My 2021 Grade National Championship!

The K-12 National Grade Championship was held in was Orlando, Florida on December 3-5, 2020 and I was excited to play in my first national championship in several years.

It was a seven-round tournament where the players in the same grade play each other. The time control was 90 minutes with 5-second delay. In my section there were 106 players, and in all sections, there were 1225 players.

 

This is my school, Speyer Legacy. Can you find me?

I was excited for this event because I have never won the title at a Nationals before and this event was cancelled over the board last year due to Covid. Are you curious how I did? Well, before I reveal it, you'll have to learn some chess!

I want to show two games I played in this tournament:

 

Round 4

11. O-O, Bd6 Threatens to capture h2 because the knight is pinned. 12. h3 Bf5 13. Nc4?? Bd3!!   If he takes my bishop I go Bh2 discovery check and win a queen for two pieces. He can't take it so I pinned him in disguise and win the exchange.

Round 5

14. Nc3. I'm already in good position because of my opponent's lack of development. We need to think how to prevent the opponent from getting developing or taking advantages, while thinking how to attack the opponents. 14... c6 15. Be3 Rb7 16. Rad1 Rd7 17. a4 f6? This stops me from playing e5 but now I can easily get in the e6 square with my knight or queen.

I finished with clear first and the national title with 6.5/7. The last game was literally the last game in the whole tournament! My opponent and I were the only people who were playing in that huge tournament hall. After 137 moves I got the win and won the 7th grade section! Results of Grade Nationals can be found here.

Thank you to US Chess for making this event happen. And I want to give all players a big hand.