National championship! Very cool. Playing someone who knows the opening tricks can be frustrating. Its sometimes worth loosing a piece just to get out of book (I do this unwillingly hahaha). Something seemingly unrelated comes to mind: I think this Elon Musk's goal when he tweets taking Tesla private ('funding secured') knowing that funding is not secured. He takes the speculators out of book, killing the short positions and the speculative long positions. Then he pays a fine ($20 M personal + $20 M for Tesla) but, perhaps, getting rid of some of the speculators is worth it.
RE: Antique Chess Pieces