Quads

           Two days ago I went to Quads. I played three rounds of chess, and I won all of them!
           The first game was against Andrei Bulankou, someone I had played before. He offered me a lot of chances to win, and I took all of them, forcing his king into the center and mating him there. I won easily, and I went on to the next game, against Anthony Hua (1063), someone I also knew. Anthony was harder, but he still didn't stand a chance. My pieces rushed forwards, forming a great position. I played until the endgame, where I got an advantage and ended the game quickly.
           The last game was harder. I played an 1186 named Rui Fan, and beat him with bunches of tactics. I forked, pinned, and skewered him, until I got a decisive advantage. Eventually, he got mated by my bishop sacrifice, and I won the game. Even though he was easy, he was the hardest of my Quad.
           In the end, I got a trophy to add to my collection, the second-to-last one I need for a humongous trophy!

State Qualifier

          Yesterday I went to a state qualifier tournament. There were five rounds, and most of them were very exciting.
           During the first round, I played a person who was rated 946. I played the Queen's Gambit, and it was accepted. After that, I forked a knight and bishop. In the endgame, I played a discovered checkmate, also attacking the rook. She was forced to prevent the mate, and I got the rook! After that, I just mated some other way and won. The second round was easier, and I mated very quickly. The other player made a lot of mistakes, and got himself mated. The third round, I played a 1389! I was up a knight when I sacrificed a knight for two pawns. After that, I traded off rooks, and was left with a total of a pawn and a king, while the opponent only had a king. The opponent said I missed a mate in two somewhere. I drawed, since the pawn was a h-pawn. I ate lunch with a total of 2.5 points out of 3.
          The fourth round, where I played my friend Michael Kim, was very exciting. I lost. This was because I played too fast, and missed a skewer. If I had played that skewer, I would have won! The last round was boring. I played somebody I had played a long time ago. I was up by a lot of pieces and finally mated him on the 33rd move.
          In the end, I got 3.5 points and also 5th place!

A Game with Dad

            Today I played a game of chess with my dad.
            First, he lost a rook. I used a new strategy I learned, and I got a rook and knight. I used a check to divert one of his rooks, and then took the other one with my queen, the checking piece. Then I checked and also attacked the queen. He didn't want to trade queens, and so I took his knight instead. Finally, I took his queen, and he surrendered after I got his other rook.
            A new rule of games we play is that if you lose, you have to eat a piece of cheese, or eat a few pieces of cheese if you cheated, according to the value of the cheat you made. It's been a great rule so far. Dad has to eat one piece of cheese, and almost had to eat 6 when he tried to take back his rook move.
            To sum up, I think cheeses are great motivation to do better in the games we play and not to cheat!

Quads 1/25/13

Yesterday I participated in Quads. I lost two games and won one game. The first game I played was against Bernard Bazar. He won by promoting a pawn into a queen. After that, the results were predictable, and he won. I made a few great moves, but he was simply too strong. The second game was against Gene Yang. I lost because of a mistake I made. I shouldn't have taken his bishop with my pawn, and I should have moved my rook to protect against imminent checkmate. I took the bishop. The queen came over, and I lost because I was trapped in my pawn shield. The third game was against Michel Nelson. I beat him easily, after promoting and promoting again. He made a few mistakes, and in the end I checkmated.

Quads 1/20/13

Yesterday I went to Quads at Bellevue Chess4Life. Quads are rated Swiss chess tournaments that are held every Friday.

I was in Quad 8, one of the highest Quads there is. I won the third- and fourth- rated kids on the first and second rounds. But on the third round, I lost to the second-rated person! (I was the first) We had an exciting three-way blitz-off. Since I was the highest-rated, I got a BYE for the first round, and just watched. It was amazing, but the second-rated person lost his king to a check because he didn’t notice it, and lost. I beat the third-rated person easily, and won the Quad trophy.

All in all, I had a great time, and look forward to going again!