Chess Galore in Philly! Part 1: A Rough Start | Road to FM

Hello all! Welcome to the first installment of Chess Galore in Philly, a series where I will be covering all 18 games from two consecutive 9-round tournaments, the Philly International and the World Open.

June 26th, 8:30 am

I'd just woken up, ready to travel to Philly (Philadelphia, USA). After a quick shower, my parents and I hopped on the road and began the relatively short journey to Philly that would take about 1.5 hours.

At 10 am, we arrived, an hour before the first game of the Philly International would begin (11 am). Before heading to the hotel where the tournament was held, we decided to head to Chinatown to pick up some breakfast. 

The "Chinatown Friendship Gate": entrance point to Chinatown, Philadelphia

Afterward, we headed to the tournament hotel, where the games would be played. 

The Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel, where all 18 of my games would be played in. Games were played on the Mezzanine floor, as well as in the Ballroom floor (Pictures of the playing hall will come in future posts )

Game #1: EnergeticHay vs IM Tom Bartell

Tom Bartell (@SpinalTap) is a very strong International Master, a Philadelphia local. I've played him multiple times before, 2 to be exact. I'd gotten close to drawing him before, so it was interesting to see if I could finally get a result against him.

Tom Bartell, a strong International Master from Philly and my first-round opponent

The time control of both this tournament and the next would be G80/40, SD30 + 30. In other words, both players would have 80 minutes to complete the first 40 moves, and if 40 moves were played, another 30 minutes would be added to both player's clocks. There is 30 seconds increment for all the moves. This was going to be some good, classical chess.

Without further ado, let's take a look at the game!

Key Takeaways From Game #1:

1. The queen maneuvering at the beginning was good, but it was important to understand that avoiding trades at all costs wasn't necessarily great: 8.d4 would've been better than the retreating move 8.Qe3, which was fine, but just wasn't the best.

2. Piece activity is important! There were multiple moments where I played moves like 15.d4 and 17.Bd3, unintentionally making my pieces slightly less effective. This, in my opinion, is one of the easiest things for me to improve on from this game.

3. Always be on the lookout for your opponent's ideas! 31.Ba1 completely ignored black's idea, one that shouldn't have been that hard to find. Even though I was already in a bad position, I would've still been able to fight on with a move like 31.Kg2, preparing d5 ideas.

June 26th, 2:30 pm

Overall, the first game was an average-length game, lasting somewhere around 2.5 to 3 hours (I can't remember). Honestly, that's a pretty quick game in a tournament like this, and although it was a tough loss, I was glad to have quite a bit of time to rest, recover, and prepare for the next game.

After playing, however, I didn't head back to a hotel room. Because we would be staying in Philly for 10 days(!), we decided to rent an apartment room nearby, since that would let us somewhat maintain our previous lifestyle; hotels are nice and all, but ordering takeout every meal can get a little repetitive!

With that said, this apartment had a massive tv! I'm a huge futbol (soccer, as we Americans call it) fan, and I got to watch some games from the Euro 2020, a competition between national soccer teams from all over Europe!

Euro 2020, commonly referred to as the "Euros", is a fierce competition between European nations such as England, Italy, Spain, and France.

After watching some tv, I decided to take a nap. Taking a nap, or simply getting some rest is extremely important during tournaments. It rejuvenates you for the next round and helps sustain your form throughout the whole tournament. Resting would become even more important as I would have another 9-round tournament right after this one!

Ah, yes. There's nothing like a good nap. This is from an agadmator video covering a game between Nepo and Caruana in the Candidates.

At 5:00 pm, I went to play my second game.

Game #2: FM Anthony Atanasov vs EnergeticHay

Game 2 did not go well.

I played Anthony Atanasov, a young talent, and a FM (Fide Master) at only 13 years old! Even though I'm a kid, I can't help noticing that young chess players, even those younger than me, are not necessarily weaker chess players anymore. Let's just say that after experimenting with a new idea in the opening, everything broke down. Check the game out for yourself . 

I've also linked a video from agadmator, sharing a game where this young star beat a GM in 12 moves, at the age of 12!

Key Takeaways From Game #2:

1. Overall, if I had been a little more careful in the opening, and warier of my opponent's threats, perhaps I could've achieved a better position.

2. Moves like h6, preparing to meet Bh4 with g5, and Nc6, just simply developing before focusing too much on pushing my pawns, would have been better.

3. Perhaps taking a look at alternative variations such as the early 6...Nh5 could be useful too!

June 26th, 7:00 pm

Since Game #2 ended quite quickly, I had a bit of time to think over what had happened, and to re-organize myself mentally in preparation for the next day. I told myself: "It's ok, Jason. It's just one game, you'll bounce back tomorrow." I went to sleep that day repeating to myself that I would make up for this poor play, and I would score some points!

June 27th, 9:00 am

I woke up the next day feeling just as fiery and furious as the day before. I was ready to kill it! "Let's goooooo! I'm gonna WIN today!" I shouted as I accidentally woke up my mother, who was still sleeping. Oops . I then proceeded to shower, brush my teeth, all that good stuff. I ate some breakfast, but I can't quite remember what exactly. All I know is that I was ready to make up for the two earlier losses with some good chess! After all, going 0/2 meant that I was bound to be paired with a weaker opponent, right? Right? RIGHT!?

Game #3: FM Shunkai Peng vs EnergeticHay

I was not paired with a weaker opponent.

I did not expect such a tough matchup with FM Shunkai Peng after 2 losses in the first 2 rounds!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this already, but both tournaments were very tough since I was one of the lower-seeded players. Despite being a National Master, I was practically the worst one there! With that said, I still didn't expect to get another strong FM: 16-year-old Shunkai Peng. Additionally, I got the black pieces, again! This is known as a double black (or double white) - when you get the same color two rounds in a row. It kind of messed me up, because when I was prepping, I was only prepping my white openings!

Spoiler: I had 2 double blacks and 1 double white in this tournament! So strange, right?

Anyways, enough said. Let's get right to the game!

Key Takeaways From Game #3:

1. There were a lot of passive moves played, many of which were unnecessary. Perhaps this was a result of respect/fear of the opponent, and also the unfamiliarity in the opening. This was interesting to see, and could maybe be a pattern in my play.

2. Re-routing the knight with this Nd7-Nb6-Nc4 plan is highly favored by the computer in these situations and is interesting to note that sometimes, it's ok to trade off black's super-strong Dragon bishop for play elsewhere.

3. Always be on the lookout for your opponent's oversights! After 27.Ra7? I could have jumped right back into the game with 27...Nxc2! - Being down the exchange at the end of that line is not the end of the world.

June 27th, 3:00 pm

Not only was this 3rd game really tough, but it was also very long. I scrambled home to quickly get some food in my stomach and instantly jumped into bed, falling asleep within minutes. Who could have seen this coming? First an IM, then a FM, then an even stronger FM!? What's going on? My hopes of playing a brilliant tournament were dwindling, and I was losing confidence. All I could do was rest and hope for some better luck.

This tournament was not going well. It had not started the way I intended, and overall, I felt very dejected after this rough start. However, I knew that sooner or later, I was going to turn this tournament around. After all, I'm still a strong player, and I believe in myself!

Who will I face in the next round? You'll just have to wait and see...

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed Part 1 of Chess Galore in Philly! Stay tuned for upcoming editions, which will cover the rest of my experience playing 18 consecutive OTB classical games!

Chess Galore in Philly

Series Introduction

Part 1: A Rough Start

Part 2: ?????