How I became the 2022 K-8 Middle School National Champion!

The K-8 Middle School National Championships happened between April 29-May 1 in Texas. There were 7 games over this 3-day period. Each game was 2 hours with a 5-second delay. There were 162 players in my section and 940 players in the tournament. My goal was (of course) to achieve the title, but also to play well! I didn’t want to play any sloppy games that I didn’t deserve to win.

I'd like to show you two of the games that I feel were the most important and interesting.

Round 2 as White:

This game was a Sicilian Defense. I was white and I tried to be very aggressive. I felt confident that I could go on the early attack and not allow my opponent to get any chances to defend.

Move 9: f4 is a mistake. It allows Qb6 which forces my knight to the awkward square on g3.
 
Move 17: This is the key position. Here, black must play perfectly to survive. But my king is also very weak, so if my attack does not succeed, black will turn the tide and attack my king. 
 
Move 23: Bang! Nxg7. Black cannot take the knight on g7 because the bishop is pinned. I am completely winning after this move.
 
Move 36: Black resigned here because he is in zugzwang. The rook is pinned and black cannot move his king because it is the rook's only guard. 
 

Thoughts After Round 5:

I was at 4.5/5. I drew the 5th game as black in a tricky endgame. I was in a losing position but my opponent repeated moves due to time pressure. One person had 5/5 and I knew I was going to play him, so I was going to do my best to push for the win. If I didn’t win this game, I would likely not be the champion. 

A picture of chess prodigy Brewington Hardaway playing at the 2022 K-8 Middle School National Championships


Round 6 as Black:

Here, I was just trying to play a nice solid game. I didn't want him to get a big attack on me, so I tried to play solid. It was still an interesting game nonetheless.

 
Move 10: At this moment, I felt like I already had a slight advantage. I have easier gameplay and way more threats. I didn't take on e5 right away because that pawn isn't going anywhere, and if Qxe5 then he has Bf4 and I'm just moving my queen around not making any progress. 
 
Move 13: Bc4 is a decoy trick. I took Bxc4 which is slightly inaccurate. Black is still doing great though.
 
Move 14: The position is very imbalanced. I have the bishop pair, we have opposite side castles, but he is up a pawn. My dark squares are weak so I tried to trade our dark square bishops to make sure my king is safe. 
 
Move 25: e5 was a very interesting idea. I think that he was trying to simplify it to an equal endgame. The knight is the only piece defending the pawn and that's why I went Be6. I was removing the guard. 
 
Move 64: On move 64, my opponent resigned. I am up 2 pawns and this is an easy win for black. The queen endgame was always winning but it was not easy to convert. My plan was to zugzwang him into making his queen overloaded and winning a pawn, and it eventually worked!
  
A picture of chess prodigy Brewington Hardaway holding a trophy at the 2022 K-8 Middle School National Championships
 
Final Thoughts After the Tournament: 


I tied for first with 6/7, with two draws. I got first on tiebreaks, but four others got 6/7. It is disappointing because I was winning the last game but my opponent defended very well.

My overall thoughts are that I played fairly aggressively, which was what I was trying to do, and that I generally played pretty well. I made a few mistakes along the way, but this isn’t a bad result. I also had a great time playing, which is nice. I didn’t feel too stressed throughout the tournament. I played well in the majority of the games but I can still make lots of improvements.

Thank you to US Chess for hosting this event during these hard times, and congratulations to everyone who came and had a good time! I hope to support other kids who are struggling on their journey!