Brilliant Psychological Chess!

Written by The Nikachu

The Canadian Junior Championship was a fantastic experience and a well run tournament by Christopher Mallon. I would like to thank the Manitoba Chess Association for sponsoring my entry fee and travelling expenses for theevent.

I would like to share my psychological preperation that was executed in my last game against Jonathan Yu. Originally this preperation was going to be saved for Andrew Boik because I found it unpredictable what he would play against my Sicilian defense. However during the tournament I discovered that Andrew was drinking beer between rounds and stayed up late at night waiting for pornography to present itself on Showcase television. Needless to say I didnt think he would care for what I had in store for him.

Jonathan Yu (1974) - Jonathon Zaczek (2012)

I started off my preperation by getting to my board 5 minutes late. I walked into the playing area wearing a bright and colorful Hawaiian shirt and a tourist looking fishing cap of some sort. I shook my opponents hand and then looked at mine strangly. I wiped my hand on my shirt and pulled out my bottle of "Hand Sanitizer." "Kills 99.9% of Germs." I washed my hands in the sanitizer and proceeded to play the game.

1. e4 b6

From what I knew about Jonathan Yu was that he didnt know theory and that he
played an annoying 2.c3 against the sicilian. So I played this weird opening
to take us both out of book immediately. Additionally, I adjusted the pawn
on e4.

2. d4 Bb7
3. Nc3 e6
4. Nf3 Nf6
5. Bd3 d5
6. e5 Nf-d7
7. Ne2 c5
8. c3 Be7
9. 0-0 Nc6

Around this moment my opponent looked at me and said "Nice outfit." I replied, "Thank you." I was sure to keep a big smile on my face for the entire game.

10. Nf4 Qc7
11. Nh5 0-0-0

For each move my opponent made, I adjusted the piece or pawn on the square and all material around the surrounding square! His moves were typically followed by my "Adjust, adjust, adjust, adjust, adjust....... adjust." From here on out, I simply adjusted his pieces frantically once every 4 or 5 moves.

12. Nxg7 h5

My opponent looked up at me a few times during this move to which I just gave a bunch of smiles.

13. Bg6

To be honest, this move took the smile right off my face. My opponent also took the time to inspect and laugh at my bottle of hand sanitizer which read "Kills 99.9% of Germs."

13... Rd-g814. Bxf7 Rxg7

Ah, finally my first capture. Every time I captured material from my opponent I proceeded to wash my hands with the hand sanitizer.The rest of the game went as follows:

15.Bxe6 Nd8 16.Bh3 Kb8 17. Ne1 Ba6 18.Nd3 cxd4 19.cxd4 Nf8 20.Be3 Qc4 21.Bf5 Rf7 22. Rc1 Qxa2 23.Bh3 Nfe6 24.f4 Qa5 25.Rf2 Rhf8 26.Qc2 Qb5 27.Rd1 Ng7 28.Ne1 Nf5 29.Bc1 Ne6 30.Nf3 Qc4 31.Qxc4 Bxc4 32.g3 Kb7 33.Bxf5 Rxf5 34.Be3 Bb5 35.h3 Rg8 36.Rg2 Rf7 37.Ne1 Rfg7 (oops) 38.Kf2 (Yey!) Rxg3 39.f5 Rxg2 40.Nxg2 Ng5 41.Bxg5 Rxg5 42.f6 Bxf6 43.exf6 Rf5 44.Kg3 Rxf4 45.Nf4 Rf5 46.Re1 h4 47.Kf3 Rf7 48.Re5 Rg7 49.Rxd5?? Bc6 50.Ke4 Re7 51.Kf5 Rf7 52.Kg4 Rxf40-1

"Excellent psychological preperation, Jonathon" -Zhe Quan

Most commonly asked question was if my opponent called for the TD. Jonathan Yu never complained about anything I did in that game and in fact had a good laugh at the entire thing. Especially during the beginning of our game there were plenty of giggles at our board. I would like to thank the following people who contributed to my preperation:

- Joshua Henson who inspired the idea that i should wear something distracting for the game.

- Shiyam Thavandiran who bet that if he could win 10 blitz games in a row against me (not including draws) that he may contribute an idea. His idea was to adjust the pieces and arrive late.

- Zhe Quan who suggested 1...b6 against the theory lacking Jonathan Yu.

- Myself for thinking of the bottle of hand sanitizer which was quite visual and hilarious.

Congradulations to Shiyam Thavandiran for winning the tournament. However Shiyam, you will not be so fortunate next time to escape my grasp with your pitiful French defence.