Fighting to Advance (2024 Daily Chess Tournament)

Fighting to Advance (2024 Daily Chess Tournament)

Sometime in mid-December 2023, I logged into chess.com per usual. When the home page loaded, I noticed a nice banner at the top of my screen reading “REGISTER NOW FOR THE 2024 DAILY CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP” (I don’t have a screenshot of this, so I’m pretty sure that’s what it said). Intrigued, I clicked on the banner, which took me to the registration screen. I decided it would be fun to register and did just that. I was unaware of how few games I would play in round one.

Only a couple of days in, over half of my opponents timed out; these timeouts added up to 12 out of my 22 first-round games. I was shocked that so many of my opponents timed out early on. I was on vacation and still had plenty of time to make moves. A few days later, two more of my opponents timed out their games. I now only had to complete 6 out of my 22 games. Now, it was going to be a fight between me, @forever_dreams, @Anderx182, and @Dylanarthur.

Game 1: @forever_dreams vs. @Westboyka

In this game, I ended up playing a delayed a6 Queen’s Gambit Declined and acquired a good position early. After @forever_dreams played '13. Bxd2', I was 2 pawns up. However, my position was incredibly weak, and my overextended pawns would likely fall. The computer still gives my position a slight advantage at this point. Unfortunately, my greed caused me to try to hang on to my extra pawns with '13. Bc5??'.
After white plays 14. Ng5!, which @forever_dreams played in the game, black crumbles to a Stafford Gambit-esque attack. Panicking, I play '14. O-O?', which makes the position go from bad to worse. A few moves later, all @forever_dreams had to do to knock me out was to play '18. Bxh6!!'.
Luckily for me, they missed this move and played '18. Qxc5?': the computer only evaluates the position as +0.6. I then play '20. Nb8?' attempting to get a draw
@forever_dreams does not allow it and keeps attacking, finally knocking me out with '24. Rxh6'. I was disappointed in myself. I had a perfect opportunity to move on in my first year participating in this tournament, but I messed up. However, I could redeem myself, seeing as I had another game against them.

Game 2: @Westboyka vs. @Anderx182

In this game, I played a Queen’s Gambit, which @Anderx182 accepted. I ended up creating counterplay on the queenside with my a-pawn and ended up with a one-pawn advantage out of the opening with a nice position.
After I castled and developed my rook, I was able to play the easy-to-see brilliant move '21. Rd7+!!'.
This left me up a queen and a pawn for a rook. Thereafter, I swiftly was able to win the game, making me 1/2 on the non-timeout games.

Game 3: @Anderx182 vs. @Westboyka

In this game, I played a Scandinavian Defense where I tried to play a Scandinavian Gambit, but we transferred to an exchange Panov Caro-Kann. The position was pretty simple until @Anderx182 played '9. Bg5'.
Since I wanted to move my queen without hanging my knight on d5, I took their knight on c3 counterattacking their queen, or as @GothamChess would call it, “Danger Levels.” Unfortunately, @Anderx182 played '10. Bxd8??' taking my queen, but after the pieces all traded, I was simply up a piece.
After that, I ran my king to safety on the queenside and converted a simple endgame. I felt more confident now that I was 2/3.

Game 4: @Westboyka vs. @forever_dreams

Here it was: the game I desperately needed to win. This game started as a very theoretical main-line King’s Indian Defense where I played the Bayonet variation. I took space on the queenside and opted to get a weak passed e-pawn. Unfortunately, a couple of moves later, I played '16. bxc5??', where after a few moves, I would be down a rook for a bishop.
Luckily for me, @forever_dreams missed the tactical opportunity and played '16. c6??'. Later in the game, I played '22. R1d6??' attempting to get their queen for the two rooks and hoping that this was a case where the queen was better.
Unfortunately, I had accidentally left two pawns hanging while maneuvering my rooks. After acquiring their queen, I shuffled my queen in their territory hoping that I could uncover a weakness and win some material back. As luck would have it, after @forever_dreams played '36. Rd7?', I was able to play '37. Qe5'.
This move forked their pawn and a fork on their king and pawn. This led to complete destruction of their position. On move 53, we entered an endgame where I had a queen and three pawns and they had only two rooks.
After moving my pieces together up the board, @forever_dreams would’ve had to sacrifice one of their rooks to survive a little bit longer. However, they resigned, changing my status to 3/4.

Game 5: @Westboyka vs. @Dylanarthur

Since @Dylanarthur usually made only one move per day, these games took the longest to complete. In this game, @Dylanarthur played a Dutch, an opening I don’t know particularly well. After an opening where we both made multiple mistakes and traded many pieces, we ended up in a middlegame where we both had a queen and a rook. I also had a knight while they had a bishop. After much maneuvering, I ended up playing '24. Re3' unpinning my knight from my rook.
My knight was now able to take their bishop on d7. Trying to protect their bishop, they played '24. Bf5??'.
However, I played probably my best move of the first round. I moved my knight to d7 anyway!
 Now our rooks and queens were staring at one another and both of their pieces were hanging while mine, aside from my knight, were protected. During the chaos, before taking back their queen (they took my queen) after I took their rook with check, I played '27. Rf8+!' where the knight defends it.
Therefore, after all the pieces were traded, I was up an exchange in the endgame, where I ended up winning. I fought back to 4/5!

Game 6: @Dylanarthur vs. @Westboyka

The final game, a game I still needed to draw or win to move on. This game started off unusual with @Dylanarthur attacking my bishop on f5 with f3, g4, h4, threatening to trap my bishop.
Though they weakened their kingside with the attack, I could not use the weakness to my advantage. Later in the game, after leaving thier knight on b5 for a while, I was able to take it and win a pawn on the queenside. After they played '26. g6?', I played the only move to maintain an advantage, '26. O-O!'.
After many moves where we both made mistakes, @Dylanarthur played 45. Rf3. After calculating the following lines, I found that the only move to not get overrun by their connected passed-pawns was '45. Nxd5!!'.
This allowed me to pick up both pawns and be up three pawns for a knight. A few moves later, I was able to force a repetition and secure my spot in the next round!

I finished the round 20.5/22 and tied for first in my group with @forever_dreams. This was a great comeback in the round and has given me the confidence that I can at least acquire a decent placement in the next round. Now I will be playing in the second round after the first round has finished.