 "Photo: Special to The Daily Gamecock")
After 20 hours of chess in two and a half days, USC's research assistant professor in the Mathematics department became South Carolina's new chess champion.
Philipp Lamby has been playing chess since he was a child in his hometown of Aachen, Germany.
"My father taught me when I was probably around five or six," Lamby said. "I was playing it when was just able to understand what I was reading, when I could just begin to comprehend the moves."
Lamby said he really wasn't very interested in it until he was 10 years old.
"My father started pushing me in that direction, and I started meeting with success. And when I played in my first tournament, I realized my father had been teaching me something useful," he said.
When he was 13, Lamby won his first chess tournament. Lamby's elation was kept in check by his drive to continue winning.
Lamby, now 34, said he still feels this drive, even after he crossed the Atlantic to come to USC. Lamby has become South Carolina's new chess champion, beating out other top chess players vying for the title in the South Carolina Chess Association's 69th championship.
"After I finished working on my PhD at Aachen University, my advisor asked me if I was going to stay at his institute and work the projects," Lamby said. "I had been working on the same project for seven years, and I wanted to do something new."
Lamby said when he came here that he wanted to play chess.
"I spent most of my spare time at home playing it, and I missed it a little. So I looked on the Internet and found out about the Columbia Chess Club," he said. "I ended up playing in tournaments in this area, and I got information on all the tournaments from the people I met."
Seventy-five chess players competed in the tournament's three sections. Players played five rounds, each game lasting a total of three hours. Players were paired together based on the amount of rounds won.
"I played 20 hours of chess in two and a half days," Lamby said. "You can imagine, it was quite stressful. I had a bad week beforehand. I felt tired. But this was the S.C. championship, I could not miss it."
Lamby was placed in a top tier section. His section contained an International Master, four National Masters and 10 expert level players. Lamby won four of his five rounds.
Lamby said he advises other aspiring chess players to build their community.
"You need partners to play against, you can't just do it with a computer or playing by yourself," Lamby said. "Sometimes strategies need to be explained, not to mention that you need competition to better yourself."
Lamby said he hopes USC will begin to build a larger chess community.
"Holly Watson is trying to revive the Gamecock Chess Club. They are currently meeting on Monday in LeConte at 7 p.m.," Lamby said. "If they get a large enough group together, I might teach a course on chess."
As for other future plans, Lamby said he plans to keep playing the game he's so passionate about.
"I'm 34 years old, I'm not a real huge talent anymore. I've reached my peak," Lamby said. "I've played in several tournament's in South and North Carolina, and I think it time for me to win some more."
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