FIDE ratings at last!

The 2nd Mangalore FIDE Rated All India Open Chess Tournament was held in Mangalore from 19.7.2008 to 26.7.2008. Totally 280 players from all over India took part including 2 Grand Masters, 7 International Masters and about 150 FIDE rated players.
I am glad to announce that I scored 7 points out of 11 rounds and all points came against FIDE rated players.
I am proud to state that I secured the best unrated player award and a cash prize of Rs.2,000=00. I will also get a FIDE rating of around 2050 in the next list to be published by the World Chess Federation in Jan 2009. Perhaps, that would be a realization of my long cherished dream of earning a FIDE rating.
Ok, once you manage to get ratings with great effort and pain, what next? Maintaining the same level, is difficult. Losing rating would be painful. There is an apt shloka in Panchathantra, Mithrabheda:
अर्थानामर्जने दुखं अर्जितानां च रक्षणे
आये दुखं व्यये दुखं धिगर्था: कष्ट सम्श्रया:
(There is sorrow in earning money. Protecting what you have earned is also sorrowful. Earning and spending also is painful. The wealth which brings so much of misery be condemned!).
The shloka holds good for rating also.

Double check

My cousin, M Shankaranarayana Bhat, a late entrant to the world of computers seems to have mustered some free time to visit my blog and go through the contents. He was generous while complimenting my effort to publish the blog in web. He observed that there are no article on Chess and sought my explanation. His comment has awakened me from deep slumber and forced me to run for cover. To use a phrase of chess-
“Even the laziest King flees wildly at the face of a double check!”