January, 2012 - Idaho Chess Association

Continued from page 3
The next day, the championship organizers
helped with the 4.5-hour van ride
to Caldas Novas, and everything worked
out quite well. In Brazil, sometimes one
has to relax and trust friendly Brazilians
to help, despite the language barrier.
Eventually, you even start speaking some
basic Portuguese, which is an added benefit
to a foreign trip.
Caldas Novas
The USA team stayed at the
Thermas diRoma hotel, which is well
equipped for some serious fun: many hot
spring pools, water slides, a ping-pong
stage, an all-you-can-eat restaurant, and
a night bar with an amazing female
singer. The densest concentration of fun
occurred twice daily at the fitness sessions
inside the pool, where dashing Brazilian
coaches moved sculpted Brazilian
bodies in sync with irresistible Brazilian
music. Wild monkeys yelled at night, lest
anybody forget it’s an exotic land. Naomi
spent her free time in the pools, at the
water slides, and at the ping-pong table,
where she learned to play Around-the-
World, which is like Bughouse with a
paddle. However, free Brazilian meals
three times a day with unforgettable
cream soups and papaya, and especially
free ice cream -- provided strong counterbalance
to these fitness exercises. And,
after won games, additional treats were
due: Splash water park across the street,
with giant slides, and Sorbeteria, a fancier
ice cream parlor.
The Championships
The Convention Center is adjacent
to the Thermas diRoma hotel. Nine
rounds were spread across nine days.
Rounds started at 3:00 p.m. every day,
except one free day and one day with
two rounds. The tournament hall resembled
the Tower of Babel, with dozens
of languages spoken by people from
all over the world. A few large, strong
teams obviously stood out: Russia (most
medals), Kazakhstan, Armenia, India, Poland,
Iran, Germany, Peru, USA, Columbia,
Hungary. There were twelve championships
in total: Open and Girls – U8,
10, 12, 14, 16, 18. In Naomi’s category,
Girls U8, first place went to a 7-year-old
from Kazakhstan. She automatically
became the youngest WFM in history, a
Guinness record (pending approval). Her
mom became good friends with Naomi’s
mom, and shared a few useful “tough
love” techniques of a chess mom, such
as sibling competitiveness, needs leverage,
and spirited parental motivation.
Naomi’s Play
Naomi won over girls from Peru,
Italy, and Venezuela in the first six rounds,
when she was clearly stronger than her
opponents. However, she lost to girls
from Iran and Macau/China as well as a
fellow American. She played way too
fast, without paying due attention to her
opponents' moves. And her openings
with White were less than perfect. There
was a certain “question mark” feeling.
Naomi was advised to spend much more
time at the game. She followed this advice
and strongly won the last three
games vs. girls from Turkey (who played
very well at the recent Europe Youth
Championship), Canada, and India. Thus
she finished the championship with an
“exclamation mark” feeling instead.
C50 Giuoco Piano
Sade Defne (TUR)
Naomi Bashkansky (USA)
Caldas Novas, World Youth Girls U8 (7) 2011
Annotations by Naomi Bashkansky
1.e4 e5 2.¤f3 ¤c6 3.¥c4 ¥c5 4.
d3 h6 5.¤c3 d6 6.¤a4 ¥b6 7.
¤xb6 axb6 8.¥e3 ¤f6 9.a3 ¥e6
10.¥a2 O-O 11.h3 ¤h7
Photo by Csaba Szabo
In order to push the f7-pawn to f5.
12.g4 £d7 13.¤h2 d5
I didn't think she would defend the
pawn on g4 even though it looked like I
wanted to take it. I played 13...d5 because
it’s attacking the center to get more
space.
14.¥xd5 ¥xd5 15.exd5 £xd5 16.
¦g1 ¦ad8 17.£d2 e4
I saw here that 17.£d2 was planning
an attack; so I attacked her before
she started attacking me!
18.¦d1 ¤e5
Bringing the Knight to the attack.
19.¢e2 ¤f3 20.¤xf3 exf3+ 21.
¢f1 g5 22.h4 f6 23.hxg5 fxg5
Now I am totally safe.
24.¦h1 £e6 25.¦g1 ¦d5 26.¦e1
£d7 27.£b4
XABCDEFGHY
8-+-+-trk+(
7+pzpq+-+n'
6-zp-+-+-zp&
5+-+r+-zp-%
4-wQ-+-+P+$
3zP-+PvLp+-#
2-zPP+-zP-+"
1+-+-tRKtR-!
xabcdefghy
Post-game analysis with GM Nick De Firmian. He is analyzing one of Naomi’s
games. Nick was always positive and very supportive to all the kids.
Northwest Chess January 2011 7