So I just finished the 9-round SG City standard Open tournament with a dismal result, scoring only 3 points (1 win, 4 losses and 4 draws) and losing 14 rating points. Was initially ranked #26 but ended #35 (would've been worse if some of the players did not drop out of the tournament halfway). Still, it wasn't a complete flop -- I wouldn't allow it to be a complete waste of time. So what are the positive things that I can gather from it (and share)?
Results and games aside first, there were lots of friendships!
First and foremost, a special shout-out to all my opponents in my tournament, in the order of rounds. There are no secrets, all the pairings and results can be found on
chess results. I may not have portrayed myself or communicated properly after our games:
1. Arellano Robert
I understand you are not based in Singapore -- I hope you enjoy your stay, and if time permits, consider dropping by
Singapore Chess Meetup or
PubXChess, simple the 2 local chess initiatives most likely to be worth your time!
2. Benet Morant Damia (Another player in the QCD Adults Team Chess League)
Thanks for the lesson, my friend =)
3. Tobin Paul Nicholas (Another player in the QCD Adults Team Chess League)
I am grateful for the interesting game we composed together. I'm happy for your great overall results, and I look forward to composing more games with you in future!
4. Sow Miaogeng Malcolm
I really like your mannerisms before, during and after the game, young man! Keep your spirits up and all the best in your future chess games and ventures!
5. Wong Zhenyong Jayden
We have known each other for a while, since our previous games and we share a common Chess Club (Thomson CC Chess Club currently located at Bishan CC due to renovation works). As I have proclaimed after the game, my respect for you has double. I will continue to keep a lookout for your name in future chess tournaments and chess news sites, all the best!
6. Tan Deng Jin Benedict
It has always been a pleasure to play with you. You have definitely improved since our previous encounter. (Was it 1 or 2 years ago?) I don't know how many more "good chess years" I have, but I hope to continue to see you doing well in tournaments!
7. Heng Cho Yaw
Thank you for being so generous in your post-game review with someone you encountered for the first time! I definitely learned something new and important. Best wishes to you!
8. Hema Keertana Vemuri
Okay, your dad and I are actually team mates in the QCD Adults Team Chess League =) Just let me (or your dad) know anytime you'd like a training game! All the best!
9. Kong Zi Yau Bernadette
I don't know if GGWP is something young kids come to understand these days (or is it too old-fashioned already), but congrats for the win. All the best in your future games and tournaments!
Other shout-outs (not in specific order):
Jeremi -- finally we met for the first time. I'm glad you found my suggestions on where to play chess in Singapore useful, and I believe we will continue to meet in local tournaments. By the way, if you are seeing this, I'm not sure if you'd like to consider joining the ongoing
QCD Adults Team Chess League? I'm not sure if I have mentioned this to you before, but feel free to take a look!
William -- thanks for the friendship / companionship. I hope you enjoyed the tournament experience in your maiden tournament!
Seng Chin -- thanks for dropping by in person!
Okay, this is a chess tournament report after all. So let's look at some games and positions! Also, in order to protect my opponents, I will remove mentions of their actual identities. I will only identify myself =)
And the games are not arranged in order of the rounds. They are arranged in "themes".
So here we go. Just want to qualify that this is a beginner reviewing his own game, so please take the comments with a pinch of salt. But if you have any suggestions to tips to offer the newbie, please feel free! Thanks ahead.
The Most Sinful (Un)Played Game
Game Position after 35.Be2
White offered a draw with the move 35.Be2. Why would Black (me) accept it when only Black is able to play for a win? Because 1. I'm a chicken, 2. I respect opponent's rating too much and 3. I was not in a good state of mind-- in my head, I keep telling myself that "I'm bad at endgames", so a draw is an acceptable result. At the point of the draw offer, I recall myself having 3 or 4 minutes, I kept thinking of the continuation until I had 46 or 47 seconds left, before I decided to accept a draw. In fact, I worked out something along ...e5-e4, then eventually get my Black Knight to d4 and press. But, because I lost confidence in my endgame, I accepted the draw. Amongst my 9 games, this must be the most sinful game -- it's never as big a sin when you play on and lose. It's a sin when you leave "what it could have been" hanging.
The Most Talked About Game
Game Position after 46...Rxe7
White (me) has been an exchange up since move 25, but Black was resilient and refused to open up the position. White sacrificed a pawn in order to open up the position, but fell into time trouble doing so. Here, the clearest path to victory, which was pointed out by friends, other players and trainers, is to go for 47.Rd8+ followed by Rb8 to pick up the loose pawn on b6 and the Queenside pawn majority, which all could become connected pass pawns, should prove conclusive. But instead, White played the ultra-timid move of 47.Rd3?! Why? Because the only thing White wanted to achieve, is to not fall for any Knight fork under time trouble. LOL
The Most Educative Games I felt I learned the most from these 2.
Game Position after 8...Nxc3
White (me) played 9.bxc3 almost casually. In my opinion during the game, the c3 and d4 builds a mini pawn chain to limit the scope of the dark square Bishop on g7, the Queen on b3 is doing a decent job attacking the b7 pawn and defending the backward pawn of c3. But I under-estimated the weakness of the doubled c-pawn. While this position should be perfectly playable, I did not find comfort with it and got into a very bad position soon to follow. It's either I learn up how to play this position, or to go for something else I prefer. In the actual game, Black managed to exploit White's weakness on c4 and the advantage for Black grew to the point of no return.
Game Position after 9...Qb6 10.Kf2!
While 10.Kf2 was not completely new (I have seen this idea before), it was really cool for a newbie to see it in an actual tournament game. The actual game continued 10...Rc8 (I play as Black) 11.Kg3! I actually smiled seeing this in the game. Not that I suspect White is playing wrongly -- but man is it not impressive to see it over-the-board!
How should a beginner be taught to understand White making 2 consecutive King moves in the early opening phase of the game, when there are still other undeveloped pieces? More interesting is that based on a quick check of the database, this is not a new idea at all. In fact, the 2 consecutive King moves is indeed one of the top recommended options for White!
After the game, my opponent kindly explained to me, that I should try to understand this as White castling manually, while improving his own King position (It's even better than White got to push up his pawns serving as King cover, and that in the latter stages of the game, the centralised King position can even be an advantage in endgames.) Also, in his opinion, the only plan for Black that made any sense in this position, is to castle Queenside. Insisting to open up the c-file here "will never work" because White will always be able to exert adequate control to nullify the entire c-file. Black has no concrete point of penetration, which equates to wasted tempo. Meanwhile, White will most likely be faster over the Kingside advancement. Or at the very least, Black should never ever castle Kingside (which was what I did in the game). I don't know how long it will take for me to come to appreciate this. All the more I am grateful to learn this tip.
The Most Devastating Game It is not necessarily the loss which bled the most rating points. Rather, in this game, Black (I) had exerted strong control and dominance for most of the game, only to lose it after a few careless moves under time pressure.
Position after 35.Re1
Black (me), with a pawn ahead, was seeking to make headway on the Queenside. My primary goal was to simplify (via exchange of pieces where possible) to reduce potential to attack me, especially my somewhat vulnerable King). Here, seeing that Black finally had a point of penetration, I played 35...Qh3 immediately. After White played 36.Qg3 to force an exchange of Queens, surprisingly perhaps, I got somehow shaken -- objectively, the exchange of Queens achieves what exactly I wanted. Yet mysteriously, I got "loss". After 36...Qxg3 37.Kxg3, I played a newbie-like 37...Rc3+ allowing 38.Kf4, and here, I still did not realise that White's only source of counterplay, is ...e5-e6. I had so many opportunities to guard it -- e.g. ...Rc6 is one, ...Re8 is another. Yet I missed both and went for 38...Rfc8, thinking that the Queenside advantage is adequate. After 39.e6! I really got flustered, realising I screwed up real bad, and even though it was still a playable position, I simply collapsed. The feeling of dropping a winning position is not easy to cope =(
I don't have "Titles" for all my games, but I'm sure any patient reader can easily identify my "
Most Peaceful Game" from the full list of games.
External Link to All Games Here:
http://view.chessbase.com/cbreader/2019/6/13/Game110610656.html
Some Side Issues On Etiquette, Laws of Chess Discussion etc.
The following are my personal views and queries. It is okay to subscribe a different view.
1. I think we learn how to behave properly over time and experience. Hence, we need to be more tolerant with players who play their maiden tournament or first few tournaments when they do the wrong things. Despite what "everyone" says, I don't think everyone knows where to read up on "proper chess etiquette for tournaments".
For instance, telling your opponent you are going to the toilet is not only unnecessary, but potentially distracting your opponent. There should be minimum to no talking with your opponent, unless you are offering or declining a draw (In fact, you can also decline a draw by just making a move on the board without saying anything). There should not be any discussions between players during the game, and if you need assistance or clarification, you are supposed to approach the assistance of an arbiter -- that's their role.
2. Draw offer initiated by the losing or disadvantaged side is part of the game. Deal with it. But repeated draw offers which can distract or annoy the opponent, is not permissible! If you are not happy with the repeated draw offers from the opponent, please seek assistance from the arbiter.
3. The choice to resign is a very personal one. Even in a completely lost position, sometimes I take time to come to terms with the loss before initiating the resignation. That is my right, and I think my opponent(s) are obliged to respect it.
Minimally, do not demand/expect your opponent to resign. It's his/her right to play on, no matter how bad the position is. Also, I understand that some coaches teach their students to never resign a game -- after all, you do not win a game from resignation. I think the real learning point from this teaching, is that often beginners give up the games too early. Hence, better to force the player to play the game out. Even if the game is still lost, one can see whether he/she can learn something from playing on.
On the point regarding "coming to terms with the loss", even though it is not hard and fast, or universally accepted, I do feel stronger and stronger, that the winner should NOT initiate the handshake. By waiting for the loser to initiate handshake, it ensures that the side who lost would have come to terms with the loss beforehand. I do feel that winner initiating handshake may be misread as "rubbing it in" under all the stress and negative feelings with losing a game. Or at least, one should observe facial / body cues from the opponent before initiating a handshake. Only do it when the opponent seemed ready would be my personal suggestion.
4. Please honour touch move and please by all means, remind your opponent when they did not honour touch move. The only practical situation I can imagine a player not calling on opponent's touch move is that the original move is potentially a better one than the amended move, LOL. And then, under such circumstances, should the arbiter observing this touch move interfere? ^o^
5. There was this actual situation whereby Player X committed an illegal move. Player Y was claiming the illegal move, but in his eagerness, he pressed his clock instead of stopping / pausing it. Should Article 7.5.3 apply on Player Y? Under
FIDE Laws of Chess Taking Effect from 1 January 2018,
"7.5.3 If the player presses the clock without making a move, it shall be considered and penalized
as if an illegal move."
Player Y did actually press the clock without making a move. But by "common sense", it does seem harsh, if not awkward to penalise Player Y as having made an illegal move under this situation. I wonder what fellow chess enthusiasts / players / arbiters would have to say on this =)
6. The conduct of the whole tournament was generally peaceful. However, there was this 1 incident observed that bugged me quite a bit. This teenager was banging the clock at every move and it was not only annoying to his opponent, but to me as a nearby board as well.
Doing it under time pressure, or a few times due to accident can be understood. But this teenager (whom I shall not name and shame), did it on each and every move! In fact, I think he was trying to intimidate his younger opponent, and I was actually thinking through the FIDE laws of chess on how, or whether an arbiter can actually punish the teenager for this. Given the situation, can an arbiter issue a warning to the player for unsporting play?
That's all for now!
Yours sincerely
Ong Yujing (Eugene)
a.k.a. newbie_learner
Siglap South CC Chess Quartet
