Kudos, Abhishek, both for your play and for your hard work in analyzing your weaknesses! As I recall, Botvinnik said that was essential to his success. You keep that up and you'll be a NM in no time. 
My chess tournament- Part 3
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Feb 23, 2013
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Nice games. However, i don't understand your team mates game (B).(1. g4 Rxe2+ 2. Kf1!!). I find it that white was already in a LOST position because of black a pawn & white's Rook being pinned. Can you care to explain further or that was just for a laughter. Your last game was amazing. Hats off to you.
Finally, congrats for achieving 2000. :)
@JagdeepSingh He actually played that move Kf1, the pawns were inaccurate, but he was in a dead lost ending, so he just did that for a good laugh, the !! was sarcastic. Thanks, the last game was thrilling for sure! And thanks!
@Eternal_Patzer thanks! It was enjoying to write this article! Hopefully it'll get more reads!
Nice games Abishek, form your openings I learnt how important is developing ones pieces. I liked the way you were developing pieces in your games.
Congrats!! for the competition
I your second game,17...Bf5! is a mostly intuitive piece sac, less calculation. Those are the hardest ones to see, and you made it look easy! It's a shame you didn't get the hard earned win. I can't believe you defended game 5, hanging on in a seemingly hopeless position! Again, in game 6 you looked to be lost, but with nice tactics you got into an endgame with winning chances for you, which you exploited! The final position is unusually pretty.
Finally, congrats on 2000! You will not drop below it. :-)
@aryan_ thanks!
@JMB2010 I had to calculate a lot to make sure about that piece sac. And yes, I did get a bit lucky in game 5.
@Shadowknight911 thx! I would have gone to the team tournament any day because it's a great experience playing as a team.
@JMB2010 my second opponent was Albert Lu, I saw your game with him inyour world youth article. He's #3 for age 11!
Yes, #3. He is around 2170 now, should be NM very soon. In the world youth game I played against him we were actually the last game in the entire room at the end!
Yes, in team tourneys I usually play either way above or below, but this year I lucked out and got paired with a 2140 in the first round. However, most of the other games were way below me.
Thanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts, you should be a chess writer! I love reading stuff like this :)
@Shadowknight911 it was really fun though, playing and analyzing as a team! Plus, only at pairing time it was cramped, I just waited for that crowd to leave.
@JMB2010 I agree, it's not the best to get your rating up to 2000, but that wasn't my goal, but it happened anyway.
@SonofaBishop67 your welcome! I'm not that interested in writing a lot, I prefer to acheive my chess goals!
@JMB2010 
@JMB2010 I even missed a perpetual against Albert, and I had a -3 advantage..a shame for someone 2000 to blow that. But then again, it was hard to see.
Often, perpetuals are easy to spot, but sometimes they are incredibly complex, like in your game with Albert. Don't beat yourself up, I suspect most players under 2200 would not be able to play it with complete confidence that it works. There might be some sneaky move that wins for white, and especially looking a couple moves ahead it is impossible to be 100% sure.
@JMB2010 I don't think it was that complex, having 1 min 17 sec to make 6 moves i could have looked a little deeper than 10 seconds.
I wonder when my next tournament is...probably Reno.
Maybe I should rephrase that. The perpetual itself isn't that complex, the king doesnt have many squares, but the sneaky queen moves are.
Hi folks! I just played in one of the four ongoing team tournaments OTB in the U.S. I played in the west one since it's only a 30 minute drive from my house. I played in Pleasanton, CA, it was truly a fun experience. There were four tournaments across the U.S. during President's weekend- North, South, East, and West. I and some of my chess friends formed a team, a pretty strong one with an average of 1955. We were shooting for the U2000 prize, special clocks to each player. We had a 2090 on first board (I will call him A), a 2046 on second board (I will call him B), and a 1700 on fourth board (I will call him C), and I'm on third board. The prizes were for U2200, U2000, U1800, U1600, and U1400. There were prizes for best team name, and trophies for the winners.
We had our first meeting a week before the tournament deciding on our team name. We decided that King Hunters was too vague and B suggested a mysterious name we all liked, "The 65th Square". I don't think it was as good as some other team's names: the winning name was "Vatican Tactics- Sac the Pope" which was quite funny. I like "Sicilian Mafia" it's cool too. We ranked 8th out of 44 when we started.
For our first team we played the team Chess Buds, some little cute kids who were pretty high rated, their top being ~1750. We sweeped them 4-0. A won by mopping up pawns in a rook ending, B won the exchange and several pawns, and C outplayed his opponent in the endgame. They all finished before me, as I was struggling against a strong youth player. I got myself an active position, but missed a simple tactic but luckily he didn't notice it, I eventually doubled my rooks and killed his kingside. Here's the game, with annotations:
So what can I learn from that game?
1) Watch out for tactical counterattacks. The Nxe5! move simply crossed my mind, I got lucky he missed it in time pressure. That wins the game for black.
2) Don't assume you're winning. I got overconfident after Nd5, and Rd6, and in the beginning I forgot about Nd7.
Our team has 1.0, and I have 1 out of 1.
For our second round we played one of the top teams, Bay Area Chess BAC Attack, consisting of strong youths around our age. We got crushed 3.5 to 0.5. A played FM Wheeler, an amazing player, and drew a slightly worse queen & rook ending. B lost to an NM, he was winning in the middlegame but B blundered a piece in the endgame and missed several winning variations.
C lost after his opponent, after a mediocre opening which I know nothing about he countered C's center and broke it down, then chased after his kingside and mated him. In my game against a 2161, I found a nice tactic that gave me fighting chances, and under time pressure I did horrible moves, first, I had a variation where Fritz gave me a -3 (yes, -3) advantage with some sneaky moves. Then, I didn't realize when his bishop trapped my knight I could sac the exchange and still have a marginal advantage. So, I lost the piece and got three pawns for it, then he used his open file and ran his king to safety (And I missed a sneaky perpetual, under severe time pressure), and beat me after many inaccuracies. It's a game I'm still beating myself over. Here's the game:
so what can I learn from this devastating loss?
1) Investigate more closely. I considered Rxe3+, but I discarded it. If I had looked closer I might have found it.
2) Manage your time. Here I spent too much time thinking and it cost me in the end.
That was the end of day 1. Individually I have 1.0 and our team has 1.0.
Day two got off to a nice start, where we beat a "family" team, well almost. Three members were part of the same family, one was an exception. The one on the first board was around 1900, the next was 1700, and the next two were his kids around the same rating, one was really cute. Their team was called the Worst Knightmares, kind of a cheesy name. So, A drew with the 1900 unfortunately, he thought he had an attack but it seemed to crumble, and he was in risk of losing. A offered a draw in a losing position and his opponent accepted. B won, from a slightly losing position. B played many skittles games with his opponent and knows how he plays, so his opponent tried a different line, but blundered a piece in an equal position. He got scary passed pawns but B sacced his knight for two of them and won the rook ending. D actually lost to the cute kid, he got a cramped position with the French and lost a pawn, then drifted into a losing endgame, then lost. I won my game, my opponent just crumbled in a winning position after I started to put pressure on him starting with Bxh6!. Here's the game:
So what can I learn from this game?
1) Find a concrete plan. I got my pieces developed early but I didn't know what to do. I got random ideas and let my opponent counterattack.
That was barely a win for us, 2.5-1.5. So far we have 2.0 out of 3, and I have 2 out of 3 too.
The next round was easy to win as well, we didn't get much hard competition in round 4. We played the "Evergreen Valley HS-1" team, not very strong. They still won the "Top Academic Team" prize though. A played a 1900, B played an 1800, I played a 1700, and C played a 1300. A had a cramped position with the Sicilian for some reason, but eventually after struggling reached an equal endgame and drew. B played a queen's gambit, his opponent clearly blundered a piece and lost rather quickly. D won easily in an endgame, after he got his pieces activated.
So, I've been switching to playing the Albin, I like my chances with the opening. My opponent tried the most troublesome variation 5. g3. I had to deal with his advantage and activate my pieces. Here's the game:
Our team crushed 3.5-0.5.
So far our team has 3 out of 4, and so do I.
Our next round presented a bigger challenge. We played a team with a weak average (named 4 Mates) , but the average is slightly deceiving...They put 3 2000-2100 rated people on the top 3 boards and an 1100 on the last board to make their average low to try for top U1800 maybe. That meant an easy win for us on board 4, but harder on the top 3.
A beat their top player, whom I've played before. He had a slight edge but made several terrible blunders and eventually blundered a piece. Amazing how advantages can change so quickly. A got quite lucky. B was preparing his Sicilian lines against the Maroczy Bind, what his opponent plays. Ack, B knows so much opening theory, he wastes most of his time on it lol. I've played his opponent too and crushed him with the Elephant in an endgame. That's another story. For their game B's opponent clearly blundered a pawn and B took it. Then B mistakenly gave his opponent a dangerous attack and might have lost if he was not careful. However with careful calculation he was able to calculate how to win. It was hilarious..this is something like the position. His opponent just gave up in the rook ending, check this out:
C won quite easily after his opponent took the wrong approach to the french, and got crushed by tactics. He took this approach:
If you don't know the French and are unaware of the ideas it may be trouble.
For my game, I was very lucky to draw. I made the mistake of trading too many pieces after a strong iniative, something I regret, and he had a winning queen and two rooks v.s. queen and two rooks ending. However, he gave me a material imbalance, his advantage was still not gone but it reduced drastically. After my rooks formed a blockade at his passed pawn he reluctantly offered a draw and I accepted it with eagerness. Fritz definitely did not like his moves when I entered it after the game, we both made mistakes in the ending, and Fritz said that he was winning and he shouldn't have offered the draw. Here's the game:
Now, you may be wondering...why is it a draw after b4? It's because I can blockade the passed pawn with my two rooks on the first rank and black has no way to make progress.
What can I learn from this game?
1) Don't trade too many pieces. I deserved to lose that game, I traded too many pieces and gave him a winning ending.
2) Try to create weaknesses. With all my pieces developed I should have tried to create weaknesses with Qh5 then Qe2, trading pieces definitely made it harder.
We still crushed 3.5-0.5. I now have 3.5 out of 5.
The last round did not go so well. We played a team with no name, called '&&&&&&&' it looks like cussing lol. Their average just missed U2000, at 2010. They had a 2185 on first board, nearing NM but never quite reached it. They had a 2060 on second board, quite a strong player. I played a person whom I thought was around 1950 (I never look at the rating of my opponent before the round) but was actually around 1870. Now, right before the round, some people who had beaten me when I played the elephant gambit told him what he should do. As you get higher rated this becomes a bigger problem. Luckily, I remembered my improvement on that variation and played that. They had a 1900 whose published rating was a little inaccurate on the fourth board. A beat his opponent with the Sicilian with a nice attack on the queenside, and his tactics prevailed, a big upset. B lost to his opponent even after winning the exchange, and lost to a cool mate, smothered by a bishop and three pawns. A sad loss, B lost by a tempo. He was slightly outrated but their ratings were pretty much equal.
He lost in this position, he simply couldn't hold his opponent's passed pawns, a very sad loss.
C lost after blundering a piece, we helped him prepare against his opponent's Benko gambit but still lost. Now my game was the last to finish, the score was 2-1. I had reached what I thought would be a drawn position, but if I drew then our team would lose. So, I had to give it my all and push for a win. My opponent got the upper hand in the opening but with precise calculation I defended his tactics with some tactics of my own. We reached a drawn position, I went for this winning chance sacrificing my pawn back, to stop his and gain my own deadly passed pawn so his rook could not move, only to check my king then run back. I found a plan to move my king behind the pawn and win it by force, thought that would be my best chance. His king proved too fast, and I thought it was a draw. There were around 20 spectators, watching with interest at my game, many were not sure if it was a draw or a win for me. Then, I discovered this trick, his rook and king would be so passive while my rook and king would be so active that even after he inevitably won my pawn I took advantage of his awkward position in a supposedly drawn king and rook vs. king and rook ending and he resigned after he was forced to give up his rook to stop checkmate. Our team drew 2-2. Here's the thrilling long game:
If I had drawn that game then our team would have not won that U2000 prize (we won it on better tiebreaks). So basically, I saved my team!
Now, what can I learn from this game?
1) Don't let your opponent get a strong iniative. I had lost my attacking chances and let my opponent trade too much.
2) Don't think that one king move over another doesn't matter. I chose the wrong king move and let my opponent get a drawing chance.
3) If you calculate a draw, still keep playing. I thought that he would win the king chase, and it wasn't until further calculation that I noticed my little trick.
That was my tournament! Our team scored 4.5 out of 6 and won top U2000! Overall I think it was a great experience, cheering up teammates when we lose, filled with energy when we win, it's fun to play with a team and reminds us that chess is not only about doing well individually, you do what's best for my team. And pushing for a win was best for my team, so I did it. I look forward to being in more team tournaments in the future.
And, an additional bonus..my rating has now officially reached the Expert level, at 2000. I plan to have a party!
Until next time!