Page 2 … My Trip to Nigeria (IM Amon Simutowe)

The next game I played against IM Essam El-Gindy. It's a paragon of greediness and loss of concentration.

Plan "B"

After this disappointing loss, I realized I had to find a plan B. I found email messages of encouragement from friends and this helped me put the loss behind quicker.

Before retiring to my room, I stopped by Pedro Aderito's room for a chat. He challenged me to play for $10 per each three minutes game. The time was around 8pm. I don't like playing blitz but Pedro challenged me at the wrong time. I was having a bad day. By the time I left his room around 2am I had taken a few hundred dollars from him and was in a better mood.

The next game, I played Nigeria's Fola Akintola. I took no risks and beat him in a technical ending.

Round 8 was another big day. I had lost to El-Taher in the team championship and I needed revenge. I like revenge but only on the chessboard.  He offered me a draw as soon as the pairing was posted.  Drawing was not an option for me as playing for a win with black pieces in the last round was too risky. I won against El-Taher in a technical game which most spectators called a Masterpiece.

The game follows below.

The Art of War

The night before round nine was another interesting moment.  The evening before the game, an official from the Sports Ministry added the pressure on me when he told me the amount I was going to get from the sports ministry if I won a medal in the individual as well.

As a chess player, my focus was not to lose. A draw was going to guarantee me second or third place. I looked at my opponent's games and noticed that he had a weakness on the white side of the Kings Indian. The weakness was not grand but it would make me at least comfortable. The same night, it came to my attention that the organizers of the event had increased the prizes. This motivated me to avoid a loss at all cost. I then planned to offer my opponent a draw in the first ten moves or rock him if he declined. If he played the line I had prepared, my plan was to play for a win.

El-Gindy was on board one and he drew his game in five moves or so against a player 200 ELO points below him to secure himself first place.

My opponent played the first moves as I had wished. When I was pondering whether to play for a win, I suddenly realized the game was worth a significant amount of money, counting the pledge from the sports ministry, the prize money, and the FIDE World Championship qualification. On the other hand, I thought a win would place me clear second.  I asked myself another question, "What if my opponent has repaired his weakness?  What should I do? Play for a win and risk the money I have smelt?  In certain circumstances I have done it with success, should I try it again? 

Well, I forgot there was money to win in the championship that was now possible to win when I left for Nigeria as my focus was on chess. Instead of thinking about the moves or variations I should play, this is what was going on in my mind.

A Pleasant Ending

Adlane offered me a draw whilst I was occupied with these thoughts. When I looked at him, I realized I had lost the chess mood and accepted the draw without much pause. Adlane is very talented, but I wondered if I had made a good decision after the game. The reason why I like to play to the end is to get the results I deserve but, is it a good idea to do it in every game? Was risking what was at stake (to get clear second place) a bad idea? How will I know my true abilities if I can make decisions based on that?

I concluded that the reason I accepted a draw was the feeling that I was not prepared when I went to the tournament. I had looked at chess over the summer but I only used the lines I looked at in five games out of the twenty seven games I played. I also did not know whether instructing my students how to checkmate in one to five moves would affect me. The other reason I was not sure was due to the things that were going on in my life. The only things I remember that kept me  from cracking during the tournament was the positive messages from friends and the words I used to tell myself (Come on Amon! don't crack like in the past! Make the time you took off from varsity worthy!) whenever negative things came to my mind.

The night after the games ended, I was invited to the Hilton Hotel club by the Continental Chess President for Africa, Mr. Nizar. I decided to invite Stanley Chumfwa. I would have liked to invite Kenny Solomon to come, so that I could congratulate him on his last round victory but his team left earlier. He helped Southern Africa contribute two places for the next FIDE Knockout. He had a slow start but his performance in the last rounds was laudable. When I watched his last round game, I did not pay attention to 17.Nxf7! (diagram) but to the beautiful endgame technique he displayed. He also seemed very determined in the last rounds. I have never seen him that determined before. I hope we will see more of this in him in the near future.

Kenny Solomon uncorks, 17.Nxf7! after which he collected the point, the IM title and a FIDE qualification. See game.

In the morning of the scheduled Hilton Club invitation, I played blitz with a few players and made just above a hundred dollars. IM Aikhoje is very fast in blitz, so I avoided taking him one on one and opted for players who are slower.

Late that evening, we headed for our invitation. The evening was much more pleasant and special than we had expected due to the presence of boxing legend Evander Holyfield and the FIDE dignitaries.

Lessons Learned

That was the end of the Nigerian mission. However, I am still wondering what made me get acceptable results despite my situation. I ask myself this because I know that at least most if not all the other participants were better prepared. I also realized that, Larry Gardner's view may be true, but to what extent?  Ironically, most Chess players don't pay attention to the reason why they blunder.  After a typical game players simply say, da*n! "I blundered" and life goes on. It is this perception by chess players that blunders are normal that worries me.  My conclusion is that one plays at his full potential if they lose by being outplayed; in contrast, they are playing below their potential if they lose by blunders. Thus, people should work to find out the reason why they blunder.

This has been my first step towards trying to improve my chess over the last few months. Besides this, the most positive thing in the recent past that has happened to me is managing to control my emotions. Sometime back, I used to be crushed in most cases whenever I lost games by blunders. Here is a list of a few ways that I currently use to help me stay in shape whenever I lose a game:

Step 1)  Pretend your opponent played like Garry Kasparov
What if you can't?

Step 2)  Pretend as if losing is not a big deal
What if this attitude does not work?

Step 3) Remind yourself that you also sometimes win by luck. So why don't you call it your opponent's day?
What if you wish to be the only one who wins by luck in some games?

Step 4) Remember the verse; do unto others as you would like them to do unto you!
What if the first four steps are not working? You are probably in deep trouble.

Step 5) Shout loudly, before the next game, "my next opponent is in trouble!" to release tension.

The Struggle Continues

Nowadays, I generally don't think much about chess tournaments because I don't get good invitations when I need them. My University recently asked me if I would like to participate in any tournaments of my liking which they would pay; incidentally, I received an invitation from Mexico.  Three of my friends also gave me more than twenty new chess books as my presents for what they called "a good performance from Africa". Among the books, was My Great Predecessors by Kasparov and Anand's Best Games which have become my bedtime books.

I head to Mexico in December for a strong Knockout Tournament.  Of the 34 participants who have confirmed, I am seeded 20th. I expect to play a GM above 2550 in the first round. Boris Gelfand, Alexey Dreev, Dieter Nisipeanu and Valerij Filipov have already been seeded to the last sixteen.

In the quest for factors that would make me perform well in chess, I am also pondering about taking a Neuroscience course and Psychology next semester for my future tournaments. Will this make a difference? I don't know. Other ideas that come to my mind is learning all I can next year, finishing all the remaining economic courses, taking the courses to fulfill my degree requirements, and relaxing.

My semester ends in less than a week but I am a little stressed. I am still bored with most of the openings I play now, so I need to try out a few new openings and get back to my old ones a few months later. I don't have enough time to work on new openings before the event.

Can the Nigerian situation occur again in Mexico?  All I am thinking about now is the beautiful seaside venue the organizers have sent me than the actual chess to save energy.

In the meantime the quest for the physical or mental conditions that would make me get the results I need still goes on.

~IM Amon Simutowe~ (Written: 28 November 2003)