Chess Tournament Number Two – Getting Serious

Squeezing in some much needed practice wherever I could

My first chess tournament at Birmingham Rapidplay had been an ordeal. I had finished washed out, defeated multiple times by ever younger and younger kids. But the symmetry, patterns and beauty of chess were enticing. Just as important, the thrill of closing in on a win, and the elation of the one victory that I did get, left me knowing I was going to come back for more. On the drive home from Birmingham, Turan had already found our next tournament – Nottingham Rapidplay in two weeks’ time. It was time to get some practice in.

For the next couple of weeks I was diligent. I practiced ten minutes of chess puzzles every night with Turan and took every opportunity to play, attending a social chess meetup on Tuesday nights in a local restaurant (where I once again got soundly walloped after starting to believe I could threaten), and doing some more practice over brunch with our friends Robbie and Lucy when they came to stay the following weekend.

All smiles before the tournament began - but for how long?

The day of the tournament came around, and I was feeling good. In theory, the level would be slightly lower, with an ‘Improvers’ section for those rated under 1300, and lots of sub-1000 rated players on the startlist. After my first attempt, my rating had quickly dropped from the starting rating of 1000 to 851, so it was nice to know there would be some others with similar poor tournament records to my own.

As I sat down at the board for my first round game, there did seem to be a lot of kids around. I had learnt so far that it is a bit difficult playing really young kids, as it seems to lead to quite unbalanced games at my level. I tend to be better in the middle game, where patience and logical, strategic thinking pay off, but they have much more knowledge of openings, specific tactics and endgames, meaning that I can go from feeling like I am dominating to losing within the space of a couple of moves. It was a relief to see there was another adult lady sat at the board next to mine. She was in a similar position to me as well – her son was a good player entered in the ‘Major’ bracket, so she had started entering tournaments herself so she had something to do while she waited. However, I wouldn’t be lucky enough to play against another adult this time – I was paired against kid against kid, with the results spanning the whole range of emotions. Satisfaction at times as I ground out a couple of solid wins, morphing into plenty of frustration, admiration and even some guilt – beating a six year old can never feel good, no matter how much more chess practice they might have done!😂 Here are my games in all their gory detail.

Calm before the storm

Jason - 1183, teenager. Lots of online blitz chess experience, attends a chess club, has a coach.

I played black. Queen pawn opening, then he sent a knight marauding down king’s side. Had his king’s bishop out threatening king’s bishop pawn in a double threat with the knight. I didn’t find a way out after spending lots of time thinking and lost a rook.

Battling back despite being down, I threatened checkmate on king’s side with a queen / knight combination after offering a bishop trade in the centre to free the queen for attack. I made multiple threats, he blocked them all but I won pieces back, leading to an endgame of my rook and bishop vs his rook and knight (he had a two pawn advantage but my pieces were more threatening). I hung the bishop and lost it, then was promptly checkmated.

Mason - 650, must have been 8 years old or younger, played very quickly. Reasonable grounding.

I played white. Traded knights for bishops, very open game as he attacked the centre. Lost material in the centre but traded bishop for rook, then another rook trade left my rook vs two knights. I nearly blundered the rook, he missed it and blundered one knight instead. I cleaned up pawns efficiently through use of check and pins, and won the knight too. I then got that winning feeling early with a simple, if drawn out checkmate after queening a pawn.

Hardly a glorious set of results

Naragam - 1066, around 12 years old. Very considered in moves, recorded game.

Got beaten by the same bishop threat against king bishop pawn as the first game. Moved queen forward instead of blocking in with the knight this time, but then both white knights came through the middle threatening multiple forks against king, queen and queen side rook. Made the wrong move taking one knight with the king, the other knight moved aside to set up the fork and the white bishop was behind checking the king and stopping me from taking the knight in it’s new position. Slowly lost ground after that, and pieces, until checkmated.

Alima Kudaibergen - 141, maybe six years old. Some idea of structure and tactics, but not good at concentrating.

Nothing glamorous about that game. Felt guilty as I took the pieces she hung and was quickly a knight and bishop up. Attacked her unprotected pawns until a queen trade, then traded bishop for rook. Cleared the rest of her pawns on the queen’s side, then had a fork lined up to check the king with my rook protected by knight, placing it next to her rook. King would have had to move, allowing me to take the rook. She resigned. I felt pretty bad about that, maybe should have made a game of it but let her win…🤔

“I felt pretty bad about that, maybe should have made a game of it but let her win…🤔”

— Thoughts after beating a six year old

Jacob - 1083, around 14 years old.

Playing black, I ignored the Queen’s Gambit and quickly built position. Very strong centre led to winning two pawns, while having all his pieces on the back rank at one point other than a bishop. I tried to form attacks down the open king side, where he had castled, but then got sucked into manoeuvring in a pawn face off in the middle, taking with the wrong piece to allow his bishop to take my unprotected bishop. It was downhill from there, with me taking with a knight instead of a pawn in another pawn face off, leading to his knight forking my queen and rook. He then played precisely to negate any attacking I could still do on the king’s side with little time and less material. He then checkmated me with the queen and rook on king’s side.

Enrique - 450, maybe nine years old.

This game taught me why I shouldn’t be nice to kids. After a standard opening with a knight trade, playing white my pieces were much more developed and I had my queen pinning his king bishop pawn, with his king in the king knight position after castling. He twice made an illegal move. Had I called the arbiter in both cases, he would have to cede the game. But I let him off, twice. Then of course, I blundered a piece, fought back to an equal two rooks and a queen endgame in which I should have had the edge with five pawns to four and better position, but then refused the queen trade offered and got checkmated taking my eye off the ball while sweeping up his pawns.

I finished the tournament with mixed feelings. I felt I had competed well in every game, but losing the last game in the manner I did was incredibly frustrating. And I really wanted to start playing people my own age. But to do that, I was going to have to stop my rating sliding by beating a few more of these kids… there was only one way to get out of this vicious cycle. Sign up to more tournaments!