Rust is toxic.
Mark came back. Don came back. I managed to cajole, plead, harass Tom, Mark & Don until they relented. Now Tom plays a bit (couple tournaments a year), but Don and Mark both were returning to tournament chess after a prolonged absence. Therefore, they were bound to be rusty --- couple that with 3 days and 6 rounds of chess, fatigue will set in and blunders will come. For Don, his inaccuracies were early but he managed to shake off the rust after the first couple rounds. For Mark however, he had the opposite problem as his mistakes came in the last round. Unfortunately they also came late and they came big. Fortunately, my fatigue was relatively mild and was less apparent than my opponents’, especially in the last round.
Who killed the heat?
I guess the global recession has hit hotel chess scene as the Main Ballroom of the Hilton was a decidedly balmy 50 degrees on Saturday noontime. I can understand the rational: billions of little heat producing chess machines all in one space will challenge any air conditioning system. However, even a couple hours into Round 1, the temperature had not climbed one iota and I was still shivering like a little kitten in a room full of Rottweilers. However, by the end of the tournament things had returned to normal as Sunday & Monday were much more tropical climes as the Air conditioning gods had decided to frequent other places. Thankfully I had donned my customary short sleeved shirt and was able to adapt.
Theme: Sit on them until they give you things
If you have read my post from last year’s USATE, you know that USATE has this species of murderous IM-trained little chess thugs who love to slay the older generation. You will also know that I fare a bit better than most of the older generation as I have adapted to defeat these nefarious mini-giant killers.
My guiding principles are simple:
One - don’t go tactical on these kids (it is a death sentence FOR YOU)
Two - steer toward the endgame (kids don’t know squat about endgames. Endgames are boring, they hate them).
Three - sit on them until they give you things. Trust me it works every time.
For example, Don played one of these little minions from hell in Round 5. They blitzed through 17 moves of the Ruy Lopez Marshall Attack. The kid took all of 3 minutes for those 17 moves. THAT IS CRAZY.
Give up on 1. e4. Throw it away. 1.Nf3 is the antidote. Even Tom who has never played 1.Nf3 in his life tried it without any prior preparation against a kid only 100 points lower rated. Now admittedly he only drew, but he had all the play, was a whole hour ahead on the clock and stated afterwards that it was the easiest game he had played all tournament.
Scenes to a cheat
True story. I heard this antidotally, but from a trusted source. In the final round of the tournament, one of my friend’s teams was playing a kids team. He finished pretty quickly and sat down to watch one of his teammates play and subsequently noticed that the opponent’s father was standing behind his teammate. He thought it odd but initially gave it no mind. But as the game went on he noticed that the kid would look to his father quite a bit and that his father seemed to be making hand gestures. He summoned the TD and a major brouhaha ensued outside as the father – in broken English – claimed he had the right to “coach” his son while denying that he was giving his son advice on moves. Unfortunately because my friend did not quietly tell the TD, who could then observe the behavior, the TD could do little except expel the father from the playing hall. Unbelievable that this kind of behavior would occur, especially at a “fun” tournament like Amateur teams.
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