A chess rivalry – Round 1 of the “Upper Canada Series”

I thought the chess season was over, but apparently, some of us are still free to play chess on Monday evenings. And so Sid and I are playing every Monday now, until I leave for the summer in July. We should hopefully have 7 games, which we’ll play at the Upper Canada Academy on Brock Street (which is why we’re calling it the “Upper Canada Series”).

Anyway, game 1 ended today, with a loss by me on White. Congratulations to Sid on the early 1-0 lead, of a 7-game series, hopefully.

I played e4 as White, and Black responded with the sicilian defense. I thought I’d play the Grand Prix Attack, which is a favorite of KingsCrusher, a chess commentator whom I follow on YouTube. Black played an unusual e5 on move 2, with a morocy bind type structure. I don’t think I played the opening very well. Here are some things to remember for next time:

Last game of the season against Peter Sibbald

The last game of the season, Round 5 as White against Peter Sibbald in the 2012 Peter Sibbald Spring Open, ended with a draw. I was vying for the win, but I really was out-played by this higher-rated (actually highest-rated) opponent.

As with my previous game with Peter, he played aggressively in the opening, attacking before all his pieces were developed. And I simply was not able to take advantage of the position, despite having the first move with White. I wasn’t able to get any sort of advantage out of the opening, and Black was able to develop comfortably into the middle game. Perhaps I need a different strategy in the opening. My options were quite limited, and I had to get creative with the opening breaks.

But even toward the middle game, I think I could have controlled the center better with my pieces, instead of initiating a premature attack with 10.Nd5 (I think 10.Nge2 would have been better), maybe move Qc2 and castle long a little earlier, and then play on the King-side, instead of the center.

The 2011/2012 chess season is over :(

I kinda left things hanging after my last round against Peter Sibbald at the 2012 Peter Sibbald Spring Open. We ended with a draw. In fact, the top 4 boards drew. Everybody was basically holding their ground. I will post up the PGN and my analysis soon.

Anyway, last Monday was the year end pizza party, which is when we handed out trophies for all the tournaments of the year. You can see the results, and a short video, on the KCC Blog. I also managed to win the first Grand Aggregate title of the Kingston Chess Club, having won 2 out of the 4 tournaments (although that was not the only criteria).

I’m very much looking forward to the 2012/2013 season, where hopefully I can improve on my record. I won one title in 2010/2011, and 2 titles in 2011/2012. Maybe 3 titles for 2012/2013? I will really have to prepare for this one. Everybody’s looking to win, and we may introduce a cash prize for on the tournaments too. I’m looking forward to the challenge.

So that’s it for chess until we resume on Sept 10, 2012.

Phew… I should have lost Round 4

It’s the nature of club level games that we all make blunders. In the previous round, I made a blunder which thankfully I was able to recover from. For this round however, I was clearly losing after many missteps in the opening. However, my opponent made a critical blunder at move 29, and resigned 2 moves later. You can check out my complete commentary/annotation here:

http://www.azroykandan.com/2012_PeterSibbald_SpringOpen.html

My key takeaways here:

1 – I really should prepare better, regardless of who my opponent is. My opponent clearly prepared to play against my Sicilian opening. And I on the other hand didn’t bother to anticipate my opponent. My lacklustre efforts lead to a dreadful middle game where I was struggling to keep the pressure.

2 – When choosing an opening, I really should stick to what I know. And if I want to divert from theory, I should understand the best places to move off the main line. My attempt at moving away from theory with d6 on move 5 was clearly not good. Sticking to theory, despite my opponents preparation, might have been better in this case.

3 – I used a lot of time in today’s game. White really had a chance to win on time, if he was up to the challenge. I found myself thinking after every move, which is actually a good thing. I always find myself skipping this step when I’m winning and too excited. And as I’ve told my son before, if you’re gonna spend extra time while you’re losing, why not use that same extra time while you’re winning? You’ll yield better results.

Anyway, that’s my two cents. I got off easy this time. I’m hoping I’ll get to play the tournament leader, Wayne Coppin, in the next round. It’ll either be me or Dave Gordon.

Oops… I almost lost Round 3

So for Round 3 of the 2012 Peter Sibbald Spring Open, I was matched up against David Chan, a junior which I drew with just a few weeks ago in the final round of the 2012 Kingston Chess Club Championship. I told myself I would learn from my mistakes there, and play a more aggressive game. Ironically, my “more aggressive” game was more of a repeat of last week’s game against Sid. And if you recall, I lost that one after a critical blunder / miscalculation.

Anyway, I decided to open with my trusty English Opening, with a King-side fianchetto. Black opts for an early d5 to contest the center.

At move 10, I decided to play more tactically, by bringing out my queen. I managed to control quite a bit of space in the center and the queen-side. I would say I had a comfortable position, while Black was struggling for counter play.

At move 18, I managed to constrain Black’s queen to c8, blocked in but its own bishop on e6 and pawn on f5. Playing aggressively meant that there were some weaknesses in my pawn structure, but it would be difficult for Black to penetrate through my front lines.

However, at move 24, I made a critical error, and miscalculated a key continuation. As a result, I lost my dark square bishop, for only a pawn in return. With my bishop gone, it looked like it was only a matter of time for Black to penetrate my defense. Although I was ahead 20 minutes on the clock, I quickly blew away my time advantage thinking up a solution, which I couldn’t find.