2010 Philadelphia Open

I played Philadelphia Open Easter weekend. This tournament was the Foxwoods Open. Continental Chess Association moved this tournament to Philly this year because Foxwoods increased the hotel rate and other fee. My friend Alex and I made the last minute decision to join the tournament. I played three day schedule in the U1900 section. My April is 1885, which put me on the top 12 spot in this section. My first two games were quick game (game 75 minutes). I won the first one and lost the second game. The first game was pretty even until we entered knight pawns end game. I woun because my knight and king were more active. I was to passive in the second game. In the second game, I played black vs Colle System. I am not very familiar with this opening and I was too passive. Even though there were chances, I lost under the attack, Starting in the third game, we are playing the regular time control. The third game turned out to a wild game. I missed a caculation. It seemed that I could win a the Exchange. But it put my king under fire. My opponent made a wrong move to exchange the queen. If he did not do that, he would win the game. After the queen exchange, I slowly got my game back. In the end, I won the end game. So I got two points of three games in the first day. It is not too bad.

In the second day, I drew the first game and won the second one. In the first game, I did make one bad move. Luckly my opponent played too quick and did not find the his best move. After that we quickly got into rook three pawns vs rook three pawns end game and we agreed on a draw. In the second game, I spot a good tactic opportunity and won the Exchange. After that we got into rook six pawns vs bishop six pawns and the was an easy win for me. After the second day, I got three and half points out of five games.

The games in the third day were the toughest. My opponents and I were still possible to get a prize money. We all played as hard as we could. Both games ended with a draw. My first game tunred out to be the longest game that I ever played. It was 108 moves. It was an even game and we got into rook two pawns vs rook two pawns ending. Then my opponent took away one of my pawns. Later, we took each other one pawn. It became rook vs rook pawn ending. After 108 moves, there is not way that my opponent could win the game. I am a little bit disappointed with my last game. Both my opponent and I wanted to win the last round. If one of us won, the winner would share the 8 to 10 place prize. We started attacking on the each other. Then suddenly I was up to pawn. However, I did not play well in the end game. It ended with a draw.

It was a good tournament for me. I made some mistakes and my opponent made some mistakes too. The most important thing is that I fighted hard in each game.

PA State Championship

Amateur East Team Tournament

Tubing at Spring Mountain

42nd Annual Liberty Bell Open

I played up a section (U2100) in this tournament. I won only one game, tied three and lost three. I did not play well in the last two games. But I am OK with the final result. My fried Yuhao won big money again this time. I am very happy for him.

2009 40th National Chess Congress

This is the fifth year that I play in National Chess Congress during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. I still remember that I lost all 4 games in the U600 in my first National Chess Congress in 2005. I was so upset and my dad took me out of the tournament after 4 rounds. Four years later, I am playing in U2000. I am very proud of my progress. I played two day schedule this time because we had a party to go on Friday. The first three games are G50. I played three rated 1950 above rated players. I did relatively well. I tied two and lost one. Since those were relatively fast games, there were some chances for both sides. I could do better if I grasped these opportunities. The fourth game on Saturday is G 40/2, SD/1. I won that game against a 1600 rated player. My opponent played well until he dropped two pawns later in the game. So I got 2.5 out of 4 games in the first day. Consider my rating was just over 1800 recently, this was not bad result. After a good night sleep, I came back to the Sheraton Hotel Sunday morning and found out that I was paired to play one of my chess club member Nigel. I played him three times in the club. I won two games even though he is high rated than me. Maybe because of this, I was a little bit too relax in the game. I quickly got into trouble in the opening. Then I lost the game badly. This is probably the only regret that I had for this tournament. Since I lost this game quickly, there were almost 5 hours before the next game started. So we decided to walk to Chinatown to have lunch. The weather was beautiful. It was unseasonal warm. We went to a Sichuan style restaurant. The food was great. In the last round of the tournament, I played against 1800 player. I wanted to play an exciting game in the last round. So I decided to attack. I scarified a rook, which was the best move. Then I continuously attacked my opponent’s king. Because I need calculate more, I spent more time than my opponent. After 31 moves, I was not sure that I could win the game. So I decided to perpetual check him. After the game, I analyzed the game and found out that I was in a much better position. Even though I was down the exchange, but I could be up three pawns. In the end of the tournament, I only got 2.5 of 6 games. It was not the best result that I hoped for. But I am not disappointed either. I gained a lot of confidence from this tournament. I am also happy with the last game that I can attack with a sacrifice.

China Summer Vacation

I had a great 10 weeks summer vacation in China. I visited many places and met a lot of relatives. The trip was almost cancelled because of H1N1 flu. When our airplane landed in Shanghai, everyone must take a temperature measurement before we can get out of the airplane.


My grandparents just moved into a new community. You can see that the apartment building is really nice.


We also visited my great great grandparent's old house in the village. My grandpa was born and grew up here. But it is abandoned now. My great grandpa is already 97 years old. He moved into city to live with my great uncle.



I climbed on the top of Great Wall first time. The Great Wall is the symbol of China. It is really amazing that this built 2000 years ago. Here is the list of cities that I visited: Tianjin, Beijing, Shanghai, Jinan, Kaifeng, Qingdao.