The Northampton FIDE Congress was held at the University of Northampton last weekend. Luton chess club was represented by Jonadab Oki in the U1900 section and Andrew Pye in the U1400 section. Jonadab gives a round by round report of his experience below.
Round 1: Jonadab Oki 1-0 Neil Homer. The position was balanced but tricky to judge about how to play the opening. I gradually developed my pieces to what I thought were the ideal squares. I think my opponent misjudged the position slightly, reaching a position that was difficult to defend deep into the middle game. This led to eventual mating attack with my two rooks and he resigned.
Round 2: Daniel-Luca Olteanu 0-1 Jonadab Oki. (Pictured). My favourite game of the tournament. It was an intense encounter, in which my opponent thought for a long time at a critical point. He made slight inacuracy, letting me fork two rooks with a knight. But instead, I went for something more interesting, sacrificing my rook instead. It turned out to be a sound adventure, after I regained material, leading to a win.
Round 3: Jonadab Oki 0.5-0.5 Sameera Kodukula. This was against the eventual winner of the U1900 section, a strong femnale junior. She offered a draw early on, which I declined, because I wanted more. Eventually, I was faced with a major decision under time pressure. I made a slight inaccuracy, yet still had small advantage, but not enough to that I could see a win. After some more play, I accepted her second offer of a draw.
Round 4: ACM Ioan-Euzeb Sturgar 0-1 Jonadab Oki. The next day came a good win for me with Black against an Arena Candidate Master. He played an interesting line, in which he tried a pawn sacrifice. I played positionally to get a solid set up, eventually leading to a nice centre. I tried to develop my pieces to the best squares, which put pressure on him to find the best way to counter. I wasn't necessarily winning, but I had a slight positonal pull. He made some slight mistakes allowing to me to pin his Bishop against his King. I exchanged a rook for two minor pieces, then I sacrificed a pawn to force his King into the centre and an eventual checkmate with my remaining rook on f5.
At this point I was in joint lead with Sameera in the U1900 section with one more game to play.
Game 5: Jonadab Oki 0-1 William Lin. I had White, so I had to play for the win. I felt I played well, and kept up the pressure, and my opponent couldn't castle his King. He offered a draw, but we had a lot of pieces and play so I declined in a better position. To his credit, he handled the middle game really well but the position was still balanced. This was where I would say, my inexperience in tournament play, led to bad judgement. I pushed too hard and I lost. It was a big disappointment to lose a game that I shouldn't have lost. Still it was a good experience from which I learned a lot.
Overall, I received a lot of support from Luton chess club and fellow competitor at the event, Andrew Pye, who was also playing in the U1400 section, winning one of his games. My wife Michelle was there giving support and encouragement. She reminded me, that we don't often see ourselves how others see us, and this helped me gain perspective and appreciate that overall, I had good performance.