Road To Master - Achieving My First Norm!
Hi everyone, welcome back to my 4th blog post! Volume 4 of the Road To Master Series.
This past weekend on July 2 & 3, I competed in the 2022 Mississauga Summer Championship! This tournament was a bit smaller than my last one but this time around I played the top section, so I was facing stronger opponents. Going into this tournament I was 2000 CFC rated and 1681 FIDE rated. My one and only goal was to play good chess. I was the third lowest rated player in my section (out of 15 players) so it was a little intimidating. It was a 5 round swiss, time control was 90+30, and it was CFC (Canadian National Rating) and FIDE rated. All ratings displayed in the games will be CFC rated, but I'll always include my opponent's FIDE ratings in the little description beforehand.
Round 1: Playing For The Win
My first round opponent was CM William Li, he was 2270 CFC rated and 2126 FIDE rated. I had the Black pieces. Coming into this game I wasn't focused too much on winning, I was just trying to get in some good playing experience and play good chess.
First win! I was happy that I chose to grind out the long endgame rather than take a draw. This game was the last to finish in the playing hall, it was about 4 hours long. Luckily the arbiter gave me 30 minutes to eat something before I had to start my next round.
Round 2: A Near Perfect Game
This round I was playing against Brett Campbell who was rated 2189 CFC and 2112 FIDE. I had the White pieces this round so I decided it was a good time to push extra hard for a win.
Another win! It was a pretty good game overall in my opinion, he played a rare line with 8...a5 that I wasn't expecting. I feel like I slowly outplayed him and found slightly better ideas which made him feel the need to sacrifice a piece for two pawns. All that matters is it all worked out. Going into round 3 I was pretty energetic, ready for whoever I had to play next.
Round 3: The Perfect King's Indian
This round I got matched up against IM Ameet K Ghasi who is 2540 CFC rated and 2483 FIDE rated. On top of that I had the Black pieces so winning felt like a very hard task. On the bright side I got put on board 1 which was a DGT board, so it was a cool experience.
A draw?! I was thrilled with this result, but more importantly I felt like I played perfect chess. Maybe part of it was that he played an offbeat opening and kind of traded a lot of pieces off, but a draw is a draw. I ended the first day with a score of 2.5/3 and was excited for the next day.
Round 4: A Brutal Game
I had the White pieces against FM Nicholas Vettese this round. He was 2354 CFC rated and 2231 FIDE rated. I was pretty confident coming into today's game because of my performance the day before.
I had to wave goodbye to my great performance. This game was especially frustrating because I knew I had a fine position the entire game and it was a dead equal endgame. I just rushed on one move and that cost me the game. I had 2.5/4 heading into the final round.
Round 5: Grinding Out an Equal Endgame
For the final round I was paired against Richard Chen who was 1955 CFC rated and 1641 FIDE rated. It was a bit disappointing that I couldn't get paired with Razvan Preotu (who was also playing this event) for any of the 5 rounds, but it is what it is - I'm sure there will be more chances to play him in the future. I had the Black pieces this final round.
I used my two rooks to make the game slightly complicated and managed to pull out the win! I could tell that I was a bit fatigued this round, I didn't play the opening exactly how I wanted to play it. I made up for it in the late middlegame and endgame though so it was fine.
Final Thoughts & Comments:
I finished the tournament 3.5/5 and tied for second place with GM Razvan Preotu and FM Eugene Hua. We split the cash prize three ways, $233 each. Overall how do I think I did? It was a pretty good tournament except for that Qf5 blunder in round 4, but I learned something from that loss that I will try not to repeat in another game. My CFC performance rating was 2422 which got me my first National Master norm. I need two more norms plus a rating of 2200 to get the NM title. I don't know how to check it myself, but my friend told me that my FIDE performance rating was 2340 - that does sound about right. Ratings haven't come out yet but I'll either be 2076, 2159, or 2179 CFC rated in a week. It's complicated to figure out, I just see what CFC does. My next blog will be relatively soon, I start the Canadian Open next Tuesday. Thanks for reading another one of my blogs, until next time!
