John Pan

July 23, 2019

My Trip to Vegas

“And the first-place winner in the section under 14 reserve goes to John Pan”, announced the tournament director. I rushed up to the stage still doubting that I got first place even though I already knew it. I reached up for the trophy and smiled with happiness. As I stepped down from the stage my mom took a picture of me and Coach Harlin, I was relieved at the fact that it was all over.

After a 4-hour drive to Las Vegas, my parents led me to a hotel where Coach Harlin hosted a two-day training for the upcoming tournaments. The first training took 7-hours and the second was 5, it was like attending a chess school for two days. The training went by fast as Coach Harlin taught the class (which was made up of several people) tactics/puzzles to get us used to calculating during tournament games. This training affected the games I played in a good way that led myself to not lose any games in the tournament.

Friday came up and it was a one-day event where I played 5 games with 25 minutes, 5-second delay. I had to move a little quick but not too quick, in most cases, my opponents didn’t have a timer and neither did I so I’d take a long time while my opponents would most likely move relatively quickly. My second round I drew against an unrated player who was also 2nd place in the next event, he offered me a draw, but I did not accept it because I wanted to fight until the end. It ended out resulting in a draw because it was just kings on the board.

In the fourth round, I bumped into Gordon Xu, a Wing Chess student who also went to the two-day training. I was a little nervous since I knew he was a strong player, but I remained calm throughout all the games and kept a poker face. I would rarely even look at my opponents, I was always focused on the board. In the game I blundered a knight because of a pin that I didn't see, I felt like resigning but didn’t, I still had hope, I didn’t want to trade much so It turned out as a heavy piece endgame. I found a way to win the knight back and Gorden offered me a draw. Without a doubt I gladly accepted it.

My results in the first event were 4 out of 5 points, winning three games and drawing two. These four points led me to 4th place but I was still happy that I at least got something than nothing. The next day arrived and this was a two-day event where I played 6 games that had a 1-hour timer and 5-second delay. This led me to take a much longer time in games especially in cases when there was no timer. Because of this most of my opponents were impatient and moved much faster than I was. There were two games where my opponent blundered a big piece which led games to be less than 20 minutes. I was winning my matches and the last round came up. I was against Joshua Sang, a student of Wing Chess who also had 5 points. Whoever won this game would be the winner of the under 1000 section. The game ended up being a 50-move game, but I knew from the 13th move I would win because of a discovered attack on his queen. I knew I was first place, but I couldn’t believe it. Over my 1.5-year experience of learning chess, this was a great achievement.

Chess has taught me patience and thinking, it has made me better in parts of my life. I thank God, my family, Coach Harlin and Coach Jason for this chess experience and more to come.