MASON Chess

As a first note, Deepak Sharma’s last minute volunteering for the team should be highlighted. As of Friday morning, our team was only three members, one short of the four boards that would be counted towards our school’s over all score. Being one board short was the equivalent of having one player that did not win or even draw a single round, so this was a serious handicap that would have assured us no chances even with stellar play of retaining our title. This provoked us to send out emergency notices to chess club players, and here Deepak stepped in. Never having played in a serious chess tournament before, but being familiar with the game and possessing a powerful intellect and positive attitude, we gladly accepted him into the ranks. Cynthia also volunteered to go, and we were happy to find a fellow Patriot already among the collegiate players in William Trischler.

Jonathan Bode and Andy Samuelson, being our two strongest players, were bulwarks in our teams preparations for the event. Bode became in effect a team leader, driving us to the tournament, making sure everyone was in agreement to all decisions that affected the group, and that everyone was updated as to what we had to do. Because Deepak was unfamiliar with openings, and had found himself in trouble early as a theme in many of his friendly matches, we all spent most of the Friday night before the tournament working with him, helping him understand some opening theory, and eventually the group decided on a solid, but easy to learn defense as black, one that I actually suggested and eventually the team endorsed; the Petroff defense. Andy here became a very useful tool, going over main lines quickly but with vigor and great clarity, informing us about themes to keep in mind in the openings, and important motifs within them. His expertise and coherence in explanation provided
all of us with valuable knowledge and the confidence from this information helped us in the matches we played. I particularly remember waking up at 4am the morning of our first day to Andy at his computer, going over opening lines, and I got up and asked him to show me some work on the Staunton gambit, a line I occasionally had to play against the Dutch defense. We worked for half an hour on a few ideas, and I ended up using them as my fourth round opponent played the Dutch against me!

The teamwork and camaraderie exhibited during GMU’s title defense was second to none, and played what I believe to be a critical part in our winning the tournament. During the entire event our spirits were high, and smiles and thumbs up were common amongst our members as we sat down at our boards. In between every round, games were analyzed by our team to spot any weaknesses, and any loss was a lesson and brought only positive reinforcement by the entire team.

It was the last round of matches for the tournament that I believe the Mason chess team showed its true strength. Going into the last set of matches, VA Tech was in the lead by a full point, and UVA was only one point behind us, and we had figured by the scores and pairings that there was only one option for us to retain our title…all of our top four boards had to win our games this round. There could be no losses, and no draws!

And so Mason’s top four boards (and in fact, all six of us!) won each of there games convincingly, and kept the title for our school! Here it must be mentioned that Andy Samuelson found himself deep in an inferior position midway through his game, and when I looked over to his board and saw the position, and the look of concentration on his face, I realized how important his match was becoming! However I think it is Jonathan Bode’s match that deserves the title of most brilliantly played of the tournament. Matched against an opponent who outrated him by a full 200 points (a serious margin in the game of chess!) he had prepared a specially strong variant of his opening with Andy before the match, and played to win. His match lasted only minutes short of the entire three hours alotted, and when he came out of the tournament room beaming and exhausted, we all cheered at his determination and panache.

I think it is important to note a moment in which I was discussing with Andy (who has played for Mason during every state chess championship since the creation of the title in 2006) about the strenght of out competitors. I commented that we were facing some very strong teams, whose average rating exceeded our teams in some cases by almost 200 points! He said to me “I have never seen such strong teams during all my state title matches.” In this context, our penultimate victory takes an even higher status.

It has been an honor and a privilege to play alongside such fine sportsmen and women in this most revered and ancient of games, and to represent such wonderful institution as George Mason University. I will treasure the memories I have made during my defense of GMU’s state collegiate chess championship title.