Lichess4545 Interview: From random coffee shop encounter to a chess club owner

Another 4545 Interview with a league player conducted by @fork2020.

After some irregularities, we are back on our normal interview schedule! This week, the player being interviewed is the captain of one of the current top teams, and had somewhat strangely not played a single game this season until round three despite being paired in the previous two rounds. Can you guess who this player is?

If you guessed @ExirC, you must have dug through the archives and selected a random former captain from a random season (Editor note: also looks like this player does not exist). No, the player being interviewed is @TristanBrown17!

Tell us a bit about yourself and/or your chess play.

I'm Tristan Brown, a physical therapist out in Phoenix, AZ, and have been playing chess for about 4.5 years now. I started in grad school as the result of my buddy playing, and it has quickly blossomed into one of my favorite hobbies. I also play in a local symphony (mallet percussion), have played piano for 21 years, work on my fitness, maintain a blog on chess.com, and co-own the Phoenix Chess Club. My chess play int he beginning was the result of trying to defend against my friend Nathan's Englund gambit, and really didn't take off until I had finished my doctorate and moved from Iowa to Arizona. Funnily enough, I didn't really play much chess here besides online until I was waiting for my girlfriend to show up to our first date, and some gentlemen came into the coffee shop with chess boards. I recreationally played with them, and then they told me there were other meetups across the Valley. Fast forward, I met the people who I play with every week there, and it has blossomed not only into a love of chess, but now owning a chess club, running the online portion, and having chess as a substantial part of my life. My chess play is chaotic. I like to be attacking, but I also play the Caro Kann, so go figure that one out. I like to think I'm fairly tactically sharp and always look for sacrifices, but I also love myself a good endgame, and think it's one of the stronger parts of my game in relation to my relatively low level. I also try to check in with my teammates, especially during 45+45, and offer support where I'm able to.

You are captaining one of the current front-running teams. Do you have any comments to make on the early success of Total Lemons?

What a fun team. I really think it comes down to trying to keep the chat light and fun in our respective channel, and then we always try to tune in to our teams games so they know we are supporting them. My teammates have played incredibly well, and it's just a pleasure to play with them this season. Besides that, we started the pre-season with talking about ourselves, and I can say with good confidence we have some very talented individuals aside from chess in that group.

Which of your games this season is your favorite?

Well, I've only gotten to play 1 game this season hilariously enough, but it was a barn burner. My opponent missed our time the first week, and my opponent and I couldn't find a mutual time the 2nd week. I have a published annotation against @DoesHoodRatStuff, and it's a game I was looking forward to playing because I knew him from the Chess Dojo. I felt worse for the opening, but I managed to turn it around by winning a pawn in the early middlegame with a nice 4 move calculation, and then pushed to convert from that point, ultimately winning a full piece with a neat calculation involving kicking the king around.

Which league player would you most like to see interviewed in a future edition of the ledger?

One of the individuals who has stuck out to me is @JohnJPershing, who was a former teammate of mine. He inspired me to never resign, which has really paid off in a few games since. Also, I think that he is humble and quiet-ish, but if he was willing, @FunnyAnimatorJimTV would have some really interesting things to say.

Which league player do you most respect?

Respect is an interesting term as I don't know many of the people in the league, but I would have to say @JokicInator15. He's been my book club sparring partner for a long time, and him and I have had some very fun back and forth games, as well as great discussion following our practice sessions. Really, I think a lot of the people playing in this league have good personalities, and are all interesting and deserving of respect in their own regard.

Please give us a nugget of wisdom.

With all things, perseverance is key. With chess, I was stuck playing in an U1200 section for 84 consecutive games although I felt my strength was much higher, and that was so disheartening for a while. However, it reminded me that with chess improvement in particular, it's not if you can beat a person of that level that determines if you go up in rating, but rather that you can consistently beat those level players. Aside from chess, I finished my doctorate in 2022, and the same mantra applies. There were days with lots of self-doubt, fatigue, and generally some depression/anxiety, but with the help of friends and determination, I succeeded, and have found good success since.

Is there anything else that you would like to tell us?

I have played 6 seasons each with the league, and have continually improved. I think that what I've noticed is that particularly because my online classical play is exclusively in this group, my rating doesn't fluctuate much. The change in my play has been pronounced, and this pool is quite strong. It's so nice to improve with everybody, and see familiar names that I recognize move up in boards and have good results. Also, if people are interested, like I had mentioned previously, I do own an in-person and online chess club, the Phoenix Chess Club on chess.com (Editor note: Wrong website, but what can we do. Maybe that explains why Arizona sports suffer so badly). We host many online events in particular, which I run, so I will post the links to those clubs, and all I ask is that people have seen this from the LIchess Leagues if they want to join.

How would you react if your opponent suddenly turned into a pumpkin mid-game?

I think that online, I wouldn't even know besides the fact that no more moves would be transmitted (woohoo, free elo I suppose). Over the board, there would definitely be some shock, but as long as it's not Halloween, I bet they'd be safe.

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Lichess4545 is an online chess league for people who like playing long time control games online. Players are assigned to teams and play one game per week with a 45+45 time control. For more information visit our league home page.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA).
Interview condcuted by @fork2020