Insights into the first team, a week-long experiment
Disclaimer: No sissanen was permanently injured during this experiment. This experiment was conducted by professionals, reproducing it at home is at your own risks.
Disclaimer 2: I’m not good at writing concisely.
Tl;dr at the end.
Sunday, May 4th
How it all started
The chess season is over for sissa3 (and 4).
However, I’m not over the chess season. When the opportunity arises to play another KNSB game, I take it. It means going all the way to Kampen, which might explain the lack of enthusiasm from the rest of my team members to volunteer as trib… substitute, but at least I get one more competitive game. The things I do for chess.
Monday, May 5th
I’m being added to their app. Now, I had glances at it in the past here and there (the « props » of living with one of them?), so I know to expect a smaller version of the clubapp. And within one hour, a discussion on the history of women playing for the team indeed starts there, before being quickly brought to the clubapp, and finalized in stadpark, on the path to the bevrijding festival. For anyone interested, nope I’m not the first, nor will I be the last.
Tuesday, May 6th
So naturally, 2 days after I committed to playing another external game at the cost of too much commuting, Carl asks for 2 to 3 players to join them, comfortably at home. Promptly, Sissa3 saves the day (because that’s what we do), and I try not to cry about my upcoming trip to Kampen. The things I do for SISSA1.
Wednesday, May 7th
Now, this author had in mind to remain a silent observer, but she’s never been great at not getting involved. So, it only feels right to accept Niels’offer to write the report. By offer, I of course mean, his announcement « And Aurore writes report » just after giving us the line-up (finally! – yes, I’m just a guest here but I’ll still complain).
Here it is, and I kinda love it:
De opstelling:
1. Tisjeboykenneth
2. Sjoerd killt een ploert
3. Jornporn
4. Rooienelis
5. Woetroe
6. Rouwdouwpouw
7. Wewantmaurore
8. Hemski
Now, sissa1 has quite some challenges for this encounter:
-Kenneth playing white just before the playoffs game: how far into the opposite of his prep against Edim is he gonna go?
-Sjoerd suggested getting a quick draw, which according to my notes means that he’ll play until the closing time of the playing venue.
-Obviously, me replacing Pleedim. But hey, they chose this (well, kinda. Again, there wasn’t many volunteers).
And last, but not least:
-Will every person supposed to drive us show up with a car?
Thursday, May 8th – 9:00AM
« You’re not someone who overthinks. » said no one to me, ever.
2 cases scenarios for Saturday:
-I play against Ronald, the one 1700 player of O&O team, who always had black this season. Then I’ll actually have real chances of scoring, and that’ll make me panic.
-I don’t play against Ronald. My opponent would then be close to 300rating point higher than me, and that’ll make me panic.
To attempt reaching a bit of peace of mind, I ask Sophie for her game against Ronald a few months ago. « It was fireworks I remember ».
Peace of mind not reached.
Thursday, May 8th – 11:00PM
« -Are you excited to play on board 1 Saturday?
-Not particularly. There’s nothing at stakes, and I don’t even have the color I asked for.
-Well. Are you excited that I’m playing in your team?
-Not particularly, there’s nothing at stakes and it’s not very different than seeing you in DSC. »
« Stop overthinking » said no one to Kenneth, ever.
Friday, May 9th – 7:00AM
Preparation day
« Overzicht van schakers die achter het bord stierven ».
The day starts and strategies already get shared in the app.
Friday, May 9th – 1:00PM
The captain has spoken, we first have to consult with him before dying of a heart attack.
I can only appreciate the pragmatic approach of the team.
Friday, May 9th – 2:00PM
This time again, the discussion that initially started in the sissa1 app reaches the clubapp. Is SISSA1 always pulling strings in the shadow?
That’d explain why I like most of them.
Friday, May 9th – 7:00PM
Joining the mandatory vrijmiavbo preparation.
More than half of SISSA1 is there, and almost no one from SISSA2.
The core of the preparation focuses on where to have dinner after the game, and once again I feel like my temporary team has their priorities straight.
The excitement for tomorrow’s game is mitigated (shockingly, no one is looking forward to the 3 hours of commuting). I get told that if I win, I’ll become a star. Sometimes I don’t understand this team, am I not a star already?
I strategically lose my blitz against Sjoerd to avoid trading my supposedly comfy board 7 with his board 2, and I strategically lose another 7 times to him, because old habits die hard.
The evening ends with a few simultaneous-vs-hand&brains-blitz games at a time not worth sharing.
Saturday, May 10th
Game day
9:00
Already 3 good luck messages, from the SISSA1en who made the (probably very smart) choice not to play today.
Naturally, the day starts as any other game day, sharing brunch with Wouter.
11:15 11:30
Getting a full team to go to Kampen ✅
Convincing everyone to meet at 11:15 ✅
Getting 2 drivers who remember to bring their cars ✅
To add to the to do list for next time: getting a meeting point accessible to said cars.
12:52
Finally we arrive. It is quickly decided that this is plenty of time to first go to the supermarket. I start to understand where the complaints about SISSA’s tendency to be late come from.
13:00
The 3 minutes walk from the parking lot to the playing hall ends up taking way longer than expected, and we start to doubt whether it’s even accessible with the current construction.
13:04
We finally made it to the venue, and we only lost one player in the process.
13:10
The games finally start. Congrats on making it this far into the report.
I shake hands and my opponent starts the clock. The issue is, he is not Ronald. So not 1700. So most likely, way better and more experienced than me.
Current state of mind: panic.
The words of Julian (first GM I ever played, and that, no later than Tuesday) resonate in my head « It’s still the same game, with the same rules ».
I stare at my board. To London or not to London? It’s solid but it has been a while since I last played it in classical. But also, do I want to take the risk to run into something I like less? Against a potentially much stronger player, definitely not.
13:25
I’m busy admiring Jorn sacking a bishop to win a rook and 2 pawns on board 3. Everyone else (besides Marcel) is busy in their openings, so it’s probably the most exciting board to watch anyway, right?
Well, I should have checked Marcel’s board first. His opponent, with his king standing on d4, resigns. On the clock of Marcel, there’s 5 more minutes than what he started with. At the end of today, he will have spend 3 hours in a car, for less than 15minutes of play.
1-0
14:00 (ish, there’s no clock nor windows in the room – Not that a window would have given me the time, but it felt important to note it).
Hemmes, Sjoerd, and I have barely traded anything (actually, Hemmes and his opponent still have all their pawns and pieces on the board).
Kenneth is busy playing moves he probably has played thousands of times before, and the same seems to go for Wouter.
Jorn has so much activity that he doesn’t even have to try to rescue his knight on h8. Not many pieces of his opponent can act anyway.
On board 4, Niels taking a bishop on g2 with his own bishop catches my attention : he already had his knight hanging on f6, won’t he end up losing a piece? I stop and watch, excited to witness the next awesome SISSA1 display of skills. Today’s captain is our trucjes champion, so I can’t wait to see what’s the resolution of this position.
The opponent takes the knight. Niels goes back with the bishop.
The opponent takes the other bishop.
And nothing.
There’s no tactic, it was a blunder. Wat jammer. Does he still have any chance to rescue the game?
14:30
Wouter has 20minutes less than his opponent on the clock, but it seems like slow and steady is working well for him: the opposing king is on e7, and the rest of his pieces look a bit awkward.
Behind me, Hemmes’board is less loaded in pieces than before. He’s up a pawn and it’s his turn to play. It seems like even if his opponent has chances to get the pawn back, there’s more than enough nice options for Maarten.
I’d like to give an update on Sjoerd’s board, but honestly everything seems to be going crazy slow there. The emphasis is on the slow, definitely not on the crazy.
Kenneth has traded queens some time ago already and he starts pushing his pawns towards his opponent’s castle. It feels a bit anticlimactic that it’s a long one, I was hoping for a Kenneth’s game where he (randomly?) plays g4.
The material advantage combined with nice pieces coordination makes for a very strong attack on Niels’board, helaas, for his opponent. Our captain tried to hold for a bit, but eventually resigns.
1-1
Captain’s habit, I anticipate a win for Jorn and for Wouter. The rest is less clear, but with a likely 3-1, I selfishly get some reassurance that the fate of the team is luckily not gonna depend on me.
On my board, the plan is pretty clear: just don’t blunder. And only go for a plan that has high chances of success. I don’t find such a plan, so I move pieces around, not committing too much to anything. Luckily, my opponent doesn’t really seem to find a plan either, and after yet another knight move of his, I start to wonder if he’s actually that much better than me.
15:00
Jorn’s opponent finally resigns. I feel for him, that was a painful one. This brings Jorn’s score to 5.5/6 for this season, and seals his win of the Oosthoekbeker.
2-1
Hemmes’ open castle is never a problem for him, considering that his opponent’s king is even more in the open – the downside of pushing all your pawns forward. The Kampen player never got his pawn back, and Maarten coordinates his pieces way too well to give him a decent chance. Soon enough, Maarten gets us another point.
3-1
15:30
Sjoerd offered a draw a few moments ago. After taking some time to make sure that there was absolutely nothing to try in the position, his opponent accepted it.
Sjoerd would later qualify his game « the most boring one ever ».
It’s my personal opinion that getting a draw from the best player of the opposing team, as black, after playing a 24moves game with 11 centi-p-value is quite remarkable, but what do I know.
3.5-1.5
Back to my board, we trade all the pieces and my opponent offers a draw. By now I’m quite convinced that he’s not that far from my level, but I spent my entire game playing something neutral and solid, I’m not gonna try to go for something more now, in what looks to me pretty much like an equal position.
The engine later revealed that it was strongly losing for white, and my teammates of the week kindly and convincingly explained why.
4-2
We can’t lose anymore. Wouter is slowly but surely working his way into promoting, and it is only a matter of minutes before we officially win the game.
5-2
Barely more than 2 hours into the games, and only one left. Could it be that we actually leave Kampen before 16:00?
The hopes are high, until one after the other, we all check Kenneth’s game, on board 1.
It’s an endgame.
Neither clearly winning, losing nor drawing.
And it’s Kenneth.
Hopefully, we’ll get home before 20:00.
16:30
The man is still playing. Both players got their extra time, which makes 29minutes on Kenneth’s clock, against 1hour22 for his opponent.
There was never any real way for Kenneth to promote his b pawn, but some think that it shouldn’t have been a reason to blunder it.
Now 2 pawns 1 rook vs 3 pawns one rook. Looks holdable, but he has to prove it.
Maybe I’m biased, but knowing him, I believe there’s no way that he loses this.
Finally, the draw is agreed upon, and we can go home.
5.5-2.5
Italian dinner together + post-dinner hangout in a certain café is decided, and SISSA2 promptly contacts us to join the festivities.
16:58
The news falls: Assen lost their game in the first Klasse. While it’s regrettable for many, for us at SISSA it’s more of a silver lining.
Welcome to SISSA1, Gertjan.
Sunday, May 11th
The aftermath
As a published scientist, I can’t end this narrative without summarizing and discussing the findings of this experiment. I’ve already written way too much for a match where nothing much happened and where nothing much was at stake. Might as well continue.
In this study, we investigated the behavior and the play style of SISSA1, through a week-long infiltration, from behind the screen to behind the board. While our initial findings indicated that SISSA1 mostly consisted of a microcosme of SISSA by displaying a lot of similar patterns, a more thorough observation revealed that SISSA1 might actually be a strong influence on SISSA in the shadow. Whether it should be of concerns is up to this audience’s interpretation.
Contrarily to what was hypothesized for years, our study highlighted that SISSA1 players were capable of convincing wins without taking their entire afternoon to do so (min.: 15mn; median: 2 hours; one outlier who always displays a pattern of playing hours long endgames).
To better understand the characteristics of a typical SISSA1-player, it would be of interest to investigate the members of the team in a different chess context, for instance in a competition of 4-persons teams. While conducting such study presents its own challenges, others have previously reported the success of this kind of settings [1,2]. Additionally, introducing structured changes to the northern chess scene show promises in mitigating the risk for periodic complaints on the chaotic aspect of a certain competition, while promoting team cohesion, competitive excitement and preserving high-level competition. The most rigorous way to assess these outcomes is certainly by experiencing the format. However, with SISSA1 concentrating a large amount of experienced SISSAnen, one can doubt the feasibility of implementing such a disruptive modification.
As a chess club in general, SISSA has repeatedly proven a strong trend towards constant improvement. While the gap in experience between the players in SISSA3/SISSA4 and the players of SISSA1/SISSA2 incontestably remains, it is steadily narrowing, as illustrated by the 2 halfjes brought by SISSA3 to our teams in klasse 4 yesterday. Leveraging the knowledge and skills of the top SISSA players is definitely the way forward for the less experienced players to keep improving. In my own experience, this is not only useful and efficient, but also pretty damn cool.
Some might be disappointed in the lack of promotion of any SISSA teams this year. However, it is worth noting that this will make for yet another SISSA-SISSA-SISSA-SISSA KNSB day next season, and we have it on good authority that the bestuur is already preparing for this exciting event.
Overall, our study highlighted that SISSA1 is mostly scary behind a chess board, and our results suggest that the promotion of SISSA1 to the 3rd division is a likely outcome of the 2025-2026 KNSB season. We advise the rest of the teams in the future 4A to proceed with caution.
As for me, I’ll keep watching them from my beloved SISSA3.
PS: Wouter, our offer for having you championing us next season still stands ❤️
Report by Aurore.
Way tl;dr:
