I scored 4/5 points at the ACC Summer Chess Championship!
I placed 5/67 in my section!
This past weekend, I played in the Reserve section of the ACC 2023 Summer Championship! I won three games, drew two, and lost none, which left me with 4.0 points. I'm super happy with the overall tournament experience.
Overview
- The tournament took place on Saturday, August 5, and Sunday, August 6.
- I played three rounds on Saturday and two on Sunday.
- The time control was G/90 + 30s for Rounds 2-5, which means that games can take forever. Round 1 had a shorter time control of G/60 + 10s.
- I played in the Reserve section, which had a rating cap of 1800. At the time, my rating was 1737, which meant I had an okay shot of performing well in the tournament (as I didn't have to play many higher-rated players).
Round 1
Commentary
I played Black and felt like I was in a pressure cooker for the first 15 moves. My opponent, Benjamin, organized his pieces well to prepare for a scary break in the center. I was barely able to hang on until he made an error under time pressure. From there, I won a bunch of his pieces and he resigned—down a rook—with only 30 seconds left on his clock. He may have won if he didn't spend so much time on relatively simple moves in the opening.
Interesting Position
Round 2
Commentary
This game was a rollercoaster. I played White, and my opponent, Rylan, played very well in the opening and began to apply lots of pressure to my pawn on c3. I eventually lost that pawn, but then sacrificed the exchange to launch an attack on my opponent's semi-open king. The attack failed, but I did manage to pick up some pawns and barely hold on in the endgame.
I later analyzed the game with him, and he was a great guy! He's a sophomore in college studying meteorology in Kansas. I had a lot of fun playing blitz with him.
Interesting Position
Round 3
Commentary
I played Black, and my opponent Vincent played Be2 on move 2 in the Sicilian, which I did not recognize. He ended up playing the British Grand Prix and launched a full-blown attack on my king, which was very scary. However, he sacrificed a full rook and a knight in his attack, and I eventually managed to lock down the kingside and stay safe. He resigned shortly after.
We reviewed the game afterward! He's a nice guy, and I appreciate how he played a quick attacking game instead of a long, drawn-out positional game that might have lasted 3+ hours.
Interesting Position
Round 4
Commentary
I crushed my opponent, Jared, pretty soundly as White. He played a weird variation of the Benoni, and I was able to engineer a divisive break in the center. I broke open his kingside and won a bunch of pawns, and he eventually resigned. The game was pretty smooth, and I felt that I was in control the entire time.
Interesting Position
Round 5
Commentary
This was the most balanced game I had in the tournament. The opening and early middlegame was balanced, and I managed to gain an advantage in the late middle game and endgame. But queen endgames are notoriously tricky, and I eventually had to take a perpetual check! I should have pushed my passed pawn further down the board when I had the chance.
It's a shame I didn't beat him in the endgame, because I would have won quite a bit of prize money. But I could have easily lost (instead of drawn) in Round 2, so I'm okay with my final performance. Plus, after the tournament, his adjusted rating was 1820, so I did quite well against him!
Interesting Position
Conclusion
I ended up placing 5th in the Reserve section after tiebreaks, which is the best I've done in a while! Also, my rating went up from 1737 to 1764—an appreciable 27-point jump. I might be able to break 1800 after a few more tournaments.