On February 19, 2016, I went to Quebec City for a chess tournament, named Tournoi du Carnival.
The trip to Quebec was long and boring. The only thing that I could do in the car was sleep. I needed a blanket, because it was really cold outside: colder than Montreal. There’s not much difference between Montreal and Quebec, except that in Quebec it`s more colorful and on the red light you can turn to the right. Montreal is a little grayish place, though some houses are equally as colorful as in Quebec.
The place was smaller than I expected, but as small as it was it was still big enough to accommodate approximately 100 games at once. This means there are at least 200 people participating. When we confirmed our registration, they gave us a small cup, engraved with the Sainte‐Foy chess club logo. It also says: 50e annee Carnival. How did they get those cups? It’s from a company called Vulcan. At first I thought it was really a volcano, but no. Techsol sponsored this tournament too. They gave each person, a pen with their logo.
A lot of titled players played in the Open section, including Shawn Rodrigue‐Lemieux, one of my chess friends. He’s a titled FM player and he has 2119 as FQE rating, and around 1900 with FIDE. FIDE is the most important rating. For those who don’t know, FQE rating means the
Quebec Federation of Chess’ rating, and the FIDE is the International Federation of Chess.
The first round was tough and energy‐draining: it lasted for 3 hours and I finished around 10:00 PM. I played against a player named Gaetan Lapierre. He only had a rating of 1892, which is good in the average. He said that he already achieved 2000 three times. But he performed very poorly in a tournament and then lost many points. I won this game by sacrificing my rook for a bishop, with a deadly attack. At the end, because of time pressure, he was not able to see my simple mate in 3 moves. After this round, I went to the hotel and went swimming a little bit. I didn’t want to because I was really tired. Around 11:00 (it’s really late), I went to bed.
Next morning: breakfast. The hotel’s cafeteria is large, but there was not much choice for food. Around 9:00, we packed up our things and went to the tournament site, and I was feeling very confident for this second game. I played against Stephane Doyon, who really looks like another person that I know. Perhaps they are brothers. I won with an advantage of 2 pawns (he resigned before I got the chance to grab his last pawn on the queenside.
For my lunch, I went back to the hotel again and ate some Wong‐tong while watching the sports channel: ski jumping and alpine skiing. These 2 sports did surprise me, more the ski jumping, because it’s as if you’re flying in the air. In the live competition on the TV, a skier jumped so far away that he forgot about landing. He tripped but got up in time with his hands, otherwise he would not win the first prize ! After this intense “competition watching”, I managed to take a power nap, just to calm myself down for the third round, which was a difficult one. After one hour, I woke up, went back to the battle field and found that I would play against the top player in this section (the one with the most rating), Marc Sara‐Bournet.
Unfortunately, I drew. That night, I went to sleep with less confidence than before because the draw was negatively impacting my emotions.
Next day, the round 4 starts. I played against Danny Lamontagne. This was probably the longest game I ever played in this tournament. He was better than I expected. Time flied and we arrived in a situation where a draw was highly possible; where I couldn’t destroy his strong barrier, and that he couldn’t make a breakthrough in mine either. He seemed so eager to win which fogged his judgment hence he played a move that sacrificed his pawn, which was a big surprise to me, because I wouldn’t have made that move if I were him. We then reached a position where I had a passed pawn, and I successfully promoted it.
The round 4 lasted about 3 or 4 hours, so I had to eat my lunch here, in the community center. At the same time, I checked on what my last opponent could play, and therefore anticipated it if he played something that I didn’t know.
Time for round 5, the highly‐expected and the last serious game of this wonderful tournament. I played against Sylvain Brassard, a strong‐looking man who beat everyone that he played. He had his wonderful‐looking board: Staunton style pieces, and the board together costs at the very least one hundred dollars plus taxes. The pieces were fancy, in my opinion. I would have preferred the original pieces, the “classical” ones. My mother was worried about this – whether I could see the board clearly and not mess up a piece for another. I reassured her, but she still looked concerned until I played into the middle of the game without any blunders. After the opening stage, he only had 30 minutes left. I thought: “What is he doing? Is he planning to do nothing?” But no, he spent a lot of time trying to find the theory of this opening. He missed a small tactic that granted me a pawn for several moves, but he took it back. He invaded my camp with his rook and bishop, then he made a BIG blunder which cost him his bishop, and I won. I could’ve had won immediately, by taking his rook with a simple fork.
The winning of the last round means that I won the tournament!! A lot of people congratulated me for my performance, including the father of Tyler, Ted. His last name is so complicated that they simply call him Ted.
1 500$ for me! This is the highest tournament prize that I’ve ever won! There were three people with the same number of points (4) so they have to share the prize of the second place with each other. 400$ each. And then there’s the third place: 300$.
My goal for this tournament was not to win the prize, instead, it is to practice to slow down and play my level. I set a goal to achieve 4.5 points for this tournament and it feels amazingly good to have achieved it.
Photos:
Eric, now a lecturer at Sunday Equip, GM, was invited to the tournament as well:
Qiuyu VS the top player in the section:
Qiuyu @fifth round: note the fancy board and the player in green hair:
First round: with my parents in it:
There is no easy game; 
At the hotel before sleep: 
The hotel that we stay has a swimming pool; not a fancy one but good enough:
Have fun with snow in Quebe:
There was a biking event that weekend:
