PHOTO COURTESY OF SUBJECT
LOOKING BACK AT IT, I can say that the National High School has been the most challenging hurdle of my scholastic chess career. Despite my win, this year was no different.
In fact, this year had the potential to be the most stressful yet; as it was my last opportunity to prove myself on that stage, and I was entering in my weakest position yet. It was
definitely discouraging to enter this tournament seeded 19th. But I think this position is
what gave me the chutzpah to win. I couldn’t take myself too seriously, this was my last
shot and I had nothing to lose. I decided to just go for it this tournament, playing crazy openings such as: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. e4 dxe4 6. Bc4 cxd4 7. Qb3. I
resolved to show who I really was as a chess player. I am not conventional.
To prepare for the National High School
(NHS), I trained with my best friend Jon
West. He’s a former chess player turned
poker player. He’s mentally tough. Jon
and I came up with a “points” game—
essentially a giant bet—where the loser
has to take the winner on an all-expenses
paid, surprise vacation. With one week
left, I’m currently winning. We’ve played
many chess variants, and that experience
really helped me prosper at the NHS. The
tough battles in variants such as “atomic
chess,” “monster chess,” and even “threechecks chess” really helped prepare me for
some of those stressful last-round
matches. As the 19th seed, I feel this was
the best preparation possible. My battles
with Jon really helped me gain confidence
with complicated positions in high-pressure situations, and at the NHS they didn't
rattle me. Before I left, Jon predicted I
would win as “we’d been through too
much” in our games and honestly, I felt
winning the NHS was less stressful.
If I’m being completely honest, I’ve been
having problems with my chess game.
Jon’s been beating me, and in round three
I blundered a piece on move four(!). But I
was able to get through it and play strong
moves when I needed them the most. In my
matches against Jon, we each get a distraction every game. While these used to rattle
me, I can now play well under severe
duress. In one game, a certain girl distracted me, but I was able to resolve the
distraction and win my game. I’m convinced that the wild variants really improved
this aspect of my chess and that they
should be studied in more depth.
My game against Michael Brown was
the toughest. Even though he is really
young, he was the most mentally tough
of my opponents. I prepared 1. d4 Nf6 2.
c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 0-0 5. a3 Bxc3
6. Qxc3 b5!?, hoping he would crack
under the pressure. He instantly played
a move and looked confident. That for
me was the toughest moment of the tournament. I also showered after every
round. That’s been my secret ritual.
uschess.org
Nimzo-Indian Defense,
Classical Variation (E32)
Michael Brown (2342)
Benjamin Gershenov (2244)
National High School Championship (6)
04.15.2012
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 0-0 5. a3
Bxc3+ 6. Qxc3 b5
I thought this was real interesting.
7. cxb5 c6 8. e3
In my “prep” I didnt even look at this
move ...
8. ... cxb5 9. Bxb5 Ne4 10. Qb3 Qg5
rsnl+-trk+
zp-+p+pzpp
-+-+p+-+
+L+-+-wq-+-zPn+-+
zPQ+-zP-+-zP-+-zPPzP
tR-vL-mK-sNR
After 10. ... Qg5
I felt like this had to be OK for me.
11. g3 Bb7 12. f3 Nxg3
2012 National High
School Championship
At A Glance
Date: April 13-15, 2012. Location:
Hyatt Regency, Minneapolis,
Minneapolis, Minnesota. Top
Individual Finishers: K-12
Championship: 1st, 6½: Ben
Gershenov; 2nd-8th, 6: Eric Rosen,
Dipro Chakraborty, Jason
Altschuler, Atulya Shetty, Bryan Hu,
Michael Vilenchuk, Andrew Ng; K-12
Under 1600: 1st, 7: Donald Hooker;
2nd-8th, 61⁄2: Orestes Ordonez,
Danny Goldstein, Christopher
Phenicie, Jonathan Coffin, Ben
Vaaler, Raul Rodriguez, Vince
Paasch; K-12 Under 1200: 1st, 7:
Kaustubh Nimkar; 2nd-12th, 6: Rex
Xing, David Yang, Wesley Dean,
Aminah Garcia, Mark Reed, Joshua
Godar, Eric Goldsborough, Kevin Li,
Kevin Roth, Abhyudhaya Venkat,
Xander Nicolson; K-12 Under 800:
1st, 7: Brock Morris; 2nd-7th, 6:
Shoshana Altman, Benjamin Hart,
Enrique Perez, Mohinur Miah,
Delano Britton, Abdullah Ridwan; K12 Unrated: 1st, 61⁄2: Andrew
Hanson, David Ma.
Chief Tournament Director:
Francisco Guadalupe
Super interesting.
13. Nh3 Qh4 14. hxg3 Qxg3+ 15. Nf2 Bxf3
During the game I thought it was
unclear.
16. e4 f5 17. Bd2 fxe4 18. Qe3 h5 19. Bf1 Nc6
20. Rh3
r+-+-trk+
zp-+p+-zp-+n+p+-+
+-+-+-+p
-+-zPp+-+
zP-+-wQlwqR
-zP-vL-sN-+
tR-+-mKL+-
After 20. Rh3
I think I’m just better after 20. Rh3
(Stronger is 20. Rxh5 Nxd4 with an
unclear position).
20. ... Qg6 21. Rc1 Rf5 22. Bb4 Rb8 23. Rc5
Nxb4 24. axb4 Rxb4 25. Nd3 Ra4 26. Ne5
Ra1+ 27. Rc1 Rxc1+ 28. Qxc1 Qg1 29. Nxf3
exf3 30. Qc8+ Kh7 31. Qxd7
White has better chances to defend
with 31. Qc3.
31. ... Qe3+ 32. Kd1 Rd5 33. Qe7 Qxd4+ 34.
Kc2 Qd1+ 35. Kc3 Qxf1 36. Qxe6 Qd3+ 37.
Kb4 a5+ 38. Ka4 Qc4+, White resigned.
.
Chess Life — July 2012
27