Playing In A Tournament With A $1 Prize Fund!
Introduction
Earlier today, I noticed an interesting tournament that appeared to have a $100 prize fund - $50 for the winner and the runner up. For an open online tournament, that's very good! So I decided to join. However, halfway through round four, I realized that the prize was not fifty dollars, but rather fifty rupees...
Well, I was wasting hours of my time in a tournament with a prize fund of almost two dollars. What a brilliant scam by the tournament director - I can't wait for someone to do this using the Iranian or Zimbabwean currency!
Anyways, let's get into the games:
Game #1 - Long Castle Checkmate!
In the first game, I played against a lichess 1100, which is about 600-700 on chess.com. They blundered their queen early on, so I don't see the point of analyzing or annotating it, and I didn't learn much from it.
However, while I didn't have the fastest or cleanest conversion in this game, I saw an opportunity and took it. From as early of move 14, I saw the possibility to pull off an amazing checkmate, and after herding the Black king all the way over to my first rank, I did it.
I achieved the amazing long castle checkmate.
Game #2 - Beating a 2200!
Other than the long castle checkmate, this is definitely my greatest achievement in this tournament. It felt really good to get a win with the Black pieces against a much stronger player.
Here's the surprising part - the game I played was nearly flawless! According to Chess.com's Game Review, I played with 91% accuracy and a 2500 performance rating!
Anyways, here's the actual game:
Game #3 - Losing to a Cheater!
In Round 3, I lost to a player who later got banned for cheating! The loss was upturned and I was given a full point, increasing my score (perhaps unfairly) by a lot. Now, I present to you... my loss against Stockfish, annotated!
Game #4 - Opponent Disappears
For game four, my 2200 rated opponent didn't show up. I probably got lucky here because if the game was played out, I would likely have lost it. I got a free point and a few minutes of rest before moving onto...
Game #5 - A Disappointing Loss
The tournament was going pretty well for me. However, this game knocked me back to reality as I realized that I was not a good chess player but rather an 1800 rated noob. On the other hand, this game is the one that I learned the most from, and it was quite an interesting game. Let me show you:
Game #6 - An Underwhelming Climax
Yes, I did win the final game of the tournament, but it wasn't a difficult or intense game against a much higher-rated player. It was an easy win against a 1200 rated player (700-800 on chess.com), but it gave me the necessary point to boost my position in the tournament standings.
Here's the game:
Results
Overall, I'm pretty happy with how I fared in this tournament. I had a 2000+ performance rating as an 1800, and placed 4th in a tournament with 117 players.
The tournament was won by Farzad Boulourchifard, a 27-year-old Iranian FIDE Master. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to play against him, and I would probably get steamrolled if I did.
Conclusion
Well, that's about it. Even though I changed my username, I'm still going to keep the blog name. So, until next time, thanks for reading the Daily Rat!
