Played the last three rounds of the Utah Junior HIgh Chess Championship today. In my first game of the day, fourth roound of the tournament, I played Patrick Bless, (a Latino this time. I mention the nationalities of my opponents because I didn't play any Caucasians thius tournament. There is a disproportianate number of Chinese and Indian kids at chess tournaments. They generally tend to win the chess tournaments.) I felt like I started playing better in this game. The proverbial lion woke up. Patrick has a low rating, but he gave me a pretty decent fight. I played a couple quick moves and may have given him some drawing chances, but he failed to realize them and I outplayed him in the endgame.
Sam Mason, one of my major competitors, lost this round to Stephen Yu, a 1300/1400 player who was definitely the underdog coming in. Sitting at the board next to his, I teased him before the game that if he resigned now, we would let him play bughouse (a popular alternate form of chess involving peices being passed back and forth between two simultaneous chess games) with us. With Sam effectively out of the running, the game has definitely changed. I was discussing possible outcomes of the tournament with Clancey Black, another of my competitors, and we discovered that there was a possible scenario where I would tie for first over with Clancey. He is the only other talented LDS chess player at the tournament, and in his words, "That would be cool, because we're the only Mormons that kick butt."
I was expecting to play Stephun Yu or Jacinda Lee (another 1300 player) in the fifith round, but instead was paired against Vishwa Srinivan, another of my four serious competitors. Clancey was paired with Eric Hon, the highest rated player at the tournament. Eric's rating is 1916, mine is 1854, making me number two. This is going to make the scenario of me tying for first with Clancey implausible because if Clancey wins and I do, we'll play. If either of us loses our games, we won't win the tournament.
This game is my first 'real' game. Vishwa, (he's Indian, not Chinese) is no pushover. He will give me a fight. We had ninety minutes per side, so the game could last up to three hours. I took my time and he took his. The game was an unclear struggle for a while. We traded queens, and reached a critical point in the game. Vishwa spent a lot of time on a few moves. I thought that he might be able to gain an advantage or possibly draw, but I found a tactic that gave me a positional advantage (or so I thought). Vishwa made a mistake that turned my positional advantage into a two-pawn advantage. Then Vishwa walked into a trap I had calculated out while he was thinking about his move. He thought he was winning a piece, but he miscalculated and ended up losing a piece. Fortunately for me, he didn't fight to the bitter end and resigned a few moves later. He could have dragged the game out for another 45 minutes and tired me out. The relatively quick finish and long rest proved crucial to my sucess in the sixth and final round.
Clancey and Eric fought like tigers. Their Armageddon game lasted nearly three hours. This was good for me because both of my remaining competitors wore each other out while I had enough time to be virtually fresh for the last game. Eric won -- on time. For a while, it looked like they were heading for a draw, but apparently Eric gained the upper hand at the very end. I will face Eric Hon in the last round and battle for the Championship.
The tournament directors gave Eric and Clancey a extra 15 minute break so my game with Eric Hon started later than the other games. I had Black, Eric was higher rated, and I haven't been practicing as much because I'm going to college. Coming into the tournament I was underconfident. I'm almosst surprised I didn't blow it before now. I was hoping to get White so I could surprise Eric with the English Opening, but no such luck. I will have to fight him tooth and nail in the Sicilian. That might but be a bad thing, but I was suffering from underconfidence. I thought he would be better at that type of game. It's hard to say if I was correct.
Despite the 90-minutes per side time control, we played reasonlably quickly. Eric never more than five mintues on a move, unlike Vishwa who sometimes spent 10. I got a good position out of the opening and mnaged to divert the action in the game from his intented attack on my king to his vulnerable queenside. Then he locked things up by placing his knight on a powerful square. He started his attack and I started trying to stop his attack in its tracks and put his king under attack. Then he tried a tactic that would have seriously weakened my king's defense and possibly have decided the game -- if it had worked. Instead, Eric lost a piece -- which proved to be a decisive advantage for me. I also developed an attack on his king. I had to play patiently and carefully. Eric is a sly fox and he laid many traps -- which I carefully avoided. Having learned my lesson from my game with Patrick, I took my time and didn't move quick. There were several close calls. Several times I almost made a quick move that would have cost me the win, but something made me look more closely at the position and I saw the trap. There were certain instances when I felt prompted to make a certain move or take more time to think. I finished Eric off and won the tournament. I did not believe I'd do so well when I started the tournament. I think this is going to be a big boost to my confidence. It is the first time I have won with a perfect score in a tournament with several games and with serious competition.
Did two miles in the morning and four at night after getting home from the tournament.
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