Friday Night Chess @ Thomson CC (23 Nov 2018)

Finally found time to do this Post while watching Game 11 of the Carlsen-Caruana World Championship. Got a good wake-up call this evening, being thrashed by a kid who played quite well (relatively speaking -- and I played bad ^o^). But looking on the bright side, at least I get to see what's wrong with my play.

A great turnout with the end of the examinations and the commencement of the school holidays!

Personal thoughts and learning points:

• Don't always blame everything on the opening, although it is true that I played into something I'm not familiar with / don't enjoy so much.
• Got to be careful conceding any control of squares.
• Do not try to resolve problems or tensions casually. You will get punished (by Caissa, if not by the opponent)! 

Next game was with another kid. Even though he was not as strong as the first kid I played, my play was still far from optimum =(
Personal thoughts and learning points:

• While it was good thinking to be cautious and not castle on the Kingside immediately, "over-waiting" is not a good thing. Making completely waiting moves that do not exert any pressure should be avoided.

Interestingly, there was a position I picked up from a game between 2 kids -- right out of the 2nd move, some of us (my chess friend and the kiddo who beat me) were sharing out thoughts. I still think the pawn here can be taken -- I'm not sure why both my friend and the kiddo dismissed it at the onset, but realises the defensive resources White possesses when I try to defend everything.

Position after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Bc5!? I will still play 3.Nxe5 and try to defend the extra pawn =)

I guess I believe to the old school "If you can't see anything wrong, take it". Here, I really believe White has adequate resources to capture and defend the position. 

That's all I have. To wrap this up, let me just do a big shout-out to congratulate Ju Wenjun for her successful title defence! Love it that she's such a sport, agreeing to play in a knockout format that favours upsets. Also, the fact that she had to come back from behind in the final standard game, having to win with the Black pieces to force the tiebreaks was no easy feat. Mere mortals, or "weaklings" like myself would probably have given up mentally. 

Thank you for your time reading!

Yours sincerely

Ong Yujing (Eugene)

a.k.a. newbie_learner

Siglap South CC Chess Quartet