A Test of Balance

Up until this year, whenever someone asked me how I balanced school and chess, I gave a principally correct answer (school first, try to study chess every day, etc.), but I never really understood the question. Middle school and even freshman-year coursework barely required time outside of school, after all—still lots of time for extracurriculars, right?

When a parent asked me how I balanced school and chess a month ago, I understood exactly how they felt. Taking many college-level classes comes with lots of homework, and now on some days I barely have time to study chess.

This was not a good sign for my first national tournament in a while, the North American Junior Championship. As its name implies, the NAJ is a continental tournament for juniors, split into two sections (the Open and the Girls, both for players under the age of 20). With first place directly receiving the WIM title and a WGM norm, the competition was sure to be fierce. Normally, I would spend weeks ahead of time researching my potential opponents and preparing some tricky lines against their openings. This time, however, I was mostly winging it.

The way things turned out, the critical game (rating-wise) happened in the fourth out of nine rounds. I was paired against second-seed WIM Iris Mou with the black pieces. A hard-fought game resulted in a draw. This meant that if (big if) we both won the rest of our games, first place would be decided by a series of complicated tiebreaks.

Strong opposition prevented this from happening. While I managed to win my next four games, Iris drew two. This meant that heading into a final round, I only needed a draw with the white pieces against a much lower-rated opponent. It was still a battle, but I managed to get the draw I needed. A good tournament!

All in all, I still maintain my previous viewpoint: school should always come first, and only after homework is finished should chess studying take place. Worst case scenario, just trust yourself and do your best!