Congrates Ben :)

16th March 2009
Monday

National School Individual Champion 2009

5.5 point out of 8 games

Yesterday at Civil Service Club Ben fought all out to clinch his third NSI medal in 4 years, even defying the odds to trash an opponent who has a rating almost 400 more than him. (which would be posted sometime later), it was a close fight with 198 participants present for the annual national competition, Ben later achieved a respectable 23rd position out of 198 (top 11.61%).

Said after the game : "True to be said, I might have played like a true Grandmaster in the 3rd round, was narrowly beaten by the 4th best player in the tournament, after that I seems to lost steam and blundered horribly in the 5th round and practically threw away a win in the 6th round. It looks to me that the medal is starting to run away from me, I told myself to buck up or never to see it again - then I went on to win the 7th and 8th round in considerable ease to clinch 23rd position".

Psychology boost
Ben 'Karpov' has been said to be a dedicated follower of psychological practises.
Said the boy himself : "I have designed a neat psychological tactics and it goes like this - I would delay the start of the game to frustrate my opponent and destory his mental preparation. For example, in the 3rd and 7th round I spent more than 5 minutes of my time thinking of the first move, whether pushing the routine e-pawn (which would lead to a more certain, relatively safer but more dull position for me) or the d-pawn (which I would strive for uncertainty and confuse my opponent with numerous classy manoevering but at a passive positional risk) or even playing the English (1. c4 - which lead to a more solid position for both side, but can be also be pretty dull when both side defends 'perfectly').
My opponent tried to hurried me into play my first move - clearly my plan is working, he (or she) is losing his (or her) patience, this would be good news for me. In my mind I am planning my moves, at the same time (very) accurately anticipating my opponent's next move and this goes on until I began to plan the middle game ! (like what kind of pawn structure I would like to have and what should I do to achieve it ?
After three minutes, my opponent started to grow restless and began to lose his concentration, I know the longer I delay, the higher "his (or her) desire to play would escalate".
When after 6 minutes when I finally played my first move my opponent was relieved (no doubt he is ! - the board beside me is almost in the endgame !) I delibrately played fast - and according to plan, my opponent played fast too, but the difference is that he played fast without a plan ! and I easily had the psychology upper-hand, due to his (or her) lost in patience and concentration, both of them slummed to horrible defeat in the most humilating fashion - and not to mention one of them is a very highly rated player !