Written By Qiuyu Huang
Photographed by Joy Gao
I would like to talk about my experience of the chess tournament at Windsor, CYCC, short for Canadian Youth Chess Championship.
You know, Windsor is just at the side of Detroit, U.S.A. Plus, there are these two routes you can take to access Detroit: the Detroit-Windsor underwater tunnel, then the Ambassador Bridge. I can’t enter USA because my passport hasn’t been renewed yet.
The trip to Windsor took 12 hours, and we basically survived thanks to those Onroute stations. When you enter Ontario, on highway 400 and 401, there are always a lot of these stations. It’s generally where you can re-fuel your car, go to the washrooms, and get something to eat. It is said that there are 20 stations in total. The one closest to MONTREAL (which is far away) is the Morrisburg station. Our family, me and my mom, went there with Yilin’s family.
We were lodging in a big, tall, 2-floored house, there was enough space for us. In front of our house, there is a store selling super cheap stuff; where you can buy 8 tomatoes and 2 lemons for just 1.10 dollars!! My friend Shawn was lodging in the Days Inn Hotel. My mom was thinking about arranging a sleep-over but due to the intense schedule of chess tournaments, it did not happen.
From our house to the playing hall (the st. Clare College Centre for the Arts located at 201 Riverside drive West), it takes just about 3 minutes by car. The building is just on the side of Detroit River, so we have a perfect view of Detroit.
The playing room is gigantesque. And it’s really cold in there with the air conditioner on.
Round 1: Lassche Adam 0-1 (win)
Before each round the arbiter repeats the rules of the tournament and answers players’ questions. Then we start the round.
I was surprised how well my first opponent played his opening. Later I tacticed him and won. Well it was not quite exactly like that, but you understand.
Notes: there is this “water station” where you can fill a cup of water and drink it (mostly while you are playing; if you don’t understand, my apologies). Plus, you have to wear a name tag. Some players don’t, I guess they have already lost them.
Round 2: Ronan Uthayakumar (Loss)
He played a common opening played by different levels of players, amateurs to grandmasters. After some moves he did something that I did not know. Then I played one of my old openings. He did well in the middle game. Then I made a little mistake, giving him the advantage equivalent to one pawn which he transformed into a win.
Notes: If you play chess a lot, I think you will realize the following too. There are some scoresheets with 2 pages stacking together, identical. One is white; the other one is yellow. When you write something on the white paper, like the letter A after on the yellow one, it will also have the letter A, on the same spot, same place. Complete mystery to me.
Round #3: Sean Math (win)
Before the game, I checked his rating: 1866, which is close to mine: 1896. Then i thought this would be a difficult game. He played fast. I won 2 pawns then grabbed the win right after.
Note: I don;t really have many things to say about this round, except that after, he won most of his games, catching me up in the top 15 boards.
Round #4: David Atanasov (win)
I played the exact same opening that I played against Ronan, and it turned out oretty well, having the advantage in middle game. Then I went into an endgame, and won.
Note: I told you the thing about the white and yellow scoresheets. Ronan, in Round 3, played against Thenry Zhang. He had two sets of scoresheets. He did not even realized it. He wrote on one, then the second scoresheet (under the one that Ronan uses) had the same moves! (My apologies if it’s too complicated, check the drawing)
Round #5: Jack Li (Win)
This will be interesting. I played him last year in the same tournament, and drew. Now this year I won! Before the game, he said:” And here we meet again….”. That was kind of funny. I got the “little” revenge.
Notes:
there is an arbiter who’s initials are M.E. When we finish a game, we need to sign our scoresheet. When he signs in the designed arbiter space, it makes M.E. Understand?
Round #6: Richard Feng (Draw)
This is the first draw in this tournament. I made a perpetual check. He played really well.
Round #7 The last one: Hua Eugene (Lost)
Last year, I won against him. This year, I lost. I had the advantage in the opening, then he made a deadly counter-attack. Well, at least, I think.
Notes: He won the third place.
The Return:
After all the crying and all that, I got a participation trophy and went to the bughouse tournament with Maili. It was super-long. In the end, we had 3 points. Then they served pizza! I ate 2 slices.
We returned to our “home” and went to sleep. The next day in the early morning, we packed our stuff and left Windsor. Me, I wanted to go to Pelee’s Island because we are so close to it, but finally the decision was made. We immediately headed for Montreal.
Before we left, I recorded a video of the whole house where we stayed (at Windsor, 475 Tuscarora Street I think) and took pictures of the super-cheap market in front of us. We left Windsor at twelve o’clock. We arrived at Montreal late. : )
A very good view of Detroit, USA
