Publicani

I won the last 16th annual New York State Open chess championship. The tournament was held on June 21-22 in Lake George, NY at Howard Johnson Tiki Resort. I’ve shared first and second prize with Daniel Lawinger which makes two of us 2008 cochampions.

The tournament consisted of five games. Because I chose to play 2-day option (there was also a 3-day option), I played the first three games with a shortened time control: 1 hour for the entire game for each player. THe fourth and fifth games I played with normal time control: 90 minutes per 30 moves and then 1 hour for the rest of the game for each player.

In my first game I played against James Hiltunen. He had a better position from the opening, but then I “showed” him a pawn which he took. That gave me a strong initiative, Under pressure he made a non-obvious error, which let me make a small combination in a style of ‘find the best move.” I won the game. It turned out that after that game my opponent kep winning all his game until the last round where he lost to Lawinger.

In my second game I faced James Crenshow, a strong player, but not too confident in himself. All the game I had a better position and kept pressure, but there was nothing decisive. James was defending well, but it was taking him a lot of time. He lost this game on time, in a position where I still had some advantage.

In my third game, I played aganst Daniel Lawinger. He chose an unorthodox opening, on which I didn’t react the best way. After he forced exchange of Queens, I still had a small advantage though, due to controlling greater space. I kept this advantage almost until the end of the game. My game was also easier to play but he didn’t have clear weaknesses and defended well a-la Petrosian. I couldn’t find any break-throughs and after exchanges the game simplified. A draw.

The fourth game showed an opening battle with Haizhou Xu, which I didn’t handle well and ended up in a worse position. To get out of a bind I gave up a pawn (computer says that there was no bind, and that I shouldn’t have given up the pawn – see my comments.) AFter than Xu had a small advantage, but because of opposite-color bishops I was able to equalize. Another draw.

In my first game, I took a score sheet from the organizer’s table and after I won the game, I went afain to the organizer’s table, noticed a cartoon box there labeled “Chess Games,” took an extra score sheet, went back to my table, copied the game, and put the score sheet into the box. I did the same thing with my second game. Before my third game, I decided to save a trip to the organizer’s table, and took two score sheets. I wrote down the moves on one of them, but becaue it was a draw, I thought it was not worth the trouble to copy the game for the game box, so I’ve thrown away an empty score sheet. THe same happened during my forth game. Another draw, and I didn’t need the extra score sheet.

For my fifth game I got the pattern. I took a single score sheet. After I won the game, I went to the organizer’s table, took another score sheet, went back to my table, copied the moves on the new score sheet and put it into the games box. I played that game against Daniel Pomeranz who wanted to simplify the game and avoid all complications at all costs. With each exchange his postion was getting a little worse. I had a small advantage in the endgame when he made a natural and useful move which turned out to be a fatal mistake. I won the game and became NY state cochampion.

One final comment. That was the first tournament in my life to which I haven’t done any chess preparations. On the other hand, I just came back from a silent retreat where I meditated and kept silent for two weeks. Make the conclusion yourself.