Southern Cross Class Championship/My Marine Corps Birthday Weekend Nov 2013
On the Marine Corps Birthday weekend, Nov 9-10, 2013, I competed in the Bay Area chess 6 SS Southern California Cross Class (C/D) Championship that was held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Irvine California; not too many showed up in our section; Iost (2) games with a strong fight, I forced a draw in a game that I was losing and I left Saturday night with (1) Win/ (2) losses and (1) draw. I came back on Sunday November 10, 2013 (the Marine Corp's Birthday) with a better mindset; we only had (2) games to play, and I was not going home with another loss on my Marine Corps Bday (L0L). I wanted to share these two of my favorite games because they were very intense games that I played white and I opened with the King's Gambit. Both of my opponents were higher rated than me; also the to highest rated players in our category present, they both went to safety on Queenside vs my KG, and in both games, I gave up a major piece each by stupid moves, yet kept my composure; maintained my attacking tempo and earned the 5th place with $90 to my name...
This first game I played on Sunday morning, was against Noah Estiva (1491), a smart Filipino Kid still in elementary. I watched his games throughout the tourney and I noticed he was slick, and he had a very good endgame as he earned draws in positions that he was losing, and I was almost another victim of that (Lol). The kid tried to get me into a stalemate as it ended up in King and Pawn endgame for a while, but no draws this time as I seen the win clearly with seperated pawn structure close to homeruns... I stupidly gave up a knight 28. Nxf7 because I wanted to give a check forgetting a bishop was on the c8 diagonal... Although I could have played a shorter endgame, I dragged this one out a little, so don't ask why; I just love the thrill (Lol), but on a serious logic, clearing the board leaves my mind at least less room for error.
The last game I played was against Kayode Docks (1448) of LBC, the most intense longest game I have ever played ever in a tournament.
I stupidly lost a Bishop (17...e4) entering the middlegame. I stood up the majority of the whole game as I was burnt and tired from the previous games. Docks had the most unorthodox opening that I was never familiar with, and it took me a while to crack his tough defensive play. What made this game more intense? The game started at 330PM and ended at almost 630PM; the time controls for this was (40) moves in (120) minutes, (5) second delay, with a sudden death of (30) minutes; I had (88) minutes left on my clock, he had approximately (2) minutes on his by move 36!!! AND he resigned on my move 40. Rd8+!! he was on move 39; if he added another defensive move, and hit the clock one more time, he would have added (30) more minutes of endgame and a hope for me to blunder, so I had to secure the win.
In the beginning, when he opened with the French Defense, and I responded with f4, he took at least (20) minutes to respond on his next move; at the end of the game, he said he was thinking how he should have respond to that because he forgot what opening he used against he KG in another game. So I asl myself, how many players in the C/D even study defenses or play with the King's Gambit; a lot of people hate it from both sides, but I love it; it keeps the unprepared frustrated and under pressure if used correctly...
So in the end, even if I did not place 1st, I still secured a spot with the top 5 players of our category with my score of 3W-2L-1D and $90 to my name, so I left happy on my Marine Corps Birthday.
