My Chess Tournament- Part 16

Hi all! I've decided to continue this series in a blog so it is better organized. So from now on, the post will be in my blog . 

Luckily I now have time over the summer to catch up on these posts, so you'll be seeing these more frequently :)

I played in the Larry Evans Memorial held in Reno, NV. Since I was over 2000, I got to play in the open section, in the same section as the Grandmasters! The top board had big display boards so you could watch the games, and everyone in the Open Section had really cool name tags!

In the first round, I was lucky enough to face my first GM! I played GM Walter Browne, who was a US champion 6 times! Even though he's not as his peak he's still a really strong and tactical player. I actually did have a chance to equalize, but I couldn't. He got under huge time pressure (as usual) but he still played good moves and I lost. Too bad I couldn't analyze the game with him! Here's the game:

That was still a great chess lesson! 

In the next round I got an easier opponent. I had a clear advantage but I had to find precise moves so I spent a lot of time, and I got into time pressure- I had to make around 24 moves in 4 minutes! But I did it and my opponent soon resigned. Here's the game:

I currently have 1/2.

For the next game I played a master! After an inferior opening from the white side I got the advantage but then I lost it because I didn't find the best way to continue. Here's the game:

I knew I had the better position, but a6??? completely ruined it! That was unfortunate.

For the next round I played someone really close to my rating. It's because for this tournament they try to pair you with people close to your rating who have the same points as you. 

The fourth round was a Modern Defense where I pushed really hard to get to the king but he manage to defend- and my king was really open so he secured a material advantage. But with a few inaccuracies he allowed me to draw the game. Yay!

The main problem of this was that I rushed to attack- I should have played a3 first to slow black down. I still managed to get a better position but I played the wrong moves- like Nxe4! should have been played- its just a clear pawn. After not saving my bishop black should have won, the easiest being Rxb2, but my outside passed a pawn tied black's pieces so I could win black's passers. It was a very instructive game for sure. I have 1.5/4.

For the final day I faced a 2010, again close to my rating. I got a worse position from the opening but he missed one of my tactics and then the win was easy. Here's the game:

So after a bad tournament I got a blessing . Anyway all I should have done was switch up the move order and play f4! first. I have 2/5.

In the last round I faced another master who has been playing for a long time. He played a weird opening but I was prompted to sacrifice a knight which was really stupid to do. It was an unnecessary risk. Well obviously he played strong moves and I had to resign soon. 

It was hard to focus on this game since I got a huge nosebleed so I had to hold tissues up, and I thought a lot in the opening. It took forever to clot the blood!

Here's the game:

Well, that was unfortunate. It's pretty obvious what my blunder is. 

So I finished with 2.5/6 which was not bad, but my rating dropped 2 points to 2055. I still think I learned a lot from this tournament, especially in Round 1 where I basically got a free lesson with GM Walter Browne. Round 4 was also a complex, yet instructive game where I learned that I shouldn't rush always like that. In Round 2 I made the win unnecessarily complicated, missing things like Bb5! winning easily. It was also a bit disappointing since in Round 3 I played the really bad a6?? which got me into a worse position. 

I still learned a lot from this tournament, however.

Thanks for reading! Next post coming really soon (local state championships)

Since this is a new place for continuing my series- here are the previous parts:

US Amateur Team West 2014- http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-showcase/my-chess-tournament--part-15

Part 14- http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-showcase/my-chess-tournament--part-14

Enjoy those!