End of the World Youth

          In the tenth round, I played against Cem Kaan Gokerkan from Turkey. I got a bad position from the opening, but fought back to a better position. Then, I went into a queen endgame which was winning. I guess I got tired because I blundered a perpetual check which forced a draw.
          In the eleventh round, I played against Teemu Virtanen from Finland. He lives in the Bay Area, but plays in the World Youth for his native country. I got a very good position out of the opening, but then messed up. I became worse, but he accepted a draw in the endgame.
          I finished with 6/11, my worst World Youth score. I played terribly in this tournament and I need to do a lot of work if I am going to South Africa next year.

Round 9

          After an awesome rest day at Ferrari World, I lost again. I played Dimitrios Zisiadis from Greece. I was much better, but then blundered. I need to bounce back tomorrow.

Christmas Eve

          How great is it that we get to play on Christmas Eve? We get to wake up in the morning and play a game. Then we get to spend Christmas without a tree! Note the sarcasm. ;) I got up really early and prepped for my opponent. He had beaten another strong USA player earlier in the tournament, so I knew I needed to be careful. After some quick opening prep, we went to the game.
          My opponent was Adi Sagita Catur from Indonesia. After achieving equality easily, I decided to take a chance to get complicated equality or get a better position. He did not see the former option and I was able to win a pawn. Then I used a tactic in the endgame to win a piece. The funny thing is that he resigned after I made a mistake that makes it harder for me to win.
          After that, we had a lot of free time so a lot of us played blitz near the cafeteria to practice. Colin Chow, Albert Lu, Marcell Szabo, Siddharth Banik, and I played along with some people from other countries. Later, we went to the blitz tournament. It was supposed to be seven rounds in about two hours, but with the WYCC, you never know. It took an hour to start the second round. There after, the pattern continued. It took about four hours to finish five rounds. Then they moved the next two to the last day of the tournament. I scored 3.5/5, losing to Francesco Rambaldi and drawing with a Sri Lankan with a really long name. Tomorrow is rest day and we are going to Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi!

Round 7

          As you could probably tell, I wasn't too happy at all after my last three games. My dad said that I was spending too much time cooped up in the room, so, unfortunately, he forced me to go to the cafeteria to eat. The food still isn't good, but at least the lines are shorter. My prep was fairly quick today. I had time to do my independent study before the round.
          I got another opponent from KGZ today. His name is Aibek Isakzhanov. After an opening which I didn't know that well, but still played in theory for the first twenty moves, I got a very nice position. I created many weaknesses in his camp and eventually, I started attacking and eventually won two pieces. I converted the endgame pretty quickly.
          After analyzing the game, I decided not to come back to the room immediately. Instead, I stayed downstairs and played Foosball and blitz with Albert Lu and Colin Chow. Tomorrow's game is early, 10 AM. I need to do well in the next round to keep up my streak.

Round 6

          Another bad day at office. : ( I got a good pairing against an 1870 from India, Anbumaran Visveshwar. I got an equal position out of the opening, but pushed too hard for the win. I got a lost position after a further blunder. I am now at 50% and need to start taking the tournament one game at a time.

Horrific Double Day

          In round 4, I was playing against the fourth seed, Francesco Rambaldi. My opening preparation was gone after the third move. I got an okay position, but then blundered. In round 5, I was playing against Nikolaos Theodorou from Greece. I got an okay position again, but did not understand the position well enough. This caused me to give him counter-play. He continued to outplay me throughout the endgame and then I was lost. I need to do a lot better to get back into the race. 

WYCC Round 3

          Another great breakfast which finished in twenty minutes! Surprisingly, today again was against a lower-rated player. I thought, "Phew!" I then looked up his past two opponents... He beat the fifth seed in the first round and then made another upset in the second. So much for lower-rated! At least he had some games, unlike my last opponent. I prepared surprises in four lines because I wasn't sure what he would play. It took my coaches and I around three hours to prepare the material. Lunch was a Subway sandwich. It was chicken tikka. A normal Subway filling, right? ;)
          My opponent was Isaev Chingis from KGZ. Anybody know what that is? We went into my surprise which wasn't a true surprise since he played his moves at bullet speed. I managed to mess up the prep that I had spent three hours on and got an equal position. I made some more mistakes and became worse. Then, he gave me almost four moves with tempo. Pleasantly surprised, I mounted an attack on his king. I sacked two knights, but then I got one back. He resigned under the onslaught. When I was analyzing, my coach said, "We'll take the win, but you need to take more time on the game!" Tomorrow is the dreaded double-round day. I am 99.99% that I will play up, but with the World Youth, you can never be sure. I think you can follow tomorrow's games at http://www.chessdom.com/world-youth-chess-u14-games-live/.

WYCC Round 2

          The lines weren't long! We had breakfast in the morning very quickly and then came back to the room. I was planning to have my coaching session with Magesh Panchanathan, the USA coach who will prepare me through the tournament, at 10:30. However, the rounds already started getting tough so people took more time in the sessions. Eventually, we started at about 11. After we finished, I didn't even risk looking at the lunch line. Instead, my dad got Subway again. I don't think we are going to eat at the cafeteria anymore, except for breakfast.
          This round actually started on time! Everything was good to go and nobody got smushed. They used the bottle technique, as my dad says, where you let a few people go and then wait, before letting more go. My opponent was Malek Koniahli from Syria. He had only one game in the database. Therefore, I had to guess what opening he would play. As amazing as I am, I guessed correctly and my preparation (mainly my coach's prep) worked amazingly ;). In the normally boring French Exchange, which I hate to play against, I started attacking by throwing my pawns. Notice how this happened in yesterday's game too. I played well and eventually found a tactic which won me two pawns. My execution wasn't great. I gave him some chances, but overall one of my better games. Next round is probably the first round that I play against a higher rated opponent. Wish me luck!

WYCC Round 1

         We arrived in the United Arab Emirates on December 16. Yesterday was a very easy and quiet day. I explored the campus, played some basketball, and did some of my independent study. There are eleven rounds in the World Youth Chess Championships. This year was different from previous years. There are three morning games this time, an extra one on Christmas Eve, and the rest day is after the eighth round, not after the sixth.      

Today was, and will, probably be the most chaotic day at the World Youth. At breakfast, the lines went all the way to the dorms! My dad and I didn't even go for lunch. Instead, we got an interesting Subway lunch. The sandwich was chicken tikka, not one of the normal subs. The round was originally supposed to start at 3 PM, but eventually got moved to 5 PM since many of the arbiters had not arrived. We went to the round at about 4:30. When we arrived, there was a mob standing around the doors. We waited, and waited, and waited for the round to start. Eventually it started at 6 PM.
          My opponent was Kurrupu Supun from Sri Lanka. We got into an opening which I didn't know that well, but I started attacking. I opened up the king-side and won a piece. From there, it was a quick and easy endgame conversion.
          You can check my pairings at this site:http://chess-results.com/fed.aspx?lan=1&fed=UAE.Check under U14 Classic. Round 2 is tomorrow at 3 PM. I hope the breakfast line is shorter!

East Bay Open

           Last weekend, I played in the East Bay Open. It was a great tournament, very-well organized, except for one mishap in my last game. It was in Concord so my parents had to drive me an hour each way every day. On Friday, the round was at 7, but we only left at 5:30 so when we started driving into traffic, it wasn't pretty. Eventually, my dad said "Enough!" He was tired of moving like tar on the jammed highway. My dad called the TD and asked him to change me to the two day section so that I could still play.
          The next day, we woke up extra early so that we could make it to the game on time. I was paired with Uyanga Byambaa. After an interesting opening, I started attacking. She had to give up some pawns and then, I trapped her bishop and then the game came later.
          The second round was against Ricardo de Guzman. I have played Ricardo, I think, in every one of my last four tournaments. I was black and I had a decent position, but I messed up the middle-game and had to go into a slightly worse endgame. I couldn't hold so I lost.
          My third round was against Joshua Cao. I was black and out of the opening, I forgot theory and messed up. However, I got an okay position before my opponent blundered mate in one. The look on Joshua's face was pretty funny after that.
          In the fourth round, I was playing Ronald Cusi as black. It started out boring, but then we went into complications. I gave up a bishop for a knight, but my remaining knight was very strong. I won a pawn and then sacked my rook for a bishop. My queen then took control of the light squares and I was able to invade. After that, the game fell into my hands.
         Have you all seen the mistake yet? I had three blacks in a row. In the last round, both me and my opponent had two blacks in the previous two rounds so we were supposed to both get white. However, we were both late so the TD didn't notice until I pointed it out. Eventually we used the pick-a-pawn method and I got black. No complaints here though!
        I crossed 2300 after this game so I am supposed to get a Smartphone after we come back from the WYCC. After the fourth round, I had a bye for a piano recital. It went well and afterwards, we went on train rides.

CA Warfare Class Championships

          This weekend I played a tournament in Santa Clara. I don't know how it got "Warfare" in the name of the tournament. There wasn't fighting, although there were some nasty soccer ball incidents. Anyways, I played the 3-day Open for the slower time control. In my first game, I played Julian Lin from UCLA. I played an opening I was supposed to know, but we ended up in a position that neither of us knew. I slowly outplayed him for a quick victory.
          In the second round, I played Siddarth Banik. Recently, I haven't had a good streak against him. In the last 9 months, I had 0 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss. This was the second draw recently. We played the same opening as the last game, but I made an improvement. I was probably slightly better so I went for the win. Unfortunately, after his next move, he offered a draw. When I calculated the line that I thought was winning, I found an improvement for him. I thought for a while about other possibilities, but I couldn't find them. I was slightly worse so I accepted the draw.
          In the third round, I had Udit Iyengar. Last time, I let him escape with a draw. Not this time! I got a great position out of the opening and slowly squeezed his position before trading into a pawn-up endgame. No mercy! :)
          My fourth round was against Karim Saeda. I had never heard of him before so I think he is new to the Bay Area. I got a better position, but I blundered and had to give up an exchange. I was still equal, but then he messed up and I was winning. However, Karim kept playing even though he was completely lost so the game went past ten.
         The fifth game was against the then tournament leader, Ricardo de Guzman. I messed up the opening really badly and was in a worse opposite colored bishop and rook endgame. I had a lot of drawing chances, but I just wasn't focused in this game. I lost eventually.
         I needed to rebound with a strong final game to gain points. I had Michael Wang with the black pieces. He has been amazing in the past couple months. I think he gained 100 points to get up to 2276 before this game. We got an extremely complex position and both of us got into time trouble. Eventually he won a exchange for a pawn, but I had lots of compensation and was able to get it back. We went into an almost dead drawn opposite colored bishop endgame. I got chances, but with best play, it should have been a draw. I got really lucky as he blundered.
         I finished the tournament with 4.5/6 and I tied for second. It was a good tournament as I exceeded my preset goal of 4/6. My mom, however, was not too thrilled about driving to the tournament hall eight times a day. She charged me forty dollars for a chauffuer fee, but reduced it by thirty dollars since I beat my goal. ;) I gained twenty points so now I am at 2292, eight points from 2300!

Ayah

My grandmother passed away in September. Our whole family was shocked and it will take time to recover. In school, I wrote a story about my Ayah to honor her. Here it is:

               The one thing I love most about going to India is meeting my grandmother. She is the greatest cook, the kindest person, and one of the greatest helpers ever. However, going to and from India is a hassle. There is the heat, the mosquitoes, the traffic, and the poverty in the cities. These disadvantages offset many of the benefits. Therefore, when I heard that my grandmother was coming to visit, I was thrilled!

               I came home from my chess tournament to the smell of Chettinad food. I walked through the door and gave my grandmother a hug. “Ayah, can you make kuzhipanyarams for me?” I pleaded.                                                                   “Sure, Kanna,” she replied. She walked to the stove and got out the batter. Immediately, she made a set of seven kuzhipanyarams. I took a bite of the fluffy, white ball.  It was extraordinary! I couldn’t wait for the rest of the summer!

   One night, my brother and I were staying up late. We went to our grandparents’ room and saw our grandmother working. My brother asked, “What are you working on, Ayah?” She explained what stocks were and how they worked. My grandmother also showed us her stocks.                                                  I questioned, “Ayah, what is your best stock?” She told us about TTK Prestige. She had bought many shares at two hundred rupees each. She kept buying shares and eventually, the price climbed to 4000 rupees each. This gave her a huge profit and was most of the reason that my grandparents live in a huge house. Every night after that, we checked the stock market for TTK Prestige’s prices.

               A month later, my grandparents were going back to India. I said, “Goodbye Ayah. I will see you again soon. Remember to bring the podi next time!” She laughed and promised not to forget. We waved as our grandparents entered security.

               Two months later, my parents came back from work crying. I asked, “What happened? What’s wrong?” They told me. My grandmother passed away. She had a stomach aneurysm so there was no chance of saving her. I did not believe it, but after a couple of hours, it sunk in. I cried as we went to the airport yet again to send my mom to India. Three weeks later, she returned home after finishing my grandmother’s final rites and comforting my grandfather. When she returned to the house, she had brought the usual Indian snacks. She had also remembered to bring podi.