My Worst Tournament
Hi everyone, welcome back to The Saxly Pirate (instead of weekly pirate, it is saxly). So on April 22, 2023, my school district hosted a tournament, and I decided to go, thinking that this would be easy since a lot of kids in my school aren't that good. Little did I know that I was about to get wrecked and humiliated. Since my school ran this, they didn't have any rating system to go by, so the parings were all over the place. Some amazing players were paired with people who only knew how to move the pieces. Instead of rating, the school did it by grade. 1-4, 5-6,7-8,9-12. This was also completely new to me because this is my first true OTB tournament. I was confused about how things work and where and what to sign, but that is part of the fun! Let us look at my first round out of five.
Round 1
Round 1 was very interesting, but I am still proud. I might have been late because I didn't know where the schedule was, but I finally figured it out. Here is the game; I drew of course because I am bad at chess. My opponent was rated around 1000, and my USCF rating is 794, so I still think of this as a win.
After about 5 minutes, I found this move and thought I lost all hope, but I was wrong. Let us examine the rest of this horrific game.
White offered the draw right after he took with the rook, and in that moment I was suffering from depression, so I desperately took it. Then I looked back at the board and I saw a possible mate, which led me to rethink my life choices. It could have ended something like this:
Round 2
For me, this round was... how shall I say it, the worst thing I have ever done in chess! I don't know what I was doing, I must have been going crazy. I mean, I wear glasses, but I am not that blind. I think it is safe to say that it was my stupidity and lack of chess knowledge. My opponent was probably rated around 1000. Let's take a dive into how baddly I did. Wait I forgot one important message:
Like I said, this game was really, really bad. This guy is also better than me, but no excuses! I had a few missed opportunities, and sometimes I just flat out gave up pieces. Of course, to make it easier for me, my annoying friends, um not saying names but @chi-yuchen @bronzelegs and @MrStocking had to annoy me about losing and me taking forever to play a game of chess. If yall are reading this, great support!
Round 3
For a while, I was doing decent, but for me nothing ever works out. I was trying to think really hard and trying to find the best moves possible. I got so caught up in one idea, I completely missed something which you will see in the game towards the end. I honestly have no idea what I was thinking at the time, but it made me lose the game.
Now you see what I was saying. I thought that if he took the knight, I could checkmate, but I forgot that if he took the knight, I would be in check and I would have to move away. Once I would have moved my king, he would most likely have advanced one of his pawns so he could escape. So my current score is still 0.5. I decided that a goal of mine was to get at least 2 points. I think that really helped me with my motivation, and it turns out that I did pretty good after round 3.
Round 4
Round 4 was a complete turn of events; I won! Of course, I didn't play perfectly, but I had a few good moves and ideas. My opponent said that he was rating 700 on chess.com, so theoretically it should be an even game, right? No. I have no idea what his rating is, but I am pretty sure that it wasn't 700, but a win is a win! Let's take a look at the 1st game I won at this tournament:
I would say that this is a pretty solid game by me. Even though I gave up some pieces, I was able to get revenge and take back my opponent's pieces. I had one position where I wished that he took my bishop so I could get mate no matter what. I looked at all the possible moves he had if he took my bishop, and every single one of them would have resulted in checkmate. But he was smart enough to see it and defended with his rook, but defending with the rook on the A file broke up his defense. If he had guarded with the rook on the H file he would have had a better chance.
Round 5
Round 5
Round 5 was as good as Round 4, if not better. I ended up making my opponent resign because all he had left was his king, while I had my king, a queen, and 3 pawns. I made no blunders, but I missed a few opportunities to win even quicker. I also had a few good moves, which helped me come out on top and win! Let's take a look at my last game:
All in all, I would say that this was a pretty good game. My opponent moved very slowly, so I was the 3rd to last game to finish. After my win, I was very happy because I completed my goal by 0.5 points! I think that my goal was the thing that kept me going and not drop out of the tournament. Out of all the positions in the game, I think that the best part was:
I am attacking his white square bishop, but it is pinned to his dark square bishop. So if he moves either bishop, I will win one! I think that after this move, the result of the game was decided as long as I didn't mess up. I was up in material, and I started to trade off pieces so I would be left with more material than my opponent.
Conclusion
All in all, my first tournament was not that good. Out of 5 games, I only won 2, drew 1, and lost 2. This makes my total score 2.5. Although I didn't win any trophies, I helped my school win overall, and we got a big trophy. My school dominated everyone else. In our section, there were 2 other schools. My school claimed 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th.
Takeaway
So I think that the big takeaway from this tournament is to think out all the moves. Ask yourself, Is this actually a good move? Am I blundering a piece? Is there a better move? An amazing example of this would be this quote:
When you see a good move, look for a better one - Emanuel Lasker
When I first saw this quote on someone's bio, I never thought much about it. But now I think I understand what it means. I think that it means that if you think you have found the best move ever, look for a better one. We are all human and all prone to mistakes, even the best of us. That's what I think it means. I am now trying to start doing what it says, and it helped. In the past week, my rating on chess.com has gone up! Well, on that nice note, I think it is time to say good-bye. Catch you in the next one!
