2022 Chess.com Daily Chess Championship - Round 1
This year I decided to participate for the first time in my life in the 2022 Chess.com Daily Chess Championship. I consider it a challenge for myself to play Daily Chess as usually I only tend to play bullet or blitz chess. I believe that online chess should consist of fast time controls as the few times in the past where I played with a rapid/standard time control in online games I got bored of waiting and did not perform well at all. I used to play Daily Chess when I was much younger, but that was a while ago. In this blog, I will be focusing on some of my games from round 1.
I was amazed to see such high participation of 33,633 players. Last year there were 16,505 players so that is more than double! I assume the impact of the film ''The Queen's Gambit'' has played a huge role in the rising popularity of our favourite sport. In round 1, players are split into groups of 12, and face each other with both colours, so that means 22 simultaneous games, with no vacation, which means 24 hours per move. Despite starting as one of the two top seeds in my group (Group 2708) with a provisional rating of 1600, I am very pleased to win all my games and score 22/22. I wish I could always win against lower-rated players, a very important skill in open tournaments. I won 5 games by default and 1 in which my opponent only made one move. Overall, it was very fascinating to play against people from every corner of the globe. Below, are the standings with only two games left, the ones between Testadicocker and ChainMarkov:
Regarding openings, which I consider my main strength, I decided to stick to my main weapons with black, remaining loyal to the French Defense and the Queen's Gambit Accepted, along with meeting 1. c4 with 1. e5 and 1. Nf3 with 1. d5. However, with white, I decided to challenge myself and open every game with 1. d4, heading into the mainlines which throughout the years has not been my main move, which is 1. e4 but I am trying to expand and become more flexible.
By far my most challenging game was against HenkiedePenkie8 from the Netherlands with black where a serious blunder from my opponent gave me the victory. Of course, I am referring to move 29. Nf6 by my opponent. My favourite chess quote is the one by the legendary Aron Nimzowitsch, in his book ''My System'', that ''The passed pawn is a criminal that must be held under lock and key. Mild measures such as police surveillance are not sufficient.'' Having that in mind, I was particularly concerned about my opponent's passed d pawn and was constantly thinking about ways to stop it. Eventually, I was lucky but credit should be given to my opponent for his splendid performance until that moment, despite the huge rating difference and certainly his rating does not match his real abilities. Needless to say, there could be many players that are very strong in bullet/blitz/rapid chess but rarely or even never play Daily Chess so the rating I see should never make me underestimate any opponent. Even myself, I started with a 1600 Daily Chess rating but in blitz, I am over 2200.
To my surprise, I had a much easier task against the same opponent with the white pieces. I decided to opt for the Exchange Variation of the Slav Defense. As I don't have a lot of experience with 1. d4, I find it practical to play variations where less theoretical knowledge is required. After all, the Slav Defense has been used regularly by many World Champions, for a reason, it is an excellent opening. I went for the move order where white starts with 4. Bf4 and 5. e3 in order to avoid tricks from black. I got a position I was very comfortable with based on positional factors. I was delighted to exchange dark-squared bishops and follow-up with 9. f4 as I took full control of the e5 square, eliminating counterplay from my opponent and leaving them with their light-squared bishop behind their pawn chain. I played precisely, taking advantage of my opponent's mistakes but missed that 24. Qc7+ would lead to a faster checkmate than 24. Rc1 which I played in the game.
Another game where I was particularly pleased about my accuracy and precision was against Danilmaser from Italy. Again, I opted for the Exchange Variation of the Slav Defense. My opponent went for a kingside fianchetto but combined it with 6. e6. This was a serious mistake and even though it was the first time I encountered it, I remembered a general principle that usually (there are exceptions in specific openings) the moves e6 and g6 do not work well together as they significantly weaken the dark squares. I immediately looked for ways to exploit that and found the most obvious 7. Nb5. This immediately created threats. After an exchange of queens, I knew that despite losing the right to castle, my king was perfectly safe on d2. My opponent defended against the threat of 10. Nc7+ but 10. Nd6+ was also very dangerous and they did not respond correctly to it, allowing me to execute a fork.
I had one more opponent from Italy, Testadicocker. Right from move 3 I had a very important decision to make. How would I meet my favourite opening from the other side of the board, the Queen's Gambit Accepted? After many years of being loyal to the Nimzo-Indian and Queen's Indian, I was looking for a change and wanted to find an opening that is simple and easy to learn, while also theoretically sound. I tried it for the first time in 2019 and it was love at first sight. In this game, I went for 3. Nf3 but was shocked by my opponent's 3. f6 move. I was pleased that I followed the chess opening principles of quick development, casting and taking control of the centre. Sometimes, the hardest thing is to play simply! My opponent made a blunder on move 7 where after I played 7. Qa4+ they should have played c6 so their queen defends their knight and I need to retreat my bishop from c4. Instead, 7. Nc6 enabled me to win a piece and after a few more tactical shots which increased my material advantage, they resigned.
A game that was decided early on by two blunders was against Robbbstar from Germany. I went for my usual French Defense and my opponent opted for the 3. Bd3 line, also known as the Schlechter variation. I have played this line with both colours. The first time I came across it was in the final round of the European Rapid Championship in Katowice, Poland in 2017, where I scored 5.5/11. In the last round, the underdog, at least based on rating, Maxim Vavulin from Russia defeated the favourite Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who was half a point ahead and only needed a draw and who the local crowd was cheering for, becoming the European Rapid Champion for 2017. What amazed me was that such a strong player, who has already qualified for the next Candidates tournament was caught unprepared and made an important theoretical mistake in such a crucial game. In this game though, my opponent first blundered a piece with 6. Nc3 and then their queen with 8. Qd2, both of which I exploited.
Against the same opponent, with white, I faced the Old Benoni. I played a sideline and won the bishop pair at the cost of having one less central pawn. My opponent gifted me a free pawn with 11. e5, which I took, while after 18. Rfd1 they failed to find the only move to save their knight which was 18. Nc4. They resigned two moves later.
My opponent ChainMarkov didn't have a flag I recognised next to their username. I checked and they had an ''International'' identity. In our first game, I faced the Dutch Defense and went for the 2. Nc3 sideline, which I consider to be one of the best sidelines against the Dutch. In my first ever 1. d4 game over the board in standard chess, I played it too, back in May 2018. And as a coincidence, both my opponents played 2. e6 which is known to give white a serious edge after 3. e4. I launched a huge attack with my queen and two knights against the enemy king and ended up winning the black queen. To illustrate how bad black's position was, after 10. Qe8 saving the queen, mate in two would follow with 11. Qa3+ c5 and 12. Qxc5#.
Against the same opponent with black, I encountered a rare sideline of the French Defense, with 2. f4 that an International Master used against me in a rapid game in 2019. I lost that game but I put up a decent fight based on the rating difference. In this game, right after my opponent played 4. Qe2+ my entire strategy was based around quick minor piece development, castling short and exploiting her presence on the open file. It is for a reason they say that rooks belong on open files! My strategy worked perfectly and after 8. g3, I had a winning position with 8. Bb4. The key point is that 9. Be3 would have been met with 9. Ng4. I was pleased to smoothly convert my advantage.
One of my favourite games was against zSoadz from Brazil, where I won with black against the English opening. I had mixed results against the English opening in the past but was never particularly comfortable against it so I thought to try a line that former World Champion, Viswanathan Anand was known for playing with good results. Anand is one of my favourite world champions. Something that impressed me in his playing style was his tendency to prefer knights over bishops and no wonder he successfully plays this line, where black is threatening to exchange their dark-squared bishop for a white knight right from move 3. Of course, I know that 3. Nd5 is considered white's most challenging move, according to theory. I might as well stick to this variation but of course, it does not work if white goes for 2. g3, where I would need to have something else prepared. What I liked the most about this game was that I followed the chess opening principles and all my moves had a purpose.
Another very important game was against the player who finished second, agentile2 from the United States. Having the black pieces, I went for my usual French Defense and we entered the Steinitz Variation where I went for 7. Be7. The move which I was unfamiliar with and never faced before was 8. h4. I did not play the best moves according to the engine but was very happy for managing to place my knight on the e4 square on move 12 with the gain of a tempo. In the arising position, with opposite-side casting my opponent made a blunder on move 24 which enabled me to win their bishop, leading to resignation.
Against the same opponent with the white pieces, I had a difficult choice to make right from move 4, which was if I would opt for 4. e4 or 4. e3. Eventually, I decided to go for the latter, entering the very sharp and theoretical forests of the Meran Variation of the Semi-Slav Defense. I was pleased to play 9. e4 and grab control of the centre but my opponent played very well afterwards to equalize the game. After an exchange of queens, I knew that I would need to try and exploit my queenside pawn majority, where I had three pawns and my opponent had two. I went 27. c5 creating a passed pawn, which Nimzowitsch wisely, in my opinion, considers a criminal. I was pleased to take advantage of my opponent's mistakes and utilise my passed pawn which brought me the win. Every win makes me happy, but when it is done by exploiting a passed pawn I am even happier, as this is my favourite chess quote!
The Meran Variation of the Semi-Slav Defense also featured in my game against elparufczago from Poland who before the start of the tournament had the same rating as me (1600) making us the top two seeds. I was very happy with the outcome of the opening and me having two bishops against two knights. I was also delighted to have an extra central pawn. My task was clear and straightforward, to open up the position for my bishops and take control of the centre. Eventually, my opponent blundered with 19. Nd5 which dropped their knight, leading to resignation.
Lastly, one more game which I was very pleased about was against the same opponent with black. My opponent opened up the game with the Bird's Opening (1. f4) and I must admit this is an opening I have not spent a lot of time studying how to play against in the past, nor do I have particularly good results against the rare times I encounter it in over the board games. I decided to opt for a King's Indian Defense formation. After my opponent played 8. b3, I liked my pawn break in the centre with 8. e5 and the arising position was favourable to me. Eventually, I managed to win an exchange and a pawn and my opponent resigned.
To conclude, it has been a wonderful experience so far and I am very excited and looking forward to round 2, where I am certain things will be much harder for me. A note to myself would be to try to play slower and use wisely the time I have.
