2004-02-15 - 11:53 p.m.

U.S. Amateur Teams, Day Two

I have to say, yesterday sucked. Going 0-2 is no fun, and that second game was especially galling. One bad game can ruin a whole tournament, and it seemed like I'd already had that one bad game, and I still had four rounds to go.

However, from this point on things got much better, and I really have to attribute this to the fact that Lily was here with me. Thanks to her moral support I wasn't nearly as upset as I might have been over last night's debacle, and it was certainly useful having a non-player around for getting food and dealing with the hotel, etc.

We'd learned our lesson from yesterday - we decided to have breakfast in the hotel and not go chasing around wasting time driving to the crowded local venues. Hotel food is notoriously expensive, but chessplayers are notoriously cheap, so the restaurant was never very crowded.

However, during breakfast we had some uninvited company. Lily felt a sharp pain on her arm, and found she'd been bitten by a bug - it looked like a water bug, which I suppose is a nice way of saying cockroach. Maybe it had been living in the plants growing near the table. It flew off the table and landed on the floor, and then I stepped on it. A few minutes later another one appeared, crawling around on the table. I don't mind bugs that much, but Lily was really bothered by it. We considered complaining to the management, but it just seemed better to avoid the fuss and to shun sitting by the planters in the restaurant.

Round 3, Mr. Hamster (1,820) vs. Russian Kid (1,050)

Here it was, round three and we were still in the small ballroom. What was worse we were playing one of my least favorite sort of teams - a group of unsmiling children with Russian names. Well, they weren't ALL children: their board one was their coach - an International Master and a former New York State Champion. This was sort of an interesting arrangement - since they were practically guaranteed a free point on board one all the three moppets needed to do was score a point and a half to win the match.

The problem with playing kids is that they are nearly always better than their ratings, and that was the case here but thankfully the kid wasn't better than MY rating.

I was surprised by my opponent's choice of opening, a rather ancient line guaranteeing black a cramped game. He started taking long thinks on move three, which was a double surprise since it meant that he didn't know the opening and children are infamous for playing quickly. He then surprised me again by playing a variation that was known to be bad, a fact shown in one of the most famous games of chess ever played.

So I found myself with a comfortable position, and ahead on the clock. About move seven I saw my opponent had an annoying queen move that threatened to win a pawn. However, I looked a little deeper and saw that if he took the pawn he would lose a piece. Damned if he didn't go right into that line and take the pawn, and I won a knight.

The rest of the game after that was just cleaning up, and I was pleased to be the first one done. To my left our board three seemed to be easily winning his game, but when I looked at board four I saw our guy was down a piece.

Richard, our board four, is capable of playing a good game and beating anyone, but his abiding sin is making impulsive moves and playing too fast. His opponent was so small he practically had to stand up at the board, so Richard failed to take him seriously and was blitzing out his moves. The result was probably the biggest upset of the entire round, about 900 points. Ouch! However, as far as ratings go once the rating gap is more than 400 points, you can't lose any more rating points. Still, it's no fun.

One board one John had a slightly inferior position, but as time control approached he made some loosening moves, and that's all the IM needed to force a win. So we were the victims of an upset draw against a team with an average rating 500 points below us. Well, at least I'd managed to end my own losing streak.

Score: Me: 1, Them: 2

Team Score: 1.5-1.5 (4.5-7.5 game points)

After the round we had plenty of spare time so I was finally able to take Lily out to dinner (or lunch) properly, at the Mexican restaurant near the hotel. It was just what we needed: a restful meal where we ate some stuff we weren't supposed to. And so what if we did?

An Amateur Team East tradition is that the various awards are handed out before the start of round four. One of the things that makes the tournament so popular is that there is this festival atmosphere to it, and even though it's very competitive there is a very real spirit of fun behind it all.

The two main awards that were handed out concerned the "Best Team Name" which is generally a euphemism for "Worst Chess Pun," and the "Best Chess Promotional Idea" which was called more appropriately "Best Gimmick."

Generally the team names fall into two categories: the merely descriptive (like "Westfield Chess Club," or "Newark Academy Asians" - both actual names) or some pun based on something current in the news, involving chess terminology. The most common theme was - guess what? Of course it was Tittygate, Janet Jackson's breast flash at the Superbowl, a tempest in a teapot if ever there was one, although maybe it should be "tempest in a c-cup." There was "C1 of Janet's 2 Bs" and "Janet Jackson's Exposed Position" and "Justin Removes The Guard" and "Janet Jackson's Open File," ... but I think you get the idea.

Ms. Jackson wasn't the sole subject of commentary. There was also "School of Rook," "Martha Incloned to Knight Trading," "We Pawns of Mass Destruction," "Wild Nights In Neverland" "Irooki Freedom," "Queen Eye For The Mate Guy," and my personal favorite "My Big Fat Greek Predecessors," a pun on the pompous title of Garry Kasparov's new book "My Great Predecessors."

Oddly enough none of these was the winner. The name chosen by popular acclaim was "USCF: Un-Stable Cash Flow," more of a political statement than anything else. The U.S. Chess Federation due to years of mismanagement is now as close to bankruptcy as it has ever been in its sixty-odd years of existence and people are a little pissy about it, to say the least.

After this, the prize for Best Gimmick was something of a letdown: the winner was "The Sicilians" - four kids dressed up as Mafiosi. Maybe the crowd didn't want the kids wearing sunglasses and fedoras to show them what was in the violin cases they were toting.

And oh yes, there was a round of chess played.

Round 4: Another Tiny Russian (1,350) vs. Mr. Hamster (1,820)

Because we had failed to win last round we were still in the small ballroom, perilously close to the "Suites of Shame" and we were paired against another team of solemn-looking youngsters with (mainly) Eastern European last names. The message was clear: if we wanted to stop playing in Kindergarten we were going to have to start winning some matches.

My opponent on board two looked to be about ten years old, and his last name was eerily familiar: there had been a strong player from my area with the same last name who has moved to Boston about 15 years ago. Was this little kid his son? Was another ghost from the past going to pop up and kick my ass?

From the beginning it didn't look good: the boy played the same damn variation that I'd lost to in round two, and son of a gun if he didn't play it better. He played a couple of unusual moves I was sure were no good, but I could find no way to refute them and soon had an inferior position. I castled on the opposite side to keep the game lively, but then it got TOO lively - he launched an unexpected but dangerous-looking attack on my castled position. He sacrificed a bishop to open it up and then chased my king around for a bit, winning pawns as he went. Do I have to mention that I was already 40 minutes behind on the clock?

While my opponent was thinking I unhappily surveyed my position: I was two pawns down with a busted queenside. Then I noticed something else - I was a piece up! I had forgotten that he had sacrificed a bishop to get this position! Since my king was now safe, that meant I had a won game - just so long as time pressure didn't make me do something dumb.

I started to pressure his queenside, but I had a hard time making headway and my time was running out. Things reached the boiling point just as I slipped under the five minute mark - I won a pawn but he unexpectedly sacrificed a rook for a knight. A couple more exchanges and I was a whole rook up and my king was safe again. The position opened up and I made a couple of pinball checks, herding his king into a mating net and delivering checkmate with about 90 seconds to spare. Whew!

Things finally seemed to be falling our way - boards one and three also won, but Richard bobbled a win into a draw on board four. Still, this put us into the plus column and we were sure to be in the big ballroom in round five. We even had an outside shot at winning a class prize for our rating section if we just keep winning.

Score: Me: 2, Them: 2

Team Score: 2.5-1.5 (8-8 game points)