Study: First in-person OTB Tournament

Played 3 rounds, Game 25 with 5 second delay. The average age of my 3 opponents was... 8 or 9?

Some observations:

• My opening preparation and tactics training definitely is helping
• 25 minute games go by very fast, I was in time trouble in all three. I lost my first game largely because I was down 18 minutes to 9 minutes after something like... 15 moves? I resigned with 11 seconds left (probably should have allowed the checkmate).
• Scoring chess is difficult. I'll need to bring a pen or just practice writing more cleanly.

Also, I think in one of my games my opponent long-castled wrong (put his rook on e8). So I'll have to watch for that sort of thing in the future. I remember in one of Ben Finegold's lectures on YouTube, he mentioned that sometimes he ends up looking cross-eyed at scoresheets from his U1000 class... I'm having that experience looking over my games from today :)

Can recommend the Marshall Chess Club (NYC). Was a pleasant experience, I'll be back.
https://www.marshallchessclub.org/tournaments/upcoming

Game 1 vs Neguisse

I played the Petrov which transposed to the Four Knights. He didn't follow the usual "fork trick" and I forgot my (limited) preparation. I was holding on but ran into time trouble and resigned with 0:0:11 on the clock (I should have allowed him to checkmate me). G25 is not much time! 1 - 0.

Game 2 vs Zhou

My opponent in this game was merely 6 years old, but could follow the first moves of French Defense: Advance Variation. However, she blundered some pawns allowing me to build up a dominant center and roll through.

I'm consistently impressed how well these children take loss, no display of emotion, they shake hands (or elbow bump) just move onto the next game. I was certainly not like that at 6 years old!

Game 3 vs Hoffman

Another young opponent - I played the "Fried Liver" and scored a victory. I definitely notice that ~800 rated opponents are still learning to calculate variations that preserve material.