Junior & Senior Championship 2016

If younger generation is looking for moments to make themselves shine, this is the one. Quebec Junior and Senior Championship is such a tournament that sometimes people get surprised by younger players.

Here is a good example, 2 years ago, I beat an expert when my rating was only around 1500. This year, I might not have had the same great moments. But my friend Tyler had one. Overall, together with my friends, I enjoyed the tournament and managed to increase my rating a little bit.

The secret is: I am one step closer to my goal!

Max Euwe said once: “Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation”; the key to win is to take advantage of your opponent’s mistake.

Hongrui caught my mistake: I should not have taken his pawn without strategic thoughts and sufficient observation. If you look at those highest rated players, in the same variation, they do not take the pawn. I did. Hence I lost the game:

A  “Mathiew” that I did not get the chance to play with: I did not know where the ELO came from, ELO 2058? Maybe? Sometimes you don’t really know this is you until somebody labeled you to a certain category: o, I am a >2000 player; sounds pretty good.I am ok with it:

A short game between the real Mathiew and me: we certainly get used to playing with each other. His rating has increased a lot recently. It was great! He did not have too much luck before.  I felt happy for him!  My mom complained that I played too fast this round.

In the end, Hongrui, Houji and I had to play playoff to decide who is the third position. We played armageddon to have a clear result.

Based on Wikipedia: armageddon is:

“A game guaranteed to produce a result, because Black has draw odds (that is, for Black, a draw is equal to a victory). To compensate, White has more time on the clock. Common times are six minutes for White and five for Black, or five minutes for White and four for Black.”

This is when we decided the order:

I lost my chance to Houji. It was sad… I was so sure that I can win this. Never mind, next time, Houji, I will get my revenge another time and I am not planning to retire any time soon.

The result!:Kenta got the first position. He is my current team captain. So proud of my captain..:

With my losing in amargeddon, I cost my chance to grab even the smallest trophy below.  I know they are just trophies; but I do like to collect each single of them out there:

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Besides the game, as usual, we had a lot of fun.

The “fun” starts from a chess gaming outside a toilet: we were playing online, basically Lichess. We did not care we were blocking the way leading to the toilet. So, adults were passing by with their eyes rolled and heads shaking.. We just played and played until my mom asked us to look up.. We actually did not know what she was doing until she showed her camera..f-l-a-s-h–:

We had this strangest lunch ever, literally with our fingers. Luckily, they did not fail us. We were just fine having our lunch with our fingers, spent lots of time washing our hands though.   But really, can we have any real food around Olympic Stadium instead of fries and…fries?

In this photo, just to be clear: I was not praying or doing some strange rituals related to any religion; I was just reading a book..

That day was a great day, sunny outside, felt like spring /summer was around us. The sky was blue, the sculpture was cool and we were showing off our silly side:

As we did not have too many things that we can do in between matches, Tyler and I basically spent lots of time together throwing the tiny sticks to the top of the tree. It looked really silly; but we had fun: I guess I would have fun anyway as long as I am with my friends:

I also found myself a good photographer on top of a good chess player: Look at this photo: marvelous, right?  Thank you for your acting Joy.