I was late! So who did that inconvenience? Me, for starters, as traffic was horrible. It was a perfect snapshot of how well I'm prepared for this. I apologized to my round 1 opponent, a high schooler from Lincolnwood West with a baseball cap on backward and pulled down low, his hair in his face. I straightened the pieces and filled out my scoresheet before making my first move. 22 minutes had already run off my clock but I needed to get settled in. I pushed my Queen's Pawn forward two squares and and we were off and running in the 107th U.S. Open.
The kid played me tough! We went right into an opening sequence known as the King's Indian Defense which is a fairly complex opening to be dabbling in. The King's Indian has many different move orders and sequences, nuances that make a good move in one setup a blunder in another. I kind of got trapped up in this and ended up with, what I felt, was a worse position. Plus I got into time trouble to boot. I have to make 40 moves in 2 hours after which I get another hour to complete the rest of the game. At one point I had 11 minutes left to make 15 moves! Defending, defending, defending. It's all I was doing, I hate that. Just like in life, having to defend yourself all the time kinda blows. The only time it's fun is when you rebuke the constant attacks and make them go away or eradicate them entirely. That's kind of what happened tonight. Just when my opponent was coming in for the kill, he slipped and I pounced and chopped some wood off the board. After that I gave him a fistful of idle checks with my Queen just to make it to move 40 and a few moves later he tipped his King over. Good chess manners from someone his age. Typically the younger players play until you mate them which is a little rude. We chatted a bit afterwards, discussing certain points in the game and such. This is also a rarity at my level, as most opponents rather not talk after getting crushed which is too bad, I've met some nice people this way. "I've ground you down and bent your will to my own. Wanna go get a Starbucks?"
The tournament itself has a few more touches than the normal "weekend swiss". The top half dozen boards are projected on a screen at the front of the playing hall for all to see, really cool for chess geeks. You see this all the time at European tournaments so it's nice to feel self-important like them. I almost got to play on one of the big boards tonight. I was just above the dividing line as far as the rankings go for the first round. This means I was the worst-of-the-best instead of the best-of-the worst. Clear as mud? So instead of playing at the front of the tournament hall with the big screens and Grandmasters, I played in the back of the hall with the tired and poor yearning to be free. I'll have to scratch and claw my way to the front of the room just like at prom. Oops, did I say that out loud? Also the boards and sets are provided! Typically everyone carries around their own set and clock, chess armor as it were. For the Open-- actually I like "107th" better-- for the 107th we just set the pieces back to their original squares and leave it like we found it. There are also plenty of side events going on during the day but I won't have time for the chess speedball, binging on checkmates until the sun comes up and I'm staggering in summer's morning heat looking for a burrito, a kleenex and some disinfectant.
Sightings: I saw a gal with a tiara on. Don't know if she was playing or spectating but it was too tiny for her head and way too tall on her. She definitely should have left it on the Macy's accessory wall. I also nearly ran into, literally, Jennifer Shahade, former U.S. Woman's Chess Champion and author of "Chess Bitch", a book I haven't read yet but should if for the title alone and the stares I'd get on the train into work. We all have a little chess bitch in us, don't we? She was wielding a camera and not a chess set so I don't know if she's playing or not.
The kid played me tough! We went right into an opening sequence known as the King's Indian Defense which is a fairly complex opening to be dabbling in. The King's Indian has many different move orders and sequences, nuances that make a good move in one setup a blunder in another. I kind of got trapped up in this and ended up with, what I felt, was a worse position. Plus I got into time trouble to boot. I have to make 40 moves in 2 hours after which I get another hour to complete the rest of the game. At one point I had 11 minutes left to make 15 moves! Defending, defending, defending. It's all I was doing, I hate that. Just like in life, having to defend yourself all the time kinda blows. The only time it's fun is when you rebuke the constant attacks and make them go away or eradicate them entirely. That's kind of what happened tonight. Just when my opponent was coming in for the kill, he slipped and I pounced and chopped some wood off the board. After that I gave him a fistful of idle checks with my Queen just to make it to move 40 and a few moves later he tipped his King over. Good chess manners from someone his age. Typically the younger players play until you mate them which is a little rude. We chatted a bit afterwards, discussing certain points in the game and such. This is also a rarity at my level, as most opponents rather not talk after getting crushed which is too bad, I've met some nice people this way. "I've ground you down and bent your will to my own. Wanna go get a Starbucks?"
The tournament itself has a few more touches than the normal "weekend swiss". The top half dozen boards are projected on a screen at the front of the playing hall for all to see, really cool for chess geeks. You see this all the time at European tournaments so it's nice to feel self-important like them. I almost got to play on one of the big boards tonight. I was just above the dividing line as far as the rankings go for the first round. This means I was the worst-of-the-best instead of the best-of-the worst. Clear as mud? So instead of playing at the front of the tournament hall with the big screens and Grandmasters, I played in the back of the hall with the tired and poor yearning to be free. I'll have to scratch and claw my way to the front of the room just like at prom. Oops, did I say that out loud? Also the boards and sets are provided! Typically everyone carries around their own set and clock, chess armor as it were. For the Open-- actually I like "107th" better-- for the 107th we just set the pieces back to their original squares and leave it like we found it. There are also plenty of side events going on during the day but I won't have time for the chess speedball, binging on checkmates until the sun comes up and I'm staggering in summer's morning heat looking for a burrito, a kleenex and some disinfectant.
Sightings: I saw a gal with a tiara on. Don't know if she was playing or spectating but it was too tiny for her head and way too tall on her. She definitely should have left it on the Macy's accessory wall. I also nearly ran into, literally, Jennifer Shahade, former U.S. Woman's Chess Champion and author of "Chess Bitch", a book I haven't read yet but should if for the title alone and the stares I'd get on the train into work. We all have a little chess bitch in us, don't we? She was wielding a camera and not a chess set so I don't know if she's playing or not.
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