Lightning Reports - Success At The Denker

Heyo everybody, how's life! As you may or may not know, as I made no effort to hide it, I was Alabama's nominee to compete in the 2021 Denker National Tournament Of Highschool State Champions (you can click the link if you want to read up on what that's all about)! My last post was about how I earned that nomination, and now that I've played it's time for a Lightning Report!

PRE-TOURNAMENT: JULY 30th

Do y'all ever get nervous when heading off to a big otb event? Generally, going to the tournament is never a problem. But this trip would be different, as my mom and I would take a 2 hour flight from Alabama to New Jersey. Cool, right! Well I hadn't been on a place since... well, since I can remember. It had been forever since I had traveled through the air. I wasn't really nervous about the flight, I mean I certainly don't like being up so high but I know I'm safe. However it was still completely different from driving, as you would expect. To make matters worse, the plane was sooo small.

And of course simply getting onto the flight was a long process, getting through security sort of takes time. I mean, I was totally fine. Like any normal person, I spent the 2 hour flight playing Crossy Road on my phone (Yes, Crossy Road ). That's normal... right? Got a new high score though so that's nice lol

All things considered it was a nice flight, got there on time, everything was fine. I mean, my mom insisted on stopping to take a photo to prove I was at the Philly airport, and she also insists I share the photo, so here.

So yeah. Landed safely in Philly, took a Lyft to get to the Crown plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and then did literally nothing in the hotel room for like 4 hours. I did get in some practice that night, as I played some friendly blitz games with Alabama's Barber representative before getting some sleep. And sleep I would need, as I was in for a long, exhausting, non-stop chess trip.

OPENING CEREMONY & ROUND 1: JULY 31ST

So on this day, I was having very, very mixed feelings. I was super hyped up for the tournament to begin... but not so happy about the opening ceremony. You see, if I'm being totally honest... it's rather boring. But that's fine. The real problem is, the dress code simply insists you wear nice clothes. If you know me, you know I hate that sort of thing. But of course. I had to comply with the dress code, and I sure spent a crap ton of time letting my mom take wayyyy too many pictures, but I won't share many, just one😅

Soon enough, the opening ceremony had ended, and it was time to go back to my hotel room and do what any normal chess playing human does before a tournament game: don't eat, don't speak, and play way too much bullet. Yep. That's how I roll when playing otb, especially the no eating part. What can I say, I was nervous to see the round 1 pairings? I wanted to start off well, as my goal was to score 3/6. I scored 2.5/6 in 2019 as a 1900, so I figured 3/6 was very doable. Eventually the pairings went up and I y'all, I can't tell you just how relieved I was to see I did not get paired with a total beast in round 1. If I hadn't had that big tournament in Chicago back in May, I very likely would have played on board 1 vs Awonder Liang. Pretty sure I would have lost that... but luckily I was paired with Idaho's 911 rated champion. Darwin Porth. Obviously I was sure not to overlook him. Ratings don't matter at a tournament like this. He was also a champion, which meant he had my respect, which meant I better not get too confident. 
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that, before the opening ceremony, I played in the 2nd annual Weeramentary national tournament of highschool state champions, a blitz tournament open to anyone playing in one of the invitationals, but I did terrible so I don't really have anything to say about it lol... anyway here is the round 1 Denker game!

And boom, starting off with a win! I know, I know. He was only 900. But look. Who cares. He is Idaho's champ, he still got this far to the Denker, and every win counts. Imagine if I had lost 😅

DENKER ROUNDS 2-3: AUGUST 1ST

1-0 so far. 1-0 I'm chillin. I knew I would get someone tough in round 2, someone above 2200. And guess who it was.... yeah, I had to play @rychessmaster1 otb. Yeah, I know, you guys think I probably lost, right? I mean, nobody really thought Ryan wasn't going to win against the dude from Alabama... yeah guys, I can hold my own vs 2200s 😉

Yeah that’s right, I drew @rychessmaster1 otb. Stunning, right? I mean yeah, I wanted to win, but let’s be real, a draw there was the appropriate result. We both agreed on that. He was slightly better for most of the game but he missed Nd4. After that, I possibly had chances myself but didn’t see the proper way to play it. So in the end neither of us blundered, or really deserves to lose. It was a good draw. He went on to beat FM Robert Shlyakhtenko, who is like 2470, so that made the draw look super impressive 😉

For round 3, well, of course it would get tougher. I was paired with Florida’s 2300 representative, Raghav Venkat. I mean, honestly I would have preferred to play Carissa Yip, who I would have played if I was like 60 points higher rated. Like, if I’m gonna lose, it might as well be to a 2500, not a 2300, you know? Needless to say, I put up a fight. Or tried to at least. But he was the better player, I simply was outplayed.

I was only annoyed because this was my second loss to Florida’s representative in the Denker, as I lost  (quite badly) to now NM Ryan Hamley in 2019. So yes, I’m 0-2 vs Florida in the Denker, which is weird since I generally have a great score against Florida otherwise. Later in the event when I lose to the player from Texas, I will also become 0-2 vs Texas in the Denker, as I lost to Emily Nguyen in 2019. So 0-4 vs Florida and Texas at the Denker😂

DENKER ROUNDS 4-6: AUGUST 2ND-3RD

At 1.5/3, I’m still on pace to reach my goal of 3/6, so I’m still happy. But let me tell you, when I saw the round 4 pairings saying I was playing a 1379, I was not happy. Most 2100s would be thrilled to get an opponent they seemingly should beat. But not me. Nope. I was terrified. This 1379, Luca Mikulis-Borsoi of Vermont, had already drawn a 2000 and taken down a 1900. He was obviously underrated. And if he had found a tactic in the opening, he probably would have beaten me, too…

Thankfully he missed the tactic in the opening, and I was able to outplay him. So now I’m at 2.5/4 and getting excited, as I needed all 6 rounds to get 2.5 in 2019. I only needed to finish 0.5/2 to achieve my goal! But it still wouldn’t be easy. I figured I’d play a 2250 and lose in round 5, and then have to draw/beat someone within 100 points of my rating, either lower or higher. In my mind I was already losing round 5, even after I saw the pairings saying my opponent was Bijan Tahmassebi, from Maryland. Why was I scared? This guy drew Carissa Yip. Really. For real. And now I had to play him, out of all the 2200s here. I did a bit of research and figured out what opening he plays (cause yes, sometimes even I put in that kind of effort), and after I figured that out I was actually very confident. Let’s see what happened!

Ahhh. Feels good man. I spent the hour before making sure I could play the first 10-15 moves accurately. And I legit blitzed them out. I barely lost any time all game, actually, I think I only lost like 20 mins, while he lost much more time. Probably one of my favorite otb games of all time now, honestly. It’s not often I really get excited, but y’all I was ready to party! 3.5/5! I smashed my goal! 3/6 was the goal and I had 3.5/5 with one round to go! I didn’t even care what happened in the final round, as I cheerfully skipped to my hotel room, jumping up and down, getting ready to eat more sugar than healthy for a human being. For the final round I would be playing Anish Vivekanathan, from Texas, a 2391 who I was still going to put up a fight against, but I didn’t care too much. I mean, I did after I lost, since a win would have put me in a tie for 3rd, and a draw would have put me in a tie for 4th. But a tie for 14th, where I finished, is totally awesome for some kid from Alabama! And I also hit 2100 after the Denker was rated, going from 2093 to 2102, so that's cool.

In retrospect that might have been premature, I should have cared more about the last round, but I was content. I was thrilled. I even took the time to check all the previous cross tables from the Denker (haha no, really, all of them…) to see where my score ranked among Alabamians all time at the Denker. And unless I missed something, my 3.5/6 is Alabama’s best score at the Denker since 2007, and tied for 2nd best all time (again, I think? I could be wrong…)!  So obviously I’m super proud of that! I mean. Honestly. That’s more so because Alabama has never really been a good state for chess. I did notice a few last place finishes for Bama, not cool, it’s like they don’t even care. Like cmon guys, this is literally a national championship! We gotta be better than that, guys. But I do. I care. And I’m proud to have put up one of our best scores, and sincerely hope many young talented players from Alabama will some day do better. And looking at some of the young talented players we have, I kind of expect them to, someone will get 4/6 (and if I get to go to the Denker next year, the last year I’ll be eligible for it, that’ll be my goal!)

So that’s that. I mean, there was the ending ceremony or whatever they called it, an hour after the last round, which absolutely sucked for me since my game was literally the last to end out of all the games going on in the invitationals. And I’m not gonna lie. The ending ceremony was the most boring thing I’ve ever attended. The opening ceremony, you know, where they made us all dress nicely, was much better. I’m not the only one who thought so, lots of people left as soon as the awards were given out, even though the ceremony wasn’t over yet. Even I left early, and I wouldn’t normally do such a thing! But yeah, after that, it was over. The 2021 Denker was in the books, it was history as GM Awonder Liang won, of course, as everyone knew he would. Now that it was over, time to rest, right? Wrong. I registered for the 6-day schedule of the US Open, as the 4-day schedule was G60, too fast (but maybe I could have used a day off, which the 4-day schedule would have granted me). Round 1 of the US Open was actually 2 hours after the invitationals ending ceremony, and 3 hours after round 6 of the Denker ended. That’s a quick turnaround! So how did I do? Well… you’ll just have to wait for my next blog 😉 (or, you know, go to my uscf profile thingy and find out that way, I guess…) I’ll probably post my Lightning Report on the US Open next week, or maybe the week after. I had some nice moments in that tournament, too, including a draw with IM Jay Bonin! So stay tuned for that. Thanks so much for reading, I sincerely hope you enjoyed. Let me hear your thoughts in the comments! Thoughts, feedback, criticism, or whatever you want to say, leave it in the comments! Cya around!