Hello! My name is Ioana G. and I live in Romania.

I have just finished school this year and I am a chess player. I started playing chess when I was 8 y.o.. I wished I could have practiced some other sport but I’ve suffered a heart surgery when I was 6 so it wasn’t possible for me to engage in any physical effort. I didn’t like chess at first, because my dad used to wake me up every Sunday morning at 8 and carry me to the chess club. I was always searching for new reasons not to go (headache, bad mood, bad weather, etc). But for 4-5 years, chess has become my life.

When I was 14 I won the European Title in Austria, Mureck, and it was just the beginning. I started loving chess. I started studying it myself on a daily basis, really wanting to be good at it. I worked hard for 4 years, some results came up, like National titles, but it wasn’t enough. My coach, my parents, everyone around me and myself wanted more than this! National trophies mean nothing, the International success is the one that matters.

So it was like this until last year, when I watched The Secret accidentally. I just wanted to spend a night watching a good movie and I downloaded it, having no idea what it was. It had a big impact on me, but, unfortunately, it didn’t last much, because soon after this, I left to a competition and forgot about it. After few months, I met some special people who were 100% sure it was working.

I told them I know about The Secret, but then they said it’s not about knowing it, it’s about applying it. I’ve thought about it a while, then I said why not? I have nothing to lose.

Before my Junior Nationals in April, I wrote my goals, expressing gratitude for reaching them, daily. I wanted to be National Champion. There were 4 competitions ahead, like in athletics, we also have different kinds of chess and I was 2nd seed by rating, a number which differentiates players according to their ability.

Objectively, there was no way for me to become National Champion even on 1 competition, the rating difference between me and the first girl was more than 150 points!! That’s matter very much in chess. So I started the tournament knowing that I will be champion, forgetting about the difficulties.

And guess what??

I was TWO TIMES National Champion, one time Vice champion and 1 more bronze medal!!! It was the best National of my life!!!

But it didn’t end yet. I really fought hard to take the 1st place in classical chess, for gaining the opportunity to play in the World Championship in India, in October. But in the last round of the classical tournament, I lost the gold medal against the number 1 seed. I was sad and disappointed, but I knew God had a plan. That happened in April.

In July I had the National Team Championship, when my coach came to tell me that I was going to!!!!

He said, by some luck for me, the girl who beat me in the Nationals to go there, couldn’t play because she has some University issues with leaving the country at that time. I couldn’t believe it!

I remember I even had made a poster in Photoshop representing a news page from a chess news website, with the first article saying :”Ioana G is the new World Chess Champion in India”. I even changed the date on my computer so the screenshot of the page would be for 15th of October, when the World Championship ends!!!!!! It worked!!

Now my new target is a medal in the World Championship.

Thank You Rhonda Byrne and the whole team for letting me be happy! My favorite writer, Dostoievski, said once “If people knew they are happy, they would be”. That’s exactly what you’re sharing with us. Thank You!