Coming Back To OTB Chess And The 2021 World Cup

In March 2020, in the middle of my freshman year, everyone at school got the news that we would have one week to leave campus and go home. Stuck inside for the next year, I passed many boring hours away by playing online (during classes) while waiting for news that I wouldn’t be deprived of my college experience any longer, or that OTB tournaments would finally be back. Fast forwarding to spring of 2021, tournaments were finally starting to be announced again, one of which was an American continental World Cup qualifier. Even though it was to be held as a hybrid and thus was not a full return to OTB chess, I was extremely excited to play in a meaningful tournament again. The World Cup had always been the tournament I wanted to play in most, I always wanted to be that guy who made a deep run that no one saw coming.

Finally May came around, I was done with school and flew to the St. Louis Chess Club where true to my nature, I played all of my games on the computer only while the others preferred to use a physical board before making their moves on the computer. To qualify for the World Cup, I would have to win my 16 player knockout bracket that included two GMs higher rated than me, so I came in with relatively low expectations. However, the first few rounds went quite smoothly for me, and in round 3 I knocked out GM Leonardo Tristan from Argentina by making a solid draw with black and then winning a smooth second game with white. This left me one two-game match against Neuris Delgado Ramirez away from the World Cup!

In the first game, I was surprised in the opening and ended up bailing out to make a quick draw with white. Outrated by about 100 points and playing black in the next game, I was hoping to play solidly and at least hold a draw to try to win the match in rapid tiebreakers:

Sadly this game was probably the most exciting event of my life since the beginning of COVID, but I really wanted to go to the World Cup (lol). Now that I had qualified, I had to scramble to get a visa for Russia and just managed to dodge the Delta variant that was starting to blow up in the US. Everything had just barely worked out, and I stopped by Philly to officially play in my first OTB event since COVID, the World Open. There I had a disastrous return to OTB chess and I withdrew before flying to Sochi from Philly. 

Before coming to Sochi I found out my first round opponent would be GM Javokhir Sindarov, rated 2558 at the time, who we now know is a god that just won gold at the Chennai Olympiad. I was not very pleased to know that I would be facing a 15 year old, but I was very excited about the fact that if I won, I would get to play Alireza in round 2. Thus I came in with a lot of determination (enough determination to learn a brand new opening!), and together with my coach GM Nikola Mitkov, we decided I would surprise my opponent with the Marshall, an opening I had never played before. I also made the most of my connections and emailed Mr. Wesley So, who was kind enough to give me some advice and analysis in the Marshall. I was now feeling ready and went to the first game:

After this narrow miss I obviously had regrets, but I was also feeling confident that with white I could put some pressure on and at least make it to the rapid tiebreaks where the faster time control should favor me. I continued my strategy of taking him out of his prep early on:

After missing such an easy win and proceeding to completely choke as per usual, I spent the next several hours feeling quite sorry for myself in my hotel room. Nothing feels worse than losing a winning position, but this one might’ve been the most painful of my career as I missed the opportunity to give Alireza a challenge in the next round. Javokhir got to be that guy who shocked the tournament, knocking out Alireza and making a deep run, so at least I didn’t give him a gift for nothing, but I could only think about how lucky he had been against me.

After spending the next few days relaxing in the mountains of Sochi and hanging out with friends that I hadn’t seen for years thanks to COVID, I felt a lot better. Even better, on the last day before leaving, I received some intelligence from a fellow stalker that Magnus was eating at an Italian restaurant near the hotel with his dad. Together we waited for him to finish dinner, and I got my picture with Magnus to wrap up my tournament.

All in all, the World Cup was a memorable experience and reminded me how much I like to play OTB chess at the highest level. Despite taking on an internship this summer, I know I still really enjoy chess and am finding the time to play tournaments whenever I can. 

This summer, I interned as a quant trading intern at Susquehanna International Group (SIG), a chess.com sponsor. SIG was gracious enough to give me some time off to play in the World Open this July, which happened to be just a few hundred feet away from my hotel room for the summer. SIG has also been very generous towards chess, sponsoring online events such as this year’s Junior Speed Chess Championship and the 2021 Chess.com Bullet Championship where I got second place. It’s been nice to have an employer that values games like chess as much as I do, and the gaming culture there made me feel at home. 

I talked more about my experience at SIG on SIG’s gaming blog, Raise Your Game. You can read it here: https://www.raiseyourgame.com/2022/08/29/bullet-chess-player-sig-trading-intern-andrew-tang/