DVC Tournament Recap

 

Hello Chess Friends!

Information About DVC

This is my DVC tournament recap. The Dupage Valley Conference is a difficult and interesting national school wide competition between Naperville North, Naperville Central, Waubonsie, Neuqua Valley, and Matea Valley. Five extremely good schools. I can’t reveal the names of the talents, but Central has a FIDE Master, and he is extremely strong. He went undefeated throughout State last year, and absolutely crushed everybody, except for one who drew him(he was rated 2086 USCF however). 

So, this ended up not being such a great tournament for me, although I absolutely obliterated everybody else who ever faced me in the regular season of team matches, tournaments aren’t my strong suit. Especially early in the morning, where I lose focus and blunder easily.

The DVC tournament is split into 8-board teams, with the first board having 13 points, second board having 12 points, and etcetera and so on. If the first board wins, then we gain 13 points for our team, and the team that has the most points wins the match. For draws, each team is given an equal amount of points per team, such as a draw between 8th board having about 5-5 each between both teams. I’m pretty sure we also have tie-breaks if each team has equal points.

Prior to this tournament, I had been practicing my puzzle rush skills, and my rapid skills quite a lot against a friend who was second board nearly everyday, however, since he was sick at that time and couldn't go, I was to take his spot as second board. 

Anyhow, our top two boards didn’t come to the tournament, so we were forced to push up our ranks, and I was somehow playing second board, against  ###### ###, unnamed against for reasons known, who was 1900 USCF and FIDE. I wasn’t feeling my best, and was feeling unsure when I went up against him. Unfortunately, as his rating is as high as it is, he is underrated. He went undefeated the whole of this year and last year, suffering one or two draws. Tough luck!

Early Morning

I left home at about 6:15 because we were the school hosting the event. I was a bit tired because I had slept at about 11:15 the night prior, and going on 7-ish hours of sleep wasn't really cutting it for me. I feel like it affected my play by quite a lot, as I suffered a lot in my ideas and my thinking and was jittery and nervous throughout the entire morning.

Central vs North

Game 1: Unnamed 1900 USCF/FIDE(Board ) vs Paul Sun (Board 2)

19. d5?!, the critical move of the game. I should’ve noticed the idea behind e5, but I was too focused on my hanging knight to notice. Instead, I thought for a quiet minute, and blitzed out the horrible blunder gxf3??. For a second, I thought his bishop would take, but I didn’t notice pawn takes, and he eventually is up a piece. 

22. fxe5?? I had my chance, but now I’m losing two pieces for nothing.

Eventually, he was promoted to another queen, and I resigned in a totally losing position.

Our whole team lost against Central, except for @roadchessmaster12345, who somehow clinched out a win, and our fifth board, who drew. It was a pretty bad match, especially because we were promoting up two boards, and everybody below us was playing somebody extremely highly rated, and etc.

But, maybe better luck next time? Probably not, I did some puzzle racer, played some bullet on my laptop, and then the pairings were announced.

This time I was going against second board of Neuqua, ######. His USCF was pretty low, at around 1600, but he had beaten Stevenson’s board 2 as well, who was a 2000 USCF. He was pretty much underrated in everything, and seemed pretty strong for a play of that skill level.

But I did underestimate him, because I did not know any of this at the time. 

Neuqua vs North

Game 2:  Unnamed 1600 USCF/FIDE

The first 11-16 moves, I blitzed out immediately.

12. Ne4!?, another turning point. I had the opportunity to enter a +1.2 position, with Qe1!, a beautiful move that would allow for me to launch a vicious kingside attack if ###### castled.

16. Bxh6!? I did not calculate for a single second for this. I probably should’ve, because I could’ve won this game quite easily if I had. I should’ve played Bb1, and with my vicious bishops on those sharp diagonals. I would’ve quickly destroyed him, launching an aggressive kingside attack that he would’ve never recovered from. 

Bxh6 is not a blunder however, because I have always have a draw after I take the bishop on d7, and the check with my queen, and it’ll be a forced draw, unless he plays well. If that occurs, then it would’ve been 2-3 pawns against a piece.

16. Rf3?? AGRGGGRRGRRRGRGRG, I was hoping to mate him, but I forgot that he could just take the bishop with his knight!!?!?!?!!!?!??. I should be thinking more, not playing out this random ###########.

I lost the game pretty cleanly after this. He just converted his advantage, and I resigned in a losing position.

I was very angry about this game, because I had spent too little time, and also was destroyed so quickly. So, perhaps, next game might be more interesting. After about 10 minutes of eating lunch and eating pizza, and doing puzzles. The last pairings were announced.

This time, I was going against Central Board 2 again.

Central vs North

Game 3: Unnamed 1900 USCF/FIDE

This game was rather strange, because my opponent just was not there for the first 10 minutes. I asked Central’s third board of his whereabouts, and he told me that he was in the bathroom. After I started the clock and shook his hand, we began the game. He spent about 2 minutes on every move, stopping quite a lot to check on other boards (or just disappearing somewhere). After about ten moves, he had a bottle of water, and sat their for the rest of the game.

Now, to the crazy game. 

I played my standard Vienna Gambit, and I was surprised that he didn’t know that much theory. 

9. H4!? I missed a chance to play Qh5 and get my queen onto his weak dark squares. However, he blundered immediately afterward.

10. G6?? Now I have a vicious attack brewing.

However, unfortunately, I couldn’t attack fast enough, and we both ended up trading queens. I missed a winning move that could’ve won the game:

Nh4!, I don't know why engine recommends Rb1, but Nh4 attacks the pawn, and if the opponent plays g4, then you can give a check with your knight, take the bishop with your knight, and then Ba3! wins the exchange, and it should be cleanly winning.

Unfortunately, I played the inaccuracy, Be3, which lead me to a drawn position.

At this point, I offered my opponent a draw, he slammed the clock pretty hard, and said "No", in a funny voice. I had 33 minutes and he had 10 seconds with delay.

However, in the endgame, I played g3 at some point, and my opponent found the move Bh4!!, I am forced to take, and am forced into a losing position, where my king can't catch up to the passed pawn, and I resigned.

It was an intense match, and I'm still very angry with myself for losing. He didn't flag, and won with 3 seconds with delay, still on his clock.

Our team lost the tournament, and the DVC tournament, as we had only won against Matea Valley in the whole season. The rankings went like this: 5th Metea Valley, North, Central, Waubonsie, and Neuqua. 

For individual players, the ones who got the best individual scores got to take home medals. I took home a bronze one, one place above @roadchessmaster12345, who had only played in about 5-6 matches. 

The tournament was quite fun, and I went home at a bit of a late time at 6:15, waiting at the school for three hours with the 8th board. But it was as fun as a tournament of this level could get.

It was a ridiculously stressful experience, but State is coming next year, and that'll hopefully be better than this.