How I won my first ever OTB tournament

I've been playing online seriously for a couple years now, and back in May I decided to look around for an OTB tournament to take part in. I finally settled on one to play that was at the end of July. The tournament I found was a three day five round tournament, so I didn't think it would be too stressful for my first tournament. Furthermore, all unrated players were required to play in the U1000 section, so I felt like I had good chances of performing well in the tournament. The tournament also had a prize fund of $5000, with $500 of that going to the winner of the U1000 section. Unrated players were only eligible for half of the prize, but it still seemed pretty cool. I wasn't really thinking seriously about winning it back then, but it was still cool that there was an actual prize involved.

Preperation

As soon as I decided to play the tournament, I knew I was going to have to change my online regimen in order to prepare. Normally I play a few rapid games and solve a few puzzles daily, and every week or so I analyze a master's game with annotations from a GM (I have a couple books in that format). Also, I analyze my games thoroughly first without, and then with an engine. This is all very well for improving at rapid chess, but I needed to get used to classic chess if I wanted to perform well. The tournament was in 90+30, and I had never played anything more than a few games of 30+0.

To solve that problem, I got on lichess ladders to start playing regular 60+30 games. I couldn't find any regular online 90+30, but I figured 60+30 would still help a lot. I made a point to use my time as well. It is tempting to play the move as soon as you see it, but over time I learned restraint in classical time controls. Also, I mixed 30+20 games into my daily rapid games. 30+20 isn't 90+30, but it is closer than 10+0 is, and 30+20 is the longest time control I can easily get on lichess.

A few weeks in, I was proud to have lost a 30+20 game due to time trouble.

Classic changed how I looked at the chess board, and after being punished for playing too fast in a couple 60+30 games, I really learned how to slow down and not blunder. Unfortunately, this new skill had some mild consequences. My rapid rating took a hit as I lost countless games to time trouble, and blitz simply isn't playable anymore. I had begun to see 5 minutes as time trouble, so blitz just starts me in time trouble, and rapid drops me in it pretty quickly too. I started playing more 10+5 and 15+10 instead of my normal 10+0 to compensate, but I still ended up losing some of my rapid skills.

I was pretty happy with my progress on learning the time control, and I started to look for other problems with my play that I could work on before the tournament. This brought me to a problem that I had been ignoring for a long time: the Caro-Kann Defense.

I have a pretty solid reportoire with 1. e4, but when my opponent responds with the Caro-Kann my heart always sinks. So, I decided to change my response to it. I used to play an Accelerated Panov Attack, which yielded fairly good results in faster time controls, but when my opponent really takes time to think, I find myself facing problems. Playing around a bit in the opening explorer, I was trying to decide between exchange or advance. Eventually I decided to do neither and just try the engine line for once.

I studied mainline Caro-Kann for hours, paying special attention to the Tarkatower Variation. Eventually, I got to try my knowledge first in rapid games, and then later a classic game. I'm still not that good with it, but I'm already performing much better against the Caro-Kann than I ever have.

After that, I studied endgames and the rest of my reportoire in my spare time, and before I knew it, the tournament was about to occur.

The Tournament

I had never taken part in an OTB tournament, but a few days before the tournament I read all the relavent rules regarding OTB play, and looked up some tips on how to perform well OTB. The most helpful tip I found was to move your eyes a lot in order to see more of the full picture. Boards are bigger in person than they are online, and you have to move a lot in order to see the whole thing.

Round 1

After the long drive, I went into the tournament venue, found my board, sat down behind the black pieces, put on my jacket (it was air conditioned too much), set my water on the table, and waited.

And waited. And waited.

My opponent never showed up, and 30 minutes after the start of round 1, I was declared the winner. I was unhappy to have paid for a tournament and not gotten to play my first game, and all my keyed up nervousness died rather awkwardly. The bright side of it was that I didn't have to play the late night game I was worried about. It started at 7:00 pm, and my chess play starts to noticably decline at around 8:00 pm, so I was somewhat happy to have circumvented that problem.

Round 2

After a night with not the best sleep due to nervousness, I went back to the venue and found my next game. I had the black pieces once again, and my opponent was rated 891. I was a bit tired after not sleeping well, but I felt ready. I had gotten some questions about OTB play answered by watching the games the previous day, and I felt that I had what it takes to win my game.

My opponent opened with d4, and I played a nice comfortable Queen's Indian Defense/Nimzo-Indian that left me feeling rather happy with my position. I didn't get all I wanted in the middlegame, and entered an endgame somewhat worse but still not terrible, which I managed to pull into a drawish looking endgame with queen+7 pawns v queen+7 pawns. When we first traded down, I had the option to exchange queens but calculated it to be losing, but after a couple moves, that exchange was still available and appeared to be winning. Sure enough, he blundered into it, and I managed to convert the insuing pawn endgame.

I was extremly happy to win my first ever rated OTB game, especially since I felt that it was a very well played game. After the game, I was exuberant, and was having trouble winding down. Accordingly, I went on a half-mile jog to calm myself down and keep my mind in shape for the next game. This was something that I read online to be very helpful on OTB tournaments. The jog felt great, the shower afterwards felt great, and I felt ready for the next round.

Round 3

Round 3 was a real treat. I arrived and set up, and then left for a bit to look around. When I came back, my opponent was seated and laughing with the player next to him. Apparently, my opponent, the player to my immediate left, and that player's opponent were all good friends, and they were laughing and joking about the strange coincidence that had them playing against each other in the second round while seated right next to their other friend. It was the first tournament for all of them, and we had a good time talking before the round started. The whole interaction was great for calming my nerves, and I felt really good starting the third round.

My opponent played the French Defense here, which I really don't like, and I made some unfortunate plays in the middlegame. But I managed to pull it through by eventually locking down his pieces and winning a couple of pawns.

Overall I was happy with the game, but I decided I wanted to change my response against the French at some point. I slept like a log after this game. My nerves weren't bothering me as bad anymore as even if I lost the last couple games it would still be a decent tournament. In the morning I felt refreshed and ready to tackle round 4.

Round 4

My next opponent turned out to be another one of the players in the little friend group I was joking with earlier. I had seen some of his play in the game next to me in round 3, and he didn't seem all that good. Still, I was determined to treat him exactly as I would a master player. We talked a bit before our game started about how our previous games went. He was super happy with his first tournament too, and the game felt just like a casual game would at a club.

My opponent played the oddest version of an Alapin I have ever seen, and I thought at first that it was immediately losing, but after a few moves he really wasn't as bad off as I thought he would be, but I still played aggressively for an attack in the middlegame. Eventually, he gave up a tactic near his king and I managed to win.

I was thrilled after winning this game, and was thinking seriously now about winning the entire thing. At this point I was either sole leader or tied with one other person depending on how another game went.

Round 5

As I entered the final round, my nerves were really pumping again. Barely able to keep calm, I accidently sat down on the wrong side of the board. Thankfully I remembered before my opponent arrived, but it just goes to show how keyed up I was. My opponent was rated 649, which I was pretty confident I could beat, but I also remembered that he had won his last 4 games and as such was probably somewhat underrated. So far I had been trying to avoid letting ratings influence play, and that continued here, but a couple minutes before the game started, I found out rather by chance that my opponent was rated 1500 on lichess. So, now knowing the probably pointless info that I was 500 rating higher than him on lichess, we started the game.

My opponent opened with the Hyperaccelerated Dragon Sicilian which I don't remember all the theory for. Clearly he was playing it wrong though. He trapped his own king in the center, and I won his queen for a rook and a bishop by exploiting that. After that I just traded pieces and hunted pawns until I had a crushing advantage. A couple of dodged stalemate traps later, I was the victor.

I was so excited at this point that I almost forgot to shake hands with my opponent. I rushed out of the tournament area and celebrated. I picked up my trophy (shown in the picture) and the $250, and left. It felt like a dream. All the preperation, all of the study, all of the hard work had all payed off (quite literally), and I was ecstatic. Nobody had played the Caro-Kann against me, but just knowing I had been prepared for it felt important. I checked on my rating somewhat later, and found it to be much higher than I expected: 1749. The cherry on top to nicely wrap up the tournament.

Conclusion

My first experience rated over the board has definitely been a positive one, and I look forward to my next tournament eagerly. I'm sure eventually I will lose OTB, but I think I can handle that just fine. For the time being, I will just enjoy my perfect record for as long as it lasts. A couple of things I will change for next tournament: 1. I am not playing the Steiner variation against the French again and 2. I'm going to continue trying to think longer. Throughout the tournament, I made quite a few mistakes due to insufficient calculation, and I really need to work on it. For spending the prize money, I decided to give the $250 of winnings to the platform that allowed me to study and play chess in the first place. Thank you to everyone at lichess, you all deserve it.