2024 Rhode Island State Championship Recap
On November 16th, 102 players gathered for the Annual Rhode Island State Championship, a hallmark event in the local chess community. It was a four-round swiss, G/60;d5 time control.
I had the privilege of contributing to the tournament's design this year, and by all accounts, it was a resounding success. The schedule ran smoothly without delays, the sections were well-balanced, and the generous prize offerings attracted the largest turnout in the championship's history. The trophies, too, were exceptional and added an extra layer of prestige to the event.
As if all of that wasn’t rewarding enough, I also clinched the title of State Champion!
Let's take a look at how it all unfolded:
Round 1: Fight!
Having not slept well the previous night, I was hoping for a nice, gentle round one to ease me into the flow of things. I assumed there would be no shortage of entrants "playing up" in search of a challenge. I learned quickly that the field was absolutely stacked with 1700+ players and everyone was a threat.
Enter Matthew Beauvais, a familiar name already if you've read my Malyuta Memorial recap. Matt looked fresh and eager to get revenge for the last game (and he's entirely capable).
We quickly blitzed out an Accelerated Dragon, Maróczy variation, and for some reason this Nf6-g4 move gave me some pause. I had seen the position before, and understood that the ensuing exchanges reduce white's dynamic prospects. In light of that, I started questioning whether I had made a mistake in recalling my preparation. Why would I allow this? I spent a few minutes and shook it off, because there's no sense crying over spilt milk. Objectively, this simplifying tactic is black's compensation for allowing the bind.
Matt played an interesting variation that I had never encountered, although it is a quite popular alternative to the main line 9...Ne6. I took a good 10 minute think here, which is a lot for such a compressed time control, in order to get my bearings in the position. Eventually I settled on 10.Be2, almost jokingly tempting black into capturing on e2, but leaving a path to the backwards d6 pawn unimpeded. Above is the stem game for this variation, played over 70 years ago (!) in the Soviet Team Championship.
This was the first moment where I had absolutely no idea how to proceed. After another ten minutes of thought, it became clear to me that the fight here is for the d-file, so I played 15.Bd3! in order to increase pressure on the d4 knight. Matt continued his plan of b7-b5.
Truthfully, I didn't think long enough about this decision. I was expecting 17...Nxb5, which is thematic to this variation, and was mildly shocked by the pawn recapture. Should I take with the bishop or the knight? I didn't give it much thought, because 18.Nxe4 seemed to cede the initiative, but 18.Bxe4?! as played surrendered a lot of dark square pressure and allowed black to create a surprising initiative. Eliminating a candidate based solely on assumptions is both a useful tool in time trouble and a terrible habit with a healthy clock.
After some precise play by black, white finds himself on the defensive! I considered 23.Qa6! Bxg2 24.Qxa8 Bxa8 and assessed it as slightly better for black. I decided it wasn't time to bail out into an endgame, and prepared to suffer with 23.f3?! after which black will have strong threats against the white kingside. Luckily, Matt was a little too eager to pull the trigger...
This is the position after 25...Bxf3?? after which the simplifications that follow will leave white with strong winning chances in the form of the connected outside passed pawns on the queenside. Of course, I had calculated all of this before playing the dubious f2-f3 and was relieved to follow my opponent down this path. The game was essentially over at this point, so I'll simply post the whole game below.
After the round, I had lunch with Matt, and we talked about some of the interesting ideas from the game. It was quickly apparent that he was much better prepared than I was. I wasn't surprised, because I'm aware that he has a strong coach and absolutely loves chess. Combine that with the fact that I am employing an entirely new repertoire for this tournament (a high stakes gamble), and I was left only to marvel at Matt's hard work and try to raise his spirits for the next three rounds.
Round 2:
After a short lunch break, it was back to action! I was paired against the extremely talented Ella Zhang, aged 9, rated 1770! As my mentor Mike Foycik is fond of saying, "Children are always underrated, and you never know by how much!" I knew this was going to be a struggle to win as soon as I saw her opening: every dynamic player's worst nightmare: The London System.
After some quick opening moves (Ella played very quickly) I found myself in the following position, trying to decide whether 14...Bh6 or 14...Bd6 was more accurate.
Ultimately, I decided on the weaker of the two moves. I was highly concerned about the position after 14...Bh6 15.g4 Nf4 16.g5 Nxe2 17.Kxe2 fxg5 18.Nxg5+ Kg7 19.e5 Rhf8 20.Ndf3 after which I was seriously in doubt about the activity of both of my bishops and the potential of the half-open g-file leading to my king. Sometimes, positions are just outside of my ability to evaluate correctly; I will make a good study of this one.
After a tense middlegame, where my clock seemed to absolutely melt compared to my opponent's, I found myself in this critical position. Black is faced with the choice of 20...Bd6 or 20...Nxe2+. I calculated that the retreat was perfectly safe, with white unable to play a quick Be2-f1 and g2-g3. However, I was drawn to the position after 20...Nxe2+ 21.Rxe2 Bf4 (which happened in the game) when I thought I had strong control of the dark squares. As a rule, I avoid unforced captures like the plague; however, I convinced myself that this was the best try for an advantage, planning a quick ...e5 which would take away a lot of white's maneuvering potential. That said, Ella very quickly followed up with the strong and obvious 22.Qe1!
After a long struggle, I was eventually able to equalize the position and find counterplay on the b1-h7 diagonal with my bishop and queen battery. At one point, I'm sure I played 40+ moves with less than a minute on my clock. I was so confident that something must give that I even declined a draw offer. Eventually, the minor piece endgame became impossible to win (and easy to lose) so I snap-called her second draw offer. I was lucky to walk away from this one unscathed.
I was still optimistic about winning the title after this. I debuted a new system and was able to walk away with all my limbs intact. The next round would be a different story altogether.
Round 3:
Here, I was paired against a third incredibly talented (and likely underrated) junior in a row. Praharsh Varada is a mild-mannered young man who made the journey all the way from Connecticut for this event. I could be certain that he wasn't here to donate points.
The opening was a Caro-Kann defense where I employed an unnamed system I'm tentatively calling the Mamedov variation. It's similar enough to the Short Variation of the Advance Variation, but white allows black to establish a pin on the king's knight. Unfortunately, I forgot my prep entirely and had only a cursory understanding of the positional elements.
The errors came early and often in this game. Here, I chose to capture with 6.dxc5?! which helps my opponent develop and welcomes a lot of pressure on the e5 wedge pawn, essentially the linchpin of white's position. I remember clearly that I was aware of forgetting my prep and starting to panic. This panic involved a lot of free association. I convinced myself that this position could be treated like a Botvinnik-Carls Defense (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.dxc5 e6 5.a3 Bxc5 6.b4) but of course this is delusional because of the effect of black's light square bishop.
Eventually, we reached this position after black's 19...Rc6. Objectively, I knew that 20.Nd6 was the best move, but I ended up convincing myself that I could initiate an attack against the black king after 20.g3 -- 21.h4 -- 21.h5. The astute reader will notice that there are a lot of blank moves in that sequence. Yes, dear readers, your opponents are allowed to have ideas too! Young Mr. Varada almost instantly replied with 20...Nb7! and I came back to my senses.
Luckily, we soon liquidated into another minor piece ending and (again, playing 40+ moves with under a minute on my clock) I was able to hold a draw. Now, I was not so optimistic.
Round 4:
I walked around the halls of the university for a few minutes, bemoaning my choice to debut a new repertoire in such a prestigious event. After a while, I caught up with my friend and student Zhi Tan. It turned out he was on 2.5/3 and had a chance to win the State Champion title clearly with a win in round 4! I gave him some encouraging words and the final round began.
All that I knew about Jhavin Patil was that he took out Ali Hamed, one of the top juniors (and a frequent opponent of mine at the local Cranston club) in the state, in round 2. Clearly, this young man is not to be trifled with. He opened with the Sicilian Wing Gambit, an absolutely uncompromising fighting variation; another game, another opening repertoire debut.
This is the position after black's 6...Ne4!? My coach showed me this idea earlier in the week and it was immediately clear to me what black is up to. It's going to be hard to dislodge that knight.
The idea I employed stems from the game above, which arises from a French pawn structure. It really pays to know your classics, folks! Such a brilliant idea from Goglidze!
Fortunately for me, Jhavin decided to take the pesky knight immediately with 7.Bxe4? The game really goes off the rails for white, from a strategic standpoint, after this capture. It was about this time that I took a walk to gather my thoughts. I took a look at the wall chart and quickly realized that a lot of the strong RI players had been knocked out of contention. In the first round alone, my buddy Nial Renshaw devastated NM Michael Carey in mutual time trouble. I did the math: There was a scenario where I could win the title!
1. I must win! It felt like I had good chances at this point.
2. Zhi must lose, which I couldn't bring myself to root for.
This is the position after white's 13.Qh5. It took me a while to figure out exactly how I wanted to prosecute this, and I repeated moves once in order to buy some time. Eventually I settled on the idea of 13...g6!? and we were both soon wrapped up in an epic calculation battle. Fortunately, on this day, I was a couple steps ahead of this talented young man.
Eventually we reached this complex position. Both my opponent and I had diligently calculated the result of the wild 20.Bxg5!? Qxg5!! and white decided on 20.Qxb4. Soon after, in a difficult position, white blundered a long-range tactic and the game. After a quick discussion of key variations with Jhavin, I rushed out of the playing hall to see the results of the final round. We were the last game, and I had been absolutely engrossed in this complicated fight.
I found Zhi and he informed me that he fell to my 3rd round opponent, young Mr. Varada. Such a painful loss for someone who loves the game and works so hard at improving. I rushed to the wall chart to find that Albert Dong, a top junior in the state, had won his final round as well. We were tied for the championship, and that meant one thing: Armageddon!
Tiebreaker:
I'd actually never played an armageddon tiebreak, though I have administered a few as a tournament director. Just the previous week, I was Chief Assistant for a three-way tie break between Grandmasters de Checa, Dlugy, and Kudrin at the Connecticut State Championship. What a show!!
The format is a blitz game with white having 5 minutes and black having 4 minutes as well as draw odds. As the higher-rated player, I decided to play black. I was certain that Albert's black repertoire matched up well against mine, but I have a few rare systems to show him as black.
I already knew exactly what I would play. We decided not to allow spectators. Jordan Ashton (TD) and Frank DelBonis (Chief TD) set the clock and the camera, and we shook hands.
I'll save you the analysis of a blitz game, but I employed the Armenian variation (5...Ba5) of the Winawer French. Both Lichess and Chess.com refer to this as the retreat variation, for some reason. I have studied this variation deeply, with great results in correspondence play.
As you'll see in the game, almost all my knowledge and positional understanding fell right off the map when that clock started ticking. Still, I was moving quickly, playing somewhat thematically, and not leaving anything obvious up for grabs, forcing Albert to play complex chess on a short clock. Eventually, I was able to offer a queen trade, and then forced it, and then white started dropping tactics. The clocks equalized. Then, I had a large time advantage. Albert was starting to find his stride. I dropped a rook! A handful of moves later, his flag fell.
We shook hands, and I congratulated the young man on a fantastic effort. Frank opened the doors and I walked out to a group of very curious, and suddenly very excited friends!
This marks an end to an incredible journey. I moved to the smallest state in the union two years ago. I uprooted my entire life in order to secure a better future for myself. I never imagined that it would lead to a moment like this. I lost my brother in June, shortly before my birthday. My car was totaled a month later. I lost my job a month later. I've had no choice but to throw myself into coaching and study, just to survive, and now I have the achievement of a lifetime.
Going forward, my goals are to keep pushing my students, as well as myself. I hope my story serves as an inspiration for all the chess players in Rhode Island. Some of you have absolutely crushed me in a game or two. Many others have the potential. Keep working towards your goals. Keep your love of the game alive and healthy. You, too, can become a champion!
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