Chris and I dropped more than $1K each to travel to Philadelphia and get our asses kicked in the 50th annual World Open of Chess. Here's how it went.
World Open 2022 Chess Review
Showing up to the World Open out of shape went exactly as you'd expect. I felt confident in my openings and played them well. But in my games, I missed a nasty, but obvious tactic, blundered a knight on move 6, ran out of stamina despite being up 5, and simply didn't transition to my middle game very well.
Competing in the under 1200 isn't exactly impressive, but I am still trying to pin down an actual rating. For example, occasionally, you miss free pieces like in the game below, which I won by the way.
When I got my new job in November, I stopped having time to stream and as a result, my chess fell off the face of the earth. But, I'm hoping this will get me back into it.
With white, I played the Scotch game which lead to my only win of the whole dame thing. It came via the classical variation of the main lines of the Scotch Game: 3… xd4 4. Nxd4, Bc5 5. Nxc3, QF6 6. Qd2, dxc6 (embedded below).
My Scotch Game out of Order
At this point, my opponent and I played the general lines, though a bit out of order. For example, I played 7. Bb3 defending e4, instead of the classical line Nc3. However, I played Nc3 on the following move.
By playing Nc3 a move earlier, I still protect d4; however, I also allow for Na4 threatening 9. BxC6 as well as affording my queen the entire d file. Na4 was available later, and I should have played it according to the Chess.com engine.
Despite this being nearly the same, I need to study what disadvantages I opened myself up to when doing this. Should be fun.
With black I played 1… d6 and heard from both an opponent and a spectating coach that d6 is becoming a popular defense. I've played it exclusively for more than a year -- online and OTB. I know it very, very well despite not understanding the theory.
But, I'm going to change that.
I bought a book at the tournament all about 1… d6. What I'm finding now is that the move allows for a bunch of transposed openings that are famous and well-documented for black. In fact, this exact thing is why I play d6.
Chess.com has a course by GM Ben Finegold (who was at the World Open) wherein he teaches the Philidor defense by 1. e4, d6 2. d5, Nf6 3. Nc3, e5.
1… d6 can also take you to the King Indian, the French (kinda) the Caro Kann, and variations of the Scandinavian defense. Based on the first chapter of this book, I plan to master the opening.
First, I love it. Secondly, it will be many years before I play someone good enough to take advantage of any weaknesses in the defense.
With 1… d6 and the Scotch Game I feel strongly in my style and what I can do. But, I have a lot of work to do to challenge for my section and that includes memorization, tactics, and stamina.
Still, 19-year-old Grandmaster Hans Niemann (FIDE 2688) and 21-year-old Grandmaster John Michael Burke (FIDE 2575) won the open section of the tournament with 7.5 points from nine matches.
Tournament Review: Disorganization, Bad Schedule
I am perpetually disappointed with the disorganization of in-person over-the-board (OTB) chess events. The 2022 World Open in Philly was no exception.
First, there is no security, which, in the present climate, is something that needs to be considered.
Secondly, the tournament directors constantly had to remind people that you can't watch your person (child, significant other, etc.) with a cell phone on your person. Duh.
I don't think that chess associations have the financial ability to buy passes or ID badges for players, spectators, and/or parents, but for bigger events, they should look into is.
Third, and most importantly, the scheduling was rubbish.
By the time the weekend rolled around, we played at 11 a.m. and then again at 6 p.m. With games lasting between one and four hours, this is maybe the most disadvantageous way to do it.
That means, if you played your ass off at 11, you'd finish between 1 and 3 p.m. And then at 6, it's possible and even likely that you'll miss your chance to eat dinner.
So, in an event filled with children and young people, no one could enjoy Philly (an objectively cool place to be on the 4th of July) or even grab lunch or dinner after their rounds.
Starting at 9 a.m. and then playing at 3 p.m. would have been far better. This would give players time for afternoon lectures and evening blitz or tourist activities. And, if you traveled all the way to another city just to play in one of the biggest open events in the world, you're probably okay with starting at 9 a.m.
Evolving Chess Culture: More Girls Than Ever
After getting smoked in my second game of the tournament, I went for a beer at the hotel bar, I sat between a young woman in her late 20's and a man less than a year away form retirement.
She graduated from one of the biggest colleges in the U.S. this May where she served as the vice president of the university's chess club. She was there with a few of her teammates/clubmates on their own dime just to travel and play for fun.
As a young single woman, she planned to go out to make some friends and just enjoy being 22. (I told her to go to Morgan's Pier).
That kind of chess + fun combination is something I believe is missing for players older than about 16 years old. For those of you who don't know, I'd guess that roughly 30%-50% of the field are pubescent or pre-pubescent children. And, by the way, they will whoop your ass; as this woman said "kids are books."
She noted that in the past few years -- post-Queen's Gambit -- the amount of girls and specifically post-pubescent girls has exploded. I'd estimate the percentage of non-males as about 10%, but Chris agreed, that was many, many times what it used to be.
Since I've been playing competitively, the majority of girls are, I'd guess, between the ages of about 5 and 12 years old. But the number of girls between say 12 and 18 and the number of women does appear to be going up, even since 2019.
There are essentially two issues:
That girls who know chess don't want to play publicly -- for whatever reason. If that reason is that they don’t feel welcome, we need to fix that.
Girls who begin playing competitively at a young age stop playing competitively when they get older. Now, if someone loses interest, that's their prerogative. But if they're being bullied or ostracized, that's an issue.
Racially, ethnically, and nationalistically, Chess is astounding in its diversity. On the basis of sex and gender, it's a gross mess. But, shouts to that girl -- who I won't name because I didn't tell her I'd blog about this -- who played chess, went out, had fun, and led a chess club to the most significant open event in the world.
A long way to go, but progress is indeed happening.
Philly Food Tour
Despite being constantly left off lists by high-brow, know-it-all publications, Philadelphia is one of the best food and dining cities in the U.S. Period.
While Chris and I enjoy both a high-brow dining experience and a corner truck vibe. But, just by needing somewhere to eat after 9 p.m., we lucked into some incredible restaurants for dinner, crushed some delicious lunch bites, and had the best coffee shop breakfast food in America (I'll fight you).
First, I had a double meat Italian Hoagie from Wawa. It was $6 hoagie weekend for America's birthday. I will not be taking questions at this time.
We ended our time together with some late-night steak and lamb at Parc in Rittenhouse that included come well-made cocktails and a decision rum sauce dessert.
On Saturday morning, we opted to just get some coffee and play chess. This led to some aggressive cry-baby hungry grumpies (our family term for hangry that we stole from the Berenstain Bears) from Chris who was in a bad move after snatching a draw from the jaws of defeat.
Tria Philly, a hole-in-the-wall beer and wine spot with clean and healthy food, was the closest to our hotel. I had the duck salad and Chris had the smoked turkey sandwich. We both had Bruschetta, which stole the show.
Our dining tour included Monk's Cafe, Tria, River Twice, Cafe Ole, Jose Pistolas, and Parc.
Top left: Steak Frites - Parc; Rhum Cake (with actual gold flakes on the cream) with Espresso and an aperitif - Parc; Duck Salad, mushroom bruschetta, pistachio ricotta bruschetta, smoked turkey sandwich - Tria; lamb shank - Park.
River Twice Review
For Dinner, we went to South Philly hoping to run into some friends but needed food first. The only kitchen that was open is a restaurant with huge acclaim and prestige called River Twice.
We walked in about 10 minutes before the kitchen closed and asked if it was cool to eat there. The manager said, "we're happy to have you," which was awesome.
River Twice is a hot, high-brow place to eat that offers American cuisine with a sustainable angle. It offers two different tasting menus one of which is served at a chef's counter and is a completely unique and custom dining experience akin to eating with experts in food and dining. As of July 2022, the general tasting menu includes dishes like scallops, crab, snail tart, and asparagus handroll.
But, if you'd just like a bite to eat, they have a grazing menu, too so long as you sit outside, which they politely asked us to do. We obliged; again, we were just happy to eat.
The grazing menu includes a burger they call the "Rucker" as a tribute to Chef Randy Rucker's late mother, who is looking out for her son as the Rucker kept the restaurant in business during the pandemic shutdowns, according to our server.
Chris and I opted to get the duck confit and the brioche dumplings to share them.
The dishes were clean, fresh, and complex with locally sourced ingredients. But, we were hungrier than we thought and if we could go back, we probably would have added a dish called the Appalachian by meadow creek dairy -- which is pickled green strawberries, mustard seeds, raw honey, and a sauerkraut cracker. Omg.
We paired with a 2021 South African Cabernet Sauvignon from Kumusha Wines, which was an incredibly bold choice of wine on a list that was frankly mind-blowing.
It includes a German pinot noir rose, a chardonnay-based sparkling wine, and an Austrian white blend just to name a few. Clearly, the acidic and playful theme of the wine menu isn't meant to make the wine the star of the show; rather, the wine is a side character in a TV show whom you'd really like to see more of.
This restaurant was absurdly good, down to their willingness to serve us so late. We crushed our food and went across the street to Stateside for some after-dinner whiskey.
Overall, we hit a bunch of my favorite spots in a short amount of time meaning that the quality time with my brother and the dining more than made up for the atrocious chess play.
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