BrewMaster's Battle Of The Americas!

In the Battle Of The Americas, which was played between my school (Speyer Legacy in New York City) and five Latin American countries, I was the board one representative for the U.S. team! The whole time I felt pressured because I always want to win and do well. I felt pretty good but nervous at the same time because I did not want to make mistakes. 

You can watch the full replay here!

The first game I had the black pieces and the opening was the Sicilian (the Kan variation where Black plays 2...e6). I have used this opening for years and I felt comfortable with it. We both made mistakes but the first mistake in the game was his move 10.a4. The reason that move was a mistake is because he let my bishop go to b4 so his e4 pawn was very vulnerable since the only defender was the knight on c3, which I was about to capture.

After that he went Qd3 and I had an advantage. Eventually he had doubled c-pawns so I felt confident. The next crucial mistake was his move 19.Bf3. I thought I had a huge advantage because the c3 pawn is hanging, his pieces are not active, and the ones that are out are misplaced like the queen on h6. 

After having a great position and the time advantage I did not play as well as a could have. So I was just capturing pawns but instead I could have doubled my rooks on the g-file to improve my position more. 

Eventually I made a very big mistake which was letting him pin my queen with Rc5. After that I was not in a good mood and started to play horribly. Eventually the game resulted in a draw cause I made it a queen vs rook and knight.

Here's the wild game!

But after messing that position up I played poorly in the 2nd game.                      

In the second game I was white and played badly after messing up in the first game. On move 18 he played ...Ba6 which trapped my rook on f1 so after that I was extremely mad, so I tried to win on time and make the position complicated. Eventually he had less than a minute and messed up. That is how I won the second game but it did not feel good.

One of my teammates was SpeyerLucasY who played against SthephanoPeru in the match. The opening they played was the Four Knights Game! This opening often is equal even though it might seem that white is better because they usually get quicker development. 

The first decisive moment in the game was when Black played 11...Nd7. The reason that is a mistake is because White could have done 13. Bxe7 Qxe7 then a quiet move 14. Be2 which threatens f5 to trap the bishop and Black must move all of his pieces back. White has a space advantage and Black's pieces are not doing anything. 12. Bxe6 was played which makes it closer to equal but White has a slight lead.

The next huge mistake was 14...e5 by Black because White could have gone 15. Qc4+ and won the c7 pawn plus having the outpost on d5 for the knight. And the backward pawn on d6 is very weak including b7. Eventually SpeyerLucasY won the game after forking Black's rook on c8 and the king on g8 with 18. Ne7+. 

I think this matchup was great for everyone who played to finally play a longer time control because we have not been playing as often because of Covid-19. I enjoyed playing but I was disappointed in my performance. But of course I'm happy that my team, and USA, won 8-4!

And this meant that we got to color the Americas in our flag: