How I Beat A Player With Double My Rating

In the position below, is it better for Black to play 8...Bg6 or 8...Nxg4?

Read until the end for the answer!

The Backstory

To understand the story behind this game, we need to go back to the 'Fastrain' Chess Tournament of 2001, where I played in the Under 10 division.

Going into this tourney, chess was just one of many hobbies for me. I enjoyed playing each Saturday at the Northern Beaches Junior Chess Club (NBJCC), and had even recently won a trophy for the best 8-year old at a Manly Library tournament. (This is where I first met the up-and-coming Alex Papp, who remains a friend of mine to this day, but that's a story for another time)

Buoyed by this small success, my Mum asked Bernard Laugery (who ran the NBJCC) what other tournaments I could play, and we discovered the Fastrain tournament coming up in Chatswood. I had lived in the Northern Beaches my whole life, so I didn't really know what to expect, but I was looking forward to the new experience.

The Bookstall

This tournament is where I first met Brian Jones, through his bookstall. As someone who already had a reading age of 3 when I turned one year old, I was an avid reader and was excited to read books about chess that weren't just for beginners. But the games were only 15 minutes per side, and the next round would start before I could get deep into any of the books.

After being used to performing in the top half of the field in other tournaments I played, I was disappointed to only finish on 3/7. Initially, I blamed this on most of the players being a year older than me, but then I looked at the standings...and saw that a 7-year old named Raymond Song had won the tournament with a perfect 7/7.

This sparked a massive competitive fire in me I didn't have before...if Raymond was younger than me and could win this tournament, then I can win these tournaments too!

Seeing all these chess books, including some on topics I didn't know about at all, confirmed that there was a lot more for me to learn about chess - and I was ready to get into it.

So I went to Brian's bookstall, and grabbed a book 'Play Winning Chess' by GM Yasser Seirawan. As I started reading the book, Brian said 'He won't understand that book until he's 13 years old', to which I replied 'I understand it!'. (Thanks Yasser for writing in such a clear way that even a neurodivergent, stubborn kid like me could follow along).

Diving Right In

I saw that there were many more books in the 'Play Winning Chess' series, and I bought all of them that were available (everything except 'Play Winning Tactics' which had already sold out before). It cost my Mum $250 (good luck explaining that to my Dad), but she bought them because I hadn't shown such commitment and passion for something before.

So I pored over these books at home, reading through them each day. I wasn't even playing through them on a board for the most part - I'd follow along in my head, improving my visualization skills along with my understanding. (for those who say it's too hard - aphantasia aside - just keep practicing! you'll get better at it)

These books were giving me a lot of ideas, but I didn't just stop there. I would move around the pieces on our fancy marble chess board at home, trying out different ideas. 

I had just lost a game with Black at the NBJCC to a higher-rated player that went as follows:

I thought to myself - maybe I can try this idea with the Black pieces? 

So I set up the pieces on the marble chess set:

I played a practice game against myself, and messed up the attack after getting stuck with Qf6/Kg2, but then I tried again in another practice game, and it worked better. 

My First Tournament Game At Lidcombe

Sure enough, I got to use my prepared idea in Round 1 of the 2001 Lidcombe One-Day Tournament, with 15 minutes for all your moves in the game. It was my first time going to Lidcombe, and I realized that most of the players in the Chatswood Fastrain tournament being of Asian extraction was not a coincidence. I was paired against Jack Wu, who was rated 658 compared to my 365 NSW Junior Chess League rating. For the grown-ups, that's basically a 1250 OTB classical rating versus a 650ish over-the-board rating equivalent.

After 8...Nxg4 9.hxg4 Bxg4, my opponent suddenly seemed uncomfortable. He wasn't sure how to deal with this sudden attack. Add to that the pressure of potentially losing to a player 7 years younger than him, and he wasn't able to find the right defence. 

After 10.Be3 Qf6, he blundered with 11.Bxc5?, missing the key intermezzo of 11...Bxf3!. And with 12.Qd2 Qg6 13.Kh2 Qg2#, I had just defeated the highest-rated opponent I'd ever faced, and in just 13 moves at that! It's such a profound memory, that I still recall the game 24 years later, even though I didn't record it. 

Here's the full game for those who either need it to follow along, or want to enjoy my Grandmaster notes with modern engine analysis to contrast my 'human' analysis as a kid:

Riding the wave of adrenaline, I won a second game against a 498-rated player before crashing to Earth and losing the next three games - all against much higher-rated players - and ultimately concluding the tournament with a respectable 4/8. This result single-handedly put me on the 'Most Improved Players' list in the next NSWJCL Magazine, and set me up well for a transformative 2002.

Reading Seirawan's books would have another unexpected benefit for me later that same year - let me know below if you'd like to see that story!