In addition to having 60 players participate in this week’s quads, SIX PLAYERS volunteered to commentate about their experience! One writer played in Section 5, one played in Section 3, two played in Section 2, and one writer played in the top section. We will, however, start in Section 10 with last week’s report contest winner Matthew Yi.
My name is Matthew and this was my second time playing in the Glen Rock Quads on 8/05/2023. I am writing to share my experience of my second game of the day (out of 3).
It started with a Sicilian defense and I was able to get myself a great position. But after that in the middlegame after my knight and rook were off the board my position fell apart and the pawn structure was ruined.
While I only had a knight and a rook and queen versus a rook rook queen I was able to put the two rooks out of use by blocking the open files and completely blocking in the rooks. I was also able to threaten numerous discovered checks that could be game changing. In the end of the middlegame I was able to trade my knight for a rook and trade queens.
After that in the endgame I was able to knock out many pawns off the board and would have three passed pawns, but it wouldn’t be that easy. My opponent had 2 advanced pawns that were heading for my lonely 1 pawn and couldn’t be stopped easily. I checked my opponent’s king, and he made the unfortunate mistake of stepping into the checkmate of his king. My rook slides over to where his king cannot escape, and the game is over.
It was fun, I liked the challenging battles with my opponents and trying to come back from a bad position.
Yesterday was full of excitement. I won all three of my games in my quad (Section 5) but in my opinion, my game against Evan was the most fun and intense. After two rounds, Evan had 1.5/2 and I had 2/2. We knew that the outcome of our match would determine the quad winner.
The opening we played was the Indian Defense, with Evan opting for the Bb4+ line. I knew this line well, as we had played it many times before. Next, Evan went for the outpost on b3 with his knight to try and fork my pieces. After trading pieces, Evan blundered a couple of pawns which gave me the advantage in the middlegame. But for some reason, I blundered back and Evan equalized with b5 protecting the pawn and gaining some queen side space. Soon, I doubled my rooks on the d - file to try and get my rooks to the seventh rank. As Evan tried to copy me, he blundered a deadly tactic of Nxb5 as my knight is attacking his knight and queen and if he takes the knight, he loses his rook on d7. After threatening his queen and checkmate, Evan resigned as I finished an extremely exciting game which decided the championship. Overall, Evan and I both played a decent game but Evan blundered a pawn early in the game and there was too much pressure that eventually I found a winning tactic which ended the game.
The tournament atmosphere was fantastic, with minimal distractions and a focused environment. It was also a treat to see the coaches Ethan and Steven from my Teaneck chess camp. I feel reinvigorated about in-person chess tournaments and I can't wait to compete in the next one. I learned a lot from this tournament, and I'm eager to continue improving.
In my first match of my tournament in section 3, I played someone named artem and since he is higher rated than me I knew it would be a very difficult game. I still tried my hardest and broke down his position by taking advantage of his weak isolated pawn. Because he had this weakness I was able to take it and then from there on it was smooth sailing. In my second game I played a 1500 and was losing in the endgame. But thankfully he gave me a chance and I took it and win the game with a huge comeback. In my last game I won a piece early in the game and was winning the entire match, but unfortunately because of time pressure I was only able to make the game a draw. In total I secured first place in my section and got my rating above 1500!
This is my child Abigail Zhou’s very first ICA tournament. We were very glad that there is a NJ transit bus that goes directly to your building from Manhattan. We also appreciate that we only need to be there without bringing our own equipment. The tournament is very well organized and very time efficient. The players are friendly scholastic players that we feel comfortable play with and learn from. We are grateful for today’s experience. I plan to send my child here for future summer camps and master lessons.
Akhil: White Hello! My name is Akhil Velampalli, a chess player who has played in many tournaments before. Although, I have never played in the ICA Academy or in a quad before. The day before, my dad and I were pondering if these quads were good, as this is a paid event. We finally decided to give it a try.
While I thought this tournament wouldn't be fun, it was amazing! It had all the featuresI personally loved about a tournament: Competition (players are hard). In this quad, I have scored 2 games out of 3. Here is one game I have won in the tournament.
Thank you for reading my first experience of this tournament and watching a game I won in the quad. I hope to see you all in the next week’s quad!
As soon as NM Yefim Treger registered, all our players from the top 2 sections registered as well: that’s the prestige he brings to our tournament. Even though Yefim took on the role of “hunted” in a difficult Swiss section, he won 2.5/3 points to take sole possession of first place! Here is his second match against Aiden Kennedy:
Congratulations to all winners: click HERE to view rating reports!
Our next Quads will be held next Saturday, August 12. Click HERE to register!
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SECTION 10 REPORT by Matthew Yi
SECTION 5 REPORT by Yujeong Yeo
SECTION 3 REPORT by Ari Lukatsky
SECTION 2 REPORT PART 1 by Abigail Zhou and her parents
SECTION 2 REPORT PART 2 by Akhil Velampalli
Abigail: Black
Round 1
Result: 1 - 0
Three games of entertaining and pressurizing chess (which is good).
Neatness (hard to concentrate with a mess around you).
Organized (hard to keep track of stuff, such as results, without organization.)
Much more…SECTION 1 REPORT by NM YEFIM TREGER
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