A Lost Game with Great Learning Value (at least to myself!)

So my "unbeaten" record in the QCD Adults Team Chess League was broken by my own chess friend, Yogesh in Round 6. How else to better lose it than to a good friend? I do remember the excitement when I found him at 1 of the Asia Square Meetups to rope him into the new team, subsequently known as Team "Marinus Deep". Because I didn't have his contact number, and he did not come to the Singapore Chess Meetup at Asia Square, I was so afraid to miss him out when the recruitment deadline was ticking! I even remember shouting out excitedly when I saw him at the meetup right on time for the team registration =)

(Side-note: my "unbeaten" record was not that impressive, out of 5 games played, 3 were draws, so with today's loss, I'm exactly at 50% =3 + 1 - 1. Of course, I did take Black pieces in 4 out of 5 rounds, but I have no particular bias with either colours. More importantly, I have shown much improvement from last year's +1 =1 - 5)

So my team Team 8.c4! eventually edged out Team Marinus Deep with a close score of 2.5-1.5 despite my personal loss. While my team was happy (and justifiably so) to celebrate the winning streak (only our 2nd win out of 6 rounds played, and we did not win a single round of the 8 rounds played in the year of 2017 -- so as a team we improved a lot too!), I do feel we were lucky -- okay, team mates, please don't kick me, but this is honestly how I feel ^o^ 1 of Team Marinus Deep's player (Board 1 with the White pieces, and another personal chess friend of mine, was unable to play, and that game was forfeited). If we did not count the forfeit/walkover game, our scores over the actual games played was 1.5-1.5.

Team 8.c4!'s celebration after their Round 6 victory

(from your left to right: Gabriel, Mark, LPK and me)

I have been suffering a bad cold since the beginning of this working week, but that was no excuse for my loss. Overall, it wasn't all bad. I do like some of the major decisions I made. I'm also grateful to Yogesh for his generous sharing -- okay so now I learn that ...b6! after ...0-0 is deemed by the engine to be objective best against this c5 setup, even though admittedly, I'm not sure if I can appreciate the complexity / demands of the position. But it is a good to know for sure. In the end, I kept missing tactical shots (I really didn't see it, also didn't see it in my own review without checking with the engines), and in the end, the endgame conversion by White was really sweet, notwithstanding that Black blundered big time in the final move, losing a minor piece for nothing.

Also, I'm glad that Yogesh is not concerned that our game be published -- some (not just 1) of my opponents have requested for anonymity so that others can't study their games, but both of us can't be bothered by this concern -- like I always say, I'm more than honoured if anyone respects a newbie_learner enough to study my games and prepares against me, giving me the toughest challenge possible. After all, this is the fastest route to improvement -- you help me do half of my homework in that sense. In fact, I personally feel this is what all chess training partners should do.

Regardless the results and the "misses" in the game, I found this game extremely educative for myself.

Enough of the blabbering, this is the game that I am proud to record, despite me losing it.

Learning Points and Thoughts About This Game:

• I think my treatment of the opening was fine. To me, I'm most proud of giving up the Bishop pair through initiating 10...Bxf3 and 11...e6. No matter what the engine says (Engines tend to over-value Bishop pair as they are programmed so, in my opinion anyway), to me, this is the whole spirit of the Caro-Kann Defence -- if Black is not prepared for this, bringing the light square Bishop out before chaining the pawns in, I think the Black player might as well find a completely different opening to play.
• The idea to challenge White's c5 pawn with ...b6! after ...0-0, I really didn't know or find it so good. (Thanks again for your generosity, Yogesh!) But it's indeed the engine's top suggestion. I don't know if I can ever incorporate it into my play (I also know it is a bad idea to memorise things you don't understand, so we'll see). Separately,the engine's idea of preferred Rook placement (13...Rad8) was also enlightening to me.
• All of my major chess problems today (time management! pawn breaks and making threatening/attacking moves instead of "natural" defensive ones) are exposed together in this game ^o^  The repeated missing of possible tactics was bad. Also, the wrong approach to stop the outside pass pawn turned out decisive. On the bright side, at least I realised it was going downhill after the mistake was done. #alwayslookonthebrightside!
• My gamesmanship draw offer continues to pose some chess etiquette dilemma here. Chess etiquette is by no means "easier" than chess as people can have completely different views over the same gesture. 

Some other interesting minor episodes / "trivia" I can offer for this Round:

• Quite a number of players were talking about the Singapore Chess Meetup. In fact, as Dr Mark Liew, the sponsor of the event was saying, it was all thanks to Bradley Low starting the meetup that inspired him to do more for local chess, leading to the creation of the Adults Chess League in Singapore! Hence, I have also been wanting to do some chess cross-promotion between the Singapore Chess Meetup, the QCD Adults Chess League , PubXchess (free to play blitz tournament at a pub setting, imagine having fun with chess while enjoying beer and food!). Let's just say that there are a notable supply of chess players in the QCD league who are regulars from both the Singapore Chess Meetup and PubXchess.
• Just before the commencement of the round, I had the urge to visit the washroom. But there was only 1 male toilet (there were 2 female toilets, which made sense most of the time, but there are many male players than female chess players) at our playing floor. So instead of queuing, I simply led a couple of chess players (from other teams -- in case you feel embarrassed, I shall not identify you guys) to the level below. We didn't find "toilets", but I found male changing room with cubicles in it. So after checking that it is flushable, I just proceeded to do my small  business. And I had to assure some other chess players that it was alright -- can't be wrong since with flushing any "wrong" would be corrected at no cost, lol-- for them to also use the other cubicles.
   
• Chess-wise, I really feel that the QCD Adults chess league is the BEST training ground for players who want to prepare for their maiden tournament, as well as for inactive players to "de-rust". It mimics real competitive conditions, which is completely different from a casual/social play setting. (Yes, use a chess clock -- the time factor is a HUGE part of the game. If you cannot appreciate this, maybe over the board chess is not so suitable for you, and you may like to consider correspondence chess instead.) Because this is an unrated event, the rating points of inactive players are also protected. Otherwise, one should consider doing national chess service by joining the HPE training league (search for "Highlights" under the Singapore Chess Federation Webpage! You get to play rated games with the young players undergoing training and if your rating is 1,500 or above, you actually get paid for each game as compensation for your time. Think of it this way -- earning money doing something you like (playing chess!)
• The rubbish generated has significantly reduced compared to Round 5 2 weeks ago! yeah =) Don't know if any of the other players have saw my previous post about the huge amount of rubbish at the end of the game, but I was told there were are couple of "silent followers". Oh well, in any case, it is a change for the better!
• Last but not least, an honorary mention of my favourite "Sunday Chess Uncle", Eric, from the Siglap South CC chess Club I volunteer in, has come to enjoy the chess atmosphere again!  (I think he might have regretted not joining the league when I approached him earlier this year, but because he doesn't even have a mobile phone, contacting him when discussing about team line-ups would be a huge headache.) I'm glad he was able to play a couple of friendly games with other players (not part of the competition) and he also offered to stay behind and help us clear up tonight.

I am still nowhere near my 100%, but after taking myself out of the HPE training league tomorrow (Sat, 28 July) I hope that at least gives me adequate rest before our unrated rapid team event at Nanyang CC (with different team mates, outside of my team in the QCD league). Last but not least, a big thank you shoutout to William for volunteering to keep Siglap South CC chess club open on Sunday, 29 July. 

That's all!  Thank you!

Yours sincerely

Ong Yujing
(aka newbie_learner -- my preferred nickname for chess. Always a noob but learning ^o^)

(aka scorekeeper -- given by Bradley Loh / Singapore Chess Meetup as I always record my moves)