First Tournament In 11 Years

Ocala was my first tournament since college and it was quite a bite of fun.  As this is my first blog post, I thought I would show my two favorite games from the tournament.  Much to Jon's disappointment, only one is a Scandinavian Defense game.  This first one pitted me against the absolute highest rated player in the U1600 division.  Somewhat disconcerting for a guy playing his second tournament game since 2003:

I finally took my breath and smiled at my conquest.  I was already 2-0.  If I won 2 games at this tournament, I was going to treat that as a victory of sorts and smile all the way home.  Perhaps my nonchalance was why I then lost my next game and then drew the fourth.  I was now going into the final round at 2.5-1.5.  I looked at the scoreboard and realized, if a game or two went my way and I won my game, I could place for third!  Talk about a glorious tournament!  But first I had to win my game:

 After the win, I found out that the other games did not break my way.  Instead of placing, I ended up tied for 4th.  Still, a fantastic finish for a rusty player who was just trying to see if he really was as good as his rating indicated.