This one is the biggest event happening in Montreal in July 2015.
It was a very tough week for Qiuyu, as he wanted to attend Day Camp at Sport Montreal and play the games in the evenings at the same time. Consequently, he was a little bit sleep-deprived for sure as games were usually very long.
If you ask him to only pick one of them, he would choose chess over the camp even though that was an Arching Camp. He wanted to participate in an Arching Camp since last year and even put arching as his favorite sport. Imagine how excited he was when he knew that we had successfully signed him up with an Arching Camp. But he is willing to sacrifice Arching Camp in order to play chess tournament if he has to get to that end. You know how much he loves chess.
The tournament consists of two major parts: 9 rounds slow games and 11 blitz.
Qiuyu got the chance to play against some really strong players:
这次比赛好多国际大师都来了。秋宇幸运的和全场最高分的下了一盘。
The highest-rated player: GM: Romain: (this is the picture that we are going to hang on our wall : ): look at Qiuyu’s green water bottle. Lefong posted a similar picture on his facebook and one of his friends joked about Qiuyu’s green water bottle; quote: “Vu la meche de Romain, on dirait que le jeune couile comme son nom l’indique, lui a amene une bouteille de shampoing vert.”:这个对手积分2600多。
Look at the clock on the desk which indicates that it is Qiuyu’s turn now. But he took his time to calm himself down, did not rush for the first move.
ShidiWen: a young promising star who got the second place at CYCC in section U16:
At Blitz games, he played against IM Aman: look at Aman’s composure during blitz. He was as calm as a cucumber; Qiuyu had very slim chances to win.
We recorded a video for the blitz:
Another GM in Blitz: Whenever you see the wooden board, you get the idea that the opponent is very strong:
Another Blitz with an FM: a big win!:
With other players:
Qiuyu managed to “win some won games” and drew some. Technique-wise, this event was not his best one. But psychology-wise, he is progressing as he no long rushed to make moves. He can really sit down and take his time to think. He even developed a few fans. Two gentlemen approached to me, telling me that they liked Qiuyu’s style. “He is fast and creative”, they said. One of them approached to Qiuyu and said “good play”.
Although the result was not super good, we see that Qiuyu is managing to develop his own thought process before every move: he is taking time to evaluate the board, noticing all checks, captures, threats, tactics (pins, forks, skewers, remove the guard, etc) from both players and he is pushing himself to do that consistently. It takes effort to establish a good process. And no process is perfect, you have to keep modifying it and adapting it. But we know Qiuyu is getting there.
How can we know chess is still good (not too much) for him? As long as the “pros” of enjoying the game outweigh the “cons” of the frustration. Look at the following pictures: you still can see a happy kid enjoying his games with his buddies:
Overall, it was a great event.
Lesson we learned as parents:
-do not put him under any day camp during the Tournament.
What we learned from Qiuyu from this event:
1. Be creative in middle game is the key.
2.Stay calm, even if your opponent is a few hundred more points rated than you: In blitz, a guy rated over 2000 offered a draw to Qiuyu, Qiuyu said no even if he only had 17 seconds left. And Qiuyu won after a few moves.
3. No matter how bad the result is, stay calm and keep fighting for another win.