Chessin' in Chinatown

Richmond Open 2022, which took place on Jan 14-16 in Richmond, B.C., was a much anticipated event—not only for me, but also for some online friends who attended, most of whom I met for the first time.

I had come back from another out-of-town tournament a week prior, at which I scored a measly 1.5/5. The road trip was enjoyable and I'm glad I attended it for the experience, but anyone who has travelled regularly to chess tournaments know the sinking, hopeless feeling of training hard for an event only to be let down by the chess gods. Even worse, just prior to that I lost a game to a 1600 at my local club, costing me 30 rating points, the absolute maximum. My play at the time was fairly indicative of my form, and considering the fact that I did not do nearly as much studying and conditioning as I could have done, I cannot exactly say my performances were undeserved. As such, I had very little expectations for Richmond, despite being the fourth-highest seed—If I had performed poorly for the second consecutive tournament, at the very least I could deem the trip worthwhile solely for the social interactions, though my bank account would beg to differ.

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A total of 145 players participated in the 5-round event—roughly a third being first-timers—an unsurprising outcome, being the first major tournament on the mainland of the great province of British Columbia in nearly two years. There were three sections in all and most of my buddies (a few of them unrated, but with lots of online experience) joined me in the Premier. I'm one who usually dislikes playing my friends in OTB events, as there would likely be a larger focus on artificial preparation rather than actual chess, but considering the circumstances, it was quite likely I'd face one of them at some point. I'd be fortunate not to come back home with a rating loss.

A Slow Start

Being that the average rating of the Premier section was quite a bit lower than my and my friends' strength, it came as little surprise that most of us emerged from the first two rounds with 2/2. Myself, I faced a 1700 and an 1800 and won with relative ease, albeit with a few hiccups. Since mine weren't especially interesting, I'll showcase a couple of nice games of my buddies from the two rounds:

Starting off, we have a 14-move miniature victory in the Petrov. Both sides played a reasonable setup in a mainline, but White made a grave calculation error with the intermezzo attempt 14.Qxb7?? which fails immediately to the simple 14...Na4, saving the knight and compelling immediate resignation in view of 15.Qxa8 Qd7, after which there is no defence against the threat of ...Nb6, trapping the White queen.

Next is a game from round 2 which I was able to briefly spectate in real time.

Hani, the player with the Black pieces, convincingly punished White's inaccurate move order in the f3 Nimzo with the typical tactic 9...Nxe5, winning a clean pawn and severely fracturing the opponent's structure. The one critical moment of the game was after 27...Bc4, which initially appears to blunder the bishop due to 28.Nxd6 cxd6 29.Re4, but everything works out in Black's favour. Following 30.Re4, there is 30...Qf5!, pointing out that 31.Rxc4 is not possible on account of 31...Rxb1 -+. Hani then went on to seal away the game with a mating net.

Dicey Endgames

Round 3 had me paired against a former provincial champion, and having looked through some of his games, I was prepared to meet 1.e4 with 1...e5 and enter his Four Knights Spanish. Already by move 15, he made the questionable decision to go g4 and increased twofold the number of holes in his position near his king. I was able to execute the standard ...d5 break to exploit this, and eventually my opponent cracked under the pressure and allowed me to simplify into a winning endgame with a rook and a bishop pair against his two rooks.

Not all was said and done, though—I still needed to get the right configuration for my two bishops and ensure I wasn't making too many committal pawn moves. White tried to get his kingside pawn majority rolling to cause some trouble, so I quickly reacted by pushing the d-pawn up to d3, looking to trade a pair of rooks, but it turned out to be the incorrect approach. Following 36.g6 Kf8??, White missed the tactical shot 37.Rf4! with the dual threat of Rxb4 and Rh4, which would have forced me to bail out into a draw via perpetual checks. While I was able to consolidate once more, I made yet another blunder in time pressure in the form of 48...Bb4??, but at least this time an engine-precise rook maneuver was required to swindle the half-point. White crumbled soon thereafter and I stayed on top with 3/3 heading into the final day.

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Meanwhile, on one of the other top boards was Hani defending a brutal bishop vs. knight endgame against Miller, a guy I knew from back home.

While it's possible White had a fortress from the very beginning, Black clearly wanted to push his slight edge all the way and did almost everything he could to prove it. Hani demonstrated near-flawless technique and great resistance as he countered all of his opponent's ideas to infiltrate his position. On the 111th move, Miller could have tried for ...Kd4!?, further prolonging the game at no risk, but ultimately the 5-hour-long battle ended in a threefold claim as the two fighters each earned a half-point for their hard efforts.

Reversal of Fate

It was the final day of the event, with a tough two games ahead for each of the handful of players competing for 1st place. My Round 4 opponent was the top seed, Keith MacKinnon, a strong NM and junior champion in his earlier years. I prepared an f3 Nimzo for this game, anticipating the ...d5/...f5 mainline which he most recently played a few months ago, but he surprised me with a new system this time around.

MacKinnon opted for the trusty ...c5/...b5 Benko-esque approach with 6...d6, a line in which I don't have too much experience playing online, but we soon reached a familiar structure after the thematic 10.g4!?, expanding on the flank when Black has voluntarily shut down his play in the center and the queenside. Just a few moves later came the turning point—taking advantage of Black not having played for the ...f6 break earlier, I began rearranging my pieces, starting with the elusive 16.Kf2! intending Nf1-d2 next to regain my pawn. I continued to improve my pieces, including a nifty rook lift to g3, and MacKinnon eventually allowed the deflection tactic 26.a4! which allowed me to free my bad knight.

Things quickly turned dicey, though, as Black was poised to infiltrate on the 2nd and create a deadly pin on the dark-squared bishop, on pain of a mate threat on h2. However, my position was not without counterplay, for the Black knight was also hanging with the a7-pawn falling with check just behind it. Following 33...Kh8, with only a few scarce minutes left on my clock, I caught the break I needed—the hotel venue's fire alarm rang, and everyone in the playing hall exited the building.

I used this time to weigh my two options at that juncture: a) take the knight immediately, or b) first throw in some knight checks and respond accordingly. I dismissed a) in view of 34.fxg4 Rxd2 35.Qg1 hxg4+, where I wouldn't have enough pieces to shield my king from the impending checks—but it turned out I had completely missed the simple 35.gxh5!, creating an evacuation square on g4. As a result I gave knight checks on f7 and h6 just to get my other rook to f7, where it would potentially provide defence along the open f-file. When all was said and done, I had to bail out into a draw with a short combination—and to my horror, I found out soon afterwards that in reality, I was completely winning the entire time, which was the exact opposite evaluation as what I thought was the case during the game. It was not I, but Keith MacKinnon, who was compelled to bail out into a draw.

Miracle on Wood

With 3.5 of a possible 4 points, I headed into the final round sitting in shared 1st with three others, including Hani and NM MacKinnon—the fourth contestant being an older FIDE CM, who would be my next opponent. Seeing as I was in a must-win situation to have any hope of finishing on top, I stuck with my trusty weapon, the Two Knights Tango, for its second appearance in the RIchmond Open.

The above was a typical structure from this opening, which I was able to obtain as a result of my superior structural understanding. White's earlier d4-d5 push, locking the center while having doubled c-pawns, gives Black a free hand on the queenside and surrenders important squares. I took advantage of my opportunity and slowly cruised to victory via a lengthy king hunt. The technique wasn't pretty, but I got the job done nonetheless thanks to my opponent's extraordinarily poor time management—he was down to a few minutes after approximately twenty moves, and I wish I were joking.

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Upon completing my game, I eagerly awaited the result of Board 1 between Hani and MacKinnon. I expected a decisive result and to walk home splitting the first place prize. To my surprise, though, MacKinnon failed to press his great space advantage in a queenless middlegame, and the game ultimately petered out to a draw. I almost couldn't believe it myself. I had just won the Richmond Open, as the 4th seed and a non-B.C. resident. And the best part of it all? With a 2314 performance rating over the five rounds, I earned my first National Master norm. Just two more to go!