Virginia Closed State Championship
This weekend, I played in the Amateur section (u1800) as a 1200 in the Virginia State Closed Championship. I finally had a good performance at a big event, so I guess I might as well post it. Originally, I wasn’t going to be able to go, but I was offered to crash on the floor of the hotel room of Nathaniel, who is from the same town as me, so I figured I might as well. I haven’t really performed very well in the last four tournaments, and never did anything spectacular at a larger event. The last tournament I played was the Charlotte Summer Open, and I was cracked in the blitz event but sucked in the main event, only going 1.5/5. So now that I did poorly in the blitz tournament the night before the main event, it must be an omen that the roles have reversed. Also, behind the hotel was like this whole zen garden vibe place with a lake, ducks, fountains, statues, and it was quite nice to walk around in between rounds.
Game 1:
Cap Scores & Rating Performances:
White- 83.5% accuracy & 1650 elo.
Black- 75.8% accuracy & 1450 elo.
After misplaying the opening, I’m glad I managed to fight back and get a win against an opponent rated 300 points higher than me. At first, I thought I might have a shot at the top upset prize in this section, but those dreams were quickly smooshed by Siddhant beating a 1700. Still, overall, a solid win to start off the tournament, especially considering I did not perform very well in the blitz tournament the night before.
Game 2:
Cap Scores & Rating Performances:
White- 81.9% accuracy & 1550 elo.
Black- 62.4% accuracy & 1050 elo.
Again, I was very surprised to see Nc6 on move one because I almost never see it at all, let alone in a classical game at a tournament. Throughout this game I was quite sleepy, and I did not want this game to go on for very long, so thankfully it didn’t before I messed up the game worse than I did. The engine also just calls me dumb because I never played d5, and it was the one of the top engine move for 5 moves straight for both players. I was not deserving of such an easy win, considering he was 150 points higher rated than me. 2-0, not a bad start for the 1200. I did not do that great of a job of using enough time to think.
Game 3:
Cap Scores & Rating Performances:
White- 78.2% accuracy & 1600 elo.
Black- 86.1% accuracy 1850 elo.
Once I saw the pairings before this game, I just about pissed myself because I’ve never beat anyone over 1500 in a classical game OTB. I eventually found his chess.com account after searching the internet for some random tournament he played in online 6 months ago. I found out he mainly plays the King’s Indian Attack but will sometimes transpose into an English. I’ll be damned if I have to play an English game for 4 hours because it was an older guy, so I figured he was going to think forever. Isaac showed me some lines of what’s normal in the position when John plays what he normally played online. I was as confident as I could be because the positions we went over seemed fairly comfortable, and black is definitely not on the back pedal. Not only did he play very fast for a lot of the game, but he also deviated from my prep quite early. This just sent us into a completely symmetrical position, which can sometimes be a little dry. Even though I had a hearty advantage because of his poorly constructed position, I get a little nervous when I don’t have much space and I tend to short circuit. Even though the accuracy wasn’t extraordinarily high, I still felt like I played very well, only really making one mistake in the game by not capitalizing on one of his dumber moves. It felt like a very commanding win, which I never really gave him a chance, which is surprising, considering he is 500 points higher rated than me. This takes back the top upset, and basically guarantees it for the whole tournament because I just beat the top seed in the section, and I am near the bottom. I did feel like I used an adequate amount of time this game, and this game was the only game to almost make it to the second time control. This game also was about 3 hours long, so that was very tiring. 3-0, when will my streak end??
Game 4:
Cap Scores & Rating Performances:
White- 84.2% accuracy & 1650 elo.
Black- 84.8% accuracy & 1650 elo.
First of all, I’d like to give special thanks to Christian for helping me pioneer this line in the fantasy, which I will probably sacrifice on f7 quite literally no matter what black does, whether it's good or not. In hindsight, I probably should have taken this game more seriously after I won the piece. I definitely did not think for as long as I should have, blundering a draw, while up a piece. We also played the opening in about 25 seconds, right up until I sacked on f7 without giving it a moment’s thought. This game was probably not as serious as a state championship game should have been because we were both laughing for most of the game. He also wanted a draw, not only to keep us both alive to maybe a Roanoker can be the State Amateur Champion, but also, he was probably scared of losing like 50 rating points by losing to me. I think he offered a draw every 3 moves, about 6 times throughout this game. This game also had quite a few spectators and drew the attention of all four players on either side of us. Once I realized I mucked it all up, I look up and Nathaniel just has this grin because the Roanoke Roach survived a dead lost position yet again. I did also tell him to kill himself over the board a little louder than I meant to, which was met with distaste from some old dude that was hovering over my shoulder to watch the game. This was a long day, so I annihilated a large domino's pizza, like 6 wings, 2 bags of cashews, a protein bar, and a lava cake.
Game 5:
Cap Scores & Rating Performances:
White- 82.7% accuracy & 1600 elo.
Black- 69.7% accuracy & 1300 elo.
Yeah, this was just a bad game all around. I think also before this round, being in a 4-way tie for first, made the nerves start to set in a little, now that I realized I have a decent shot to win the whole thing. This was also the earliest game, and the worst night of rest. Also, I was in that stage of the morning where my stomach hurts like hell and I’m ripping ass every 5 minutes. So yeah, not very desirable circumstances for the game. I also hate this dude’s openings. Sorry Gabriel. My choices were to either play into his Jobava London, which I don’t think I've ever actually played against, or play a Pirc. Safe to say, I don’t think I’m ever playing a Pirc again lol. Gabriel is also quite underrated considering I found his chess.com account and he’s like 2000 rapid. So yeah, not 1400. Unfortunately, I lost the battle of the Gabriels, and picked up my first loss of the tournament. This loss was very depressing, and it was hard to get my mind out of the gutter to try to finish the tournament strong.
Game 6:
Cap Scores & Rating Performances:
White- 63.5% accuracy & 1000 elo.
Black- 95.5% accuracy & 2200 elo.
After my crushing loss in the fifth round, I needed to get a win here, because 4.5/6 just feels so much better than 3.5/6 ya know? For a long time, I’ve been struggling to find an opening I like to play against e4, and my coach, Courtney, recommended I play the Nimzowitsch. It’s quite fun, but sometimes the fun can be sucked dry if white plays in certain ways. You would not believe how excited I was when my opponent played d4 and took on d5. He seemed kinda out of it for the first few moves and was also like 10 minutes late for the game. In the opening, he kept looking around like he was looking for someone? I don’t know tbh. It’s also quite clear that the Nimzowitsch took him out of his comfort zone, which is basically the whole point. I just got like crazy development in the opening, and just left two pieces to die and castles (best move btw). I kinda just obliterated the poor dude. After a certain point, he was completely lost, so after he made his move, he left the board and according to Darreion, he was just huffing and puffing while watching other games and walking around. After the game, he seemed quite salty. I kinda just took his soul in this game. I'd probably be salty too. This game also had many onlookers who seemed quite interested in the position for obvious reasons. At some point in the middle of the game some dude pulled up to the game to look what was happening, and why there were 5 people watching my game at the same time, and when he saw the position he very loudly was like “Damn!” and walked away lol. What’s even funnier is that even though I already secured the top upset, this was the second top upset of the u1800 section. I was just trying to bounce back after a upsetting loss, and I accidently just like committed homicide at the board. Another big win.
Average Performance Rating- 1700 elo.
Average Accuracy- 83.5%
Post Tournament Rating- 1462 (+258)
Yeah, quite a big rating jump, so now my rating progression graph probably looks quite funny. Not to mention the fact I’m not higher rated than Nathaniel, so he has no defense when I call him bad. A very long weekend, although fun, and I need to sleep for 15 hours straight to recover lol. 4.5/6 is quite the performance for a 1200 in a u1800 section. I also got 4th place in the section, behind Gabriel Cumming, Siddhant Yambem, and Jackson Clyde-Twilley. I also got money for the top upset and the top class D (1200-1400) prize money, even though both Siddhant and Jackson were like 1350, but 1st to 3rd can’t get that. So yeah. Lots of rating + $280 is a pretty good outcome for the tournament.
