2011 K-12
Coach Tim Tusing of Oak Hall School in Gainesville, Florida: “We just have a nice family network that sticks together and helps support me and support chess.” Left to right, with Tusing: Kindergartners Hailey Griffis, Emory Ezzell, Will Guan, Aryaman Sriram, Rikhil Venkataperumal.
“Some people are good at certain things,
and other people are good at different things. I just happen to have a natural tal- ent for chess, and that is how I got so good when I was young.” On a more specific level, Christopher
credits his various K-12 Championship victories over the years to the fact that he always gets a good rest before each game and regularly reviews his openings. At larger tournaments, he occasionally reviews opponents’ games as well. “But, by far, the most important thing
I do that helps me succeed is that I always focus as hard as I can, every round at the board,” Christopher said. “Even if I’m exhausted, I keep pushing at the board, and sometimes can salvage a win out of a losing position.” Here are notes from Christopher’s
round-six game against Andrew Liu; he says. “Strength wise, this was the hard- est game to play because my opponent was the strongest.”
38 Chess Life — February 2012
Modern Defense (B06) Christopher Wu (2256) Andrew Liu (2136) National K-12 Championships, Round 6 Notes by Wu
1. e4 g6 I prepared against this.
2. d4 d6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. Be3 a6 5. Bd3 e6 6. Nf3
I wasn't sure if my setup was good, because it blocks the f- and c-pawns. 6. ... Ne7 7. Qd2 h6
Stops Bh6 but now he can’t castle. 8. h4 Maybe playing for h4-h5.
8. ... Nd7 9. 0-0 Castling queenside he could play
... b7-b5 and ... c7-c5 and open up the queenside, weakening my king.
9. ... b6
If 9. … b5 then I could attack with 10. a4 and break open the queenside. 10. Ne2 Bb7 11. Nh2
Opening up the c- and f-pawns.
11. ... Nf6 12. Ng3 c5 13. c3 Nd7? Why does he go back?
14. h5 g5?! Not sure if this is necessary; he could
just leave the pawn structure as it is. This allows the f2-f4 lever.
15. Bc2 (see diagram top of next column) Defending d4 to prepare for f2-f4 (15.
f4 gxf4 16. Bxf4 e5 17. Be3 cxd4 18. cxd4 exd4 19. Bf4 Ne5).
15. ... e5! He has to play this to stop f2-f4 to
uschess.org
PHOTO: COURTESY OF TIM TUSING
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