It was a hot long weekend. Extremely hot.
It is quite an experience to play a tournament in such sweltering conditions, with an air temperature over 30 degrees, not to mention the humidity, surface temperature..
But we all passed the test. Nobody collapsed. I consumed several cups of ice smoothie, felt ashamed while my opponents had nothing icy beside them.
The venue:
It was a good tournament for my FIDE rating as it will increase around 50 points. But my FQE rating dropped 1 point as I drew with Nicholas Johson for the last round who has a relatively lower FQE rating. After this battle, I am officially a 2000+ chess player (FIDE ranking).
See the result below:
http://chess.ca/crosstable?tournament_check_number=201607014&key=160714
Based on what my teacher said: if your rating did not drop, that means your performance at this particular tournament is not too bad; in another word, you are progressing.
There were two particular games that I could have had different results:
Game one: VS LAROCHELLE Martial:
I was actually very familiar with the opening that he was playing. However, I played the wrong order of the variation. It was not a memory blank. Instead, it was an “educated” mistake driven by wrong learning approach. I saw a grandmaster’s game which is more or less in that order and I jumped to the conclusion that it was good: but it was not. This is what happened when you did not validate opening using sufficiently various methods.
What methods that you can use to validate?
- with your teacher
- theory book (a good one)
- several top chess players’ game with the same opening
- use your own brain to challenge it; but if you knock your head and hear “dong” like a sound from a gong, use an engine instead
Plus, I do think I need to go through all the notes that I have and validate all the variation.
Game 2: VS JOHNSON Nicholas:
I had white and he adopted French Defense.
The reason that I played this opening which offers both parties very limited chance to develop and attach is that I did not want to lose. This opening was introduced to me because it has its advantage when you play against way higher rated player. In that case, a draw is not too bad. But if you are playing against players who have similar rating as you, this opening is not a good choice.
The main reason is that somehow I had this impression that Johnson was super strong. But my mom told me after the tournament that he was indeed a very decent player but his rating has never been super high. I could have made that battle more powerful and impressive.
Two things that I learned from this game:
- there is a Chinese saying: knowing your enemy is a base to win. This is very good example. I did not do my homework about Johnson therefore the impression that I had was misleading. For every single game, if it is feasible, I need to do some research and get a sufficient understanding of him/her as a chess player.
- I need to study new variations for this opening and try to convert this into a more opening positions in order to allow me to play my strength.
Game with HAVE Didier:
He is a decent player, a person who hates the heat the most. He looked at me with this deep despair in his eyes when my mom passed me a cup of ice smoothie flavored mango and banana. I really felt bad for him because of the heat and the ice “supply” that I had.
With my buddy: Gabriel:
There were some cool breeze at the back door. I went there for a break between the moves:
With Thierry, trainer at my school’s chess club:
With buddy Tyler: side by side:
With buddy Shawn, side by side as well:
Girls rule the world:
I really would like to know who owns this monster. But I guess I would never know:
Looking forward to next year!
Besides the tournament itself:
We were invited to have dinner at Lily Ma’s home. Lily and I put together these stones:
After dinner, we took a walk at the golf training field:
There is a fox living in that forest; I walked and waited, but nothing came out appearing like a fox. Hey, fox, I am very disappointed this time…