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How I Went from Casual Chess Player to Jamaican Rank #45

How I Went from Casual Chess Player to Jamaican Rank #45

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yrushawn
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October 28, 2023

My classical chess journey began on this day when I competed in my first classical chess tournament alongside my previous teammates. The National High Schools Chess Championships was a few weeks away and my teammates and I were preparing for the preliminaries, so we thought it would be a good idea to play in a local tournament to gain some tournament experience since most of us including myself have never played in any tournaments outside our school. Six of us entered the Jamaica International Open Championships U1300 section and travelled from our hometown Mandeville to Kingston to play. We were hyped about the tournament and made a bet that whoever won the tournament would get to ride in the backseat of the car since it was the most comfortable spot. In round 1 of the tournament I got paired with one of my teammates and since we've played before and I knew I was stronger, it was kinda disappointing because I wanted to play someone I have no insights into. I won that first game against my fellow teammate and in the two rounds I got paired against 10 year olds who are quite strong for their age, I was not expecting them to know much opening theory however they fell short in the middlegame which allowed me to seize the initiative and capitalize off their blunders.

One of my most memorable games is against my now good friend @s1mtl2mm where I sacrificed a bishop in the opening to expose his king but my sacrifice was a blunder in which I'd lose my queen through a skewer if I tried to regain the piece. seeing that I was down a piece, I decided to keep pressuring his kingside with my army of developed pieces until he cracked. After an hour of play, I was able to get back into the game since he blundered an exchange and the resulting endgame was that he had two minor pieces for a rook but I had a passed C pawn. It was a tense endgame and we were both low on time (basically playing on the 30 seconds increments) and I managed to sacrifice one of my rooks to queen my passer and the resulting endgame was optically equal but my opponent forgot his clock and I won the game. In the final round, I was up against the previous winner of the event, the game was equal throughout and I threatened a repetition in the middlegame since I was exhausted and hungry, but he declined and played on since a draw would mean neither of us gets first place. It was a smooth but tense game where both of us were attacking each other on the kingside and he had a forced perpetual draw but refused it and blundered checkmate. I was elated that I'd won the tournament with a 5/5 score although I kinda felt bad because my opponent was crying at the board. It was the first trophy I'd ever won and I knew I had to keep improving at chess to reap the rewards.

November 16 & 17, 2023

It was the preliminaries of the National High Schools Chess Championships and my team (de Carteret College A team) managed to win our group on tiebreaks against Glenmiur High School B team to qualify for the finals of the competition. I scored 4.5/5 on board 2 and I was a bit disappointed that I missed an opportunity to take the advantage in game 3 against Trey Palmer of Belair High School A team and he managed to force a repetition in the game. The game below is one of my favourite games was against Alyssa Stewart of Glenmiur High B team in which I swindled my way out of a worst position and won the game: 

March 7 & 8, 2024


This was the finals of the National High School Chess Championship where my team (de Carteret College A team) finished 14/20. I was disappointed in my result on board 2, scoring only 4/6 but I enjoyed the experience because on the 7th, I went 3/3 and my most impressive feat was defeating Trinity St John McDonald of St. Catherine High A team despite being down a knight in the opening, the game lasted for approx. 3 hours before he resigned and I was so exhausted that I didn't remember to take a photo of the score sheet but I remembered the game vividly until some point in the endgame where we were under 1 minute (I almost lost on time in a critical moment of the game): 

March 9 & 10, 2024
After my crushing victory against Trinity St. John Mc Donald on the 7th, I got invited to play in the National Age Group Championship in Kingston. I won't go into much detail since I've already written about this tournament in a previous blog. It was only a day after the High school championship and I was burnt out and finished the event on 3/6, overall, it was a fun experience to play against some of the best players in the U18 category.
November 16 & 17, 2024

Seven months went by and during that period I was doing everything I could to improve at chess. I read 'How to reassess your chess' by Jeremy Silman and it really helped me improve and understand strategic concepts of chess, I solve thousands of chess, play training games for hours on lichess and against strong bots, I also practice over the board with my teammates @rickeemr, @FXDEDWATERS, @Kyle-Kyle, @medznohute and other friends. Two weeks prior I was notified of the Clarendon Open Championship being held at Glenmiur High School and I just knew I couldn't miss this tournament happening across from my hometown. So I gathered my teammates and we travelled to Glemiur High School where I participated in the U1700 section. I scored 5/6, finishing 2nd place. I was disappointed. After all, I lost round 4 because I failed to pay attention to the board and missed a common backrank tactic which led to my opponent seizing the advantage: 
I was again disappointed that I let that game slip through my hands but I wasn't too shaken by it and I let it be a lesson for improving at the game. 
November 28 & 29, 2024

It's the start of the National High Schools Chess Championships 2024-2025 and as the captain of the DC Purple Gambits (thats the name of our chess team) I lead them to victory in our zone, going undefeated with 5/5. we swept our biggest rival in the zone Glenmiur High B team (3-1), However, on board 1, I was under some pressure in a sharp game against Dontae Bisasor, and I somehow managed to escape getting mated:

December 7 & 8, 2024

A few weeks passed and on December 1, 2024, the FIDE ratings were updated when I checked, I was surprised to see that my classical rating was 1701 and I was ranked 47 in Jamaica. I couldn't believe my eyes although it makes sense since I've played 7 FIDE rated players with an average rating of 1500 and scoring 5/7 against them and only losing to Bryan Smart (1608) and Laila Griffiths (1450). Now that I had a good rating and ranked in the top 50 in my country, I knew I had to participate in more tournaments and that's when my friend Simon sent me a poster of the City Knights Classical Chess Championships 2024 and I knew I had to compete. The tournament was a unique format that's not often seen in chess and it's similar to a World Cup format where there's a group stage, round of 16 and then a final. The group stage was a double round robin and I dominated the field with a perfect 6/6.


My favourite game from the group stage was against Jahson Levy who is quite strong for a 15 year old but I managed to outmanoeuvre him positionally: 

In the round of 16, I also went undefeated with another perfect 6/6 and I was impressed with my performance as I had a 2479 performance rating which is my highest ever. Overall, the tournament was fun and I was happy that I had the opportunity to socialize with like minded individuals and enjoy the experience.

My best win came in round 3 against Arena Candidate Master Christopher Davis, where I displayed my counterattacking play style to seize victory:
December 14, 2024

I qualified for the Classical Chess Championship finals by avoiding elimination in the round of 16. I was really confident about my chances of winning the tournament since I'd already beaten the strongest players in the competition. However, now I understand the quote "When victory is within your grasp, beware of complacency and distraction, for they are the greatest enemies of success". I was caught up in the idea that I was the best in the competition and lost sight of the fact that my opponents also wanted to win. In round 2, I got myself into a -5 position with the white pieces and was lucky to have found the only moves to save my position. I was in a winning position (+3) in game 4 and accidentally blundered a draw because I was playing lazy moves quickly to get my opponent into time trouble. Still, he managed to hang on and accurately liquidate the game into a forced draw. I was upset that I let the game slip away. I let that negative feeling carry over into my round 5 game where I was now in a must win position to finish 1st place but my opponent wasn't a pushover. He went after my king from the start and never let up the momentum and I failed to defend and counterattack, therefore going down in round 5 and finishing 3rd place in the finals. Moreover, I did get a gold medal for scoring 16.5/18 throughout the tournament.
Even though I didn't finish 1st place, I was grateful that I placed top 3 in the tournament and I'll use those losses as motivation to get even stronger.

January 1, 2025
2024 was a great year for me in chess, I had so many wonderful experiences going to tournaments and having fun, making friends and rivals in the chess community and most importantly is that I keep growing as a chess player and person. I want to leave you, dear reader, with a word of advice and that's to never give up on your dreams no matter how difficult it may seem, if you have a strong desire and passion to achieve them, then you will.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!