Chess Wars

This weekend myself and my Eleven year old niece where invited to play in our local Chess Federation Closed tournament. This tournament was held with the purpose of selecting one female player and another Open (Male or Female) player to represent the region in the upcoming SA Closed Chess Championship to be held in Cape Town from the 12th to the 22nd of December 2015.

I could not go because I had already committed myself as an official to the Schools Championships in Pretoria which somehow overlaps with the SA Closed. I informed the organizers in time that I wouldn't be able to play. Besides that, I had decided to take some time off from Chess play to teach my niece in preparation for this tournament. Me not playing meant also that I would be able to analyse her games with her after every game and help her improve her performance there and there.

In all my time teaching chess to kids and my niece included, what I have learned is that the hard part is not really making them understand the material. The hardest battle, the one that if you win you have conquered, is making them Want to win, then you just show them how; making them see the value of understanding the material then they see why having you teach them is a blessing. I had succeeded with her in that regard. She loves Chess now and she's gotten so used to winning I could accuse her of loving it...though it would be a heinous accusation.

The Saturday of the tournament comes and the organizers are asking me to play for the strength of the tournament and also to balance numbers. I am very hesitant because I had already planned on sitting this one out and support my brother's daughter in this tough competition. She's playing a round-robin format against some of the strongest female players in the region where the only result that counts is 1st place. Only the first place winner of each section gets to represent the Region at the SA closed and to afford her that opportunity would mean so much to me personally.

In the interest of Chess, the organizers were able to convince me to play. I couldn't worry much about my student, I thought to myself, she's well prepared.

We also played a round-robin format with 8 of the strongest players in the region. Funny enough they are all seniors...meaning they are all above 21 years in age. My first game was against an 1800 rated player. it ended in a draw. Mind you, I'm only rated 1500, the fourth highest rated in the tournament of 8 players. Second game I played against a 1400 and I won. I played against another 1400 in the third game and I won again, easy. In the fourth game I faced off against a 1700. You can imagine my confidence after having drawn against  an 1800. In a game of chess, confidence is just as important as the principles of the game if one is playing to win.

I had my opponent on the ropes the whole time. interestingly enough I was black and he was white, that is to say that he was playing with the white pieces and I was playing with the black pieces...white pieces have the privilege of making the first move, initiating the attacks and therefore feel entitled to a win. Black role is to stop the white army in its attacks and try to level up the playing field somehow by equalizing the position and gain back the tempo (the silver spoon) that white started with. That is why in most cases, the most that black can hope for in a game of players of equal strength, is a draw.

My aim here was not to make it easier for my stronger counter part to get this full point. I had to make him sweat for it, Raise his blood pressure for a bit and have his heart pounding inside that shirt. Have him wish for a draw even though he sat down planning for a win, while I'm just sitting comfortably watching his face turn red as my confidence grows by the second.

I had him sweating in panic as I pushed on my passed pawn to the 3rd rank ready to promote in two moves. I had already counted the point when he suddenly played a brilliant move I had half-calculated. That was the move that cost me my precious pawn. The fall of that black pawn was like the fall of Biko to the black masses in the seventies. A pawn that represented so much hope for the black army. A free thinking pawn that could not be stopped by any other pawn. It was a visionary pawn, a leader of pawns that managed to go over its own half of the board. It dared venture into the unknown world of ideas and had seen itself promoted to a general (Queen).

The fall of my passed pawn brought my confidence to the ground and the future looked dim from then on. I continued playing because I believed  I could get a draw from being a pawn down. But the reality of chess is, one pawn can win the game, and it did (in a tactic known as a 'fox in a chicken coup').

So I had my first loss for the day and this was the last match for the day. In the females section they managed to finish all their games in one day. The results were interesting. My baby, my niece, my student...she won the tournament with an impressive full score. No lose, she proved stronger that all the other players on the day.

After four games with the seniors we looked at the results and found that on the lead was a 1700, not the one I played, but the one I was to play first thing in the morning the next day. He had 3.5 points after 4 games and was followed by a 1400 with 3 points and the other 1700 with 3 points. the bottom two was a 1800 with 0.5 points and a 1400 with 0.5 the only two people who played the whole day without managing a single win.

The next morning we came ready to start another day of chess. Everyone was in except my opponent, my good friend, the 1700 I'm meant to be playing against. Default time is fifteen minutes, meaning that if he is not in the venue 15 minutes after the clocks have been started, he forfeits the point. Before the clocks got started, we tried calling him, he was on his way and still a bit far. the clocks started, the arbiter cannot keep everyone waiting on account of one player. She presses the clocks to start. I push e4 and press my clock. I get up to go outside to see if this man is coming, still no sign of him. I look to my left, the guy who was meant to be playing isn't on his seat and the opponent had pressed the clock. Slyly he suggested to the arbiter that he would go find his opponent but turned back at the door.
I go out to the bathroom and he sees me going to the side his opponent went to and signals me not to alert the guy that the clocks are started, I smile casually and proceed to the loo. As I get there I find the guy washing his face with his shirt off, relaxed, casually he complains about the heat and leans on the basin in the bathroom. I smile a bit considering his opponent's request. He was left with about 4 minutes before getting defaulted. I think to myself that I cannot afford to have this man's death on my conscience. He was the 1400 with 0.5 points...aged and chubby so if he finds out he has been defaulted for a game he was present for he would get a heart attack. Worse is what he would think of me when he finds out I held out info about his imminent default and didn't feel  the need to alert him. So I just laughed at him for being this casual while his time was running out in the playing hall. The shock on his face was thank you enough. He ran back to the hall to end up losing in a fair combat  again anyways.

Two minutes before default time for my opponent and I'm starting to panic on his behalf. He is the preferati...the preferred winner of the tournament for me. The situation is thus; the winner of this section will travel with the winner of the Female section. Since I cannot afford to go owing to prior commitments, I would prefer it if my friend here went because my niece would be comfortable travelling with him than anyone else playing.

So I get up in panic, I go outside look around and I see my guy walking in a resting manner as if he had been running and now tired but can't afford to stop to rest. Excitedly I shout him out to run there's only seconds to go till he defaults. He runs into the hall sweating, pushes d5 and presses the clock that was already on 46 Minutes and rests on the table in terror of what could have been.

The looks of disappointment in the faces of the other hopefuls as they realize that the default time couldn't help them. It is a known fact that he is the strongest player in the tournament even though his rating puts him  in third highest. There exists some 'previously advantaged ratings' in Chess too. At least in this region if not in the whole country.

We played our game and my friend beat me. No surprise there. Another 1700 beat me, the 1500. Next game I played against the lowest rated player in the tournament, but not the weakest by performance. I did a quick job with him and he later confessed that he didn't think he stood a chance anyways. This means he was half beaten before the game started. I had broken him from our previous encounters and add to that him being beaten by some of my students in casual play.

The last game of the day was against my partner in crime, my friend and rival in the region (which doesn't make sense because I believe I'm stronger than him. My rating says so, and so does my recent record against him). He is 1400 and I am 1500. In 15 moves I had stolen his rook for no compensation. His king has been checked by a knight and had to move so now he cannot Castle. His other rook is locked in a corner without any hope of coming out to assist his distressed king and out of action queen. My knight manages to come out of the rook-heist unharmed. I look up to my opponents face and see sparks, watery glitters as if he can not see clearly no more. He puts his thumb and index finger on the inner corners of his eyes closer to the nose and presses. He sighs. I cannot help laughing, I'm tickled. Its unfair, I think to myself. I feel sorry for my friend. But I can't go easy on him, if I lose after having dominated him like this, I won't hear the end of it. I can already make out what he would say even if he loses. I know all his excuses. Maybe he was tired after his first lose earlier from the 1800 or maybe he's had a fight with the Mrs at home. Excuses never run out

However he now looks emotionally drained, he is suffering here and I am left with 40 min on the clock and him with 30min. This is the last game of the day. I'm winning this so, I decide to prolong the game, give him some energy to play on and at the same time open up his king there in the center. I look up to him with a smile and I give him a knight for the prize of opening up his king just so the game can continue. He takes the knight after thinking for 5minutes. Then he seats up straight. He feels he is back in the game now. Well that's what I wanted really, for him to get up before I kick him back down again. Cruel I know. But its worse kicking him while he is down, he's a friend.

We proceed, now there's many lines opened leading up to his King; Diagonals, Files and Ranks! That's better than a full piece lead, I convince myself. His exposed King allows me to now collect free pawns with checks while I push his pieces back. He's gone back to slouching on the chair looking like a sad puppy once again. What am I doing embarrassing my friend in front of company? The other players give one look at the board, raise their eyebrows and give another look to the person suffering the position and shake their heads, then walk away. I feel bad. I could finish him now and this would all be over, but he's resisting and his position gets weaker and weaker.

Because he has not convinced himself that I am better than him and that I have beaten him here, he hangs on. He's stubborn like that. I'm too confident now and I'm no longer looking for easy finishes, I am looking for tactically brilliant finishes that crush the opponent's spirit so that next time he knows. I try to complicate the position some more and I miss a (preparatory)  move...damn! He spots this weakness like a gazelle cornered by a hungry lion looking for a way out, hoping against all hope for the smallest opening to make an escape...and there it is. He squeezes through. He grabs the opportunity and makes a run for it. The position looks good for me but he now has his queen against my naked King with only a rook to offer protection. My own queen was out shopping for pawns instead of supporting my 3 passed pawns to promotion. He asked for a draw and I accepted looking at the position of my queen relative to his. He could check me all day and end up winning on time or ultimately drawing by repetition anyway. So not to be too cruel, I accepted the draw understanding what my good friend here has been through.

The draw put him at 4.5 points, me at 4 points. Leading the pack was our 1700 with 6.5 out of 7. No doubt he is the deserving player to represent our region and his victory cannot be questioned since he beat all the region's top players and he could do it any day at anytime with only the left hemisphere of his brain...Second place was my last opponent with 4.5 and third place was a three-way tie with 4 points. I was blitzed out in the tie break by my 1700 rated opponent. The other third place tier had already left and he had beaten the 1700 in their encounter in the tournament. I had beaten him, which added to the complication. But the winner was too obvious and that is all that matters. Another brilliant day in Chess at Ehlanzeni. We don't get such strong tournaments here and sitting it out would have been a loss on my part. Another well organized and successful tournament in the region, another good day for Chess in the Country. A victory for Chess

This is to say, Congratulations to Dumisa Nkosi and Lindokuhle Bhila for winning the Ehlanzeni Closed. We look forward to your victories in Cape Town. They are going to be representing our Region in Cape Town for the SA Closed in December.