That was the one word buzzing amongst the chess kids during March and April.  The SuperNationals was here and Nashville was the destination for many of us chess players!

To give you an idea, the SuperNationals brings together all age groups at once by combining the three National Scholastic championships for K-6, K-9 and K-12.  Like the Olympics, this is once in four-year event, and the 2013 edition was considered the largest chess tournament in the world, with 5335 participants. Definitely a special event!

After arriving in Nashville, on Thursday afternoon, and settling down in our off-campus hotel, my Dad and I headed out to the venue for the Blitz tournament.  The venue was The Gaylord Opryland.  And what a venue – lush, broad and massive!  To me, it was as if I was walking in a tropical jungle.  I could feel the more primitive side of me roaring

This was my first official USCF tournament.  The venue size and the buzz were a bit overwhelming at first.  But I adjusted quickly.  I registered for the K-12 blitz, as that would be most competitive, although I was playing the main tournament in the K-9 section.  The blitz format was 2 matches against the same opponent.  One with White pieces, the other with Black.

 As I left the hall, I reminded myself that this Blitz tournament was a ‘warm-up,’ and for me the ‘real’ tournament was tomorrow. I tossed and turned in bed that night, restless and excited and unable to sleep.  After all, who can on the night before a huge event?   The rows of glittering trophies, and the sharpest scholastic chess minds vying for them, declared the importance of the occasion.  The scope and impact of this event had dawned on me.

I’d just returned to US two weeks earlier after a hiatus of ~four years during which I was mostly living in India, but also traveling across Asia and Europe to play FIDE Chess tournaments.  To hurriedly get used to playing Chess again and that too with an interesting time control, I’d played a short tournament at Marshalls Club in New York, where my performance was subpar.  Figuring out the novel Delay time control was amusing.  Nowhere had I seen this outside US.  Some of these thoughts were going through my head as I dozed off.

When I awoke the next day, I was pumped and ready to get this party started!  The venue was  a 15-minute walk from our hotel, so we had to pace ourselves accordingly.   But it was another 15 minutes just walking within the unending Opryland campus to arrive at the playing hall.  The first day, when we rushed-in, everyone was already seated and the Chief Tournament Director Enrique Huerta was announcing the rules.  I was amazed at the impeccable organization.  I’ve played tournaments which couldn’t start on time with 20 players, and here they were managing thousands of players, while still maintaining punctuality!  As per my converted USCF rating I was the sixth seed, but by FIDE rating I was the highest rated.

The first round had me playing Christian Muraira (USCF 1700), a boy from Texas.  He played the Alekhine’s defense, which is rare nowadays.  Christian dubiously captured a pawn with his Queen, after which I got a winning position and won soon thereafter.  My first USCF tournament win!  The next round was later at 7pm, and I was playing Pranav Srihari from California, (USCF 1914).  The game was a Sicilian Grand Prix and became a slow maneuvering position.  I gradually outplayed him over time and finished the game off with a decisive tactical blow.  After the two rounds on the first day, Rest was very important, since the next day there’d be a strenuous three rounds.

Next day, in the third round I was paired with Jeffrey Chang (USCF ~2050).  I played a rare line against the Najdorf, hoping to surprise him.  Apparently, the line doesn’t seem to be rare anymore since everyone seems to know how to play against it After Jeff played an interesting pawn sacrifice at the center, a dynamic middlegame arose, and man-oh-man the mistakes never stopped.  I was overreacting to each of his moves, and at one point he missed a move to even things out.  The only positive from my side was that I was way ahead on time. Eventually, I was able to get my king out of the center (big relief).  He had about 10 minutes left with a 5-second delay, so I decided to play a provocative move which would force him to calculate and use more time.  As I expected, he went into a pawn endgame which is winning for me, but only if I was precise.  Unfortunately, I erred by moving my king out first.  It still wins, but complicates matters.  Inversing the move order by playing g4 first was simpler.  But I didn’t know then that I’d erred.  Completely oblivious that I had jeopardized the win, I sunk into deep thought. It was then it dawned on me that I’d missed the move sequence, and now I’d have to rely on a blunder from Jeff if I wanted to win.  I started advancing on the Queenside, and after b4 I expected axb4, trading down into a drawn position.  Instead, Jeff played a4??, after which I was able to win as his king can’t advance since I always have the threat of b5.  Winning a game like this was hardly satisfying, but I’ll take it.

Next round I was playing Samarth Chakrasali (USCF ~2100), and this was a much better game from my side.  I beat him in classic fashion, outplaying move by move and then transitioning to a won endgame.  In the meantime, on the top board Cameron Wheeler had drawn with Craig Hilby. This meant things were in my hands now and I had a chance to breakout.  I was on the stage now playing against Vignesh Panchanatham (USCF 2200) on board 1, who was also 4/4.  At first, I misplayed the middlegame and turned worse.  But Vignesh also misplayed and I leveled up.  I decided to trade down into a pleasant endgame where I thought I’d be able to grind him down.  But in the endgame Vignesh defended tenaciously and was able to thwart all my threats. After I’d exhausted nearly all my time, I forced a repetition and we Drew late in the night.

 I was highly disappointed with my Draw as things were no longer in my hands.  Meanwhile in other board action that night, Safal Bora had emerged as the sole leader with 5/5 and was set to play Cameron Wheeler next morning in the 6th round.  There were a bunch of us at 4 ½ points.

As I walked back to the hotel that night, I realized that the winner of this tournament would be the player who won both rounds on the final day.  That was something still under my control, and I decided to focus on that.  Also, the tournament this close doesn’t end till the last round is played.  It was midnight by the time I got back to my room, after a tiring 45-minute wait for dinner at McDonalds (so much for FAST food).

Sunday morning I arrived at the venue to play Daniel Ng (USCF 2074).  I was Black against a Rossolimo, and I must say I was very pleased with my play.  I outplayed him and won fairly easily.  It was a good start to the final day, and the win put me on 5.5/6.  I didn’t know what had happened on the first board game between Cameron and Safal.  My father suspected it may have been a Draw, and so I set myself up to play with White against Safal, since we were opposite colors.  Earlier I had observed that Vignesh overcame Kapil Chandran in the 6^th round.  So this was getting crowded.

A little after 1:45pm, the pairings came out and I learnt that Cameron had defeated Safal on the first board earlier, and now I was playing Black against Cameron.   This was a surprise pairing and a double-black, about 10-minutes before the round time.  I also learnt that I was tied for first place with Cameron and Vignesh – all of us at 5½ points.  However I had the best tiebreak, which was a full two points over Cameron and Vignesh, and also well-above the entire field.  This meant that I had got myself into a position where I controlled the outcome of the tournament.  If I won my game, the Title was mine.  If I Drew, then Vignesh had to Draw as well in order for me to win the Title.  It had come down to the final round.  One of us three would emerge as the Champion.

I was playing on Board 1 on the stage.  The game was a Neo-Catalan accepted.  On Move 9, Cameron played a4, a move which I wasn’t familiar with.  I fell behind on time, trying to decide which structure to opt for.  I decided to weaken my light squares by playing b4.  My idea was to eventually maneuver my Knight to d4.  By move 16, I had put this plan into action, which would slowly improve my position.  In my opinion, I feel Cameron may have overestimated his position and didn’t sense the danger when he played 17.e4.  This created a gaping hole on d4, which I exploited by maneuvering my other Knight to b5, to control the d4 outpost.  Cameron then made the fatal error of advancing on the kingside.  I played Bxc4! followed by e5!  I now had decisive control over the dark squares.  Shortly thereafter, I penetrated on the c-file and when he was going to get mated or lose a substantial amount of material, Cameron resigned.  I couldn’t believe it !  I’d won the K-9 SuperNational Championship.  I was America’s K-9 Champion.  As it turned out, Vignesh lost his game.  I was the sole winner with 6.5/7.

After the game Robert Wheeler, Cameron’s father, came over to congratulate me.  That was a great gesture from Mr.Wheeler.  I appreciated that greatly.  As a memento, Tournament Director Enrique Huerta graciously gave me a SuperNational V pin he was wearing on his lapel.

Going up on stage to receive the trophy was the best part.  By winning my section, I received a full scholarship to the University of Dallas (UTD) and a humongous trophy!  Lifting the trophy on the stage in front of hundreds of people was thrilling and very satisfying.  It was my first and last Supernationals, which made the Win all the more sweet and special.

After the prize distribution, I went over to congratulate some of the other high-rankers.  There was disappointment on faces of a few, and they appeared surprised at my gesture.  Thereafter, I quickly left the K-9 Championship ceremony, and headed to my room.  Then till midnight I was catching up on my homework, which had to be sent out.  I did quite a lot of it and then caught up with more at the Atlanta airport on our way home to New Jersey, where my Mom and brother eagerly awaited my arrival.  This time I was bringing home a trophy – a big one too.

To close out this post, I’d like to thank a source of inspiration, my friend whom I shall call  ”SeaB”; my Coach who has worked very hard to get me to where I am; and finally my family for always being there for me  I’d also like to thank the organizing team for their exceptional organization of the event, and hope they bid for world FIDE events like the World Youth.

Enjoy some more pictures and thanks for reading.

(I’m finally catching up on a great tournament I played last year – The Czech Open)

Pardubice!  That was our next destination.  After bidding farewell to Belgrade, we boarded the bus to Prague, Czech Republic.  The bus started at noon, and was supposed to reach Prague at 5:00 the next morning, after traveling through Hungary, Slovakia, and the Austrian  border.  That’s 17 hours of quality bus-time!   But this bus, driven by a zippy Serbian reached Prague at 1:30 in the morning, 3 1/2 hours earlier.  So there we were, standing in the middle of some road, half-awake, and no idea where we were.  Fortunately we were able to ask a person who knew English, and they gave us directions to the train station “Hlvani Nadrazi.”   With no cabs in sight, we trudged on the cobble-stone pavements of Prague towards a station that seemed to keep feeling farther away.  Fortunately, the streets of Praha, as Prague is called locally, are safe.  We finally arrived at the station around 3 am, our last few steps a little bit zippier at the thought of entering the cozy station on a nippy early morning.  As we reached the doors and pulled, we discovered that they were locked.  Hastily, we moved to the next set of doors, but with the same disappointing outcome.  We turned around in disappointment, and it started to become clear.  We saw the benches infront of the  station were occupied by travelers like us.  The station is closed around midnight and reopens at 3:30 am.  

So after finding a bench outside the station, we waited for the doors to open.   Extremely tired and disoriented, our long journey was not ending anytime soon.  After our arrival at  Pardubice train station from Praha around 7:30am, we didn’t have the local currency to purchase a bus ticket or hire a cab to the stadium.  The money changer opened at 8:30 am or 9am.  This was too much.  I was EXTREMELY tired and disoriented, and I don’t know how but I just gave up and went to sleep on a small bench.  Pictures later showed, it was quite a feat to sleep on a cramped bench.  After another 2 hours of waiting at the stadium to get directions to our hotel booked by the organizers, and another 1 mile walk or drag I should say, we finally reached the hotel at 11am.  The beds were a sight for sore eyes.  Off we went to sleep.  We woke up later in the afternoon at 4pm.  

This is the time we entered the Prague station.  And it’s AM!

When I woke up, I felt rejuvenated and we checked out the area and visited the tournament stadium.  This was like an Olympics of indoor games – many different kinds of championships around the Chess Tournament.   The best thing happened to me when I opened the door to enter the main arena.  I bumped straight into Super GM David Navara – the polite GM.  He had finished his closed-invitational tournament, and was running out as he informed us to catch a train to another tournament in Europe.  He was polite enough to allow me to have a picture taken with him, and then he was gone.  When we turned around, he was in a distance running away to make his train.  What an impressive, kind person!  He could have said NO and didn’t have to run.  But he said Yes, and then had to run to makeup!  Thanks, David – Truly a Champion!

Refreshed, we set off to explore the City & Venue

The Town Square, near our Hotel; our daily transit point

Czech Open Venue

The Open chess tournament was a 9 round, 2200 and above one, with  259 players.  I was 211th seed!  I was so far down below on the starting list, that you would have to click “Show Complete List” on chess-results.com to see my name  The games were played on yellow and brown boards, the first time I’d seen those kind.  In the first round I was paired with fellow American IM Alexander Battey rated 2398. I’d met Alex a few days earlier at my last tournament in Europe, but had never played him.  Alex was wearing dark sunglasses, and he kept wearing them throughout the game.  It wasn’t because of any hurt; so perhaps to diminish the glare from the stadium lights.  I thought he may just break into a song any moment  I was playing White.  It was a Caro-Kann, and my move Qc4 !? sharpened up the game.  I had sacrificed a pawn, but had good compensation.  Alexander misplayed it and then fell into time trouble.  I managed to win a piece, and soon after the entire game.  It felt great to start of the strongest tournament I’ve ever played till then with a victory!  And that too against an IM!  

The second round, I played a Hungarian IM who was 2480.  It was a complex Schliemann Ruy Lopez, and I was feeling rather happy about my position, before I made some peculiar moves.  I missed a way to equalize and lost.  I didn’t spend too much time brooding about  it and decided to clear my head for the next round opponent – IM Tomas Kulhanek.  IM Tomas surprised me during the opening.  I messed up after that and was in huge problems on the board and with time.  Once he opened up a second front, it was curtains for me.  The game was decisively shifting more-and-more towards the IM.  But, then he blundered and I saw a tactical shot!  Hope crept up into my heart as I played Ng3; he moved his King back and I captured his Rook.  He swung his Queen over to f4 and I desperately searched for the win, under intense time pressure.  10 seconds, 9, 8 … I quickly played a random move and lost.  I was heartbroken…crushed.  Here was a chance to make amends, and I let it slip away.  When I analysed the game I realized that I had seen the Win, but missed the sequence of moves.  It stung bad – real bad, knowing that I had missed a Win. But I couldn’t let this ruin my tournament.  I followed the rules which I had written down in my post ‘How to Recover from Tough Losses.’

Getting Ready for the Second Round. The distinctive yellow & brown chess board.

Top-seed Romanian Chess GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu.

Akshat Chandra playing with Hungarian IM Istvan Sipos in Chess R2

Akshat Chandra with IM Tomas Kulhanek in Chess R3

Akshat Chandra playing Filip Umanec in Chess R4

Akshat Chandra with WIM Havlikova Kristyna in Chess R5

Akshat Chandra with Tokmachev Mikhail in Chess R6

Akshat playing with Martin Lokander - Top Swedish U16 player; in Chess R7

My tournament went fairly well after that.  I had some nice fighting games, but in two games I missed a Draw and a Win.  I reached the last round with 3.5/8.  For the final round, I was paired with a local favorite FM Michal Novotny!  He worked in the town’s Tourism Department, and at the office he had given us some suggestions on touring the city.  What a coincidence!  Well now, it was time for Michal and I to tour the board  He played a dubious line, and I found myself with an overwhelming advantage.  I started to Pawn-storm him on the Queen-side, and just as I was about to breakthrough, I erred wtih b6.  Aaargh!  There are many a slip between the cup and the lip!  It was an intuitive move, to open the b file and attack his King.  But things weren’t so easy as I found out.  Michal defended precisely, and soon I found myself a pawn down, and no attack going.  The time on the clock read 2 minutes for me and 18 for Michal.  My time was ticking down, and I was mentally kicking myself for blowing a great position.  I finally erred on move 39, just a move before additional time control, and Michal won an exchange.  My heart sank, and I clasped my head.  But after that Michal started to play quickly, perhaps realizing a Win was coming up soon.  His fast moves gave me hope, and I tested him with a  complicated and tricky move a6.  Michal again moved quickly, and captured the Pawn with Qxa6.  He was doing what would work for me.  But just as I was about to play Ra1, I realized that his Rd6 saves the game for him, and I have nothing thereafter.  The door of hope shut again.  I really wanted to win after missing out on many better outcomes.  I sat there for 10 minutes, wishing I could make it all work.  Then it hit me.  I simply had to inverse the move order, and victory was mine !!  I played Qd8 and my heart leapt in excitement.  I was surging with confidence again.  It was like someone had recharged me.

Akshat Chandra playing WIM Maya Porat, in chess R8

Akshat Chandra playing with FM Michal Novotny at the Czech Chess Open 2012 ; R9

Michal, realizing his blunder, smiled and resigned.  I felt his resignation was a bit premature, but I’ll take it  Michal was a very good sport about it and congratulated me.  A big smile broke out at the board, and it sunk in that I had just won a game from a hopeless position.  As Siegbert Tarrasch said, “Nobody ever won a game by resigning.”  I’d to keep trying.  The win pulled me up to 4.5/9, and I finished with +28 ELO rating points.  It was definitely a memorable finish to this strong tournament, and a game I’ll always remember.  Michal from Pardibice Tourism was kind enough to post a video of the game online.  I’ve linked that video at the top of this post.

Thereafter, we spent a few days in Praha.  It’s called a city of Towers and Bridges for a reason.  It’s one of the most beautiful cities we saw on our trip – rich in architecture and culture – a legacy of so many rulers from different empires over the centuries.  If you get a chance, do Play Czech Open in Pardubice and do Visit Praha!

Outside the Stadium Venue. Trying our Luck with Giant Chess Pieces.  Aditya and Akshat Chandra

Checking out Pardubice

Near our hotel.  Hey, pretty peacock! Careful with my fingers; I need’em for my Chess pieces  :-)

At close quarters.  Becoming more friendly

>>>>>> STAY TUNED FOR THE SUPERNATIONALS POST !! >>>>>>

After the Italian leg, it was time to go to Serbia!  

Serbia, here I come !

Serbia is a special place for Chess.  Everyone appears to know chess.  Even the cab drivers talk about chess.  Serbia is no longer the force it used to be in Chess.  The war, newer job opportunities, and the present slow economy (as I was told) has taken its toll.  I learnt there is much less government support for the chess game now.  But Chess lives in Serbian hearts.  At one time Serbia had the highest ratio of Chess Grandmasters (GM)/Population of any country.  I visited Belgrade, and then headed out to Novi Sad for the “3rd International Chess Championship of Vojvodina 2012.”  We stayed near the market square area.  It’s a rectangular-shaped area with a beautifully constructed soaring Gothic architecture Church at one end, accompanied with many old-style elegant architecture buildings around the rectangle.  Well, I liked the section of Novi Sad where we stayed.  It’s pretty, plenty of restaurants, and attracts a lot of young people in the evenings – it’s a popular meeting area.  This part of the city is alive with parties going strong all night till early hours of the morning.  And if a soccer game or a tennis match featuring the popular Serbian tennis ace Novak Djokovic is going on, then the noise gets real loud.  Restaurants put out tables and chairs in the promenade with big television screens, and everyone has a blast.  English is not widely spoken, but you always end up finding someone who could talk sufficient English. 

Nice and Warm – Novi Sad

God, I look like a duck in this

The Waving Two!

The chess tournament was held in a medical college on the street, Gagarinova, named after the famous Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space.  Days were real hot as Summer was at its peak.  The ratio of higher to lower rated chess players wasn’t fantastic from my standpoint, but if you could beat the lower rated you were rewarded with a higher rated opponent the next round (most of the time).  My ELO was 2155 in this tournament.  In the first round, I was paired with a local boy Grcic Vukasin, a young 9 year old player.  His father was also playing, and was on the next board.  During the game, my opponent kept smiling at me and was moving quite fast.  So I inferred that he has some preparation in this Opening and knows what he’s doing.  For all I know he may be a local chess legend and has seen it all.  So that thought made me quickly get pinned to the chair, and I focused hard, gaining an advantage and fairly quickly finishing the game with a striking blow.  When we were recording the chess result, Grcic again smiled big and I realized that he was just a friendly guy.  His father told me later, that since I was a fairly high-rated youngster, my opponent was just excited and happy to play with me and wanted me to be his buddy (even though my buddy didn’t speak any English).  It was Grcic’s first rated chess tournament.  :o)

Chess Tournament Begins.  Round 1 – Akshat Chandra and the merry Grcic Vukasin. I give the cameraman, the “Death Stare”

In R2, I was paired with IM Dejan Leskur and it was an uneventful Draw.  Next was Vladimir Klasan, a 2345 Elo rated player.  This game was absolutely nuts and very long.  I got a superior position out of the Opening.  But then I surrendered the advantage with one weak move that shifted the initiative to Vladimir.  It cost me a Pawn, but I was confident that I can turn the tables on Vladimir as he was getting into time trouble.  I sacrificed another Pawn to proceed into an endgame, where my King was extremely active with chances of a mating net while the opponent’s pieces were uncoordinated.  As I had anticipated, Vladimir blundered and I went on to further simplify the game.  I began tightening my grip on the game, and was an exchange up.  It was 2 pawns for Vladimir Vs my Knight and a Pawn.  Right then the blunder came – this time it was mine.  I had to stop Vladimir’s Pawn immediately, two squares from Queening, and then move the King.  Instead I reversed the sequence.  Consequently, his Pawn became a square away from Queening and I’d to devote my Knight to guard the Pawn.  The right sequence was to block first and then move my King to defend my white Pawn on 5th rank.  I played on for quite some time trying to hope for a mistake from him, but it was almost impossible to make one.  I had just blown the game!  Not the first time, and it a’int going to be the last.  Had to move on – Chess teaches you that.  I settled for a disappointing Draw .   A tiring game!  

Waiting for the opponent! Chess Pieces on the ready

Here he is!  Akshat Chandra and IM Dejan Leskur playing Chess R2.

Waiting and smiling while I can.  Akshat Chandra and Vladimir Klasan waiting to begin Chess Round 3

Akshat Chandra and Vladimir Klasan. It was a 5-hour long Chess game!

Akshat Chandra and Vladimir Klasan.  The Final Position! Chess Chief Arbiter IA Boban Milojevic signed the sheet.

In the 4th round I was paired with GM Goran Kosanovic.  I was better out of the Opening, but I didn’t attack.  I kind of just developed and waited for him to create some weaknesses.  We went into a chess endgame where I was completely passive.  It might have been tenable, but after 2 hours I just gave up.  It was disappointing, since I didn’t really put up a strong fight.  The next round was with a lower rated, ELO 1975, and I won that without any issues.  In the 6th round, I played with a local chess player Nenad Dimitrijevic, who had an ELO of 2255.  I tried to complicate the game for him by sacrificing a Pawn for open lines on the queenside – kind of like the Volga Gambit chess idea.  But it wasn’t enough and after exchanging all the queenside pawns, we simplified into a 4 Vs 4 rook endgame and Drew.  The next round I got paired with a 1795, which was really surprising and disappointing since I was expecting a higher-rated chess player.  There was not much to do that morning in terms of preparation.  So I just walked around with my Dad around the city, and then showed up to play.  It was a fairly comfortable win.  

Akshat Chandra and GM Goran Kosanovic in Chess Round 4

Akshat Chandra playing Dragan Milisevic in Chess Round 5, and being observed by friend Magnus

Akshat Chandra and Nenad Dimitrijevic in Chess Round 6. You can see Andrew Stone from England next to me. Andrew is a teacher and a strong chess player who had braved the Serbian Summer to play here.

Deep Chess Thinking, but couldn’t breakout. Akshat in round 6.

Akshat beating the Novi Sad July heat!

In the penultimate round, I was paired with a Chess FM Milenko Pucarevic.  Milenko showed up in a straw hat and a blue sleevelet, and I nicknamed him “Cowboy.”  Milenko started the Chess game with a 1.b4 opening!  Now that was really surprising.  Milenko sacrificed a pawn early on and then couldn’t get his compensation.  I had to be very careful, and after some accurate calculations I built my position up and finally lassoed Milenko.  It was a fun win!  The chess tournament was coming to an end, and in the final round I was paired with IM Lazar Nestorovic.  He surprised me in the opening.  I began to play quite weirdly, as I was desperate for some play.  IM Lazar made a mistake in the middlegame, and that put me a bit ahead.  But he had two Bishops, which were not be compromised that day.  Without a compelling advantage, I didn’t have much choice but to repeat moves.  My final chess game of this tournament was a Draw.

Akshat Chandra and FM Milenko Pucarevic ‘Cowboy’ in Chess Round 8

The final game of the Chess tournament - Akshat Chandra playing IM Lazar Nestorovic

Not much of a chance to breakout.  This Chess game ended in a Draw

I finished the tournament with 6/9, which was good enough to get me a runner-up prize in the U16 section.  I got a chess set, and a FIDE digital timepiece (from a Blitz edition earlier).  Not a bad haul, I would say .  It was time to move on.  The next morning my Dad and I took the bus back to Belgrade, where we met my brother and Mom – after close to 2 months.  It felt really good meeting them.  If you ever happen to be in Belgrade, do take a quick trip to Novi Sad church square.  You’ll like it.

Akshat Chandra with Chief Organizer GM Sinisa Drazic (behind me), receiving the Chess Tournament Prize for U16

Midnight Chess Blitz session with Chief Arbiter IA Boban Milojevic with Nikola watching us. Boban is a good chess player and a good arbiter

My first round chess opponent and now buddy, Grcic

Akshat Chandra with Miriam, chess organizer, who used to often drop-us off at our hotel after late night games. Everyone was great.

Akshat sharing smiles with Branislav Popovic and Nikola Blagojevic,  who were staying in the same hotel

Coming soon to your TV – the Fab 4! Can you spot me?  :-)

These billboards are filled with cool guys!

The final chess tournament of my European Summer 2012 trip was in the small city of Branau Am Inn, Austria.  The weather was great during early August.  The great thing about the Braunau Open Chess Tournament was its high concentration of chess Grandmasters (GMs) – most of the higher rated players above me were GMs!  The organizers should be credited with being able to attract 9 GMs and 4 International Masters (IMs), out  of a total of 40 players.  This is what attracted me to this chess tournament – the opportunity to play some highly-experienced and titled players.  I must say the experience was great!  Although I played with only 3 GMs and not more, that was my mistake.  

Here starts the first chess round -  Akshat Chandra and Dr. Stefan Berger

The first round was with a local opponent who had a lower ELO, but was quite strong and it definitely wasn’t an easy game.  In the next round, I played with Indian GM Neelotpal Das.  I was playing White.  We went into a line which I was fairly comfortable with and after shuffling the pieces around for a while I moved further into a line of attack which looked quite promising.  After all, who doesn’t like advancing pawns towards the opponent’s King  GM Das offered me a Draw and I realized that my line of attack was not going to materialize into anything concrete as he had adequate counterplay.  After a 20-minute think, I accepted the Draw offer.  A self-analysis later in my room confirmed this with a 0.00 evaluation.  

Next round I was up against the Senior World Chess Champion GM Vladimir Okhotnik. Oldest vs Youngest!  There was a lot to play here for.  

Akshat Chandra and GM Vladimir Okhotnik.  The game was watched by the Deputy Mayor Sonja Loeffler,  organizer Gerhard Berger, and Addy (white Tees)

GM Okhotnik misplayed the opening and I had a dominating advantage.  Unfortunately, I missed the win and messed up the middle-game.  Oh, how painful it was.  Anyhow, we went into a rook endgame which I misplayed again (not good), but luckily I managed to reach Philidor’s position which is like the elementary ABC of rook endgames.  I was relaxed now since I knew this was a Draw, and the Phildor position in Chess is something which a player at my level knows fairly comfortably.  But I didn’t realize there is an impulsive child lurking in my head.  I just wanted to get the game over with now, since it was a straight-forward Draw.  The first mistake was when I moved my Rook away from the 6th rank – oh, how impulsive.  That vaporized the chance of a simple Draw.  The easiest way for a Draw was just to leave the Rook on the 6th rank.  When GM Okhotnik placed his rook on the 6th rank, I moved my King up without thinking.  Yes, without thinking!  Really, this was a weak and silly move, as I assumed I would still be able to hold the Phildor position.  I just didn’t think.  The GM’s King came back to where it was and suddenly it hit me that I had  committed a serious error of judgement.  Psychologically I broke down.  That breakdown was the second mistake, because there was still an opportunity to Draw if I had stayed calm.  Even though things were now a bit complicated, a Draw was still possible.  I just didn’t realize the possibility, and unfortunately resigned.  Extremely crushing since it was such a golden opportunity, and I wasn’t outplayed by GM Okhotnik.  I went from a potential Win, to a straight-forward Draw, to a devastating Loss.  I wanted to highlight this game because there were lots of lessons I learnt from this one chess game.  The Game A’int Over Till We Give Up.  Perhaps some fellow chess players who read can avoid the composure mistakes that I made.  

Thereafter, everything was a bit of struggle.  Was it fatigue of being out on-the-road for many weeks or just a tired mind after a crushing loss.  Perhaps a combination.  My Chess was not sharp anymore.  Next round I barely managed to beat a lower rated – the win felt good because I could bounce back.  I then played GM Sergey Kasparov.  Unfortunately I couldn’t prevail – I wasn’t calculating deep enough and missing things which I shouldn’t have overlooked.  It was getting hard to even think deep.  In other words, the message was clear – it was time to rest and recharge.

Johann Maierhofer playing with Akshat Chandra. I missed a clever move by him.  He had been requesting Draws  and my slip-up gave him a Win.  Well, good for him.

I muddled through the rest of the tournament with some uninspiring games.  The final tournament of my European trip was not the going-out-with-a-bang kind.  Despite my tournament not going well, it was a good experience overall.  

The organizers, Norbert Fruhauf and Gerhard Spiesberger were very helpful and polite, and were always ready to assist us.  It felt like so many people of this small-town got involved, including the families of organizers, in order to make this tournament a great success.  Braunau had never seen such a high-level tournament before, and the organizing team did a wonderful job.  They made the city proud.  I would strongly recommend and hope that they continue this wonderful tournament in future years.  It’s not easy to do such a big tournament in a small town, and of course it means a lot of hard work.  But it was an outstanding tournament.

Akshat Chandra and Aditya ‘Addy’ Chandra with organizers Norbert Fruhauf and Gerhard Spiesberger.  Well Done Norbert and Gerhard!

I and my family left for Munich thereafter for sometime, and eventually headed home.  Many of my friends from Europe have been in touch.  A few of them played in the World Olympiad in Turkey in Aug-Sep 2012.  I wish them luck!

As a side note, we had a bad experience at the local Hotel Neussl also called Hotel AM Theater Park.  So if you ever go to Braunau, do not stay at Hotel AM Theater Park or Hotel Neussl – it’s a crazy place.

The trophies were beautiful

GM Panchanathan Magesh Chandran – the tournament winner. His style of play – it ain’t over till the last game.

With little Ms. Berger (Caroline, I think that’s how you spell it   - isn’t she sweet like a strawberry

With the kind and helpful Berger family

It’s me, Akshat, with GM Medvegy Zoltan and WFM Emese Balogh. Emese was so kind and wonderful to us throughout the tournament.

Brothers – Akshat and Aditya

Aditya ‘Addy’ playing with Helmut Stohr

Getting ready to play blitz – the genial GM Magesh vs Akshat.

Merrymaking in Munich!  Akshat and Aditya.

Next stop after Ortisei … Forni Di Sopra!  Forni Di Sopra is a small, lush village, located in the Dolomite region.  It’s very scenic with open views, and a beautiful place for a Chess tournament.  The ride to Forni Di Sopra from Ortisei itself was quite scenic and I must say long – we changed 4 trains in different cities.  

Took 4 trains to get to Forni from Ortisei

Captivating scenery during the train rides

Once we settled into our wonderful hotel, my Dad and I would bike up into the hills and soak in the serenity.  I’d collect my thoughts and try to visualize my chess game.  It was very peaceful, and gave me a unique sense of power.  The best part of the biking trip was coming downhill (guess, the worst part ) on the curvy road.  Although, I did have a scary moment when at a blind curve a deer jumped from thick tree cover right in-front of my bike.  I don’t know who was more alarmed – the deer or me.  But I bet we were both glad we could go our own ways without getting hurt.  And I didn’t fall off my bike, although I did go zig-zaggy for a few yards.  Phew!  

Enjoying the beautiful surroundings

Coming Uphill.  During downhill I had the Deer encounter

Well, after this wild & exciting encounter, things got even more exciting as the Chess tournament got underway.  For me the first game was the only one of real significance in this chess tournament.  The round was to begin at 4pm, and the first round pairings were posted at the venue about 3:45pm, 15 minutes before.  I was to play Black against GM Korneev Oleg (2585).  I took a quick look at his chess games and went over in my head on what I will like to do.  I entered the hall at 4pm, and quickly stole a look again at the Chess pairing list to confirm my table number.  What!  The pairing had been changed and now I was playing as White against GM Pavel Tregubov (2595) from Russia.  My first thought was Wow – I got an almost 2600 rated GM.  The highest rated player I’ve played so far.  Then I realized that I had the wrong game plan in mind for the pairing and color had been changed at the very last minute.  Kind of shocking.  Well, there was no time to look over any chess games or develop a new plan, and so I tried to keep a cool mind as I walked to table #2.  GM Pavel Tregubov was the second seed in the tournament.  As I sat down, I found myself in good company.  Next to me was the top seed on Table #1, GM Ivan Salgado Lopez from Spain.  So I was in great company with the top seed next to me and the second seed infront of me  

Just learnt my new pairing with GM Pavel

Here we go!  It’s a 4pm start for the first round of Chess. You can see my now famous seat cushions

The Opening Chess Move – Akshat Vs GM Pavel Tregubov

I remembered what my coach and friend had said in the past.  ”Try and attack higher rated Chess players; they usually don’t feel good when lower rated show they are not scared.”  That’s good advise for those who find themselves in my kind of pairing situation.  Well, that’s exactly what I did!  I was fairly confident after the opening and from the 12th move itself I declared my intentions that I was going all the way, and not trying to hide under the table or build a fortress.  Also I knew the pressure was on him, since I had nothing to lose.  GM Pavel appeared to crack under the pressure and made an inaccurate exchange sacrifice, typical for the Sicilian (not the inaccurate part!) but not really working on the board at that time.  

A lot of chess thinking.  You can see the bearded GM Ivan Lopez, top seed and eventual winner

I’m not teasing chess GM Pavel  just thinking hard

As the game progressed, we were the only ones left (Akshat Chandra Vs GM Pavel Tregubov)

Through the entire game, I’d GM Pavel rooted to his chair.  I managed to exchange queens and  trade down further to a winning endgame where I had Rook+Rook Vs Rook+Bishop and few pawns.  I was now so excited that I could not think straight – and I wasn’t able to find the elusive win.  We spent 3 hours in that endgame, with me trying to find the Win.  I must say that after earlier slip-ups, GM Pavel did a good job of defending accurately and making it difficult for me.  After we reached 40 moves and gained additional time, I was now replenished with energy.  I was sure I could finish this chess game favorably.  But unfortunately, no matter how hard I calculated, I couldn’t find a Win.  After 6 hours I came up short with a Draw.  

At about 10pm, Akshat and GM Pavel were still going at our chess match

When we signed the notation sheets at the end, I was experiencing mixed feelings.  On one side, I was feeling disappointed for not winning.  It was the biggest chess game of my life so far, and I had a 2600 Russian GM on the ropes with everything in my control.  But it didn’t end the way I visualized.  On the other side, I was feeling relieved and happy that I managed to outplay him even though the result was a Draw.  This proved to me that I could take on anyone in Chess, no matter how good s/he was  

The rest of the chess tournament had its typical ups-and-downs.  Overall, good experience.  The organizers were nice, particularly IM Martha Fierro and Nadia.  In one of the tournament publications I was referred to as the Tournament Tiger.  Grrrr!  :-)

The official picture from the tournament publication of ‘Akshat the Tiger’

At the end of the tournament we were talking to GM Ivan Lopez who saw my first game as he was sitting next to me.  He congratulated me on the game and told me next time I need to Win.  He mentioned that he just loves the game and doesn’t like to prepare too much before the game.  The best thing is to think at the board, and not clutter your head before the game with different analysis and opening reviews.  Now here is some good advise from an experienced top-class Chess player.  Just go and play Chess.  That’s GM Ivan Lopez’s style and it works well for him.  Thanks Ivan!

Akshat with the winner of Chess tournament in Forni, GM Ivan Lopez

This tournament concluded my Italian leg of Chess tournaments, and I went on to other countries to play Chess.  I love Italia and I hope I’ll be back soon to play Chess.
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In the pictures, I write my name along with the name of fellow players.  So instead of saying “GM Lopez and me,” I say “GM Lopez and Akshat,” etc.  Can you guess why?  Well, I do that because search engines will simply pick up the image with the tag “GM Lopez and me.”  That “me” is Akshat, which is never mentioned.  Now we know names of all characters in the pictures.  Problem solved!  :-)

Akshat Chandra and Axel Rombaldoni, a brilliant young Italian player. I remember Axel was 6/6 at the World Junior 2011.  Wow!

Akshat Chandra, with the smart and helpful IM Martha Fierro - doesn’t Martha have the glimpse of The Great One in Chess ‘Susan Polgar’

My Quest is a long road…but I’m ready to RUN to the end!

Akshat at the award ceremony with the special guests from Italy

Winter’s must be beautiful, with snow-capped peaks

A light moment at the restaurant – what was that, a Rabbit for Lunch! No Kiddin’!

I‘m sure if one has played Chess long enough, we’ve all experienced “tough losses.”  In fact, I would venture to say that if you haven’t had a tough loss yet, then you haven’t played Chess long enough.  It happens to everyone and at all levels.

What are tough losses?  There can be many versions in Chess – losing a completely Winning position; losing a dead Drawn position; being swept off the board; missing a win when you were lost the whole game and then had an opportunity for comeback which you bungle, are some examples.  Unfortunately, I’ve experienced all four of the above examples in my relatively short tenure as a Chess player.   

One time when I lost a completely winning chess game was in an unrated club tournament.  I lost an exchange up position against a 225 ELO point lower rated opponent.  I had about 10 different ways for a win, but I went for something that looked fancy.  I didn’t do the deep calculation.  It was a horrible blunder and I resigned next move.  Aargh!  The lesson I learnt from that was to always Keep It Simple.  Simple moves most of the time are smart moves.  The chess game rewards you for your win, not how you win.  Recently, I lost a simple Drawn position in a chess tournament in Austria.  I was playing against the World Senior Chess Champion, GM Vladimir Okhotnik, and made a plain blunder of what was a straight-forward Draw.  It hurt because I had played strong for the entire game (you can read more about this in the September posting on Chess in Braunau, Austria).  The time when I got completely swept off my feet was again in the same chess tournament in Austria.  It was just a bad game from the very beginning.  I just couldn’t play right.  The time where I missed a win after being lost for majority of the game was in the Czech Open 2012.  In my excitement at a chance to win a poorly played game, I made an incomplete calculation and forgot to first secure the Draw before trying for the Win.  An opportunity to make amends for a weak game, but I let it slip away. 

Such games are very hard to accept.  They linger in the back of your head, haunting you.  Yes, the chess tournament could have turned out differently if I had won; Yes, I could have been paired with an IM or GM if I had won; Yes, I could have assured myself of winning my rating category, etc.  These thoughts are psychologically draining.  But it’s hard to Move On, as any Chess player will tell even though we realize this is what needs to be done now.

Nonetheless, we have to deliberately learn to Move On.  In most cases, there is still a chess tournament to play.  We have to realize the next chess game is also worth the same point as the one where we had a ‘tough loss.’  Sitting in the room thinking about the loss doesn’t help.  We need to flush it out of our memory for the time being and not waste any more energy thinking about it.  And please don’t start analyzing the tough loss right away, if you’ve another round to play.

As you can see from instances above, I’ve been in such situations multiple times where I’d to deliberately Move On.  I will share with you what helps me.  The best thing for me is to go out for a walk (if the weather allows), and have some of my favorite food!  Something sweet like an ice cream helps or a dessert of your choice.  Don’t wait for after dinner to try your dessert.  Have it now!  If there is time, watch a funny show or a little bit of a funny movie.  Mr. Bean, Zack & Cody, Drake & Josh – whatever gets u tickled.  Anything to get your mind off the loss, or at least make it fade away for the moment.  When the next round chess pairing is out, it’s a bit easier now to Move On since we now have preparation to do that will keep us busy.  But I feel it’s important to do that mind-flush before. 

If you observe, often times when someone has a crushing loss, s/he loses the next round too – many times without a fight.  It happened with me in the National Challengers Chess 2011, which was a qualification tournament for the Indian National Chess Championship.  After a lackluster start, I found my game and was kind of unstoppable.  I had a great streak going with a Win, Draw, Win, Win against higher rated and very experienced players.  In my next match, I had a high-rated IM on the ropes.  But then I let him get away after several weak moves.  The match was a Draw, in what was an easy Win.  You can see that game on Monroi - R10 – Chandra vs V, by clicking here.  I was extremely disappointed, and since I was a ‘beginner’ in terms of how to deal with such a loss, I lost not only the next round but also 2 rounds after that without a fight – 3 rounds total.  It was a very sad moment because if I had won that game, I’m sure I would have kept up the momentum and had a good chance to qualify for the Indian National Chess Championship. 

Many times I have observed a seasoned player with a tough loss will take a quick Draw in the next round, even when the opponent is lower rated.  This is a strategic move many times.  You take a Draw to soothe the brain, not make it work very hard, and to avoid the risk of another loss.  But such an option may not always be available.  So we have to boost ourselves psychologically to perform well in the next game. 

To summarize, after a tough loss in a Chess game we need to get out and do things that can take our mind off the loss.  Eat your favorite food, watch a movie or show, don’t forget an ice cream; whatever makes you relax.  Just don’t sit and dwell on it!  The above ideas have worked for me.  You will have to find your own comforting things.  I hope just thinking about this helps you plan better when you encounter such a situation.  I wish more Chess players will write their experiences – it helps others learn.

I apologize for the lengthy post.  Hope I didn’t put you to sleep   If you have anything to say or share, please feel free to write comments.  Au revoir!

Our next tournament in June was Server 24 Chess in Ortisei – St. Ulrich. Ortisei is a beautiful small township nestled in a high valley and surrounded by mountains. A green emerald guarded by glistening and rugged peaks with long snow fingers.

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, and now for the first time in the last two weeks I’ve got some time to share my experiences. I have playing in a tournament (Salento Chess 2012) close to the beautiful city of Gallipolli, located on the southern tip of Italy.  You may know the region for a ferocious sea and land battle during World War I known as the Battle of Gallipoli.  For me it was a long journey.  Since I was flying from India this time, I spent a lot of time in the air – I first traveled to Munich (8 hours), and then Munich to Milan (~1 1/2 hours), and then Milan to Brindisi (1 1/2 hours).  But I wasn’t done yet.  Finally, a van ride from Brindisi to Gallipoli (1 1/4 hours).  We reached the hotel at 11 pm, capping about 18 hours of a long and tiring journey from the time I left home.

Waiting in Munich

More waiting …in Milan

The tournament had a small and strong group of players.  My starting rank was 14/24. There were quite a few titled players like IM’s and GM’s.  The wooden DGT boards were fantastic as usual, and there was live telecast for all games.  It gave me a sense that I was a top level player
For the first round that I played with Duilio Collutiis, a 2513 IM but with GM strength rating, I didn’t have much prep time.  But as it turned out I didn’t need to prep anything. He usually plays irregular openings against lower rated, and so it is hard to predict any opening preference.  Sure enough he played an irregular set up.  I felt like I had good chances since he was playing slowly and not really doing anything.  I managed to lock the queenside which was good since that was where his play was.  I prepared my pieces for a kingside attack and my prospects were looking good until I blundered with Qc7.  After blunders from both sides he then won in a few moves. It was sad but I knew that I hadn’t been outplayed. 

Opening Round – Small Group of Strong Players

The next game I was playing a WFM who was lower rated at 2027.  It was a sharp position out of the opening and I sacrificed a pawn to open files and castle Queen side.  I managed to land a knight on c6 but I couldn’t make anything out of it.  Suddenly I blundered and realized she had a win.  I looked away from the board hoping she wouldn’t see it. Fortunately, she didn’t!  I corrected my mistake the next move and kept the pressure on till she finally blundered.  Phew!