Zero Rated Player Tale
Hello my new and old chess friends!
As you may know from paging through my slightly boring blog, I play a lot of online chess. Like many such players, I sometimes wonder about the differences between online games and real chess. How much of an online skill can be quoted over the board?
Although I've already play Blitz (see here ) and Rapid (see here). But the main challenge - Classic Chess - was still a terra incognita for me.
With great enthusiasm I knew that after a break caused by the pandemic, chess federation of my city would host a tournament in Zaporozhye (Ukraine) in Blitz, Rapid and Classical Chess. Oh yes, that's exactly what I need.
Classical chess over the board!
My city Zaporozhye
On the scheduled day and hour, I came to a pretty strange place where people meet together to play chess with wooden pieces at a real board!
I mean a local chess club.
The arbiter at the table asked if I had a rating in classical chess. And when he found out that I wasn't, he put me down as having a rating of 0 and advised me to try not to poke my eyes out with the king in the first game. (joke)
That's how I became a zero rated player. A beginner in classical chess. Noob.
Photo by Alexey Druzhinets
Meanwhile two grandmasters, a few international masters and FIDE masters, as well as many candidate masters in real, not online, chess had arrived at the tournament. All of these were, no doubt, are very dangerous people. If I'm lucky, I'll draw with some of them, I thought.
Blitz Champonship
The first day of play confirmed my worst fears. The chess festival began with the regional blitz championship. As a guest from online chess, a titanic test awaited me. The first (and biggest) problem was the chess clock. I often forgot to switch them after a move. By the time I remembered, looking at my opponent's satisfied face, it was already, usually, 4 seconds on display. My zeros on the table were increasing.
But all in all, of course, it was incredibly entertaining, and all the players were completely great!
I had several attacks typical for a hardcore blitz over the board!
Some of players were deluded by my rating of zero, and wanted a quick attack on something that I could blunder. Sometimes it was completely contrary to opening principles, and then the catastrophe began!
Yes, I started to play normally only when the tournament, in fact, was already over. I scored five points from 9 games and finished 25th out of 53 players in Blitz Championship of my state.
Classical Championship
After the blitz tournament, the Classic Championship started!
- Round 1 - My first classical game
The next day I came to the tournament hall early, wrote down my opponent's name on the form, and we started my first classical chess game. I think my zero-rating has done his job and the first category player decided as soon as possible to win against such a noob like me. To do this, he chose an intimidating looking flanking maneuver!
- Round 2 - London battle
Next day were two rounds in one day. In round 2 I defeated none-rated young player
But can happiness last forever? According to the luck of the Swiss system, in the third round I was to play against a grandmaster.
Hey, was this a joke?
Grandmaster?
Ohhhh....
- Round 3 - Probably best game in my life
On the third round of the tournament, players and guests could watch an unbelievable pairing: a zero-rated player sitting at the same table with an international grandmaster. This zero-rated player paused for a bit, looking up at the ceiling. But the clock announced inexorably the beginning of the game.
Do you hear that short knock?
I played 1.e4.
Let's take a look at what was going on the board!
Even if I had lost all the other games of the tournament, I would already be happy that in my first classical game against the grandmaster, incredible luck had gone to me! I think I was smiling like an idiot for the rest of the day.
Because I became one of the leaders of the tournament!
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