My Chess travails in Singapore tweetstorm follows. Please skip over if you are not interested.
So, last time if you remember, I was quite glad with my online chess rating of 1700 and was getting to a feel of I understand this game. And then, I got pummeled..absolutely pummeled by a 9 year old..who I realized was representing Singapore...obviously, I rationalized happily.
And then yesterday. Singapore has this motley chess group that meets every Wednesday at a place called Asia Square. Nothing racist about it. But you get this crowd who look very unassuming. So, I met a Sri Lankan yesterday
The dude was very chill, we laughed about certain things..he was new to Singapore as well. And then he started putting the chess pieces together. I noticed that he played chess before...as people familiar with the game..the way they place their pieces..is quite different from us
I let that pass by. Obviously, the feeling is 'I will show him' before the start of the gam. I began with what I always play White with (mostly) - the Queen's Indian Gambit. Accepted/Declined doesn't matter. I knew this opening inside out (or so I thought). The dude responded
He responded with a move I hadn't seen before in combination. It was a combination of Qb6 and few crafty bishop moves. My position started falling apart. The beauty, and the pain, of Chess is that you realize the position is falling apart, but still you fight. The squeeze comes.
You gasp for breath. You frantically try to calculate variations. The pressure is building and the choke is coming. You know there is no escape - unless there was a blunder. Of course, there was no blunder. He kept making all the right moves..and I am thinking bloody hell.
So, basically, he took my strongest opening, an opening I played in atleast 100 games and ripped it apart. By the end of it, he was up so much material and I gave up with a mate in two whichever way I looked at it. I think the game lasted about 26-27 moves.
Then I said, one more. Of course, I tried to distract him before the start of the game talking of a myriad things, trying to lighten him up, asked him if he played Chess professionally before. He responds by saying that he got Chess training for 3 years in Sri Lanka in 6th grade
And then he didn't qualify for his country and that's the end of it. He plays online chess and tournaments seldom. Plays with an Elo rating of 1800. I was like, great - that's very close to my rating. I should be able to play well in this game - maybe last game was an aberration
I thought to myself - maybe this dude is great in open games - like the Queen's gambit. Maybe I should play a closed game. So, I played the Two Knights defence. Rock solid opening. Very carefully thought out moves. And then he offers one pawn very innocously..almost unnoticed.
I obviously didn't jump knowing the scars of the previous game, thought, calculated and had an option of taking it with the bishop or the knight. Took it with the Knight. Big mistake! The rally of moves came in. Queen side attack. Defended. King side attack. Defended. And a fork
Somehow wriggled out. By now, blood is oozing within my head and I was barely holding on. And then - boom, knight sacrifice. He had a chance to either exchange my bishop for his knight or ...a pawn. Needless to say, He took a pawn for his knight. I looked on with horror.
Either way I played, I was landing with losing my rook or my queen. Fought on, but a few moves later, it was mate in one move. Resigned. By now, I could see he was taking pity on me. Here I was valiantly fighting, and there he was barely breaking a sweat.
Mind you, he was not calculating 10 moves ahead like the GMs did. I asked his thoughts after the game...he was not calculating more than 3 moves ahead. But the sheer understanding of the space that he had and how he looked at the entire game to see the interplay of pieces..my god
I say, almost same rating? Bloody hell, no. Take your online chess rating and maybe divide by 2. That's probably the real rating in Elo levels. And given how Elo rating works, a rating of 900 is not just half bad as one with 1800. Elo's at log scale. So, I was exponentially bad
And then,sheepishly asked for a 3rd game.Maybe a mistake on Queen's gambit that I had played earlier. Maybe I can rectify it this time..with an opening that I know and with White which has a slight advantage. He accepted and then again, in a few moves, my position was in tatters
He took pity on me and kept saying, 'nope, that will lose the knight', 'nope, open to king side attack' etc. So he helpfully goaded me to a position in favor of me than him. I forked him with a rook for a bishop. Gleefully took it and said, yep, finally, advantage.
But nope. He defended that position so well and had so many mating threats. I never thought I'd think so hard ever for a chess game (or ever) to fend off all the threats and eventually draw the game inspite of the rook for bishop advantage.
And it's not just about the skill. Just to give you a comparison, I played a practice game with a national badminton player once..I obviously was defeated like 21-5, 21-4..but with badminton, you always think you have a chance. You always think maybe here, maybe there.
But in Chess, it's just mind numbing. It's beautiful. It's painful. A thing of joy when you look at some of the combinations one plays. A blood curling pain when you are in the position where you know you are losing the battle and the war. Sheer understanding of the game.
Anyway, I left in a daze shaking hands with him. Was probably my age..which made things slightly better (or worse). He was looking almost bored - it's like when you are playing with some amateur who can't hold a racket. As much as I had an inkling that my online rating ...
..is not close to the actual Elo rating, that inkling was confirmed into a huge reality yesterday. Not even close. And if this is the feeling that I have with a guy who got trained in 6th grade, I can imagine what players feel when they go against Super GMs like Anand and Carlsen
Last tweet. Love for Chess continues. But it's painful when you realize that it will take a generation of learning to be called an expert in any skill based game, irrespective of 'your fight', 'your gut' or whatever. Will go back next Wednesday for another battle. Another bruise.
