Battling My Way Through the Japan Open

Welcome, everybody to another over-the-board tournament review of the Osaka Papers.

The Japan Open 2024 was held in Nagoya, Japan from November 1st through November 4th. I would love to tell you how I diligently prepared for this event, how I spent countless hours studying endgame (as I promised to do in my last OTB blog), or of the dozens of training games I took part in to keep my tactical vision sharp...

Well, I'm not going to tell you any of that, as it would be a lie...between blogging, designing chess prints and studying Japanese, I had very little time to put towards chess, which is a great shame as this was an incredible tournament. With 151 players representing 22 different chess federations this was the biggest and most international tournament in the history of the Japan Chess Federation.

Despite my lack of preparation I set myself a goal of 4 points out of 7. Having never achieved a score above 3 points, at a 7 round FIDE tournament, this was a lofty aspiration. To accomplish my goal I would have to battle my way through, children, unrated players and chess streamers, literally the worst people you want to sit across from at a OTB tournament.

But before we get to whether or not I achieved my goal, how about a few pictures to prove that any of this actually happened.

Child's Play

In round one I was paired with Toma Matsunaga, a 12 year old (to tell the truth I'm not certain of his age...but he looks about 12, so lets go with that). In our last encounter at the Japan Chess Championship he crushed me, but I thought that I could improve upon my performance this time around.

After a shaky opening and subpar middle game, I was able to take advantage of a blunder in the endgame, and found myself up by two pawns. I simply need to take care of my king safety and the game should be mine, but with very little time on my clock I found myself in this position.

Should White play Bxa7 taking the pawn or give my king an escape square by playing h4?

Toma went onto beat a FIDE Master in the next round and also drew against a Candidate Master, so perhaps I shouldn't feel too badly about the loss. Yet, it does show that in the endgame it is of the upmost importance to play the strongest moves, as inaccuracies turn wins into losses.

The Art of Swindling

In round two, I played against an unrated youngster representing Hong Kong. If I learned anything this tournament, it is this: if someone travels all the way from Hong Kong to Japan to play in a chess tournament, regardless of their rating, they are probably pretty good.

He crushed me...O_o...there is no way around it, this was a beat down. By move 28 I was down the exchange and White had heavy pieces on the 7th rank, almost a resignable position. I had only one tool left to me: Treachery...

This position is losing, but there is a move that could lead to a game saving blunder.

What should Black play in order to swindle White?

Chess is brutal, and this ending proves it, but Andy went on to score 4 points out of 7, so perhaps this was a successful chess trip for him.

In round 3, I faced Tony Wijaya, quite a strong player rated 1973, who represents the Indonesian federation. Long story short, I sacked the exchange but ended up losing my bishop pair and the game. While in the fourth round I was able to overcome another unrated youngster. As interesting as these games were, let us skip past them to the fifth round.

Blogger vs Streamer

In the fifth round, I was up against a fellow Canadian. Farzy explained to me that he had recently quit his job, and decided to travel the world playing chess and streaming! Must be nice! I salute his intrepidity, so few people have the courage to follow their dreams, despite the obstacles.

My repertoire is an open secret, half the chess players in Japan know exactly what I'm going to play, as I have the bad habit of writing detailed accounts of my games. Thus, Farzy had prepared an off-beat variation of the Giuoco Piano for me, I'm glad to say I did not fall into his prep, but the game was closely contested, Black held the initiative and the attack for almost the entire match. That is until move 29, when Black played ...Rh7, spoiler you cannot play ...Rh7 in this position and hope to live.

How does White devastate Black's position?

Farzy went on the score 4 points out of 7. As far as I know, he is in Korea, streaming, playing chess and living his best life. You can find him on YouTube:FarzyPlaysChess and TwitchTv:FarzyPlaysChess, feel free to give him a follow, he has some great content.

Up Against a Wall

In the sixth round, I came up against a wall. I got a little insider information that my opponent, a man by the name of Akira, plays the Reti with double fianchetto bishops and prefers slow, non-theoretical games, this would prove correct.

At this stage, I had 3 points, a win or even a draw would mean that I would finish with my highest point total at a 7 round FIDE tournament.

What follows is one of the most accurate games I have ever played OTB.

Special Thanks

And that was it, that was Battling My Way Through the Japan Open. I thoroughly enjoyed the tournament, despite not quite reaching my goal of 4 points, I believe I did show glimpses of my potential.

Yet, more important than my results was my reception. I was actually astonished to find that almost all of my opponents are readers of my blog. I couldn't quite believe it when CM Alex Averbukh of the Tokyo Bilingual Chess Club gave me the wonderful Omiyage pictured above. And I was happy to use a souvenir pen from the Budapest Olympiad given to me by Melody who represented Japan at the event, I'm certain it brought me luck. 

So, to all my well wishers and readers, thank you!! Your support means the world to me!

As always, thanks for reading and feel free to share these games with your friends down at the Library or Chess Club.

Cheers, SheldonOfOsaka.

P.S.

Check out my shop at REDBUBBLE, instead of prepping for this tournament I was hard at work designing chess stickers, prints and T-shirts. Just click the link to have a quick look. Cheers!!