Becoming a National Master

Hello everyone, welcome back to my 11th blog post! This is the 10th and final volume of my Road To Master series.

As you can probably tell, I did become a National Master. Depending on when you're reading this blog, I might or might not have the title on my profile already. Hopefully, it will be there soon if it's not there yet. I'll be taking you through the tournament where I achieved this title.

From March 29th to April 1st, I played in the premier section of the 2024 Canadian Zonal. For those who don't know, the Zonal is Canada's most prestigious tournament that happens once every two years. To play in the "prestigious" section, you have to have a CFC rating of 2200 or a FIDE rating of 2000. Unfortunately, I played a tournament two weeks before Zonal and dropped under 2200, so I was only able to play in the premier section of the general sections open to the public. The premier was a 7-round Swiss, with a time control of 90 minutes from move 1 plus 30 seconds increment, with an additional 30 minutes at move 40. Heading into this tournament, I was 2184 CFC rated and 1944 FIDE rated. A lot has happened in my recent tournaments that I haven't blogged about, but long story short, I needed one more norm (2300+ CFC performance rating) as I already had two. Since I already hit 2200 previously, I didn't need to worry about the rating anymore.

Round 1: Learning From Our Mistakes

My first-round opponent was Nicolae Oancea, who was 1954 CFC and 1834 FIDE rated. Nicolae isn't an unfamiliar opponent; I played him back in round 5 of the 2022 Toronto Closed, as well as two weeks prior to this game! I beat him back in 2022 as well as in our encounter a couple of weeks ago. What was interesting was we played quite a rare line two weeks ago where I slightly messed up the opening around move 15, but I studied that game and was ready to make an improvement if I ever happened to get that line on the board again. I had the White pieces in our encounter this time around.

Well, well, well. He did go into the same line we played a couple of weeks before. I think I surprised him with 15.fxe3 since it looks like a weird move, but from my analysis, I learned it's objectively the best, and 15.Qxe3 was inferior. I'm assuming he was ready to make an improvement of his own on 15.Qxe3, so I'm glad I was able to change up the game one move before then.

Round 2: Pawn Grabber 

This round, I was up against Ashwin Chunchu, who was rated 1991 CFC and 1842 FIDE rated. Even though I wasn't doing any specific opening preparation for this event (I've grown out of that stuff), I was feeling pretty good about my chess form from round 1, so I was confident heading into this one. I had the Black pieces.

Another clean win! I know the opening looks weird for Black, but it's actually Shankland's recommendation in his Classical Sicilian LTR on Chessable, if anyone's interested. It was strange my opponent just gave up that pawn early in the game; all I had to do was try to simplify everything. It was on the easier side of games for sure, but I'll take it! It helps conserve energy for the later rounds.

Round 3: The Fight For 1st

I was on a score of 2/2 heading into round 3, along with a few other guys. These are the rounds when people can really take over a tournament. On paper, I should beat 1900s more times than not, but now I was facing players closer to my rating. If I wanted to continue to play stronger guys, I had to score well here. In round 3, I was playing NCM Derek Wang, who was 2132 CFC and 1977 FIDE rated - I had the White pieces.

Pretty clean overall. This game was pretty much decided through the opening; I guess that's the benefit of playing a more rare opening. After this round, I was leading the event with 2 other guys tied for first out of 53 players.

Round 4: Toughest Game Yet

This round, I was facing Vadim Razin, who was 2477 CFC and 2360 FIDE rated. For some reason, he doesn't have a title, but he was the second-highest-rated player in the field behind a Grandmaster. It doesn't matter who's on the other side of the board, though; all that matters is making good moves.

I guess a draw is alright, but I still feel a little sour about this game. I had a chance to take an advantage in the middlegame but missed it. I did see the line, just misevaluated it. I tried hard to find even a sliver of reason to keep playing, but there really is just nothing for me in that end position.

Round 5: NM vs NM

In round 5, I faced NM David Filipovich, who was rated 2120 CFC and 1933 FIDE. He took a half-point bye in round 3, so David, Vadim, and I remained tied for first place with 3.5/4. I had the Black pieces, so a win would be huge here.

Well, I got lucky here! Thankfully, I escaped with just a draw. It could have easily been a loss. I was doing really well but it sort of fell apart somehow. I had the right idea with this Nxb3 tactic, but didn't see the best continuation after. I think I was too focused on getting proper piece coordination when I should've just shoved my A-pawn up the board without thinking.

Round 6 & 7?

After a lot of consideration, I decided to take two byes for the last two rounds. In order to achieve a norm, you have to have a performance rating of 2300 CFC, but you have to also play 5 games minimum in the tournament. At the current moment in the tournament, I had a 2375 performance rating, so I decided it was the best course of action to stop here. Originally, I had intended to finish the tournament, but I decided there will always be more tournaments and I'd regret it for a while if I threw the performance rating.

Final Thoughts & Comments:

In the five games I played, I finished 4/5 while remaining undefeated. A pretty solid showing, one I'm happy with. In my recent tournaments, I had been getting quite close to a norm, with performances in the high 2200s and such. I could sense it was getting close, and this was the tournament I broke through the 2300 requirement. In four years of chess, two years of OTB tournaments, and ten blogs in this series, I finally hit master! 2229 CFC, 2004 FIDE, and 3 NM norms. This does sadly bring this series to an end, but I hope to continue blogging perhaps about chess improvement or maybe my future chess aspirations? Who knows.

Thank you to everyone who has followed and read my blogs; it means a lot to me. I'm glad I could walk down this journey with all of you! It isn't over yet though... until next time!