Full House at Thomson CC Chess Club on 16 Nov 2018

I really enjoyed myself to the max, seeing all my old friends and new ones. Whoever says chess is not a sociable / interactive game doesn't appreciate chess the right way!

Full-house! This is something all chess sites should strive for (or sustain it when achieved). Much easier when we enter the school holidays.

Special shout out to Zhemin, another player from Singapore Chess Meetup . She has "succumbed to our bad influence" and started recording moves ^o^ I always believe we can be serious while having fun in chess at the same time! 

 That's it for the pictures of the day. Now, to the 3 games I played with kiddos / teens. Just want to clarify that I am not looking down on kids with the use of the term "kiddos" (I wish I can remain a kid forever!) I love the term, much like I love my chess nickname / handle "newbie_learner". It resonates with my view that chess, like life, is a lifelong learning process very well.

Games analysis will compare my personal attempt followed by one-click tactical analysis by Chessbase 15

Game 1 (Playing with a very young kid)
External link for analysis comparison

GIF generated replay of the game. Here, I must express my disappointment with Chessbase 15. For a newly released software, it's new feature, gif generation, does not allow me to generate the position from Black's perspective (and other free software allows me to do it, LOL). Notwithstanding that this is not a deal-breaker, since not many people use such "trivial" features. Still, it leaves a sour taste.

Personal Thoughts and Learning Points

• Considering that I was far from my "100%", having inadequate sleep over the past few days hard at work, I thought my play in this game was decent. Despite some sub-par choices in the opening phase of the game. After 10.Qg3, I love my response 10...0-0 accepting White's challenge head on and the subsequent continuation 11.Bh6 Nh5!? (even though 12.Qf3 is likely a draw) 12.Qg4? Ndf6! 13.Qg5 Kh8 and proceeding to "win ugly but surely".
  
• However, it was nowhere near a well-played game, I have made the wrong plans starting from around 27...Rg7 (on hindsight, I still feel that 27...Kg7 would be more consistent). Luckily, my young opponent did not manage to capitalise, and I found time to undo my misplaced Rooks and King. 

Game 2 (Playing with a preteen)
External link for analysis comparison

Personal Thoughts and Learning Points

• So while playable, the evaluation of the position suggests that an immediate 6...c5 is probably not the best option. So my usual 2 Knights setup on d7 and e7 still work well here =)
  
• I'm somewhat surprised and glad that the engine agrees with some of my not-so-direct moves like 8.Qd2 a6 (controlling the b5 square and wait for White to show his hand) and after 9.0-0-0, my 9...c4! (was even given an exclamation mark by the engine LOL) -- interestingly, this looks very "French-Defence like", and arguably even better as Black suffers no "bad Bishop problem". I'm glad I judged this position correctly.
  
•  Even though after 15.Qe1, 15...Bxc5 (which I played was not the best, I still like what I did). And after 16.b3, again my 16...0-0 was not best, though I like it (indeed, the engine shows a couple of ways to directly attack the White King without a need to prepare the attack) -- so my friends are right! Kudos to you guys!

Game 3

External link for analysis comparison

Personal Thoughts and Learning Points

• For beginners, you may want to look at the game analysis done by the engine to see a couple of themes employed in this game.
  
• I dedicate this game to William, my fellow Siglap South CC Chess Quartet brother, for the experience I gained through our many games played in this opening line. See, the social aspect of chess, be it "serious" or "casual" can all be fun!

Thanks again for your time.

Yours sincerely

Ong Yujing (Eugene)

a.k.a. newbie_learner

Siglap South CC Chess Quartet