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.

February Aquinas

Hey Everybody! Today I went to a monthly chess tournament at Aquinas Chess Collage. I go to this tournament regularly, and it is very well organized. Thanks to the tournament director, Eugene Brumley for organizing such a fine event, and for Antowine Jordan from the Calvin Tournaments for assisting Eugene.

The tournament went very good for me, and I was happy for it. In my first round, I was playing my friend Bill Ignasiak as white again. He decided to play 1. ...d5 against my 1.d4, and so I headed into a queen's gambit, which he is not used to. He didn't get any advantage out of the opening, but I can't say the game went bad for him. Here's how it went:

Joshua Posthuma - Bill Ignasiak
1571                       1565

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 h6 Black is aiming to stop white's bishop from coming to g5. 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.e3 Be7 6.Bd3 0-0 7.0-0 c5 Gaining equality in the center. 8.b3 a6 9.Bb2 Nc6 10.cxd5 exd5 11.a3 cxd4 12.Nxd4 Nxd4 13.exd4 IQP games... Atleast it means open files. Re8 14.Re1 b5 15.a4 Around now, I have about 5 minutes left (plus a 5 second delay), and my opponent had about 15.  15. ...b4 16.Ne2 Be6 17.Rc1 Qd7 18.Nf4 Bf3 19.f3 Bxd3 20.Nxd3 Bd6 21.Ne5 Qb7 22.Qd2 Rac8 23.Rxc8 Rxc8 24.Rc1 Rxc1+ 25.Qxc1 Qb8 26.Qc6 a5 27.a3 g6 28.Kg2 Kg7 29.Nd7 Qe8 30.Ne5 Qe7 31.Qb6 Bc7 32.Qc6 Qd8 33.Kf2 Ng8 34.Qd7 Forcing the queen trade. Now he either trades or loses a bishop or gets mated. At this point I have about 3 minutes and Bill About 6. 34. ...Nf6? A blunder missing the mate. White to move and mate in 2: 35.Qxf7+ Black Resigns. The checkmate would continue 35. ...Kh8 36.Nxg6#
1-0

The other two games went great for me also, and so I ended the tournament with 3/3. I won $10, and had a fun time. My rating climbed into B class, and I'm now rated 1633! Here are the rating crosstables, and also congradulatins to Adam DeHollander from our chess club who won his section. Even though he has only played chess for 2 months, he is climbing very quickly, and is very talented.

I'll have a post on my next tournament, the Michigan Junior Championships at MSU. Talking about Junior Championships, look on the Holland Chess website for the flyer of the Second annual Holland Junior Championships on the 24th.

Exciting Christmas Present (A little late, I know!)

In Early January, our family including grandparents and cousins met together for Christmas. What we did was an invention by my aunt, 'secret santa.' The idea was that in November, we would draw the name of a relative out of a hat. Whoever's name we drew, we had to make or give a present to that person. You were not allowed to buy anything, forcing it to come completely from the heart. =D I drew my father's name, and made him a video on youtube for him about his life in the past, and how he has helped me in life, including a slideshow of different accomplishments in his past. Unfortunately, I added a Toby Mac song into the background when I was editing. Even though we owned the song, we didn't have permission for copywright, and the entire audio from the video was disabled. : ( After that, we didn't have time to fix it, and ended up needing my dad's help in order for us to download it and burn it onto a CD properly. Then my dad figured out that I drew his name. Even though that didn't go that great, the present I got was amazing, and my main reason for this post. 8~D

Little did I know, the person who drew my name was none other than my Uncle, Bruce Conroy! You must know that my Uncle is amazing at making things out of wood, and carving different designs. Less than a year before, my uncle and my cousin Isaac, who is 16, made me this chess board out of wood. For Christmas, he made a great wooden table for the chess board. He had my dad measure the chess board while I was away at school to make sure he had the right measurements for the table. Together it was an amazing gift!

Overall that Christmas went very well. Thank you Uncle Bruce for making me such an amazing gift that I will contiinue to use for years and years!

 With his amazing talent, and knowing I love chess, he made me the perfect gift.

practice makes perfect

Recently, I have been interested in top 100 lists. One main important list I hope to get onto is the National age 11 lists. My birthday is on June 5, and I'm eleven right now. My rating right now is 1571, and as you can see I need a 1640 rating to make it on. In order to make it on this list, I will need to not only play in more tournaments, but practice! Unless you practice, you won't improve. Right now I practice atleast 2 hours a day. Sometimes it can be over 7 hours! One problem I think I have is that I don't like reading books. : ( I think reading some books could teach me alot, but I just have to train myself to do it. When I was at Barnes and Noble one day I bought the Reasess Your Chess Workbook. Unfortunately, when I bought it, I didn't see that it was a workbook. That book and others like it have been good investments, and I think reading more books will help me alot. Another thing I should be working on is my tactics. Doing this will help me look for good moves. I am always looking for improvement, and to get better. This is why I named my blog 'Path to Promotion'. For now I will keep on training, and try my best to improve. Bye!

Michigan M/X and Class Championship Day 2

After getting to bed at about 1 a.m. Sunday morning, and waking up at 8, I was very tired.

In my fourth game, I was playing Kenneth Tack. This man had only played in 2 tournaments before, and only had a rating of about 1475. Ken was a very strong player though, and beat me in an interesting Knight and pawn engame using a nice forking tactic either winning my knight or promoting his pawn. Unfortunately, I don't have the game because I left it at our hotel... After the game, we went over it and saw where I went wrong. About Ken, he ended up in a 3 way tie for first in our "C" Section, and boosted his rating to 1700! Congradulations Ken, and thank you for a good game!

In the final round, I was white playing against a girl from ann arbor named Joy Chen. This girl was 11, just like me. It was very fun to play against a person my age and skill level. In this game, I got very lucky, and got a great attack right after the opening that she was unable to stop, unfortunately.

Joshua Posthuma (1517) vs. Joy Chen (1475)

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bb7 So Joy is a King's Indian player... 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.h3 King's indian Makagonov. 6. ...Re8 7.Bd3 e6? Immediately when she picked up her E pawn, I thought she was playing e5, which makes more sense. This move is still fine if she plans on fianchettoing her light bishop. 8.Be3 Nc6 9.0-0 Bd7!? 10.Qd2 Rf8? She wasted a move moving the rook from f8 to e8, and then back to f8 again. What is her goal with this move? f5 is what I see. 11.Bh6 Ne8 12.Bxg7 Nxg7? This is a defensive mistake. This allows a good move on my part. Better would be Kxg7, defending the h6 square. 13.Qh6! This threatens Ng5 the next move and h7 cannot be guarded, and that would end in mate. She chooses the only defense. 13. ...Nh5 14.Ng5 Nf6 15.f4 preparing e5. 15. ...Re8. hehe and back to e8 it goes! =D This prevents checkmate on h7 after the knight is taken. 16.e5 breaking through... 16. ...Nxd4 Grabbing a pawn while he waits for white's next move. 17.exf6 Qxf6 18.Qxh7+ Kf8 19.Nce4 Bringing yet another piece into the attack! 19. ...Qg7 Black's bes move. I came to a big decision now. It would help me alot to just trade queens and try to win the game up a knight for a pawn, but I didn't know if I could continue the attack with Qh4, and try to still pull something out of it. I didn't want to pass an opportunity to trade queens, but I also wanted to go through with the attack, which I couldn't do without my queen. In the end, I decided to try to continue the attack, and to see if his queen was enough defense or not. 20.Qh4! Nf5 Black attacks my queen, trying to fight it back to the second rank and stop my attack. Luckily, I had seen how to come through with the attack after Nf5, and still win with my queen still on h4. My two knights proved very helpful in launching this attack. 21.Nh7+ Kg8 22.Nef6+ Kh8 23.Bxf5 exf5 And now, with a discovery lined up on the H file, I can finish it off.
White to move and mate in 2.
24.Ng5+ (Nf8+) 24. ...Qh6 25.Qxh6#
1-0

So overall, the tournament went very well for me. I got a total of 3.5/5, and boosted my rating up to 1571. 29 small points to B class!

Also, congradulations to Andrew Schremser from our Holland Chess Club who played in the E class championships, and tied for first with Rachael Tao. They both got 4/5. Andrew got $120 and a large trophy. Good job!

So that is how my tournament went at the Michigan Master Expert and Class Championship. Bye for right now!

-Joshua Posthuma

Michigan M/X and Class Championship Day 1

In the first day, I played 3 rounds of chess. We woke up at 5:00 in the morning and left from Holland, MI to Lansing at shortly after 6:00. : (  We arrived shortly after 8:00, and checked in.

In the first round, I (1517) was playing a man named Dan Holt (1405) as white. I had played Dan before at the Saint Joseph chess club. This game was very tough, and I questioned whether I could pull out even a draw. In the engame I messed up, and offered a draw, and of course he declined. Unbelievably, I was able to take advantage of a big mistake later, and ended up winning by 1 tempo. : ). Here is the game below:

Joshua Posthuma (1517) vs. Dan Holt (1405)

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.e3 Be7 This is a common queen's gambit line called the Orthodox. 6.Bd3 0-0 7.Qc2 b6 8.a3 Bb7 9.cxd5 exd5 10.Bd2 Rc8 11.0-0 Bd6? 12.Nb5! This is a good move attacking both d6 and a7. 12. ...a6 13.Nxd6 cxd6 The good thing about this trade for white is that it gives black two doubled isolated pawns, and white has a bishop vs. knight. 14.Qb3 Ne4 15.Rac1 b5 16.Rxc8 Qxc8 17.Ba5 Qc6 18.Qc2 Rc8 19.Rc1 Qxc2 20.Rxc2 Nb8 21.Rxc8+ Bxc8 22.Kf1 Nc6 23.Be1 Bg4 24.Nd2 Bf5 25.Ke2 g6 26.f3 Nxd2 27.Kxd2 Be6 (27.Bxf5? Nxf3! 28.gxf3 gxf5) 28.Kc2 Kf8 29.a4 bxa4 30.Bxa6 Bd7 31.b4 axb3 32.Kxb3 Ke7 33.Bg3 Na5+ 34.Kb4 Nc6+ 35.Kc3 f5 36.Bh4+ Ke6 37.Bb5 Na5 38.Bxd7 Kxd7 39.Kb4 Ne4 40.Bg5 Ke6 41.Kb5 Kd7 42.e4 Na3+ 43.Ka4 Nc2 44.exd5 Ne1 45.b4 Nxg2 46.f4 Nh4 47.Be3 Nf3 48.h3 h6 49.Kb4 g5 50.fxg5 hxg5 51.Kc3 f4 52.Bf2 Nh4 This was a very big mistake by my opponent, probably a blunder. This allows me to trade and win the f4 pawn, bringing me into a winning game. 53.Bxh4 gxh4 54.Kd3 Ke7 55.Ke4 Kf6 56.Kxf4 Kg6 57.Kg4 Kf6 58.Kxh4 And now I'm in a won game. The funny thing is, just about 20 moves earlier, I had offered a draw which he declined. Little did I know I would go on to win the game. 58. ...Kf5 59.Kh5 Ke4 60.Kg5 Kxd5 61.h4 Kxd4 62.h5 Ke5 63.h6 d5 64.h7 d4 65.h8=Q Ke4 66.Qh1+ Ke3 67.Qd1 d3 68.Kg4 Kd4 69.Kf3 Kc3 70.Ke3 And black resigned.
1-0

In the second round, I was playing my friend Bill Ignasiak on the white side of A king's indian. The game ended in a draw by three move repetition.

Joshua Posthuma (1517) vs. Bill Ignasiak (1556)

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.h3 c6 7.Bd3 Qc7 8.Be3 h6 An interesting move my opponent commonly plays to keep white's bishop out of h6. 9.Qc1 Kh7 10.0-0 Nbd7 11.Re1 e5 12.d5 a6 13.Qd2 c5 14.Rac1 Nb6 15.Red1 Bd7 16.Nc1 Nc8 17.f4 I was trying for a breakthrough of some sort. 17. ...exf4 18.Bxf4 Ne7 19.Nf3 Ne8 20.Re1 f6 21.Kh1 Nc8 22.Re3 Kh8 23.Rf7 g5 24.Bh2 Qd8 25.Ree1 Qe7 26.Qc2 Rd8 27.Na4 Bc8 28.Nb6 Qc7 29.Nxc8 Qxc8 30.a3 Qd7 31.Qd1 Rf7 32.Nd2 Bf8 33.Be2 Rg7 34.Bg4 Qe7 35.b3 a5 36.Nb1 Nc7 37.Nc3 b6 38.a4 Now for the three move repetition. 38. ...Qe8 39.Bh5 Qe7 40.Bg4 Qe8 41.Bh5 Draw agreed.

In the third round, I was playing a man named Daniel harper. This game was very good, and even all the way through, but my opponent got into severe time pressure when I still had about 45 minutes! With that time advantage, I was able to pull out a win.

Daniel Harper (1555) vs. Joshua Posthuma (1517)

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 Making the game a Nimzo-Indian. 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 d5 Transforming into a queen's gambit declined orthodox.  The only difference is the Bb4. 6.Nf3 c5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.a3 Bxc3 9.bxc3 cxd4 10.cxd4 Bd7 11.Bd2 Rc8 12.cxd5 exd5 13.Qb1 b6 14.Rc1 Re8 15.a4 h6 Allowing my knight to move away. 16.Re1?! Ne4 17.Ra2 Nxd2 18.Nxd2 Qf6 19.Rc2 g6!? 20.Rec1 Na5 21.Rc7 Rxc7 22.Rxc7 Bxa4 23.Rxa7 Qd6 24.h3 Rc8 25.g3 Bd7 26.Kg2 Kg7 27.Nf3 Rc7 28.Rxc7 Qxc7 29.Ne5 Be8 30.f4 Nc4 31.Qe1 Nxe5 32.fxe5 Bc6 33.Qf1 Qe7 34.h4 Qe6. Right now my opponent has 9 minutes and I have 47. 35.Qf3 Bb7 36.h5 Bc8 I have just been wasting my opponent's time while thinking of a plan by making waste moves. 37.hxg6 fxg6 38.Kg1 Bd7 39.Qf4 Bc8 40.Qf3 Bd7 41.Qf4 b5 Starting my plan. This will make him think even longer. 42.Qf1 Qb6 43.Qf4 b4 44.Qh4 Qe6 45.Qd8 Be8 46.Qc7+ Bf7 47.Qc5 Qh3 Storming in white's position. 48.Kf2 Qh2+ 49.Kf3 This is possibly dangerous... locking the king in the center. It is a way to save the pawn, though. 49. ...Qh1+ 50.Kf4? A big blunder.                                    Black to move and mate in 3.
50. ...g5+ 51.Kg4 Qh5+ 52.Kf5 Qf3#
0-1

And so, that wraps up the first day of the tournament. I started off 2.5/3.0.... Not to bad! Look forward to the last 2 games tomorrow.

Michigan Master Expert and Class Championship

I has been a long time since I have posted, but I felt like sharing that I will be playing in the Michigan M/X and Class tournament in lansing. Since my rating has climbed to the 1500's I will be playing in the top of the "C" section. If any of you are going to be playing, please inform me in the comments. Also, look forward to atleast one of my games from that tournament being posted on the site also.