I just got back from the National Chess Congress in Philadelphia. I am very discouraged by how badly I played, especially in the first round.
In the first round, my opponent, an elderly man, played the opening poorly and lost the exchange in just a few moves. I then traded queens and got to an easy endgame. Then, suddenly, I decided to sacrifice the exchange back for what I thought would be an easy rook and pawn endgame a pawn up. This was a terribly stupid idea. Not only was it not an easy win but it was possibly not a win at all. Then I lost trying to win an endgame that was possibly only drawn.
Then they paired me against a 12 year old kid. I lost. Later they pared me against a 10 year old kid. I lost again. Finally they pared me against a 9 year old kid. This one I was able to beat, amazingly.
A minor incident occurred when the 9 year old kid in a clearly inferior position offered me a draw. I declined. Then, only three moves later, he offered a draw again. By this time his position was almost completely lost.
At the board to my right an adult was playing another kid. The kid was two pawns down and locked into a hopeless position where he had no play at all. The kid offered the adult a draw. This was ridiculous. The adult declined and the kid resigned five minutes later.
Then two boards to my left there was another game between an adult and a kid. This kid offered a draw too. His position was hopeless. The kid’s king was wide open. The adult had a knight and a queen just a few squares away and a rook about to swing over and deliver checkmate in two or three moves.
Naturally, the adult declined the offer of a draw. Then the kid started to cry. There were tears streaming down his cheeks. Finally, the adult said, “OK If you are going to cry over this I accept your offer of a draw.” The adult then walked away from the board.
This incident aroused the attention of the tournament directors. A crowd gathered around the board where the kid was still crying. Finally, there was nothing to be done so the result was marked as a draw.
At least I had two somewhat interesting games. In round 5 I played the greatest chess game in the history of the world. In round three, they paired me against an adult so I figured that this time I had a chance. Here is the game:
[Event “National Chess Congress”]
[Site “Philadelphia PA”]
[Date “2010.11.27”]
[Round “03”]
[White “Andrews,Anthony”]
[Black “Sloan,Sam”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “C44”]
[WhiteElo “1800”]
[BlackElo “1900”]
1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.c3 dxc3 5.Nxc3 Bb4 6.Bd2 d6 7.Bc4 Nf6 8.Qb3 O-O 9.Ng5 Qe7 10.O-O h6 11.Nd5 Nxd5 12.exd5 Bxd2 13.dxc6 bxc6 14.Nf3 Ba5 15.Nd4 Bd7 16.Qf3 Qh4 17.Qd3 Bb6 18.Nf3 Qf6 19.Qc2 Bg4 20.Nd2 Rfe8 21.Qa4 Be2 22.Bxe2 Rxe2 23.Qxc6 Rb8
24.Ne4 Qf4 25.Nc3 Rxf2 26.Rfe1 Rf1# 0-1
After I played 26 . … Rf1+ my opponent stared at the board for several minutes. A crowd gathered around the board watching this interesting position. Finally, my opponent played 27. Qxb6.
Then he said, “Wait. I can’t do that”. He then took back the move.
Finally he realized it was checkmate so he thanked me and walked away from the board.
Several spectators said that it had cracked them up watching while this happened.
Sam Sloan