Chess Masters: The Endgame.
I’m studying at the moment but my dream is to become
a professional chess player.
I’ll be forever grateful
to the game that got me
out of the doldrums and found me love.