Canadian University Chess Championship 2021 Day 1

Hi Everyone, 

This is my first blog on chess.com and I'm looking forward to sharing my chess experiences with you! 

My first two articles will talk about some of my tournament games from the Canadian University Chess Championship (CUCC) which took place January 16-17, 2021.

I am a relatively recent graduate of Western University (UWO), located in London, Ontario, where I completed my bachelor's and master's degree in music composition.

When I wasn't swamped with music homework and practicing the piano, I frequently visited the chess club at UWO. I participated in 3 over-the-board CUCC events prior to this one in 2015, 2017 and 2018. In 2015, UWO had a very strong team, finishing a very close second to overall winner McGill University. 

Due to COVID, the in-person event was cancelled for this year. However, a few students from McMaster University came up with the brilliant idea to host this year's CUCC online, allowing any player affiliated with the university in some way (current student, alumni, or faculty) to join. That meant that I could participate despite having graduated three years prior! 

Previous CUCC's were a 5-round Swiss with long time controls. This year, the tournament was held on lichess, in an arena team battle format. In an arena, everybody plays everybody, except for someone from your own team. The goal is to win as many games as possible within a certain time period. You can score extra points if your win streak extends longer than 2 games. An additional option is to "berserk," which means that you give yourself less time, but if you win, you gain an additional point. The top 5 scores from each university counted towards the overall team score.

The time control for each game was 10 minutes + 5 second increment per move. If you went into "berserk" mode, your clock started at 5 minutes with no increment. The arena lasted 4 hours each day. 

Now, let's get to the chess!

To say I was rusty in this tournament was a massive understatement because I hadn't played blitz chess in over half a year! I had an awful start, blundering a piece in a better position in Game 1. I was dead lost in Game 2 as well but got extremely lucky when my opponent blundered and I managed to eek out a win. Games 3 and 4 were two more very unconvincing wins. Game 5's win finally felt good but it was against a much lower rated player. A 4-1 record so far but rather undeserved...

Meet Your Long Lost Uncle Swindle!

The next two games I played higher rated players and finally paid my dues. In Game 6 I was gradually grounded down by my opponent. Game 7 was a knight that went astray in the opening. I was also losing in Game 8 until something miraculous happened... 

Uncle Swindle's Revenge?!

Game 9 was a quick win against a lower rated opponent. In Game 10 Uncle Swindle was back for some revenge. (In arena formats, you can play the same opponent multiple times.) True to his name, he tried to swindle a quick win out of me right from the opening!   

A Nice Combination

I followed up Game 10's nice performance with an unimpressive Game 11, managing to hang a whole rook in only 9 moves! . In Game 12, I played an opponent named garbage123 and proceeded to play like garbage, scoring another lucky win. Game 13 was against another high-rated opponent who found a nice winning combination against me. 

A rarity...A clean win?

Game 14 was a complete demolition of a lower rated opponent, which felt good after being on the receiving end of a brilliant attack in the previous game. Game 15 was something of a rarity, a clean win with no blunders against an equal to higher rated opponent! 

Last Game

Game 16 was an endgame grind, eerily similar to my first game, which was another two minor piece per side endgame grind that I had botched. A pure two bishops vs. two knights endgame was reached. The sidelines of this endgame were in particular quite beautiful. My opponent was very gracious in his resignation prior to the arena clock expiring, which was good sportsmanship. He could have technically run out the clock and my game would not have counted in the standings. 

Day 1 Summary

Whew! What a day, four hours and sixteen games of chess straight. I emerged with an 11-5 record and 34 arena points which was good for a tie for 3rd place on UWO's team, therefore the points counted towards the overall team score. UWO as a team placed second in pool play, meaning we advanced to the championship pool the next day, where we would do it all over again. Our top player FM Terry Song had a fantastic 75 point performance which was the top overall score in the arena!

I had an extremely up and down tournament. With the exception of two games, none of my wins were clean and I was extremely lucky not to lose in over half of them. Some of my losses were complete elementary blunders, hanging a knight here, a rook there. I noticed a general improvement in my play for the latter half of my games, especially the last 3 games or so. It only took me about 4 hours to warm up! I needed to play much more consistently if I wanted to help out my team in the final the next day.

Such is the nature of blitz chess. It goes to show that really anything can happen. If you want to be a good chess player, especially in blitz, you need to play hundreds, if not thousands of consistent games. Even though you are in time pressure, take the extra couple of seconds to double check your move. I could have saved myself the agony of some awful blunders if I had done that. 

One more thing - make sure you take a deep breath every now and then! It's amazing how blitz chess pumps up the adrenaline in your body. Breath, mindfulness, and food can go a long way. Even though I sat on my couch for four hours, I felt dead exhausted after this arena! (I know, I know, I need to build that stamina. ) 

I look forward to sharing my journey with you on Day 2 of this tournament.

Cheers! 

NM Kevin Gibson