This is a new change in plans for my upcoming tournament schedule that I am very excited about.
For a while, me and my parents have been hoping to go to the 2012 Elementary Nationals in Nashville, TN.
We had to drop that dream because of financial difficulties. I was slightly upset, knowing that being in 6th grade, this would be the last year I could compete. But recently, I got an amazing present from my grandma Posthuma. Being aware of me wanting to go to the tournament, but knowing about our financial difficulties, she gave me and our family a great blessing: She donated money. She gave us a check to help pay for the expense of the tournament. It covered over half of our total costs, and made the trip possible. Sadly, we had to cancel our trip to the Great Lakes Open, but I am more excited about this tournament than Great Lakes.
I will be leaving at noon on Thursday, May 10, after our half day of school, to drive out 9 hours to a hotel close to the tournament site that is cheaper than at the actual tournament. We sleep there for the night so that we do not have to drive through the night, and head off to the tournament the next morning. Over the weekend, I will play 7 rounds in the tournament. Then we head back to the inexpensive hotel for the night, heading back the next morning.
I am definitely excited about this opportunity, and will no doubt have a post or two with all of my games when I am done.
For this tournament, since it will be the biggest thing I have done yet in my life, I need to play my top game, and apply all that I have learned, properly, and continuously. I must get a good amount of rest each day and before rounds, and will likely be exausted going into the following week, but it will be worth it.
Lastly, I recently learned that mt friend Izaac Zylstra has started a blog also! You can find it here, or on the westmichiganchess.com page.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
2012 Vandenburg Cup
The tournament on Sunday, April 15, was a tournament I was looking forward to for a while. The tournament was called the Vandemburg Cup, in memory of Mr. Vandenburg. I obviously am to young to remember or know Mr. Vandenburg, but the fact that they host a tournament in memory of him is awesome, and I thought I should play.
Before that day, on Saturday, Andy Catlin had invited me to come to play chess with him, Tony Nichols, and Ratko Bojanovic as a warm up for the tournament to get me prepared. It was a great experience and I was honored to go to play. I went into it not having high hopes for scoring anything, rather hoping that I would just play good chess games, learn, and have fun. And that I did. Andy set it up as a double match, so I play 2 of the 3 possible opponents 2 times each.
In the first round, I was playing Tony Nichols as white. It was a good game, where he got a slight advantage going into the middlegame, but then made an interesting move that I thought just dropped a pawn to a remove the defender tactic. Unfortunately, instead, he let me take the exchange for a pawn, but he gets alot of compensation for it... a little to much compensation. He ended up winning with a huge attack.
In the second round, I played him again as black. The game was even for the most part, until he made a knight sacrifice for 2 pawns. Unfortunately, afterwards, he tried to grab a third pawn, and lost his queen to a tactic. The game was a quick win from there.
My last 2 games against Andy Catlin were losses, as expected, but it was fun to help him make dinner when our game finished early. Overall that experience was great, and I learned alot.
On to Sunday:
My mom drove me out early in the Morning to stop by Bill Ignasiak's house to pick him up. After that, we continued onwards to Lansing, reaching our destination at 8:30, when registration starts. After waiting around for about 30 minutes, I suddenly saw several kids flood the room. 25 kids or so who looked like they were from Detroit, (and were) went into the room, all from one school in Detroit. This was their "warm up tournament" for going to Nationals in May. This largened the U1800 section that I was in by alot.
We finally started the first round, after being late by 45 minutes. I realized I was the second highest rated player in my section.
In the first round, I was playing one of the Detroit kids named Donald Dameron. Although being one of the clubs better players, I was able to grab a pawn from him using a nice tactic, and later win another pawn, and a bishop. The endgame was easy from there.
In the second round, I was playing Douglas Reist as Black. The game was even for the most part, but I later won a pawn, and was able to trade a pair of rooks. He tried to create counterplay with a pawnstorm on my king. It was frightening, but didn't work because I gave him a backwards pawn and he could not make progress without trading queens, which would also end his attack, which he did. I traded queens leaving me a pawn up and a rook and bishop vs. rook and knight. I was able to trade rooks bringing me into an endgame that was probably drawn, but a pawn up, and positioning my bishop, king and pawns correctly, I was able to create a passed pawn, and sacrifice it. I would get a piece exchange and a king positioning in front of his pawns, winning. I made this idea unavoidable unless he let me promote, which was worse. I won with little time left.
In the third round, I was playing Bill Ignasiak as White. He played a standard king's indian against me, closing up the center completely, and then trying for an attack on the kingside. The closed game went nowhere and his attack failed to work, so we agreed on a draw in an unprogressable game.
In the last round, I was playing Scott Faust as black. He played an English which transposed later into a queen's indian after I responded 1. ...Nf6. The game was even for the most part, very closed yet possibly sharp. Scott later looked like he was beinning an attack, but never broke through. Later he made a move that looked good, but actually just simply lost a pawn. After my knight blocked off any sacrifice he might have, I got away with queen winning knight fork after he touched his knight and then saw the fork. Being down a queen for a knight, his game fell apart, and he lost.
Overall, I got 3.5/4.0. Aaron Venia won the tournament with a perfect 4/4, and I lost on tiebreaks to another competetor with 3.5/4.0. Although I missed getting a cup because of bad tiebreaks, I did get $32, barely covering the entry fee, but had a great time and played some good games. I will have my games put up in a couple of days with notes. For now, bye!
Before that day, on Saturday, Andy Catlin had invited me to come to play chess with him, Tony Nichols, and Ratko Bojanovic as a warm up for the tournament to get me prepared. It was a great experience and I was honored to go to play. I went into it not having high hopes for scoring anything, rather hoping that I would just play good chess games, learn, and have fun. And that I did. Andy set it up as a double match, so I play 2 of the 3 possible opponents 2 times each.
In the first round, I was playing Tony Nichols as white. It was a good game, where he got a slight advantage going into the middlegame, but then made an interesting move that I thought just dropped a pawn to a remove the defender tactic. Unfortunately, instead, he let me take the exchange for a pawn, but he gets alot of compensation for it... a little to much compensation. He ended up winning with a huge attack.
In the second round, I played him again as black. The game was even for the most part, until he made a knight sacrifice for 2 pawns. Unfortunately, afterwards, he tried to grab a third pawn, and lost his queen to a tactic. The game was a quick win from there.
My last 2 games against Andy Catlin were losses, as expected, but it was fun to help him make dinner when our game finished early. Overall that experience was great, and I learned alot.
On to Sunday:
My mom drove me out early in the Morning to stop by Bill Ignasiak's house to pick him up. After that, we continued onwards to Lansing, reaching our destination at 8:30, when registration starts. After waiting around for about 30 minutes, I suddenly saw several kids flood the room. 25 kids or so who looked like they were from Detroit, (and were) went into the room, all from one school in Detroit. This was their "warm up tournament" for going to Nationals in May. This largened the U1800 section that I was in by alot.
We finally started the first round, after being late by 45 minutes. I realized I was the second highest rated player in my section.
In the first round, I was playing one of the Detroit kids named Donald Dameron. Although being one of the clubs better players, I was able to grab a pawn from him using a nice tactic, and later win another pawn, and a bishop. The endgame was easy from there.
In the second round, I was playing Douglas Reist as Black. The game was even for the most part, but I later won a pawn, and was able to trade a pair of rooks. He tried to create counterplay with a pawnstorm on my king. It was frightening, but didn't work because I gave him a backwards pawn and he could not make progress without trading queens, which would also end his attack, which he did. I traded queens leaving me a pawn up and a rook and bishop vs. rook and knight. I was able to trade rooks bringing me into an endgame that was probably drawn, but a pawn up, and positioning my bishop, king and pawns correctly, I was able to create a passed pawn, and sacrifice it. I would get a piece exchange and a king positioning in front of his pawns, winning. I made this idea unavoidable unless he let me promote, which was worse. I won with little time left.
In the third round, I was playing Bill Ignasiak as White. He played a standard king's indian against me, closing up the center completely, and then trying for an attack on the kingside. The closed game went nowhere and his attack failed to work, so we agreed on a draw in an unprogressable game.
In the last round, I was playing Scott Faust as black. He played an English which transposed later into a queen's indian after I responded 1. ...Nf6. The game was even for the most part, very closed yet possibly sharp. Scott later looked like he was beinning an attack, but never broke through. Later he made a move that looked good, but actually just simply lost a pawn. After my knight blocked off any sacrifice he might have, I got away with queen winning knight fork after he touched his knight and then saw the fork. Being down a queen for a knight, his game fell apart, and he lost.
Overall, I got 3.5/4.0. Aaron Venia won the tournament with a perfect 4/4, and I lost on tiebreaks to another competetor with 3.5/4.0. Although I missed getting a cup because of bad tiebreaks, I did get $32, barely covering the entry fee, but had a great time and played some good games. I will have my games put up in a couple of days with notes. For now, bye!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
April Calvin
At the April Calvin this month, 9 others came out to battle. I did not know this before, but Antowine changed the format back to 4 rounds and G45. It is also only $10 to enter now. (Not to mention the free pizza.) My mother drove Adam Dehollander and I tothe tournament, hoping enough people would show up to be able to play.
The turnout was actually not bad, but Antowine did combine the sections.
In the first round, I got paired against Adam. I was black, and played a Queen's Indian. White made a few mistakes, and missed a couple of pins, and I ended up winning.
In the second round, I was playing Dennis Bailey. We had played before at the 2011 Michigan Open, and he was black in that game as well as this one. In our game before, he played the Slav, and waited to castle until I castled. After I castled kingside, he decided to try for an attack, and castle queenside and then storm my position. Even though I won a piece for a pawn, his attack was to strong and he ended up winning. I learned from that game, and didn't let the same thing happen twice. In our game now, he played the Slav, but I waited and developed on the queenside and made him castle to either side to know what to do next. Castling is usually safe, but is also very committal, and something you can not easily undo. Our game went on to be a draw in a same color B+P endgame.
In the third round, I was playing Bill Ignasiak as black. I tried to surprise him in the Sicilian by playing 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6. This surprised him, but since I did not study up on the theory behind the move, I got a slightly worse position and an Isolated pawn. That isolated pawn later got pinned and captured. He was now up a pawn, and in a better position. Later, I got in time pressure in an already bad position and ended up losing.
In the last round, I was playing Duane Croel, the top player, and lost after taking back a piece with the wrong pawn and exposing my king and queen on a newly created open file.
Overall, only 1.5/4.0, but I will have many chances in the near future to make up for that. ; )
One last thing before I finish. Today, I looked around on the USCF site, uschess.org, and discovered this.
All the way at the bottom (98) but I am still very excited about making the list.
I hope everybody had a great Easter and/or Spring Break! I met with family members on Sunday to eat food, talk, and play sports.
That is it for now, but I'll be writing again in the next week. Adios!
The turnout was actually not bad, but Antowine did combine the sections.
In the first round, I got paired against Adam. I was black, and played a Queen's Indian. White made a few mistakes, and missed a couple of pins, and I ended up winning.
In the second round, I was playing Dennis Bailey. We had played before at the 2011 Michigan Open, and he was black in that game as well as this one. In our game before, he played the Slav, and waited to castle until I castled. After I castled kingside, he decided to try for an attack, and castle queenside and then storm my position. Even though I won a piece for a pawn, his attack was to strong and he ended up winning. I learned from that game, and didn't let the same thing happen twice. In our game now, he played the Slav, but I waited and developed on the queenside and made him castle to either side to know what to do next. Castling is usually safe, but is also very committal, and something you can not easily undo. Our game went on to be a draw in a same color B+P endgame.
In the third round, I was playing Bill Ignasiak as black. I tried to surprise him in the Sicilian by playing 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6. This surprised him, but since I did not study up on the theory behind the move, I got a slightly worse position and an Isolated pawn. That isolated pawn later got pinned and captured. He was now up a pawn, and in a better position. Later, I got in time pressure in an already bad position and ended up losing.
In the last round, I was playing Duane Croel, the top player, and lost after taking back a piece with the wrong pawn and exposing my king and queen on a newly created open file.
Overall, only 1.5/4.0, but I will have many chances in the near future to make up for that. ; )
One last thing before I finish. Today, I looked around on the USCF site, uschess.org, and discovered this.
All the way at the bottom (98) but I am still very excited about making the list.
I hope everybody had a great Easter and/or Spring Break! I met with family members on Sunday to eat food, talk, and play sports.
That is it for now, but I'll be writing again in the next week. Adios!
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