My Experience at the National High School Championships 2023
Hi its been a bit of awhile since my last post and a few bits of pieces have changed but everything is going wholesome for the most part. i was a bit sick for weeks and ultimately lost a ton of rating points by joining events despite knowing this problem. As the days went by i was really saddened to be back in the 1900 range but felt kind of motivated for the best at the High School Nationals held in washington DC for a total of 4 days. my school team was granted the opportunity to ride on a bus for over 18 hours to get there so lets see how i did shall we? well here we go....
A Long Trip to DC
the bus was a total downgrade compared to the one we used back in December but i didn't really mind much as despite using hotspot, it was around the same. we made a few stops and i had a bit of low energy just feeling tired and hungry even buying some food from burger king. my cough had gotten better and i felt great for the most part while my chess just felt more or less declining but i was pretty hopeful in gaining some rating back in the event so lets go
when we finally arrived, we stayed at a hotel walking all over the place and seeing some pretty cool places even meeting some teams. i also took some pictures and was pretty hyped for the blitz event which was unfortunately held at another hotel due to the planning being messy. when it was time for blitz i rushed to take a shower, forgetting my clock but luckily managed to get one during round 1 ultimately winning a total of 7 games and 3 losses, losing the medal.
i was very saddened to not win the medal but at the same time it was just very difficult seeing that it was 2 National Masters who were pretty strong, one being the first master i drew in a classical game and another being a new NM from the team of high ranking seed Nico Chasin. the event was won by Expert Arush who beat Chasin in tiebreaks with a score of 9.5/10 which was really insane and as for me i really couldn't say much except that i tried but thats life.
My Favorite Game in the Event
one of the games which i enjoyed were Round 1 against a 1800 named Joshi as it was more of a simple clean game. i did miss some small advantages and at a point underestimated the timing of whites critical tempo but in the end just did what i do best which is to grind the endgame. the final moves felt like i was doing a hikaru puzzle, just checking the king like a staircase till death!
there was only one other game i felt which was pretty decent against a 1700 named wu which also featured the same version of the caro kann. I kept noticing over the games that many people kept allowing the tarkatower variation to be played which i found interesting as i wasn't able to see anything else challenging. this game looked a lot similar to the game between me and Joshi from round 1 where this time i take the pawn and simply convert it in a long grind. i felt bad for my opponent to which after the game we both were just sitting there for minutes silently until we both kept saying the same thing, that it all went downhill after qb4 so yeah....
My Depressing Loss
there isn't really much to be said about my other games as most of them revolved around just bland stupidity and cheesy tricks. during one game against a 1700 in round 5 i blundered a pawn for no reason in a Drawn position and being closed to equalize blunder a simple trick. During round 2 i was once again paired against the member from Nico's team aka James Oh who recently earned the National Master title a few weeks ago which makes me feel sadder.
Besides this all my wins have just been with black and the only game i won with the white pieces was just due to me pressuring my opponent as he was only on 2 seconds left with delay so it wasn't much of a real win. I had managed to score 4 points nonetheless and thus came the Incredible wall standing right in front of me which unfortunately was playing NM Marvin Gao.
He earned his NM title back in November and i have ran into him 2 times at a couple tournaments we both played in awhile back. this photo showcased him in the K-12 Grade Nationals back in December where he scored the top 10 in his division. I was really just mad at myself and simply was like dismissive of the fact i had any real chance to even win once i saw i was playing him for the last game. I lost to him before and while the 2nd was more of a troll, i still didn't feel confident or great in beating him as i just viewed him to be superior than me.
I was still trying to remain positive due to my teammates wanting to encourage me so i stayed with my guts despite feeling hopeless. I managed to get a decent position out of the opening and even grabbed his poisonous pawn for advantage, simply being in a totally winning position. I was thrilled and really happy cause i felt like i would never lose this game but then reality hit me and the more i kept calculating, feeling down and scared it just happened and well i lost.
During the Endgame it is a drawn position but accidentally i touched my king when i wanted to touch my bishop. Marvin noted this and informed me which is why i moved the king but this allowed him to infiltrate so it was just game over. apparently its not drawing even if i had shuffled back but looking at the more human response which i would expect, i could have saved this game but again i was down knowing i wasn't going to get the medal. I resigned after trying to go for a desperate measure and was simply depressed, not even wanting to talk with anyone.
During our game which lasted for 3 hours most of the top players on the DGT Board had finished which included FM Nico Chasin and IM Jason Wang. During their climatic game where wang had good advantage, he offered a draw which surprised spectators and even got me confused as why many were hovering over their board. nonetheless they agreed and wang won on tiebreaks becoming the National High School Champion, back to me however.....
What Happened After the Event?
My teammates were just relaxing outside playing skittle games trying to make me feel better cause after all i was playing against a Master and in the Hard Section. its not like it made me feel better and at that point i only felt like going to McDonalds to just feel better as i know the food calms me down after awhile. I remember i was screaming in the streets yelling and hating myself for being so idiotic and garbage for a total of 5-10 minutes cause of that sad 3 hour game. I did feel somewhat better after i got back on the Bus and was Analyzing with my teammate as it comforted me knowing that "its ok to be sad, there's always next time" and friends help.
I remember that during the event one of the more Interesting parts was when i had the chance to play GM Rashad Babaev in a skittle room where any player was free to challenge him as long as it was blitz. when it was my turn i pulled a trick by saying i was 800 and made him get time odds which resulted in me snatching a point, having a good laugh. we played again with a more fair handicap where he equalized and then i went back to the hotel thanking him, onto the next.
Some wholesome things which happened apart from my experience was seeing my 2 friends from the club perform really well. one was named Ronald Hernandez who after a total of 4 years finally surpassed the 2200 Barrier having a score of 5 and really just deserved it all the way. i always kept talking to him and was happy for his achievement after we met up in one of our break sessions back on the way home. my other friend also known as FM jean managed to beat Huston Gus who was one of the tournaments high seeds and ended in 9th on tiebreaks which was really impressive overall. During the event i also had the opportunity to see Trophies again alongside @B1ZMARK who i have been wanting to meet for awhile, it made me feel happy.
Me and my friends also had fun going around the place and even eating together at night simply enjoying the blast till we had to go unfortunately. the team scored top 10 in Blitz and top 5 in the U800 section which also allowed us to play in a florida event next month so stay tuned.
How do I feel? What did i Value?
well besides the final game really just making me hate myself for a long while, i still feel like i just struggle psychologically against people. sometimes i feel like i should be better and other times i just don't feel like i am good enough despite my efforts against people like james or even marvin for that matter. I want to be like all of them yet how am i supposed to even get there when i don't feel like i am even beating them at all. Overall this was more of a hyped experience that i now just felt drained but it was still a beautiful vacation from home off the board so that's about it. the next couple of tournaments will be in a bit of time but i just hope i can really get better in my opening knowledge and feel somewhat confident in beating people all the time which is interesting. thank you all for reading and see you in the next one!
