My Very First Adult Tournament Game

The Puzzle

I was playing with the Black pieces against veteran Tom Accola in Round 1 of the 2002 Manly Leagues Chess Club Championship. Before I share with you what I played against my opponent's last move of 11.b2-b3, let's hear the story that the moves won't tell you.

My First Private Chess Coach - And The Best Advice He Ever Gave Me

I had recently started having private chess lessons with IM John-Paul Wallace - a great coach and friend, whose fateful decision to work with a beginner for the first time is one I'll never be able to fully repay.

One of the best pieces of advice JP ever gave to me and my Mum (Dianne) was that it was critical for me to start playing adult tournaments as soon as possible. After scoring 5/11 in my first ever Australian Junior Championships (Under 12) as a 9-year old, my Mum and I went to our nearest chess club - the Manly Leagues club. To this day, she still speaks fondly of the seniors at Manly Leagues (and later, Norths Chess Club) as my 'chess uncles'.

The Side Bets

As I entered the club for the first time, many of the members were making side bets of how long I would stay at the club. '1 week', '3 weeks', 'a month max', you name it. Keep in mind, this is before it became normal for juniors to play adult tournaments in Australia at the start of their development as players.

Part of whether you'll achieve your goal comes down to whether you're in the right room. The encouragement of the adults there, along with the opportunity to play nearly all higher-rated opponents each week in the early stages of my development, proved that I was right where I needed to be at this time.

Applying One Of JP's Lessons (Solution Spoiler)

In one of my very first lessons with John-Paul Wallace, he taught me the Benko Gambit against 1.d4. But I was a stubborn student, and didn't feel comfortable with sacrificing a pawn out of the opening. So he taught me the King's Indian, an opening which didn't always work out for me, but, as JP (and later, GM Ivan Saric) put it - it taught me a heck of a lot about what winning chess looks like.

There are many good 'normal' moves like, like 11...Qa5, or flicking in 11...h6 first - even today, I remind my students that it's almost always at least slightly useful to put the question to the bishop.

But I applied that Benko lesson in a different setting, and realized that 11...b5! would be a promising gambit, as White's pieces are placed much worse than usual, and the a1-h8 diagonal is exposed. Even though the engine doesn't see the difference, my move has the advantage of exerting pressure on the opponent right away - and he cracked.

How The Game Went

Instead of trying to stem the bleeding with 12.Rc1, Accola played 12.cxb5 axb5 13.Nxb5, grabbing the pawn. (Note that 13.Bxb5 loses material to the 13...Qa5 fork, as after 14.Bxd7 Nxd7, the c3-knight is decisively pinned). But here my lack of tactical puzzle solving (and simply inexperience) showed, as I played the 'thematic' 13...Qa5 I learned from my Benko lesson, not applying one of the 'Illingworth principles' of observing what squares are left behind by the opponent's last move.

Here's how the full game played out:

As you can see, it was a back and forth game that I should have lost, but my opponent ran out of time before he could checkmate me, leading to a draw (as I had no mating material).

Can You Do Better? (Spoiler Alert For This 2nd Puzzle)

Had I looked at what squares were left behind by 13.Nxb5, I might have found 13...Ne4!, winning material.

Not only is the a1-rook attacked with ...Bxa1, but I also threaten to win a piece with ...Bxf3 and ...Nxg5. (and if you are wondering about 14.Rc1 Bxf3 15.gxf3 Nxg5 16.h4 to regain the piece, I have a final tactic of 16...Nxf3! to overload the e2-bishop and be up a piece anyway after 17.Bxf3 Rxb5).

Here's the solution in the Study format, for those who need the board to follow along:

Credit to you if you put in the effort to play through or visualize the variations - you're one of the real ones.

I have thousands more chess stories like this one. Let me know in the post thread how this one made you feel.