Disaster to Master: I Won a Tournament! #3

Sept/Octer 2024

Last month (Septemeber 2024), I started playing in a tournament that had 1 game a week for 5 games. The games were every Monday night, and the time control was 60+10. I decided to play because I could certainly fit one game a week into my schedule. This was the first OTB tournament I have played with this format, and I have to say, I am a FAN.

This tournament was put on by my local chess club, and there were not many players, so I was the 2nd highest rated player(entries shown below).

Being the 2nd highest rated player in the tournament has its pressure. You feel like you have to win every game, and with rating gaps so large, my wins won't win me much rating.

Nonetheless, I played because there is nothing better for me to do on Monday nights, and I have already outlined in m first blog post that I need to play more OTB chess.

The Games

Game 1

This game went relatively smoothly. I think I was more familiar with the opening than my opponent, and the pressure was too much and he lost his queen. I was pretty happy with this game but it was pretty simple.

Game 2

This game was very interesting. I got the sense that I played the opening pretty meh, but the opponent did not punish it. When he played h3 then h4 I thought white was struggling for a plan.

In the position shown, it is clear this is a critical moment of the game since one wrong move and the white pawn storm is coming towards my king. This position was of course a bit nerve-wracking in the game, but I knew that it would be tough for white to mate me without any pieces involved, so I knew my lead in development would be good.

Game 3

This game was very fun. In the position shown, I play Nh5! sacrificing the exchange for an attack on the king. In this game, I sometimes felt uncertain about the variations, but ultimately I felt like I always was the one on the offensive, and that felt nice.

Towards the end I was down a piece but the activity was well worth it.

Game 4

In this game I was very lucky. Lots of positions in this game my opponent could have really capitalized on my unsound attack, but he played very quickly and did not spend time to analyze each critical moment.

I think if my opponent in this game spent more time to think in key moments, it would have been a different result.

Game 5

This game I was very disappointed in. This was the only game against a higher rated opponent, and I had a fine position in the opening. After my opponent played c4 and e4, I have a clear idea of controlling d4. Because of this, I wanted to trade off DSB's so in the position shown I played Bg5 completely missing the opponents tactic.

After this, I had counterplay but blundered two more pieces. Terrible game.

Conclusion

All in all, I got first place in this tournament, but I felt I didn't deserve it after the last two rounds. Round 4 was very sloppy, and round 5 was outright awful. I will take these games and learn from them to move forward.

If I want to be a master, I need to be blowing these guys off the board. It is going to come down to me practicing more.

Thank you for reading!