Denker Tournament of High School Champions 2007

By Oklahoma representative Jacob Berger

I had been excited about the tournament for weeks; it was not until the day I left however, that I finally realized that I would be traveling to Cherry Hill to play in the Denker Tournament of High School Champions. My excitement continued through the day we left and throughout the flight. When we finally arrived in Cherry Hill I was ecstatic to soon get to the hotel where the tournament would be held. The trip was slightly longer then expected do to the fact that you can’t turn left virtually anywhere in Cherry Hill and instead have to turn right a few times just to turn left. Nonetheless, the car trip from Philadelphia to Cherry Hill went great, due to the beautiful scenery including the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

After waking up the next day, I immediately went to the ceremony area, although I generally don’t like most ceremonies this one proved to be quite interesting, as we got to meet Arnold Denker’s son as well as the organizers. Soon it was time to play and I went to the tournament area to check the pairings. While checking the Pairings I was extremely surprised to see how strong the tournament would be, with 18 players being above 2000. Nonetheless, I prepared to play, and set a goal of 3.5 points

Game 1:

In game 1 I played the representative from Arizona, Christopher Matthew De Sa (Rated 2157). The game started as a disappointed to me as he played the French Defense, which I despise. Nonetheless I ended up achieving a fairly equal position out of the opening. Sadly I missed the chance to go in to a completely equal endgame, and instead went into a hopeless endgame with a queen and terrible Bishop against a queen and a powerful knight. Fritz already rated the position as lost and about ten moves later I got mated.

Game 1 took up all six hours, and was the second to last game to finish. After the game, I went to eat which again proved to take an overly long time do to the strange traffic laws.

After the meal, which was a delicious gyro from “Olga’s Diner” I analyzed the game and watcher “I, Robot” on T.V.

Game 2:

My round two opponent was the representative from North Dakota, Preston Laib(1034). He played well; while I played rather quickly, I missed a move which would get me a two pawn advantage, and then ended up loosing the pawn I was up. However; I ended up creating some complications, and my opponent lost a piece, after which I mated within the next ten moves.

Game 3:

Quite content to be one and one, I wen’t into the next round hoping that I would not fall behind the even mark. My opponent for round 3 was the representative from Virginia Haizhou Xu(1885). He played an interesting variation of the Nadjorf, and the game seemed to be rather even until he found a nice tactical shot where I was forced to give up a pawn. After some exchanges he had the opportunity to go up a second pawn which he took; however this proved rather dubious as this move forced his king to stay in the center with two open files staring him down. Around 15 moves later I was threatening mate in 2 different ways, and my opponent resigned.

After the game we decided to go to “Olive Garden”, a mistake, which ended up costing us two hours of driving to find. Still quite happy with my two pervious results, I spent the rest of the day annotating my game and playing chess online.

Game 4:

The round 4 game I was paired up against the local New Jersey representative Jayson Lian(2089). The game started fine, as I chose the King’s Indian Defense; however, quickly spiraled downhill as my position became more and more cramped. I ended up choosing to sacrifice a piece for some compensation. My opponent accepted the sacrifice; however ended up sacrificing a piece himself a few moves later. After this sacrifice the position looked even; however, to my dismay there proved one forced line where I would be forced to give up another piece. The R v R+B endgame still gave me some chances with two connected passed pawns; however, my opponent played well and I was forced to resign.

Although I had lost the previous game, my spirits were not completely diminished, as I knew that I could still finish with a + .5 score. That night I went to sleep rather early, yet I still managed to somehow oversleep, as for some reason I didn’t receive the wake up call.

Game5:

I came to my board about 5 minutes late; yet, was glad to see that the games had not yet started. My opponent that round was the representative from Tennessee Gainer Phay(1984). He chose to play the Grand Prix attack, which I have had trouble against in the past; however, this time I ended up playing the opening rather well and even had a slight plus with black. Unfortunately, I ended up making a terrible blunder in my choice between only two potential moves, and ended up quickly loosing.

Although the quick loss was discouraging, it gave me an opportunity to watch the tiebreak matches between Alex Onischuk and Magnus Carlsen, which proved to be a heated battle, although Onischuk unfortunately lost the Armageddon game. After watching the games I went to play in the first ever Denker Blitz Tournament, which proved to be an exciting event with over twenty participants. I ended up winning only one game out of six, although I had some chances in others (I am awful at Blitz).

Game6:

I went in to game six knowing that I had to win to achieve a decent score in the tournament. My opponent, the representative from Alabama, Luke Hellwig(1840) chose a variation of the Taimanov Sicilian, which I, myself, had been thinking of playing(although apparently nobody in the tournament plays e4, accept me). The opening went along the main line until move 10 when, he ended up playing a move which I had never seen before. For some reason I thought that this was a blunder and that I could just win a pawn (although I could not), and I ended up quickly playing a series of moves, after which I stood much worse and soon resigned.

My result in this tournament was rather disappointing to me, yet the tournament proved to be a fun, exciting, and gratifying event. During the tournament ceremony we received Arnold Denker’s Book, “The Bobby Fischer I Knew”, which I have recently started reading. I want to wish the best of luck to next years’ representative, weather it be me or anyone else. And hope that they will enjoy the tournament as much as I did.

Jacob Berger