Throwing My Rating to the Dogs at the Tokai Open

There are four things that no one likes losing: your house keys, your wallet, your cell phone, and your ELO rating points...

Sure technically they are just numbers on a screen, but their value is found in what lies behind them: hundreds of hour of training, sacrifice, blood sweat and tears. Personally, I have always valued my FIDE rating above all else, its the official one, the one that matters, the one that ranks me globally in the great sea of worldwide chess players.

Unfortunately for me, FIDE rated chess tournaments are few and far between here in Japan. Yet on January 11th and 12th, I was in Nagoya for the Tokai Open 2026 (FIDE U2400). A five-round, FIDE rated tournament with a time control of 60 minutes | 30 seconds bonus and a modest prize fund of ¥15,000 plus gift certificates. Of course the real prize would be any rating points gained, which are more valuable than gold coins to true chess fanatics...

So, how would things turn out, would I raise my rating to new heights or throw it to the proverbial dogs? The thumbnail and title may give you a hint on what transpired...but before we get to that, how about a few pics to prove that any of this happened. 

Adding Insult to Injury

My mid-level rating of 1716 insures that I start each tournament with the unenviable task of facing one of the top seeds. This tournament saw me paired with Toma Matsunaga, a player who has defeated me on two prior occasions, the last time was at the 2024 Japan Open were I squandered a winning position.

In this encounter, things went even worse, I was getting positionally crushed and instead of resigning with my dignity intact I chose to play a completely unsound attack...

Resulting in the following position were White has the choice of playing a standard improving move or a move that adds insult to my already bruised ego...which do you think he chose?

There are many good moves, but only one adds insult to injury, can you find it?

In the 2nd round I lost a positional grind to a slightly lower-rated player, as interesting as that game was, let us skip past it, for brevity sake.

Rage Quit

In the 3rd round I was up against another slightly lower-rated player. If my rating was to have any chance of surviving I would need to gain the full point. 

After a very rough start my opponent was able to fight his way back into a slight advantage...then he blundered.

After I played the following move, my opponent walked out of the playing hall despite it being his turn...I thought he wasn't coming back. I understand his frustration, chess is brutal and has no mercy.

Can you find this rage inducing move?

For The Sake of Revenge

If revenge motivates you go for it! But the main thing is to set your game in order.

- Viswanathan Anand

In the forth round I was up against Mr. Sirimalla, this would be our second such battle as we played late last year at the Nagoya Open, a game I lost. So, I was hoping for a little revenge...

Things didn't go as planned, I tried to get innovative and creative in the opening, which is almost always a recipe for disaster, Black was able to open up an attack on the king-side which ended in me being unceremoniously mated. 

Yet, I did have the opportunity to turn things around, Black overplays his hand and allows White back into the game, but finding the correct move was beyond me.

Can you see how to turn things around in this tough position?

Groundhog Day

Mayhaps you have seen the 1993 romantic-comedy staring Bill Murray as a cynical weather reporter who becomes trapped in a time-loop, where he is forced to live the same day over and over...

Well, that's how I felt in the final round, as I was again paired with Yoshizawa-san. My eagle-eyed readers will certainly recognize him from my report on the Kobe Winter Rapid, where I played him in the final round.

After losing in the fourth round to a lower rated opponent, I had to go on the attack and gain the full point in order to save my cherished ELO. 

What followed was a great exhibition of the power of the Najdorf Sicilian.

The Champions

B-Class Under 1650

A-Class Under 1800

Open

Postmortem

And that was it, that was the Tokai Open...

Well, with only two points out of a possible five and two of my losses coming against lower-rated players, I can safely say that my rating is in for a slight decline. However, I'm not too upset with the result as both lower-rated players who defeated me were talented and played inspired chess.

Yes, my rating represents hundreds of hours of blood sweat and tears, and I hate to see it go down, but I'd rather have a slightly lowered accurate rating, than an inflated bubble that only serves to stroke my ego.  

That being said this was the final warm-up before the Japan Championship Regional qualifiers, which will be taking place during the month of March. If I'm to find my self at the national championship this spring I'll need clean up some of these tactical mistakes that always seem to creep into my game. 

As always, thanks for reading and feel free to share these games with your friends down at the Library or Bar. 

Cheers, SheldonOfOsaka.

P.S. If you're a fan of chess themed t-shirts, feel free to invite the "Click Button" to a game of chess, but when he shows up insist on playing the Najdorf. 

"The Click Button"