Western Pacific Open 2010

In April, I played in another “big” tournament of Western Pacific Open, just like the Agoura Western Class Championship in March. And once again I signed up at the last minute on the second day of the tournament. I was debating on open section with strong experts and experienced masters or the premier section. I finally chose the Premier because that was the section I won in Agoura. Maybe I let my superstition* got hold of me. This important decision was actually made a couple hours before the tournament at breakfast.

* Here is My dictionary of the word “superstition”:
1. Only using certain pens against lower-rated opponents, and different pens against higher-rated opponents. I had “discovered” that black ink is luckier than blue ink when I was 9 year-old.
2. Believing that if you chew a certain amount of gum for a certain amount of time, your opponent will blunder. (He did hang a knight).

Regarding the tournament, I played in the 2-day option just like in the Western Class Championships, since by the time I made my choice, the 3-day players had finished their first round. The tournament was located in the L.A.X. Hilton, a nice place, but a bit loud, considering all the airplanes taking off so close by. The schedule was basically the same as Agoura, with the same time control, except the sections were different. Also, I suspect that there were a lot less people at this tournament than Agoura because the prize fund on the flyer (and everyone knows that’s not going to be real) was half of the prize fund on Agoura’s flyer (well, you can only go down so much from the 1.4 gram offered if enough people played).
Anyways, back to my tournament. The first round started at 10:30 am, I played a younger boy with very promising future. In the game, he was keeping his position together well. I played carefully, and finally, he made a mistake. I caught his error and proceeded to win the game. The boy later on won the rest of his games in the tournament.

In the second game, I was surprised to be paired against a 1500 gentleman who had upset a 300-point higher rated in the first round. He played a good opening, and I should mention that when we got into the late opening or early middle game, an alarm in the hotel was apparently set off. It was quite annoying, and its pattern of beeping changed every 30 seconds or so. Many players were so bothered that they paused the clocks. For me, when going to a school, I was used to very loud all the time. I learn to block out noise. This technique becomes extremely useful during my lunch period (for crying out loud, do people have to be so loud that you have to shout to hear yourself?), and apparently, in the Hilton LAX. Used to very loud atmospheres, the alarm was completely tame. In fact, I found myself tapping my foot to the rhythm of the beep, beep, beep…A laugh came from the players as we gave up waiting 10 minutes for the alarm to turn off. We turned their clocks back on, and the alarm beep, beep, beep, beep, BEEP! I wouldn’t be surprised if someone passed out right then. (No one did, so I could not be a witness of CPR in the works.) Back to the game, shall we? By the time the alarm stopped, I was a pawn up. Eventually, I converted this advantage into a win.

I knew my third round would be pretty darn tough. I was on the top board against a strong and tall 15-year-old boy rated 100 points above me. I had played him once and won on a “cheap” tactic. The round started comfortably, that was, until I sacrificed unsoundly. Being a piece down, I played aggressively and threw everything at his king, with 13 strong moves. My opponent panicked and blundered, losing a rook and a pawn. In despair, he resigned. It was a lucky game.

That was the end of Saturday’s games. The next morning I found that there was another player with perfect scores in my section: a talented boy who was rapidly moving up the rating charts at the cheetah pace of (70 points per month) in the last 12 months. When I played him I was not aggressive and got a closed position in a rook-pawn endgame. I drew my game.

In the 5th and last game in the later afternoon, I knew I had to win since there were 5 3½ pointers at the top. I played an older gentleman whom I had previously drawn with. But when the game began, I somehow became very reckless, losing a piece early on, which forced me to attack and get back in the game. I first got the material back, then started my pawn and piece storming. The attack proved victorious.

After I ended my game on the top board, I turned my attention to the 2nd board, where 2 ladies competing for the top price. One was Liz Taylor, IM Tim Taylor’s wife, who doesn’t blunder easily, and the other was Simone Sobel, the stronger Simone. They were very thoughtful and their game lasted too long for me to watch until the end since I had to go home to get ready for school on the next day. Next morning, I found out that Simone (Sobel) had won and received 4 ½ points, just like I got. So the funny thing was in the Western Pacific Open 2010, the Premier Section was won by Simone and Simone!