2004-02-16 - 11:02 p.m.

U.S. Amateur Teams, Day Three

The third day of the tournament dawned... early. Too early. The first round on day one was at 1 p.m., the morning round on day two was at 11 p.m. and today, round five started at the unreasonable hour of 9:30 a.m. Well, I suppose it was the organizer's brave attempt to get me home sometime before 3 a.m.

Lily and I had breakfast down in the lobby - no bugs today! - and then I went to my first round game while Lily got us packed up and out of the room. It certainly made the morning less stressful (for me, at least) and showed once again the wisdom of bringing someone who was a non-player.

Round 5, Mr. Hamster (1,820) vs. Downstate Expert (2,110)

This morning found us finally back in the big ballroom, but this of course meant that we were being paired up. We were paired against a strong team from Westchester county and the board one was an older master who used to live in the Midwest. I had white and my opponent chose one of the more complicated and topical lines of the Sicilian Defense. Oh, swell. My record against this particular line hasn't been that good, but you take what you are given.

Around move 12 I had an opportunity to play what looked like a strong move, and this seemed to give me a lasting initiative. When I was looking at the game later I saw that my opponent had made a move-order error and this move was the only way of exploiting it. Anyway, I got a good position, and began to squeeze.

I have to say, that this was one of the best games I've played in a long time. I kept a decent advantage for the rest of the game and was able to move quickly enough so that time didn't become a real problem. As the time control neared my opponent made a desperate break in the center, but this only wound up costing him two pawns. I made the time control with about five minutes to spare, and after thinking for a few minutes, my opponent resigned.

Well, this was good news! This victory went a long way toward making up for my second round debacle.

On the other boards things looks hopeful. Our board one managed to draw against the old master, the first time he had scored against someone rated over 2,200. Richard on board four also managed to draw his higher-rated opponent, but Phil lost on board three, leaving the match a 2-2 tie, an upset draw for us.

Score: Me: 3, Them: 2

Team Score: 3-2 (10-10 game points)

After the game Lily and I wandered off to get lunch at a local Pizza Hut, after clearing up a little dispute at the reservation desk over the room rate. I have to say that Lily was a good sport throughout the entire weekend even though I know that chess tournaments hold no fascination for her. In fact, she calls them "nerd conventions" and it�s hard to disagree with her considering the range of oddities you meet at one. Lily also pointed out that the aroma of b.o. was quite noticeable in the tournament hall. It didn't seem that way to me, but maybe it only seemed that way because I didn't want to be distracted by it.

Lily came up with some new team names for next year like "The Nerd Club" or "Nerds Rule, Jocks Drool." Thanks, I don't think we'll be using those.

Generally while I was playing Lily was studying. I think she was just glad to get out of the house for the weekend.

Round 6: Joe Cool (1,900) vs. Mr. Hamster (1,820)

For the final round we were still in the big room (yay!) and paired up again (drat!). By my rough calculations we had a chance of winning a class prize, but we absolutely had to win this last round.

My opponent was a college student of the laid back variety and I had the eerie impression that I was playing Dylan McClain's kid brother from Beverly Hills 90210 or James Dean's grandson or something. He seemed to exude a quiet confidence that I felt boded poorly for me.

I was black and we went into one of my favorite lines - a wild tactical variation. My opponent played into a line I wasn't that familiar with, and then made a move that put my position under a good deal of pressure. I had two choices: I could retreat and try to squirm my way out, or I could instigate a wild line that didn't look that favorable for me. I chose the quiet line, and soon had a miserable, cramped position. I eventually had to give up a pawn and an exchange to keep playing. I was so annoyed with how bad my position was that while my opponent was thinking I went into the chess bookstore and looked up where I'd gone wrong. Whoops! It looked like the tactical line I'd rejected earlier was the way to go!

My opponent kept pressuring me and I just wasn't able to develop the counterplay I usually had in this variation. In order to free my pieces I had to give up another knight - now I was a whole rook down.

In a vile mood I surveyed my position. My remaining pieces were clustered around his king, but there seemed to be no way to break in. I was on the verge of resigning when I saw a crazy possibility. If I sacrificed my queen with check, it looked like I could force the game into a draw! Here my poker face must have failed because I'm sure that I was looking at the board all bug-eyed. I made the move, and the surprise was evident on my opponent's face. He had no choice but to take the queen, and then I was able to eternally check his king with my bishop and rook - the game was a draw.

I was terribly proud of myself for finding that move, in fact I could easily have seen myself resigning and then finding the move at home later and eating my heart out. Well, looking at the game later I did find a move that would have avoided giving up the exchange in the first place, but swindling a draw out of a lost position with a queen sacrifice - it really doesn't get any better than that.

The reversal in my game seemed to hearten the rest of my team-mates, too. Our board one managed to defeat his higher-rated foe while Phil won on board three. On board four Richard had a complicated rook and queen ending that was a win for him, but he spoiled it with a hasty move and wound up losing. Still, that was good enough for a 2.5-1.5 win for us.

Score: Me: 3.5, Them: 2.5

Team Score: 4-2 (12.5-11.5 game points)

That was the end of the tournament for most people. After they finished their games, my teammates went home, but I had to stick around because I was collecting the game scores and I needed a final crosstable to figure them out. The winner of the tournament was up in the air until the very end, because the last games to finish were on board one. Four teams wound up tying for first with 5.5-0.5 records, and the team "Dean Ippolito, LLC" took first on tiebreaks.

As I figured, our team tied for first in our rating class but lost on tiebreaks due to the relatively low number of games won. Oh, well.

The organizers were using a new computer program to process the tournament this year, and this meant that they could give me a crosstable on disk rather than have me wait a half an hour while they printed the 150+ page document. Hooray for technology!

This enabled us to take off sooner than I would have thought, and we arrived back at the Hamster Palace a little before 1 a.m.

I really had a fun time at the U.S. Teams this year, and it seems to have renewed my interest in playing in tournaments again. Maybe this can translate into me actually winning some games!