Christopher Yoo talks to Cristian Chirila after defeating Swiercz in Round 13 of the 2022 U.S. Chess Championship.
2022.10.19
USChessChamps.com
We do indeed have a guess Christopher You is with us after a big victory Against uh Darius Christopher how do you Feel after your first ush championships It feels really good to end the Tournament with a win especially after Playing having a bit of a rough time and It was a bit topsy-turvy but Usually it's the last game of the Tournament you remember the most so it Feels really good to end off with a win Absolutely and you've had a rough time In the last few rounds that game against Uh linear how are you recovering Mentally after those losses I think I would I just tried not to look At chess for a bit and just try to get My mind off Um watch YouTube play other games But it was very painful so it was it was Almost hard to look at chess because I Was um very frustrated But I feel like not looking at chess for A bit kind of helped me regain my Composure You're only 15 but I feel you are very Mature in your understanding of Chess Psychology of Chess as well who is your Mentor behind the scenes can you reveal That who is your coach let's say I think I have like several coaches for The moment okay so it kind of goes very Back and forth Um I had like an openings coach
Um And I mostly have coaches that like work With me with training session sessions But they're not really full-time coaches So I don't really have a full-time coach For the moment got it but you do have a Support system a very strong support System in your dad and your mom and your Family they're always together with you Would you like to say a few words about Them and to them I I have to thank them for taking my mom And my dad for all the support My mom wasn't able to make it with me During this tournament but um my dad was Here and I still got support from my mom So Absolutely and that's so important in This type of very long events when was The last time you played such a long Event and was energy ever a problem I don't think I've ever played such a Long event like this I I think I'm Mostly only played nine round Tournaments maybe 11 rounds but I don't Actually remember ever playing a 13 Round classical tournament so it was Definitely a new experience and let's For a second talk about the critical Moments in this game because you must be Quite happy with your uh performance in This one how did you approach it did you Wanted to ice the game make a draw or Did you wanted to put some pressure on a
Struggling Darius in the last few rounds I was okay with a draw but I didn't Really want to play for the draw so Right I just wanted to get a normal Position and if he wants to draw it's Fine but if he doesn't want to draw I'll Just play that was the mindset and uh When did you feel like you took him out Of his uh book his preparation oh yeah Let's go back a few moves Um it was Um so this was still preparation with Takes takes night before but after night Before he spent a lot of time Uh he was probably considering I guess He's considering D5 yeah Knight C3 is What he played and yeah I kind of got Inspired because I played this ball Yesterday called and and it only cares About material and nothing else so I it Kept going H6 B6 C6 G6 Rick H7 against Me and it kept winning and played Against the bot yeah it was like it was Like it felt really embarrassing because It kept playing like G6 H6 Rick H7 and Beating me Um it's like stockfish but it only cares About materials so okay especially That's interesting do you use that in Your preparation in general It was my first time playing it it was Kind of It kind of really showed me how Much material action actually matters so As soon as he gave me a chance to take
The pawn I kind of thought about my Experience of playing with that bar Yesterday because I was like yeah The bottle or Yasser you can play with The answer he's gonna do the same thing Yeah is going to take all your parts Knight take C4 D5 and Um at this point it felt like you're Finally I mean taking over the Initiative you are upon up this beach Pawn B3 after the move D5 is completely Locked out of the game you probably felt Confident at this point yeah he was also Spending a whole lot of time it didn't Seem quite necessary Um like by now I think he already only Had four minutes and it's only move 19. Yep actually nine minutes at this point After this move Rook to C1 and he was oh My goodness from eight minutes down to His last two minutes at move 23. and uh Yeah right now you're just simply Completely winning a nice conversion After that for you Christopher Congratulations uh for such a good Performance at the USGS championships The first one in what will probably be a Very long career so congratulations Thank you uh Christopher quick question For you if you don't mind please uh you As just as you said this was the longest Tournament you've ever played and it's Also undoubtedly the strongest Tournament you've ever played in you've
Got 13 lessons from your first U.S Championship what did you learn about These players I learned that they're very human too And they also make a lot of mistakes so If you take them into complicated Positions Um There's no reason to be that scared of Them because they also make a lot of Mistakes because they're human they're Not perfect machines I like that spoken Like somebody who's ready to beat him up Christopher it looks like by the way Gratitude well done was the first one Who said this word disrespected this Tournament Yeah I just understood this Started a whole Trend do you realize That young man what you did uh for our Commentating theme yeah I definitely did Not expect that when I said that because I kind of said it um on autopilot and After I said it I kind of realized what I had done You definitely opened the Pandora's box But good luck good luck Christopher uh And congratulations on this last round Win thank you you're welcome yeah on all Levels
