How Australia Won The 2020 Asian Online Nations Cup Final (Part 1)

Hey there,

In the previous blog post, I shared with you the story of how I achieved a bronze medal on Board 3 of the qualifying phase of the 2020 Asian Online Nations Cup. 

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Exclusively in this group, I will be sharing the inside story on how Australia won the 2020 Asian Online Nations Cup! I have special interviews with several GMs and some IMs planned, so that they can share with you their perspective of how Australia won!

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Now, back to the story of the Grand Final!

Our ultimate test came in the final match against the very strong Indian team, who fielded all 2600+ GMs (on classical FIDE rating), as you can see from their lineup:

Board 1: GM Baskaran Adhiban
Board 2: GM Nihal Sarin
Board 3: GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly
Board 4: GM SP Sethuraman
Board 5: GM Krishnan Sasikiran

So it was clear that this match would be a big challenge. One that reminded me a lot of the Rocky movies I'd watched to inspire myself to greatness in my first Australian Championship title.

To most, we were the underdogs, but in Australian culture, the underdog story of winning far beyond expectation is celebrated. In fact, I'd even say being an underdog is an advantage, as it forces you to be more resourceful. You can also do your own thing more easily because you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

However, Australia was quite lucky to even be able to field a full team of 4 players for the first match!

So on the morning of this match, waking up 2 hours before the games were to start, the electricity and internet in my home went out completely, and I had no idea when it would come back. I let my team captain Leonid know that I probably couldn't make the match.

Unfortunately for us, at the exact same time, an electrical storm had swept through Brisbane, knocking out all the power, and this meant that our Board 4, GM Moulthun Ly, also did not have any power or internet.

Therefore, I had to rush to a nearby coffee shop in Rach Gia, Vietnam, and set up there for the match. I still remember that my laptop was not receiving the internet, and I was worried that I would have to relocate again and gamble that the second location would have internet that connected with my laptop.

With about half an hour to the start to the round, restarting my laptop yet again, I finally got the internet working. Thanks to my wife arriving with an ethernet cable, my internet proved to be stable for the games.

I had just enough time to eat something, drink some fruit juice, and rush to the toilet with my stomach upset before my White game with GM SP Sethuraman began.

Do you remember what I said about the underdog advantage?

Most people look for excuses why they won't win or succeed, and find them.

Instead, I used these events to be completely present in the position, totally focused in the game, and I played my best game of the tournament.

This win has a very valuable teaching point - even if you only master this, I'm confident your level will improve by at least 50 points.

I still remember that I was quite unsure what to play as Black against GM Sethuraman (pictured below), as he is an exceptionally well prepared player with a classical FIDE rating of nearly 2650.

I'd learned, from watching a ChessBase India live stream of the 2020 Asian Online Nations Cup, that former world champion Viswanathan Anand once said that 'where most people's analysis stops, Sethuraman analyzes 10 moves deeper'. The witty part is that, originally the quote was '5 moves deeper', but by the time you tell someone that, Sethu already analyzed the line 10 moves deeper

Having studied Sethuraman's e-book and book recently, I knew for myself that Sethuraman is a very serious theoretician and I agonized over what to play against his very robust 1.d4 White repertoire.

However, with White, I noticed he had struggled quite a bit against the Trompowsky and ...d5 London systems. I already had a lot of experience playing the London as White in blitz this year, but my Trompowsky knowledge was a bit outdated, so I quickly played through some recent 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 d5 3.e3/Nd2 games in the 5 minutes before the match started, and then the games began!

After 1.d4 d5 (possibly with the Semi-Slav in mind), I played the London with 2.Bf4 c5 3.e3 Nc6 4.Nf3 (4.c3 Bf5! is annoying) 4...Nf6 5.Nbd2, and now Sethu played the recent trend of 5...Nh5!?, immediately going after the bishop pair advantage.

I'd actually played this move a few times in my very recent blitz games. Although my results were not so bad, I felt very uncomfortable when my opponents played 6.dxc5 Nxf4 7.exf4 Qa5 8.c4!, using White's slightly faster development to open the position immediately, as you can see in the diagram below:

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Your Chess Trainer,

GM Max Illingworth