My chess tournament- Part 20: My Experience at the 2016 USATW

Hi people of chess.com! I haven't posted one of these in a long time not mainly because I was busy (although there is a lot of homework!) but because I was not getting any better over the past year and did not play very well. It might be because last year, I changed a lot of my openings, still experimenting with what was right for me. With it came a lot of bad positions, general cluelessness about what to do, and a LOT more draws than I expected. Usually I was the one that caught my opponents off guard with my openings, but now I'm the one that's confused more often. The "transition" from aggressive openings to more sound ones that suited me took a long time. Also, I was very reluctant to learn opening lines and spend so much time doing so, but now I realize that errors in the opening can give you a sub-par and uncomfortable position in the game (It's happened so often in blitz). I was also extremely inconsistent with my play, losing to players below 2000 or even 1900 and never beating anyone above 2100. I hope that I'll keep posting these since a lot of people have asked and maybe my insight and thought process could help.

Team tournaments are always great experiences because they provide a new team element to chess that never fails to interest me. A lot of things stood out to me that were different. One of them is pushing for the win. Usually when you're playing by yourself if you reach a drawn position you would agree to a draw (especially if your opponent is higher rated) and not risk losing. Pushing slight edges is often necessary for a team to win or tie the match. Another is that since the pairings are based on the team, your results won't affect the pairings as much. You could beat a strong player but get a weaker player the next game, or you could lose and still get a harder pairing if your team wins. Teams with the same high 2100 average could have completely different strategies; even (everyone around the same rating) or really good players on the top 1 or 2, or even 3 boards and a very low rated player (often low rated people that have jumped recently are chosen) to average out the team. One strategy is not necessarily better than the other, since they both have their advantages and disadvantages.

From experiencing the tournament I learned that a lot of luck is involved as well as skill, not only in the pairings but also the games with blunders. There's really no good way to predict a winner, since a lot of matches at the top boards could really have gone either way.

I also learned that individual results matter a lot and you can't just hide behind your team or think your game doesn't matter because you think your team members will win anyway. Boards 1 & 2 are looked at the most, but the lower boards matter just as much. A good team has all the players scoring good results. In fact, even a simple half point lost or gained can affect the match. If you lost, it doesn't matter as much if you lost 2.5-1.5 or 4-0 except for your tiebreaks. The difference between losing and tying, and tying and winning is really small. It's also extremely irritating to lose 2.5-1.5, celebrating a 3-1 or better victory, and breathing a sigh of relief after winning to tie 2-2. 

Another thing I learned is not to blame yourself for being the one reason your team lost or blaming other people on your team. You really do lose and win as a team, and for a loss everyone has some of the blame. Just like victories are shared, losses are shared too.

Okay, enough of the talk. Onto the tournament!

I played for NorCal (three time champions) on their balanced team Norcal House of Chess West Coast. Our first board was IM Ricardo de Guzman (2400), our second board was WIM Ashritha Eswaran (2230), I had recently increased to 2099 and played board 3, and Board 4 switched in between but stayed 2000 strength. Coming into the tournament, we were #8 or #9. I was really excited to be on such a good team and just for the experience in general.

The first round was expectedly crushed 4-0. We played The Knight Mates. I played pretty well; no opening disasters, improved my pieces, built up pressure, and won a piece. After that it was over. Here's the game:

The second round was definitely a close call. A lot closer than we wanted to be (2.5-1.5!). We played Dragonfire with an average of 1958, and they had GM Melik on board 1 and his students on boards 2-4! 

Two of his students were 1900-2000, he was 2600, and board 4 was 1200 (actually 1500) to average it out. Coming into the round, I wasn't expecting a win on board 1 but definitely on boards 2-4.

Their team was a lot better than I expected. Our team's first board put up a good fight but lost, our second board had a winning opposite colored bishop ending but was blockaded on the dark squares and drew. The 1500 on board 4 was playing amazingly well and was better (!) with a solid position against the 2000. It basically came down to me to whether I would win or not. If I didn't win, we would tie or (far worse) lose! 

I was playing someone near 2000.who played extremely well. I played very inaccurately in the opening and got a weird position playing against a Sicilian. My opponent did a good job blockading my past pawn. I expected it to be a draw, and was very fearful of the king walk variation which could have occurred since no one likes calculating all that with time pressure. In the end it should have been a draw but my opponent miscalculated or thought something and he gave up two important pawns. There was some trickiness afterwards and there were times I hoped I didn't blunder but I converted the advantage after that. Here's the game:

That was not a very good game I played. The only reason I won and not drew on the spot was the e3? move. My chances were mainly earlier on to play d4 and still get an open position; once black blockaded the position, my bishop on f1 was passive, black's f5-e4 and his knight were better.

And pretty soon after I won, the 1500 blundered a rook! Of course if was complete luck we won 2.5-1.5 instead of 2-2 but the rating difference shows even in worse positions. 

At the end of Day 1, we had 2/2 and were gonna face a really good team. We played The Notorious BAC with an average of 2195! This was probably our most upsetting round, since we had the upper hand. Their team was a 2600 on first board, a 2450 on second board, a 2230 on third board, and a 1600 (who recently jumped) on fourth board. In the beginning, Ricardo on first board was up a pawn and had a better position against the GM, Ashritha on second board had a huge attack due to her preparation against the 2450, and the 1600 would surely lose. They probably didn't even need me! Wrong. During the course of my game, Ashritha messed up and drew, Ricardo pushed too much (since we definitely had a chance to win the match) and lost! As for my game, I was holding an equal position pretty well but the 2200 made chances out of NOWHERE and pretty soon I found myself in a zugzwang. I ended up losing instead of drawing like I should have. I guess there was a lack of communication since Board 1 would have just been a draw. If it were than even if I lost we would still tie. The chances of Board 1, Board 2, AND Board 3 messing up were pretty low, but it ended up that way.

Tying the match would make us play harder teams, but we would have at least had a chance of first place with 3/3.

Here's the (disappointing) game:

The first mistake which went unpunished was c6? because I missed dxe5 and d6, and protecting e4 after dxe4 with the queen. But after that, I should just be content with a draw. Which I was, but my opponent was trying to win. I thought that he might mess his position up if he pushed but he succeeded. My key drawing chance (since he probably wouldn't agree to a draw considering the match situation, was the Bc8 idea (Which I was about to play!). My main error was thinking that if I just did nothing I would draw, and trying was a mistake. In truth, drawing would be much easier had I actually looked for certain resources or calculated deeper. It didn't take much to find the draw for black. 

A very disappointing game, but a very good and unique lesson about drawing and how important it is to not let your guard down.

There was significantly less pressure on us to win first (we probably wouldn't but it could happen), so we just tried our best and were more relaxed for the rest of the tournament. 

We played another BAC team (we had the best tiebreaks so we were paired up!), called BAC Dark Knights. They were still better than us, with an average rating of 2179. They had a 2600 on first board, a 2050 on second board, a 2030 on third board, and a 2000 on fourth board. We definitely had our chances to win on boards 2,3, & 4. We ended up losing on board 1, Ted won for us on board 4 (with 1. e4 a6 2.d4 b5)! and Ashritha surprisingly lost on board 2 after a couple oversights. 

Then I played an inaccuracy and blundered a piece. It wasn't as bad as it seemed though. I got three pawns for it and even though it was objectively equal, I was patient and eventually (after a couple of hours) pushed my two connected passers up the board to win and tie the match 2-2. Here's the game:

So at the end of day 2, we had pretty much ruined our chances for top 3 with 2.5/4, so it was all about just enjoying the last day playing as a team. And who knew? Mathematically, things could work out for us. We still played with a lot of energy on the last day. 

On the fifth round we played 1b3 (1864). We were expecting to crush this round. They had a 2100 on first board and second board, an 1860 on third board, and a 1400 on fourth board. Everyone won their games really easily, except for me....

It was basically an unexplainable nightmare of a game for me. He played extremely fast, making a move then leaving the board almost every move (which was annoying to say the least). I played one inaccuracy after another, even though I was taking my time. I lost a pawn (but still had a better position) but it got worse when I overlooked the loss of an exchange! I entered a losing endgame and offered him a draw. Not to my surprise he declined. Then the craziest thing happened. In a losing position, HE offered ME a DRAW??? WHAT? I accepted in less than half a second, still in disbelief. It was definitely a nightmare- building up all those rating points only to lose 20 of them with a loss, but thankfully it was a draw. We won 3.5-0.5. Here's the game:

Such a good tournament, almost ruined by my blunder. I knew I could have won the position, but at that point I knew I was the one that was beyond lucky to draw, so I'm not complaining.

With 3.5/5, we got paired up again, against an extremely strong team (STEAN) with an average of 2147 that had 4/5. Their only loss was 3.5-0.5 to a team with a 2199.8 average. They were an all-NM's team (many under 2200 but having attained the title years ago). Their top board was 2230, their second board was 2180, their third board was 2120, and their fourth board was 2070. They were a pretty balanced team; I expected a win on board 1 but wasn't completely sure about the other 3 boards. Ashritha ended up drawing on second board, board 1 would probably win due to the rating difference, and Ted played a a really good game (with a normal opening thank goodness) and won! So they probably didn't need me to win, but I wanted to anyway for the rating points and better tiebreaks.

I won surprisingly easily. It was a scotch where I got a comfortable opposite colored bishop position, then he played a disastrous move (probably an oversight), and it was really easy from there. His cellphone rang and he lost 10 minutes, so that didn't help him either. Here's the game:

Probably one of the major events of the round. They gave FREE FOOD! Like a giant tray of sandwiches/salads. They were supposed to be $8.50 each (why would anyone buy that??) but they didn't sell (obviously). I helped myself. 

So our team ended up with 4.5/6 and FOURTH (so close!!) which is still amazing. Our errors came with the disastrous round 3 and round 4 which we might have won with a draw on board 2 instead of a loss. 

I also scored 4.5/6 and a new rating of 2114, 3 points away from my peak (which was December 2014). 

The other NorCal team got third, and Rainbow Unicorns won with a perfect 6.0/6! Even though NorCal didn't win their fourth year in a row, the other team definitely earned their win.

Here are the final standings http://bayareachess.com/events/16/213sp/

This was the West team tournament; there's also a North, South, and East. The winners of each compete for the national team champion in May. 

I definitely had a lot of fun playing alongside my team and watching so many good teams battle it out for first place. 

Thanks for reading!

Bump

Nice games!

o cool.  nice games.  team atmosphere is great.  amateur team a fun tournament [quite big in the east].  got to play stripunsky (i lost) and drew yudasin there this year (i was totally winning then losing then drew), which was cool.

Thanks!! :)

Thank you so much! :)

@Petrosianic that's really cool!!