Training Games with Renowned Local Chess Figure on 17 Aug 2018

I was so privileged to be offered the chance of a training session with a much stronger chess player. I did not have his permission to be identified, but he does quite a bit of various things, definitely a name that every person in the local chess scene must know or have heard of ^o^

So he offered my team in the QCD league a simul. Due to schedule issues only 2 of us from team 8.c4! attended the training session. In order for us to get a go with both the White and Black pieces, and due to time constraints, we only played 2 games of 20 minutes + 10 second increment each.

Overall, even though I lost all my games, it was not all bad. To be honest, I was probably in a good shape, perhaps even in winning positions in both games at some point, but crumbled under time pressure in both. I do know that in my earlier posts, I have been saying that it is unwise to "time-rush" when you are comfortable with your position. The reverse applies too -- when the position looks bad, go for time-rush against opponent in time trouble. And see how good players do it so effectively! 

This, to me, is the key difference between a good player (my trainer for the day) and an average club-level player (me). Good players continue to stay resilient in a bad position -- they just play their best and make the opponent work for the win. Had the situation/position been reversed, I wouldn't have been able to pull off something like that!

Without further ado, these were the games played. Also, the trainer played more aggressively on purpose, to maximise training effects. After the games, he even teased me as to make a choice between (i) winning games, and (ii) recording games for completion's sake. He said I was crazy for choosing the latter ^o^ 

Game 1

Learning Points:

• My opening play is non-impressive, as always in all my games ^o^
• But other than that, my overall play was not too bad!
• Time management, as always!

Game 2

Learning Points:

• My KID curse continues, though in an interesting way. I'll accept it as part of growing up in my chess adventures. Perhaps, the day I conquer the KID would be the day I make a milestone in my chess improvement adventure ^o^ 
• The loss was totally unrelated to the opening, but rather, extremely poor time management and very poor endgame play.
• On the bright side, it was not all bad. I actually liked my play handling a position I've never seen before. 

For the chess pros, sorry for wasting your time. But I hope you can find some entertainment value =)

For the fellow club players and newbies like myself, I hope you can take something away from this, both the good and the bad. What is most important, when playing against someone much stronger (higher rating points, more famous is this): Do not assume that you are losing the game before the game actually starts. There is a lot of psychology in chess played between 2 humans -- whoever denies the existence and element of psychology, is either lying, or ignorant, or both!

In any case, thank you for taking time reading this!

Yours sincerely

Ong Yujing

(a.k.a. newbie_learner)