Hey guys,
Haven't blogged in a full year but that's okay will start again soon.
This year, the CYCC was held in the Sheraton hotel of Richmond Hill, Ontario. The tournament hall was professional, the playing schedule was well organized and the overall tournament was a huge success.
I was seeded 6th but at this age I've grown to realize that rating is not that important and I didn't really play Chess while focused about elo. My aim was first, but if not - I'd do my best.
Round 1
Our room's air conditioning was pretty cold and I didn't get much sleep, so I had some tiredness while playing my first opponent. I was playing black against a 1600 rated player in the exchange Caro-Kann as 6th seed. I sacrificed the exchange for an extra pawn on the 2nd rank which allowed me to complicate the position and put a lot of pressure on his rooks and king. I finally found a tactical blow after the 4 hours of a slow position. 0-1
Round 2
After a quick eat, I came back to face Simon Gladstone as white. He prepared for me a little in the French, and I forgot some theory in the Bd3 line. Black quickly equalized and I realized he had a better endgame. I offered a draw after the queens were exchanged. 1/2-1/2
Round 3
A little better sleep this time, but I was a little sick and feeling feverous because of the room temp. I finally fixed the airconditioning and felt a little better later on. I was paired up against Richard Leu (2046 CFC) as Black. I had a decent position with a pair of bishops in a closed d4 line with fianchettoed kingside for black. I soon started to open up the position and breaked his center, I won a pawn and then a piece while he was in time pressure. 0-1
Round 4
This was a key game, as I was paired against the top seed in the U16 Open section, Nikita Gusev. He seemed to have good results in the positions he was familiar in his mainline Sicilian positions so I prepared the c3 variation. After a couple of natural mainline moves, he misplaced his knight and allowed me to get a more developed position. After some repeated moves, he offered me a draw but because he was .5 ahead of the tournament, I declined but forgot about the 3 move repetition rule and he claimed a draw after 3 repeated moves. 1/2-1/2
Round 5
During my preparation, I realized that to likely win the tournament I had to win my next 3 games with 2 blacks. In this round, I was paired black against Aquino Inigo (2088 CFC). I had to play very seriously and cautiously because I could not afford a draw nor a loss. After hours of prep, he played a familiar Gruenfeld line and I played very quickly, with 1:24 on my clock and about 10 minutes on his after the 20th or so move. He sacrificed a pawn but could not complete the attack, I found a winning end game tactic which caused a blockade so that his rook could not capture my pushed pawn. I queened and he resigned. 0-1
Round 6
This was a very crucial round, as it was my only white for the last 3 round of the tourny. While Tanraj Sohal was 2nd seed of the tourny, I had no choice but to play for a win if I wanted the champion title. He went into a Sheveshnikov side-line which we both didn't know much theory on. To my point of view, I had a decent position as I controlled the d5 square and his king was unable to castle sitting on e7. He opened up the position but my bishop was stronger than his knight and eventually he gave up a pawn for some compensation for my back rank. I found h4 which freed up my king and allowed me to keep the pawn in a QvQ up a pawn endgame. I dawdled around for 30 moves but finally got my king to safety and queened my pawn. 1-0.
Round 7
Coming into this round I was tied for first with Nikita Gusev (5.0/7.0) who drew his previous game. I was black against Mike Ivanov and found that he had a very interesting repertoire. Not only was his openings hard to prepare against, but he was overperforming this tournament and I had to be very aggressive to win this game. He played something that I didn't prepare for but had experience with it in the past, a variation of the Caro-Kann. I thought that I had a good kingside attack planned but I realized there was nothing I could do against his fianchettoed bishop. Soon I found myself to be in an inferior position while also in time trouble. I found a chance to open up my c file and soon my pieces became more active. He missed a tactic which would've gave him a better position and sacrificed a pawn for the initiative instead. At this point, I had a winning position as I locked his g2 bishop in and had a good defense against his attack. Seeing that Nikita's position against his opponent wasn't looking bright, he offered me a draw thinking that I would most likely accept. But unfortunately I didn't have time to evaluate Nikita's position and declined. Moving with 30 or so seconds on my clock and 5 minutes on his, I was focusing my best and trying to move swiftly. I glanced to my left and saw Aquino and Nikita shaking hands as I realized Nikita had lost this game. This meant that if I drew my game, I would become national champion leading my section with just 0.5. I quickly reoffered a draw.
Little did I expect him to decline, as he was ambitious to see that my time was very low and he could also place 1st if he won our game. But this was the correct position for him as out of pressure of time and tournament, I blundered my two knights for a rook! I was furious with myself but realized I still had a decent position where it was hard for white to take advantage of my defense. I would be able to hold a draw without much problems. I kept my composure and continued to play with my time deficiency but a few moves later, I blundered the exchange and now I was down a full piece. I was panicking now, as I thought I had completely messed this game up and I was just so close to becoming the National U16 Champion. I told myself that I would play 'til mate, possibly getting extremely lucky and exploiting a mistake of his as his time was ticking as well. He got a little greedy and saw an opportunity to sneak into my position, but I found a tactic that trapped his queen! His queen was now contained, and with only a few minutes on his clock, it was not easy to find a way out. Although if he had more time, he probably would've found a winning plan and beat me, but he offered me a draw and I immediately accepted! 1/2-1/2
I was very excited to win my first CYCC and after a very busy and stressful tournament. I'll be going to the WYCC 2011 in Brazil this November so be sure to come back for a good read. ;)
I might've not been the strongest player in my section, but with a bit of luck and ambition I pulled through to become the 2011 CYCC U16 Open Champion!
Full results can be found here: http://www.2011cycc.ca/match-stats
Alberta's Results:
All results are posted in sectional order.
There were no playoffs for 3rd place. Placement was determined using the
Buchholz chess rating tiebreak system.
Kaixin Wang - Tied for 4th place U8 Open - 4.0/7
Patrick Tolentino - Tied for 3rd place U10 Open - 4.5/7
Jamil Kassam - Tied for 3rd place U12 Open - 4.5/7
Richard Wang - 1st place U14 Open - 6.0/7
Patience Tram - 5th place U14 Girls - 2.0/6
David Zhang - 1st place U16 Open - 5.5/7
Nicka Kalaydina - Tied for 1st place (3rd after tiebreaks) U16 Girls - 5.5/7
David Miller - Tied for 3rd place U18 Open - 4.5/7
* As an ending note, I would like to thank the organizers, volunteers, the parents and the players that made this tournament possible as I found it to be very successful and well directed! The tourny was run very smoothly and the schedule was on time. Players and parents were very happy with the location and convenience of the playing site and area. Although there is a huge controversy about the prize distribution of the CYCC, coming from a player's perspective, I think that money is not a must, but a very nice bonus, especially to the players that are going or went to tournaments such as the NAYCC, WYCC and Pan-Ams. =] The money is not important, and if it isn't distributed to the players I hope it is used to aid tournaments and opportunities for Canadian juniors! Personally I think that second/third place in WYCC should be getting a little bit of support from the CFC from the surplus of the CYCC, but it has never happened before and I hope it will!*
Cheers,
David
Sunday, July 10, 2011
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