My first over-the-board tournament
This month I played my first over-the-board tournament, a rapid (fifteen minutes with a five-second increment) FIDE event that took place in the peninsula of Punta Ballena, in Uruguay.
Here's a picture of the beautiful Laguna del Sauce, right outside the venue:
Before the event, I told my wife and my brother that ninety percent of the reason I wanted to attend was to try and get a picture with Spanish grandmaster and content creator José "Pepe" Cuenca, whom I admire very much. To my delight, I hadn't even managed to find the room where the tournament would take place yet, when I saw Pepe coming up the stairs. He was extremely kind, and allowed me to start the day on the right track with this wonderful picture:
My main goal achieved, I proceeded to register for the event. There was barely anybody there, since I arrived very early, as recommended in Judit Sztaray's excellent tournament guide! Here's a picture of the room. It looked neat.
When the event finally started, I was a bag of nerves. I made the mistake of trying to write down the moves for later analysis, which led to me running into time trouble, and even losing my first game entirely because of it. My opponent was Argentinian Igor Dubrovich, rated 1979.
I had the white pieces, and this was the game:
On the second round I faced young Ciro Poy, rated 1704. It was another Sicilian Defense, but this time I had the black pieces. I straight-up didn't see that my knight could get captured, and resigned a few moves later, but hey, if Kasparov could hang a center pawn when playing on a computer with three-dimensional pieces, let an amateur drop a piece or two when switching to over-the-board 🤣
On the third round I met Daniel Stack, who, apart from having the coolest name ever, turned out to be a very funny and kind man. He cracked a few jokes before and after the game, and even left me his phone number so that we can keep in touch after the event! He's the only one I'm still in contact with. He was rated 1599 at the start of the event, but ended up beating much bigger fish than me. I had the white pieces in a Scandinavian Defense, and he played the Portuguese Gambit. It was my happiest loss due to the cheerful nature of my opponent 😊
On the fourth I went against nine-year-old Clara Porteiro, rated 1440, who instantly spotted a chance to trap my knight! I found some counterplay in the form of an attack against her king, and in the end, my mediocre play prevailed, and I swindled my way to victory. My first win over the board! I was ecstatic!
The fifth round was the saddest of the entire event for me, and made me think I didn't want to come back the next day (it was a two-day tournament). In fact, if you read my post in the accomplishments section of the Improvers Club, you'll realize I spoke of the event as if it were over, because even at that time, after coming back home, I had no intentions of showing up for the remaining rounds. I had the white pieces in a Caro-Kann against 1647-rated Fabrizio Zerpa, and played a beautiful game. I blitzed out the opening, which left my opponent visibly uncomfortable. Then, all of my carefully laid-out plans were coming to fruition, and I finally snatched a couple of pawns, and infiltrated with the heavy pieces after making my opponent's position crumble under pressure. By the end of it, I was low on time, but so was my opponent. He made a move which I thought was another mistake, and while I calculated the right punishment, I forgot about the clock, leading to me losing a won game. It was devastating.
Round six had me tired, hungry, and tilted, and this must've had an impact on my play, as I blundered a very forcing tactical sequence against unrated Cristhian Ortiz, which ended in back-rank mate. With that, my score after the first day was one out of six, and I had to make a big effort to stay focused when driving back home, because I was overcome with tilt.
Later that night, after posting about it in the club, I looked at the experience under a different, more hopeful light, and decided that I wouldn't just give up, since opportunities like this one are rare, and I should make the most out of them. I also wanted to hang out with the other players again, as I had met some very kind people there. In particular, seventy-one-year-old Argentinian Pablo Hirsch deserves a special mention, since he amused me by talking about chess and life.
The second day, I also brought out my pocket chess set to get it signed by Pepe Cuenca. This idea came to me suddenly, so I didn't even have a marker yet, and decided to look for one during the two-hour lunch break.
I didn't have to wait long to feel good about my decision of returning to the venue, since I won rounds seven and eight. In the former, I was on the black side of a Queen's Gambit Declined for the third time, against 1409-rated Sofía Caballero. The latter was my first over-the-board game in my favorite opening: the Ruy López. I felt proud of that game, as it took very strategic, positional play by me, coupled with some good tactics to finally exploit the already-built advantage, to make 1402-rated Joaquín Ferraro's position fall apart. He tried to make a comeback by pressing on the clock, but ended up running out of time before I did.
I was on cloud nine when I reached the two-hour lunch break, and drove all the way to the mall, as planned, to buy a permanent marker, and get Grandmaster Pepe Cuenca's autograph on my pocket chess set:
I agreed with my wife that my two wins already made it more than worth it to have gone there, and that I shouldn't care whether I lost the rest of the games or not 🤣
Therefore, I didn't take it badly when I blundered a rook on round nine against 1871-rated Alfonso Figueroa, who pulled a Magnus and arrived late, but was very kind to me. I just can't get myself around to looking at the board properly! I have to train that over-the-board visualization. The good thing about losing so fast is that I had time to watch Pepe Cuenca win a game live in over-the-board chess. I guessed a lot of his moves right! Maybe the proximity made some of his greatness rub off on me 😝
Round ten had me facing 1743-rated Pablo Recarte, where once more I played the Alapin against the Sicilian. I ended up blundering under time pressure, and I think I could've won that game.
Last round was against Carolin Werle, rated 1491. It was my first ever over-the-board win in the Sicilian Defense with Black. I played a beautiful game, but there was some comedy to it. Firstly, at one moment, we both didn't notice her making an illegal move, and her king was in check for some time (something that can only happen in over-the-board chess!). Secondly, when I was about to play a great move to increase my advantage, pinning a rook, and winning an exchange, I accidentally hit the king on the way to grab my bishop; as the monarch tilted back and forth in its place, I felt a shiver down my spine, and wondered if she'd call the arbiter. I was willing to defend my case if it came to that, seeing as I clearly intended to go for the bishop, but my opponent was a really good sport.
Thus, I finished the event with four points out of eleven. It was a wonderful experience, and I'm really glad I decided to attend that second day, as it was the best by far in terms of tournament performance. Today I got my first rapid FIDE rating, which makes me very excited. I hope I get the chance to participate in more tournaments like this one in the future.
I also had a chance to get pictures with a few other legends apart from GM Pepe Cuenca!
One with the Uruguayan grandmaster, Andrés Rodríguez:
Another with the Messi of chess, the youngest international master in history, eleven-year-old Faustino Oro:
And finally one with the winner of the event (and of the closed tournament too!), Argentinian Champion Sandro Mareco:
Thanks for reading!
