Junior Championships!!!

On March 18, I played in the K-8 Championship section of the Michigan Juior Championships is MSU. It was a fun tournament to play in, and the competition was very tough.

On March 17, me and my dad traveled out to MSU after our end of the year party was done for our chess club. We went a day early for me and my dad (mostly my dad) to pass out flyers for our chess tournament, the 2012 Holland Junior Open, that would occur on March 24. While my dad passed out flyers, I watched the games go on for the elementary championships. I was mostly focusing on the top rated player in the elementery group, Ben Li. He was on the top board in 3 or more rounds, and was rated 1690 at the tournament! He ended up later to win the elementary section.

Walking around outside was very chaotic, considering that it was Saint Patrick's day... next to Michigan State University. There were many college kids outside going a little crazy...  so we went back in fairly quickly.

Later in the afernoon, around 4:00 P.M., we headed to my cousin/uncle/aunt's house for the night, who live in Lansing. I needed to prepare for a big day.

The next morning, we headed off to the tournament aria, which was not to far away. Before I knew it, I was playing the first round. I won the first 2 rounds against kids rated about 1000. In the third round... well... remember who I said won the elementary section the day before? Ben Li? He was my opponent. In the game I got a fairly equal opening in the queen's gambit as white. That advantage faded fairly quickly when he his pieces actively attacked my first rank. He soon got 2 pieces for my rook. I hung on for a while, but he later trapped my rook, and won the exchange, making him a piece up. After that it didn't take much for him to win.

In the fourth round, I was facing a kid named Andrew Alson. Once, a long time ago, when we were 6, we played a game at an Okemos unrated tournament. I had a slight advantage. On misake, he dropped his bishop on the floor, but put it back on the wrong square. My dad caught this, but I didn't. It should have been easy to spot, because he had 2 bishops, and now they were both on the same color. Unfortunately, I didn't see it, and it gave him a WAY better position, which looked weird to me, but since I didn't say anything, he won.

We had played a couple of games since, which I did not win any. This is the first time we would face off in a rated game, and I felt it was a good rivalry game. The game was very boring for almost the entire thing. At one point on about move 20, he made a mistake and let me fork his queen and rook, and I won the exchange. Until move 30, not a single pawn was traded. He offered 2 draws, which I declined because, up the exchange, if I could make a breakthrough with my pawns, I could use my advantage. Figuring out a plan took a long time though... a little to much time because I take a long time to figure out plans. I got my breakthrough, but only had about 5 minutes after that to finish the game. As usually, I got down to a couple of seconds before winning with a nice tactic and mate.

Going into the last round, I had 3/4. I was hoping to win the last round, but knew I would face a tough opponent, and it would be tough to win. When the pairing were up, and I saw my opponent, a had to double check- I mean triple check- to make sure I saw it right. I was playing Michael Chen. Yes, I was sure now. The game started, and I was white. We played a Nimzovich where black plays 4. ...Ba6. The position was fairly equal, though he had a slight edge. I will show the game notation below. I made a few silly mistakes because I was nervous, but in the end got a draw by agreement/3 move rep.

Overall, the tournament went very well for me, and I finished with 3.5/5.0 My rating went up 7 points. (1640) Here are two of my games:

Andrew Alson - Joshua Posthuma
1320                  1633

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 0-0 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 b6 7.Nf3 Bb7 8.g3 d6 9.Bg2 Nbd7 10.0-0 h6 11.Bf4 Nh5 12.e3 Nxf4 13.exf4 Nf6 14.Rfe1 Re8 15.Rad1 Qc8 16.Rd2? White's first mistake, losing the exchange. 16. ...Ne4! 17.Rxe4 Bxe4 18.Qe3 Bb7 19.Qd3 Qd8 20.Qc2 Qf6 21.Qc3 c5 22.Rd3 Rad8 23.Qd2 Qe7 24.b3 a6 25.a4 Here he asked me for a draw, but I declined beccause I was still up and exchange. I think white was trying to show me that the position is to closed for progress, so I had to find a way to break through. 25. ...a5 26.Re3 Qf6 27.Rd3 Qe7 28.Re3 Qc7 29.h3 Bxf3 30.Bxf3 Up to this point, it is move 30, and there has not been a single pawn trade... 30. ...cxd4 31.Qxd4 Qc5 32.Qd2 Rd7 33.Kg2 Rde7 34.Rd3 Rd8 35.h4 Qc7 36.Qe2 e5 37.fxe5 Rxe5 38.Qb2 Qe7 I got in time pressure quickly in this game, because I took a long time to formulate a plan for breaking through. With my new open file, and later creating an open H file, I was able to take advantage of my material advantage.
0-1

Joshua Posthuma - Michael Chen
1633                      2053

1.d4 In this entire game I was shaking with nervousness. Michael Chen is one of the best junior players in Michigan, and is very strong. In fact, he was the strongest player I played in a tournament when I played this game. Despite my couple of mistakes, I was able to get a draw. 1. ...Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Be7 6.Bg2 c6 7.0-0 0-0 8.b3 d5 9.Nbd2 Nbd7 10.Bb2 Rc8 11.e3 c5 12.Rac1 b5 13.Qd3 cxd4 14.exd4 bxc4 15.bxc4 dxc4 16.Qe2 (16.Qc3? Nd5 17.Qc2 c3!) 16. ...Qb6 17.Bc3 Nd5 18.Nb1 Bb4 19.Rfd1 Nxc3 20.Nxc3 Nf6 21.Ne5 Rfd8 22.Qe3 Bb7 23.Bxb7 Qxb7 24.Rb1 Qe7 25.Qf3 Nd5 26.Nxd5 exd5 27.Rxb4?! As I noted at the beginning, the nervousness got to me and a made a mistake. I was expecting a philidor's legacy checkmate on f7, before noticing that black could simply take my queen with hs king, and win easily. The move wasn't bad, but my plan behind it was and it wrecked my confidence. 27. ...Qxb4 28.Qxf7+ Kh8 29.Qxa7 (29.Qg8+?? Rxg8?? 30.Nf7#) (29.Qg8+?? Kxg8! Kind of hard to miss...) 29. ...Rf8 30.Qd7 c3 31.Ng6+ (31.Nf7+ Kg8 32.Qe6 g6 (32. ...c2?? White to move and mate in 3: 33.Nh6+ Kh8 34.Qg8+! Rxg8 35.Nf7+) 33.Nd6+) 31. ...hxg6 (33.Nxc8) 32.Qh3+ Kg8 33.Qe6+ And perpetual check will occur if black doesn't sacrifice. (33. ...Rf7 34.Qxc8+ Rf8 35.Qe6+ Rf7 36.Qc8+ Qf8 Rxf8 38.Rc1 and this is an easy draw for white.
.5/.5

Overall that tournament went weel. Look forward to a review of the 2012 Holland Junior Open tomorrow.