2018 Bottom Half Class

Sorry it's been so long. I've played in a few Spencer St. tournaments with varying degrees of success since then, but no reports. But this past weekend I played in the 2018 Bottom Half Class, and it was quite interesting. This was all written for Messenger afterwards, not during the tournament, so there is little editing.



2018 Bottom-Half Class:

It's called that because the class sections are usually broken down 2000, 1800, 1600, etc. But this tournament goes 1900, 1700, 1500, etc. There's also usually an open section, and a lot of people from lower sections play up into the open. I'm rated 1885 right now, so I could easily have played up, but my chess hasn't been great as of late, and with all that's been going on with moving, I'm not in too shape. So I played in the 1900 section.

Round 1, opponent rated 1800:

Before I really get started, I should point out this tournament was 115 minutes (1 hour 55 minutes) per side, with a 5 second delay per move, which equates out to about 4 hours per game.

In round 1, I played an opening I don't play much but are coming around to, called the "Catalan". It was slow going, both of us thinking for a long time. I got a decent amount of space and pressure, but was unable to convert it into a serious advantage. My opponent offered a draw on move 19; with less than 15 minutes on my clock (barely enough time for me to draw the game, let alone win), I accepted. I felt good about this game, but alas, only achieved a draw.

0.5/1; there were 4 draws in the first round, and only 3 decisive games, so while I was in the middle of the pack, I was still in striking distance from the top.

Round 2, opponent rated 1601:

My opponent was a younger girl, playing up into a higher sections. A lot of kids do this, as they can tend to play to their opposition, and they play very strong, anyways. As they are quickly improving, their ratings lag behind their strength.

We played an opening I've played many times, so I was very comfortable. She couldn't really remember how to play it, spent a lot of time thinking, and ended up losing a pawn. She had a really interesting move she could have made in response, to maybe get the pawn back or get a good king attack, but she missed it. Later in the middlegame I played a tactic to ruin her pawn structure and trade into a winning endgame, which I easily and quickly won. A solid win, but merely taking advantage of an opponent who couldn't quite figure out her plans.

1.5/2, I was tied for 3rd place at this point, with only 2 players a half-point above.

Round 3, opponent rated about 1880 (2nd highest in the section, after me):

This was a tough game. The was my third and final game on Saturday, starting at about 7:00. Everyone is tired at this point. I played a new opening I've been developing, that doesn't get played much. So I'm pretty much on my own. I managed to succeed in the opening's main point, which is to change an opening I struggle with (the King's Indian Defense or KID) into one that I like a little better (the Pirc), and usually throws the opponent well off their game. I couldn't quite remember how to proceed, but thankfully, neither did my opponent. We set up tension in the center early on, but didn't resolve it for a long time. We traded off both bishops, but just moved pawns, knights, queens, and rooks (and the kings a couple times) for 26 moves (per person!). On move 27 I finally opened the position, and honestly, it might have been a little too early! I missed a tactic that foiled the plan I was going to go with, so opening things up wasn't as advantageous as I had hoped. I had to abandon my plan and come up with a new one. I almost got my rook trapped. My opponent took advantage, and got my queen stuck on the queenside, where my opponent had an advantage. But for one move, they let my queen influence the kingside, not enough for an advantage, but enough to keep me in the game. My opponent pushed and pushed; I had to think for a bit to blunder into checkmate, and lost an exchange. But I started an odd counterattack with just two knights and a rook. I wasn't able to get checkmate, but it was enough to get my exchange back. We both started to get low on time, my opponent made a mistake, missing my mating net with a pawn, a knight, and a rook (which is very rare), and I managed to mate. (To be fair, I probably had a winning advantage even without checkmate). We ended both with less than 5 minutes on our clock at about 11:00, and stayed to analyze the game for a bit. They were turning the lights out as I left!

A long, exhausting game, that started quiet and then suddenly got a bit too exciting. But I managed to pull out the win.

2.5/3, in clear second place, with a game with the leader waiting in the morning.

Round 4, opponent rated 1873 and 1st place in the tournament so far:

This opponent was a bit younger, not as young as the girl earlier, probably in high school. He played a very unorthodox opening, one that I've played against only a few times before. I took my time, and in post-mortem, determined I played it pretty decently. I got minorly bound up, but eventually disentangled myself and traded into an endgame. My opponent offered a draw, as it was an even endgame, but I declined, as the position was still complex, I in fact had a slight advantage, I really enjoy endgames, and I had 45 minutes on my clock, plenty of time to try to tease something out of the position. My opponent defended well, and the position became double-edged, with both of us having chances. I did have a chance I missed that could have given me a serious advantage, and potentially led to a win. I think my opponent got an advantage, but they then opted to play defensively, and with 15 minutes on my clock and no win in sight, I offered a draw and my opponent accepted. I'm not great when low on time, so this was actually a bit of a relief.

An interesting but even game, leading to the expected result, a draw.

3/4, now tied for second, 0.5 behind first. Winning by myself was now impossible, but a share of first was still well within reach. One last game to go.

Round 5, opponent rated 1804:

We played an opening I wasn't quite sure how to deal with, and managed to turn it into an opening I'm familiar with. I was excited for that. And then I made a mistake that I frequent make in this opening, and got my position all bound up. We went into the endgame quickly. I was struggling, and made a dubious pawn sacrifice to try and get back into the game... and my opponent grabbed the wrong piece, letting me get back in the game without losing the pawn. A few moves later, my opponent gave up a pawn, thinking on intuition that they could promote another pawn, but I managed to stop their pawn. I then played a very passive plan to try and go up a second pawn, my opponent got their pieces active, and we drew. I discovered right before the draw, that I had accidentally set my opponent's delay to 15 second instead of 5, giving them an extra 520 seconds over our 52 moves, a little under 9 minutes. My opponent ended with about 15 minutes on their clock, so that might not have mattered, but ugh, that was annoying to find out.

An odd game, starting good, then going bad, benefiting from a mistaken piece touch (if you touch a piece intentionally, you have to move it; even tho my opponent didn't mean to grab the piece, he still grabbed a piece on purpose. If you just brush a piece on accident, you don't have to move it), and being hurt by setting my clock wrong. But a draw all the same.

3.5/5, tied for second with the girl I beat in the second round. 1st place in U1900 carries a $150 prize, 2nd is $100, and best under 1800 in the U1900 section carries is a $75 prize. The girl was way under 1800, so we split the 2nd place and U1900 prize, giving each of us $87.50. The player I drew with in Round 4 went on to finish with 4.5/5, winning the section.

A good friend of mine, who just graduated high school, won the open section, winning all five games. He was quite a bit higher rated than the next player in the section, so anything other than 5/5 would have been a disappointment. It was bittersweet, as it's the last time we'll see each other for a while.

I'm relatively happy with how the tournament went. I was the highest rated in the section, and have been rated even higher in the past, so I'm a bit disappointed not winning my section. On the other hand, I think I grew a lot in my game management, being content in even positions. In the past I've had a tendency to try to force things, but I imagine I win 1 out of 5 games that go that way, draw 1, but lose 3. Part of this is that I struggle when under time pressure, and trying to force a game like I do can take quite a bit of time. On that level, taking the draw when that's all that's what's on the board, is an improvement. And I got $87.50 ($32.50 over my entry fee). So that's not too bad either.

I'll miss going to my Michigan tournaments. I imagine it'll be at least 3 more summers until I play in another one. I really don't how much time/energy I'll have in grad school to study chess, or even play in tournaments at all. But if I do, I'll let you all know.

Also, I'd just like to point out, I did go undefeated. So that's always fun.

I miscalculated. It would be $42.50 after my every fee.

Sorry for not posting during the tourney. I didn't have a lot of time between rounds as I went over every game and had to eat a meal between each round.



And that's it! Great tournament.