Brew's Brazil Trip Part 2!

I'm back to tell you about the finish to my Brazilian adventure! Did you miss part 1? Just click here!

A reminder that this tournament was 11 rounds in a 11-day period which means there was one game a day and not a single rest day.

During the tournament, each player on the USA team was assigned to one of the USCF team coaches. After each game, I did game analysis with my coach. Before the games, I also prepared openings with my coach, who was GM John Fedorowicz. He told me that he was from Bronx, NY. Since we lived in Bronx as well, I felt a connection with him.

A year later after this trip, I visited the Speyer Legacy School for its open house. When we were walking in the building, we saw GM John there! My mom was surprised and asked him why he was there and we found out he is the coach at Speyer. I felt a strange connection with him, again. I go to Speyer Legacy School now and GM John is a great coach and also very funny, which I like.

Two masters from the Bronx: Me and GM John Fedorowicz.

My 3rd round game was against a 1300 FIDE-rated player from the U.S. I had the white pieces and I played the Smith Morra Gambit again.

On move 8 he played the move ...Ng4. This move has the threat of ...Nd4 which is a big threat because the only piece defending my h2 pawn is the knight on f3 and if he plays 9...Nd4 he forks my queen and my knight at the same time. That is why I played g3 so his queen no longer attacks my h2 pawn. After that we traded pieces and eventually repeated and accepted a draw.

In the 9th round I played an 1100 rated player and I had white. He played the Pirc which is 1. e4 d6.

My opponent made a big mistake later on which was the move 14...f5. I understood the point of the move but after 15. exf5 gxf5 my opponent's light squares are very weak and I eventually took advantage of them. Later on move 16, I maneuvered my knight which wasn’t useful on c3 to Ne2 with the plan of putting it on e6 (don't forget about backward moves). I eventually got it on e6 and took over the light squares and won with a version of the smothered mate!

My final score was 6.0/11. I got four wins, four draws, and three losses. I was 26th place out of the 69 players.

Even though it was the longest tournament I ever played, it wasn’t as long as I thought it would be. I also learned many new openings while preparing for certain rounds. And some of the games that I lost could have been a draw and some of my draws could have been wins if I took more time in hard positions.

I want to thank everyone who supported me to make this trip happen, including friends, coaches, and the people who made a donation for the trip. And my family.