I have been quite active in the past three months, and usually when I am very active I perform well, but unfortunately that was not the case to close out 2023. In the October 8, 2023 East Market Round Robin (Columbus, Ohio), I scored 3/5, finishing out of the money and dropping 19 hard-earned rating points to fall to 2012. I played well for most of the day, starting with 2/3 and finishing with a crisp 26 move win in round five, but the whole event went bad for me in one second during round four: in a completely winning position against eventual tournament winner Calvin Roach, I played my move one second too late and lost on time. The time control was G/40 with a five second increment, so if I had just made my move a bit faster and then responded immediately on my next move I would have then had six seconds, which would have been more than enough (with the five second increment) to finish the game off. Full credit to Roach, who defended resourcefully enough to induce me to run out of time. He scored 4/5 overall, gaining 143 rating points to vault from 1655 to 1798, just short of his highest rating ever (1823). That one fateful second represented a 24 point rating swing, meaning I could have finished the tournament at 2036 instead of 2012.
I scored 1.5/3 in the October 14, 2023 Dublin (Columbus, Ohio) G/60 tournament, gaining six rating points to improve my rating to 2018. I drew my second round game versus the top rated player (Joel Jaffe, 2191), but lost to Brett Passen (2168) in the last round and thus finished out of the money.
I scored 2/4 in the October 22, 2023 East Market Swiss, losing nine rating points to fall to 2009. I was the third seeded player out of 12 players, and I lost to the number one seed (Brett Passen) and the number two seed (John Miller).
I scored 3/4 in the October 28, 2023 Cincinnati Tornado, losing four rating points to drop to 2005. I was the fourth seeded player out of 37 players, and I tied for third-eighth place. In the last round, I drew with the third seeded player, Russell Wilson. I had lost my previous six games versus Wilson, who earned the National Master title in the late 1980s and maintained a USCF rating over 2200 for most of the time between the late 1980s and early 2000s. Wilson won the 1999 U.S. Amateur South tournament with 4.5/5, while I took second place in that event (on tiebreaks) with 4/5; we did not face each other in that tournament, and my only loss came against Ryan Milisits, a talented junior player who was rated just 1782 at that time but who earned the National Master title in 2004. Wilson tied with Mark Geist for the Ohio Champion title in the 2001 Ohio Chess Championship (Stanislav Kriventsov won the tournament, but as an out of Ohio resident was not eligible to be Ohio Champion).
A few days after the Cincinnati Open, the USCF rerated many events that were played after February 2023. I am not going to edit the articles in this series to update my ratings after each tournament that was rerated, nor am I going to edit the post tournament ratings listed above; it suffices to say that after the rerate my October 28, 2023 post tournament rating was 2009.
I played in two tournaments on my birthday weekend. I scored 1.5/3 in the November 4, 2023 Columbus G/60 tournament, gaining seven rating points to improve my rating to 2016. In the first round, I drew with the top seeded player, Broderick Bauml, after I missed a win during mutual time pressure (but he was in worse time pressure than I was, with less than 20 seconds remaining while I had about two minutes remaining). I beat Expert Justin Notter in a wild game in the second round, and then on board one in the third round I lost to Nicholas Bize, so I failed to win a prize. I scored 4/5 in the November 5, 2023 East Market Round Robin, gaining 16 rating points to improve my rating to 2032. I was the second seeded player. I drew the top seeded player, John Miller, and I drew the third seeded player, Henry Lu, and I won my other three games to claim clear first place.
Kings Island is one of my favorite tournaments, and I have been successful there many times, including tying for second in the U2000 section in 2003, tying for third in the U2100 section in 2007, tying for first in the U2100 section in 2012, and finishing clear second in the 2013 Kings Island Open Saturday Night Blitz. However, in recent years at Kings Island I have not performed up to my standards. This year, I scored 2/5 in the U2100 section on November 11-12, 2023, losing 43 rating points to fall below 2000 (1989) for the first time since September 2023. I lost three games in the same event for the first time since my disastrous 2/5 performance in the June 10-11, 2023 Cleveland Open. A player's rating as of the final week of November becomes his official December rating, so 2023 marks the first time since 2019 that my official year end rating is below 2000; in 11 of the past 15 years my year end rating has been higher than 2000. After round three, I played in the Kings Island Open Saturday Night Blitz, tying for 14th-16th place out of 41 players with a score of 4.5/8, and losing 30 blitz rating points.
Here is how I squandered a winning position in round one of Kings Island versus Siddarth Kunapuli, a rising young player who is currently rated 1867. In the diagrammed position, it is my turn after my opponent played Qd7. The check on f7 is not a serious threat, so I should have just played ...Bc5. My opponent can take on b7, but then I can play ...Qe4+ followed by either ...Qxc2 or ...Bd6. Stockfish 16 gives Black a nearly +6 advantage, equivalent to being ahead by more than a full Rook. Instead, I played ...Qe7 and watched in horror as my opponent took the free Bishop on d4. The engine evaluation swung by over 10 points in just one move! Objectively, in terms of advantage squandered in one move this has to rank as one of the worst moves of my chess career, or at least one of my worst moves since I became an Expert in May 1995.
Two weeks after the Kings Island disaster, I played in the November 25, 2023 Dublin (Columbus) G/60 tournament, scoring 2.5/4 and losing 12 rating points to drop to 1977. I scored 2.5/3 to set up a last round board one game versus top seeded Nicholas Bize, who defeated me to finish 4/4 and not only claim clear first but also win the bonus prize for a perfect score. Bize attained the Expert title at Kings Island, and he is well on his way to breaking the 2100 barrier during his expedited journey to the National Master title.
It is rare that I have two awful performances in close proximity to each other, but in the November 26, 2023 East Market Swiss I lost my first two games, hanging my Queen in each one. I won my next two games to finish 2/4, but I lost 34 rating points to drop to 1943, my lowest rating since September 2021. In September-November 2021, I responded by gaining 18 points, 52 points, 23 points, and 12 points in my next four tournaments.
This time, I responded by gaining a total of 25 points in my next three tournaments. I scored 2/3 in the December 2, 2023 Dublin (Columbus) G/60 tournament to tie for second-fourth place, but because all three of my opponents were rated below 1900 I lost three points despite having a positive score. I then scored 3/4 in the December 3, 2023 East Market Swiss to tie for second-third place, gaining 27 points to push my rating up to 1967. In my final tournament of 2023, I scored 3/4 in the December 17, 2023 East Market Swiss, tying for second-third place and gaining one point to lift my rating up to 1968.
Overall, I had some great chess results in 2023. I won 93 rated games, setting a personal calendar year record. I also set a personal calendar year record for rated games played, 155, surpassing my previous mark of 151 (set in 2011 and matched in 2013). My winning percentage of .684 was my sixth best ever. My peak rating was 2038. I finished first or tied for first in nine regular or dual rated events--and I also tied for first in the July 20, 2023 Cincinnati Chess Club G/24 Swiss. My record for first place finishes in regular or dual rated events in a calendar year is 12 (2019); I also had nine first place finishes in 2005, eight in 1996 and 2009, and seven in four different years (1997, 1998, 2013, 2018). I have finished first in 149 regular or dual rated events overall, which does not approach the unofficial record (more than 1000!) posted by New England FM John Curdo but is nevertheless not too shabby for an Ohio Expert who has not traveled extensively outside of Ohio to play in tournaments.
I finished second in nine regular or dual rated events in 2023, surpassing my previous record (seven, 2008). Thus, I finished first or second in 18 out of my 39 regular or dual rated events in 2023.
However, the reason that my rating currently sits below 2000 instead of above 2100 is that I had awful results in the April 1, 2023 Indianapolis Super Tornado (2/5, lost 36 rating points), the June 10-11, 2023 Cleveland Open (2/5 in the U2100 section, lost 45 rating points), and the November 11-12, 2023 Kings Island Open (2/5 in the U2100 section, lost 43 rating points). The rating losses that I suffered in those three events more than wiped out the rating points that I gained during the rest of an otherwise successful year.
The two biggest challenges that I am facing are (1) fighting against my over the board impatience/impulsiveness and (2) battling against a young generation of quickly improving players.
Look at the rating list of the top 100 players in the world, and you will see that most of the players were born in 2000 or after: December 2023 FIDE Rating List. Only four players in the top 50 were born before 1980! The point is that (1) youth matters in chess and (2) it is quite an accomplishment to maintain one's level or even increase one's level after the age of 40.
I embrace this challenge! My role models here are Wilhelm Steinitz and Viktor Korchnoi.
Steinitz reigned as World Champion until he was 61!
Korchnoi played in his first World Championship match at age 47 and then qualified again for the World Championship match at age 50. He was still ranked in the world's top 100 at age 75 and he is the oldest national champion ever (age 80, Switzerland). He played competitively until suffering a stroke at age 81, but even after the stroke he defied the odds and played a few matches before passing away at age 85.
I reached the 2000 rating level for the first time in 1995 when I was 23, and every year since that time my peak rating has been at least 2000; I sometimes fall below 2000, but I always bounce back. I doubt that many non-Masters have maintained a peak rating over 2000 every year for nearly 30 years. I am a consistently strong player for a non-professional, even though I am frustrated that I have not reached a higher peak (yet!) than 2190.
I plan to update my Journey to the National Master title on a quarterly basis in 2024. My 2024 chess goals are:
1) Gain 60 rating points per quarter.
2) Do not lose any games to players rated below 1800.
3) Accumulate more draws than losses.
4) Maintain a winning percentage of at least .750, to break my personal record of .740 set in 2014.
Accomplishing those four goals will be sufficient to obtain the National Master title. Of course, that is much easier said than done, but it is important to articulate clear step by step goals in order to create a process to achieve those goals. Here, the process involves both preparation before each tournament and also some mindset adjustments during tournament play.
I am not afraid to publicly state goals now, and then look back in a year to see how I measured up.
In 2023, I scored 93 wins, 26 draws, and 36 losses in regular rated tournament games with nine first place finishes in 39 events--but seven losses to players rated below 1750 were costly, and as a result my net rating gain for 2023 is minus 44 points, so I need to gain 232 points to reach my goal.
