Rd. 1 of the NC Closed
I won my round one game tonight here in Charlotte. I didn't make it easy on myself as I got a very cramped position in a Two Knights Attack against my Caro Kann. My opponent played a pawn sacrifice on e6 that I had handled well in our previous encounter, but didn't do so here. He made a major error that allowed me to win the e-pawn which tortured my through the early middlegame. I ended the whole middlegame melee sacking the exchange but getting a second pawn, a passed e-pawn of my own as compensation.
He started to get low on time and made his final mistake of snacking on the rook that I had left sleeping on a8 the whole game. I then trapped the queen with my knights and pawnstormed his castled queen. He ended up running out of time in a game that likely would have ended up with two knights vs a rook.
It doesn't matter how you start. It's how you finish..... I reckon..