My Chess Tournament Experience: Joint Second In The Opens Category

"The beauty of chess is it can be whatever you want it to be. It transcends language, age, race, religion, politics, gender, and socioeconomic background. Whatever your circumstances, anyone can enjoy a good fight to the death over the chessboard."
-Simeon Williams

It's been a while. I've been playing chess. I wrote about playing the National south west chess tournament as a way to distract myself from my family problems. Was I distracted? Maybe. Anyway, I want to share my tournament experience and also talk about my plans of returning to active chess.

The National south west Open was the biggest open tournament in Nigeria since 2011. It had over 200 registered players. It took place in The Atlantis Civic Centre Oshogbo, Osun state.

With the huge numbers playing the tournament, it was expected to be very tough and strong.

The main reason why I stopped playing active chess after my successful junior days was because the country had very few Fide Rated events. So to get a rating or to stay active, you have to play abroad.

Times have changed now and events have been rolling out, Rated tournaments are being organised now. This one was no different.

I was ranked 177 at the start of the tournament. With such a huge number playing, many looked forward to winning a category prize. However, I didn't care. All I wanted to do was play chess.

---

Travelling To Oshogbo

---

The tournament was slated to begin on a Wednesday however, I travelled on a Friday, 4 days before the event. I travelled with the Vice-President of the Nigerian chess federation and other organisers.
I wanted to leave my house so bad.
Anyway, it went well. I had fun. We ended up getting a four-bedroom apartment..... I loved my room!

We turned the uncompleted kitchen into our chess practice zone. I played a lot of blitz games with the Ncf vice president.

We had a lot of fun and being with these people made life easier. At some point, I almost forgot the main event.

---

Day 1 - 13th April 2022

---

On Wednesday, I woke up feeling unhappy. I was sad for no reason. I knew the opening ceremony and the first round would begin that day. However, I didn't feel like playing.

I went on to miss the opening ceremony. I also wrote a request to miss round 1. I got ½ point for the first round as I wasn't paired. I slept all through.

---

Day 2 - 14th April 2022

---

I was paired against oyakilome David. I was to play the black pieces against this promising Junior player. Unlike the rest of the strong junior players, he struggles with a 1800+ rating. I lost the game in the end game. I lost a pawn in the middle game to a beautiful combination I underestimated.

White just played 13.Ng5! Leaving the d4 pawn free...

After a short calculation, I picked 13.Nxd4.

White to play?

After defeating me, he went on to draw the highest rated player in the tournament. He drew International Master Femi balogun. A strong player who once played the world champion Magnus carlsen.

Anyway, my point is, I lost to a young promising player.

Here is the full game.

 [Event "Southwest National Tournament"]
[Site "Osogbo"]
[Date "2022.04.14"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Oyakhilome David"]
[Black "Oluwadare Samuel"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D04"]
[Source "Analyze This App"]
1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. e3 c5 4. b3 Nc6 5. Bb2 Bg4 6. Be2 e6 7. Nbd2 Bd6 8. Ne5 
Bxe2 9. Qxe2 cxd4 10. exd4 Qb6 11. O-O O-O 12. Ndf3 Rac8 13. Ng5 Nxd4 14. Bxd4 
Qxd4 15. Nexf7 Qb6 (15... Rc7 ) (15... Rc6 ) 16. Nxd6 Qxd6 17. Qxe6+ Qxe6 18. 
Nxe6 Rfe8 19. Nd4 Re4 20. Rad1 Rc3 21. f3 Re7 22. Rfe1 Kf7 23. Rxe7+ Kxe7 24. 
Kf2 a6 25. Rd2 g6 26. Re2+ Kf7 27. a4 Rc8 28. Ke3 Re8+ 29. Kd3 Rxe2 30. Nxe2 Ke6 
31. Kd4 Kd6 32. h4 b6 33. Nf4 b5 34. axb5 axb5 35. g4 Nd7 36. Nxd5 Ne5 37. Ke4 
Nd7 38. b4 Ne5 39. Nc3 1-0

Round 3 was pretty easy. My opponent played into my scotch gambit line. On move 19, I already had checkmate in one.

---

Day 3 - 15th April 2022

---

On Friday, I played some good games. I kept my nerves to win as black against a 1500+ rated player. I played the Dutch defence. A very interesting game I'd analyse later.

I drew the 5th round easily. My 1900+ opponent wanted to win. He chose the French defence instead of his regular Scandinavian defence. I have played him severally with good results.

I played the 3.Nc3 tarrasch line and ended up with a comfortable opposite colour bishop ending... He pressed for a win. However, after move 80, he finally agreed to a draw.

I was at 3/5 on Friday. The last game lasted too long. I was tired and stressed. I was unable to put out the weekend hive Naija engagement. I was on my way home when I got a msg from @jaki01 - "We have a game to play"

I forgot the Friday's Hivechess event tournament by @stayoutoftherz. I was to play 3 games and I was late already.

Thankfully, @jaki01 reached out to me. All I can say is thank you, as he blundered a queen and made me win easily. I even played badly even after. However, a queen is a queen.

Thanks also to @falcout who waited to play too.

---

Day 4 - 16th April 2022.

---

Saturday was a rest day. I had a lot of fun. I will write separately about how my free day went.

I also forgot totally about @schamangerbert's event...

---

Day 5 - 17th April 2022

---

My round 6 was hard... I got to the venue late. My clock already started and I was down 5 minutes already.

I checked his games on lichess before entering the playing hall. His blitz is 2400+ and he plays 1.d4. I discovered he is very solid and only loses to complications and imbalances.

Enjoy the game below.

[Event "National South West Tournament "]
[Site "Oshogbo "]
[Date "2022.04.19"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Oziegbe Promise"]
[Black "Oluwadare Samuel"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1863"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[ECO "E12"]
[Source "Analyze This App"]

1. d4 e6 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nf3 b6 4. Nc3 Bb7 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bf4 Bb4 7. Qc2 Nc6 8. h3 
O-O 9. e3 Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 d6 11. Be2 Qe7 12. O-O e5 13. Bh2 e4 14. Nd2 Rfe8 15. 
Rab1 g5 16. Rfe1 h5 17. Qd1 g4 18. hxg4 hxg4 19. Bxg4 Kg7 20. Bf4 Rg8 21. Bh3 
Kf8 22. Qa4 Rh8 23. Bg5 Nd8 24. d5 Bc8 25. Bxc8 Rxc8 26. Qc2 Qe5 27. Bxf6 Qxf6 
28. Qxe4 Nb7 29. Qf4 Qg6 30. f3 Nc5 31. Qd4 Qh7 32. Ne4 Nxe4 33. fxe4 Re8 34. e5 
Rxe5 35. Rf1 Qh2+ 36. Kf2 Rg8 37. Rg1 Qg3+ 38. Ke2 Rg4 39. Qd2 Rge4 40. Kd1 Rxe3 
41. Kc1 Re2 42. Qd4 R5e4 43. Qh8+ Ke7 44. Qh3 Qg5+ 0-1

I won the 7th round easily after my opponent blundered a piece in the Italian opening.
It was after that I realized I've done a good job in the tournament finishing on 5/7. The tiebreaker didn't favour me as I took a bye in the first round. However, I ended up sharing the prize from second place downwards. 10 people finished on 5/7.
We shared about 500,000 nairas each.

---

In Conclusion...

---

I got a prize which made me happy, I also realized how difficult it is to play a classical chess game. It looked like everyone knows how to play well. It also makes me want to play again.

I would be 1900 rated by next month as I have some games pending already. I believe I can improve and cross the 2000 threshold and see what it takes to be a master of chess.

I will do a video that focuses on the Analysis of my games. I have a lot to learn from them. I'm happy I had only one loss.

Thanks for reading!

♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟