I spent my Memorial day weekend participating in the 2023 Washington Open. The Washington Open is a 6-round swiss event played across 3 days. The players are sorted into one of three sections based on your rating (Open, Premier - U1800, and Rising - U1400). It’s the marquee chess event of the year in Washington State, and many strong players come to compete.

My rating was around 1450 when I registered, which placed me right smack in the middle of the pack of the Premier section. My goal for the event was to prove to myself that I could be a competitive player against stronger opposition. Up until this tournament, I rarely got paired with players 200-300 rating points above me, so I was really excited for the new challenge. I felt pretty good about my chances since I had recently reached a new peak rating. I also played in the Rising section of this event last year, and I had won a small monetary prize for being the top-performing unrated player, so I had good memories to look back on.

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Now that it’s been well over a month since the tournament concluded, I figured I should analyze my games and write-up a post-mortem. To start with the conclusion, I ended the tournament with a 3/6 score - 3 wins and 3 losses, which was good for 37th place out of 86 participants. It was a painful result, since I was 3/4 through the first 2 days, only to crash on the final day. Based on some loose calculations, I was poised to gain around 50 rating points (a decent haul) after 4 games, but ended up losing ~10 rating points instead… Ouch.

Onto the actual games… I decided the best way to share my games is by sharing the key moments of each game. I tried to pick positions where players had to make difficult decisions, so hopefully you’ll have fun thinking through these positions as well.

Game 1: Mino Nakura (White) - Dave Juchau (Black) 1-0

Short story time: Before the start of every round, you will usually find a huge crowd in front of the tournament pairing sheet, which is a sheet of paper that lists your opponent for the round. I was at a table in the playing hall waiting for the crowd to die down when someone sat across from me at the table and asked me if I was his opponent. I told him I wasn’t and I was just waiting for the crowd to disperse. When I went to go check out the tournament pairings, it turned out that I was, in fact, his opponent!

Position 1 (black to move):

Here is the first interesting position my opponent (black) and I (white) reached in our game. Now, an exercise for the reader: In the above position (black to move), can black play 1... Nxc3?

What is the point of 1.. Nxc3? Well, if white were to naively take back with 2. bxc3, then black can follow up with 2... Qxc3+, checking the white king and forking the white rook in the corner. Okay, that’s no good for white.

What if white doesn’t take back with 2. bxc3? White’s options are quite limited because Black threatens Nxe2 (winning the queen), and also threatens a check by moving the knight anywhere (Queen on a5 checks the King on e1). White’s best defense is 2.Qd2, moving the queen away from the knight’s sight and blocking the potential discovered check. However, black, once again, has a very nasty threat! 2...Bb4?!, with the idea 3.axb4 Qxa1+, winning the rook in exchange for the bishop. Similarly, 3. bxc3 Bxc3 and white is losing their Queen.

So, how does white survive this? The very calm and collected 3. O-O! White needs to recognize that black has 2 pieces hanging and they can afford to spend a move getting their king to safety. Black, with only one tempo available, cannot save both pieces. White has to be very accurate, but white can parry black’s threats by castling at the end.

Position 2 (black to move):

My opponent finds himself at another crossroads. Does Black play 1...Bxb5 or 1...Bxf1?

The answer? 1...Bxb5! What!! But a rook is worth more than the bishop! Why take a (free) pawn when you can win an exchange? To answer this question, we should analyze the two positions after 1...Bxf1 2.Rxf1 and 1...Bxb5 2.Rfd1. After both 1...Bxf1 2.Rxf1 and 1...Bxb5 2.Rfd1, black has the following plan: Target the weak pawns on c5, e5, and g5 by bringing the rook to h5 and the knight to g6. But what about white? What is white’s plan?

Let’s take a look at 1...Bxf1 2.Rxf1. White’s bishop on g2 is staring down on black’s king and white’s queen and rook have a lot of freedom on the queenside. In addition, white’s pawns are marching down towards the king. These factors point towards a very strong attack for white, even at the cost of an exchange. After bxc6 or ...cxb5, black’s king will be quite exposed, and black will have to balance defending white’s attack with executing his own active plan.

On the other hand, what does the position look like after 1...Bxb5! 2.Rfd1? White’s queenside attack is practically halted since white no longer has any pawn to disrupt black’s pawn formation. With no active plan, white would be forced to assume a defensive role and spend tempi protecting c5, e5, and g5.

From the two resulting positions, we can see that 1...Bxb5! 2.Rfd1 completely stifles white’s attacking prospects, while 1...Bxf1 2.Rxf1 continues to allow white to execute an active plan. Black had to recognize that securing long-term king safety and stifling white’s plan was more important than winning an exchange. In the game, my opponent played 1...Bxf1 and actually went on to lose the game.

Game 2: Cedric Davies (White) - Mino Nakura (Black) 1-0

I laid a bunch of traps in this game, but my opponent didn’t fall for any of them. Here is one such trap. In the below position, white’s rook on g3 pins the g7 pawn to the king. Thus, 1. Qxh6 cannot be met with 1...gxh6. Did black just blunder a free pawn? Can white play Qxh6?

Position 3 (white to move):

1.Qxh6 looks really scary. If black does nothing, 2.Qxg7 and 2.Rxg7 are both mating threats. However, 1.Qxh6 is met by the very nice 1...Qxg3!!, sacking the queen! If 2.f/hxg3 then 2...gxh6 and we are up a rook. If 2.Qxf6, trying to get maximum value for the queen, then we can play 2...Qxd3 3.Rxd3 gxf6 and we’re still up a rook. Either way, black would completely dominate the resulting position had Qxh6 happened. Unfortunately, white played the very solid 1. c4

Position 4 (black to move):

Here, black has a very unpleasant decision to make. Does black use the king or the knight to take the bishop? Let’s explore the implications of both. A variation I quickly ruled out was 1...Kxh7 2.Qc2+ g6 3.Rxd6 Rxd6, where black would have a bishop and a rook for the queen. Then what about 1...Nxh7? After 1...Nxh7 2.Qxd6 Rxd6 3.Rxd6, black is down an exchange but can play 3...cxb3 or 3...c3. Are either of those promising, or was black’s decision to allow Bh7+ wrong? Well, 3...cxb3 4.h4 (4.axb3 Rc1+) bxa2 5.Rd1 and black has no good way to progress. How about 3...c3 (this is what I ended up playing in the game)? 4.Rd1 c2 5.Rc1 Rd8, black looks like they are winning. I missed this from a distance and my opponent found this during the game, but 6.Re3 actually holds a draw.

All of the above was the extent of my calculations, and my opponent probably came to similar conclusions as me. But, in fact, there is a continuation that is good for black! Where did my above calculations go wrong? After 1...Kxh7 2.Qc2+, black has a different move instead of 2...g6 The insane move I missed is 2...Qd3!!. White can take the queen two different ways with 3.Rdxd3 and 3.Rgxd3 but the engine considers this a good outcome for black!

Why is 3.Rdxd3 bad? After 3.Rdxd3 cxd3, white must move his queen because 4...dxc2 is a threat. The most natural move, 4.Qd2, fails to 4...Ne4, and the top engine move, 4.Qb1, is followed by 4...Ne4!, obstructing the x-ray of the white queen on the black king, 5.Rxd3 Rxd3 6.Qxd3 Rc1+ 7.Qf1 and black emerges up a full knight.

Then what about 3.Rgxd3? 3.Rgxd3 cxd3 4.Qb1 is a similar story to what we saw in the previous line with 4...Ne4 5.Rxd3 Rxd3 6.Qxd3 Rc1+. If 4.Qd2 Rc2 5.Qf4, black will slowly promote the pawn. Last but not least, 4.Qb2 Rc2 5. Qb1?? fails to 5...Rdc8 with d2 and Rc1+ to soon follow. 5.Qe5 is a lot more difficult to evaluate so I am taking the lazy way out and telling you the engine gives a -1 edge to black.

One last tidbit, the engine claims equality on 2...g6 3.Rxd6 Rxd6, which is something I never expected. I feel like this position is so complex I could continue to explore lines forever, but I will leave that as an exercise for the interested reader.

Game 3: Mino Nakura (White) - David Hendricks (Black) 1-0

Position 5 (white to move):

Let me paint the picture: Black has been on the offensive for the whole match. On the one hand, my opponent has managed to drive my king to the corner and has restricted my king movement with the bishop on a3 and Rook on c8 (My king literally only has 1 legal move). Black has a very simple plan (Rec3 followed by Rc2, Rb2, and unstoppable mate threats to soon follow), and it very much feels like black is on the verge of checkmating white.

On the other hand, there’s a free pawn on f4 . What if black’s threats are imaginary? If white can snatch f4 AND survive black’s attack, white would be a clean pawn up. Does white have time to play Nxf4?

Here’s what happened in the game: 1.Nxf4 Rec3 2.Rhe1 Rc2 3.Nd5+ Kf8 4.Ne3 Rb2+ 5.Ka1 f5?? 6.Nc4 and white went on to win the game. The key insight is that Black’s threats take time to realize. The rook maneuver Rec3 and Rc2 is 2 free tempi white can utilize not only to take the f4 pawn but also allow the knight to assume a central defensive position. Black would still have been slightly better had he played accurately, but he did not find the right moves and I went on to win the game.

Game 4: Nugen Tran (White) - Mino Nakura (Black) 0-1

Before the game started, my opponent told me 1. my name was super cool and that 2. I looked like a high schooler . It’s been over 5 years since I graduated high school man…

Position 6 (black to move):

One of the worst feelings in chess is when your opponent plays a move you didn’t expect and for that move to be a piece sacrifice. It means they’re willing to give up material (a knight in this case) because they are absolutely confident in their upcoming attack. My opponent was young, so maybe his youthful spirit also played a part in his bold move: 1.Nf6?! There are two related ideas to this move. First, after 1...gxf6 the h6 pawn is weak. Second, the h5 square is vacated for the queen to occupy. Coupled with the strong bishop on b1, the pawn avalanche on e5 and f4, the possibility of a rook lift to d3 or f3, and the fact that black’s pieces are uncoordinated, Nf6 turned out to be a dangerous move with a lot of venom.

With all this is mind, what does black do? Does he walk into white’s plan, weaken his h6 pawn, and open up his kingside? Does he try to maintain the status quo with Rd7 or Rd6? It’s a pretty difficult decision to make, knowing that gxf6 could be a dangerous trap.

Actually, black stares danger right in the face and plays the equally bold 1...gxf6! and says, “do your worst!” Played accurately, black is able to fend off white’s attack, even with all of white’s dangerous threats! 2.Qh5 Kg7 is forced, as otherwise the h6 pawn is hanging. There are a few other candidate moves in the resulting position (3.Ne2 and 3.Rf3 come to mind), but we will focus on 3.Rd3 as that move was played in the game. 3...Ng6 is forced so that 4. Rg3 doesn’t come with tempo. 4...f5 is mandatory in order to prevent 5.f5 by the opponent, and, with that, black has successfully defended against white’s attack. One last thing to note is had white played the immediate 4.f5 Nxe5 5.Rg3+ Kf8 6.Qxh6+ Ke7 and black’s king has found shelter.

Position 7 (black to move):

This position is more for myself than for any other person. After Qf6+, which square should the king move to?

Out of the three possible choices, I chose the worst one. Kf8?! with the “hope” that white plays Qxh8??, where white misses that the rook is guarded by the knight. This is a terrible move because 1. my reason for playing it was terrible and 2. the king cuts off the Rook’s circulation on h8. With the king of f8, the rook will have a hard time finding its way into the game. Kg8 was the only other move I gave any consideration, but it’s bad for the same reason as Kf8. Kh7 is the correct move, and it’s important to recognize that Qxf7 is not a threat because the Queen on a7 protects the pawn.

Game 5: Mino Nakura (White) - Michael Shapiro (Black) 0-1

My round 4 game finished at 10pm on Saturday night, and I got home at around 11pm. The round 5 game was slated to start at 10am on Sunday, which meant I had a less than 12 hour turnaround time. A pretty brutal schedule, and I got handedly destroyed in this round.

Frankly, I’m going to hold off on sharing any puzzles from this game because I still don’t know what specifically went wrong. The Fried Liver is a pretty risky opening and my opponent played a textbook game to refute it, so perhaps I just need to play a different opening .

Game 6: Nirmala Routray (White) - Mino Nakura (Black) 1-0

This was a painful game. For whatever reason, a young player rated 990 (obviously underrated) was able to play in the Premier Section of the WA Open. A single loss against him undid all rating gains I had made in this tournament and actually caused me to lose some rating points. Personally, I thought I played a fairly decent tournament up to this point, so this was really hard game to swallow.

Position 8 (black to move):

I am down a pawn, but I thought I had a tactic available to turn the game on its head. Here is the sequence I calculated: 1...Bxd4 2.Bxd4 (2.Rxd4 Qxe1+) Rxe1+ 3.Rxe1 Qxe1+ 4. Kf2 Re8 but unfortunately neither sequence works. Can you see why?

The answer is 2.b4! It severs my Queen’s connection to the rook on e1 and forces me to move my queen to safety. As a result, my bishop is hanging and Black is in a bit of trouble. Luckily, I have (and this is what happened in the game) 2...Qb6 3.Qxb6 Bxb6 4.Bxb6 Rxe1+ (an important intermezzo to prevent Rxd5) 5.Rxe1 axb6, which is still not great for black, but disaster is averted.

One final point is the queen sack doesn’t work. 1...Bxd4 2.b4 Bxe3 3.bxa5 Bxf2+ 4.Kg2 Bxe1 5.Rxe1 and 5...Rxe1 is not possible because the rook on f8 hangs.

Position 9 (black to move):

Apparently, this position is a draw but I am terrible at endgames and I have no clue what makes this a draw. If anyone understands the drawing idea please let me know lmao my email is minorunakura(at)gmail(dot)com.