Saturday I had the best tournament of my life. I got huge results against strong players and went from 1738 to 1847, which is a monstrous jump considering I already had played over 100 tournament games, making it harder for it to go up. I finally had the breakthrough I was wanting. I completely outplayed a guy around 2100 (also an NM). Now, in a game before I had also outplayed him strategically and tactically but managed to blunder a win into a heartbreaking loss! But this time I managed to finally seal my first expert win. I think my calibur of play was probably decent expert standard. What do you think? Was it just a fluke? To me it just seemed I demontrated better understanding of the positions than him, not so much that he just made a blunder, even though he did make some strange decisions later on, but at that point he probably was already lost anyway.

Time control was 45 min w/h 5 sec delay. Usually I'm much better with say 2 hours, but I think this tournament I was able to manage my time pretty good for once, playing a bit more on what just seemed right and calculating at the right moments.

Critically, your opponent played an odd opening choice, but to your credit you took advantage of the weaknessess he created through those hazardous pawn moves on the queenside. Congrats; you should be proud of yourself! Hope many more wins like this come!

Yeah I feel pretty good about it, thanks Mimchi. Not suprisingly the first win against quite a strong player (especially because there are times where I thought I should have beat one of them earlier but didn't!) is pretty satisfying.

Congratulations.  Nice win...

A month or so and you should reach 2000 God speed !

Well this summer there will be some juicy tournaments coming up, all game 120 which is the type of time control I thrive in, so I will definitley have the opportunity.

I just need to work on my endings because there are some positions against some strong players I should be winning after outplaying them but end up drawing, but other than that I'm feeling great about my game.

Congratulations! I really appreciate your annotations being made instructive enough even for lower-rated players.

Yikes! A really convincing beating. You played very strong IMO. Very well done. I'm guessing Rybka has computer-y tactical improvements for you around move 19?

That a4 line winning your bishop would have been very dramatic... I'm surprised he didn't go for it.

Yeah I'm sure rybka would love 19 axb5 , and later on perhaps have better ways to finish the game off. But I'm sure I would have to be winning either way.

And yeah him playing ...Bg4 made things much easier for me, I was suprised. I think he wanted to free his bishop (since otherwise it would be very passive in the ...a4 lines, but it still seems the most challenging) but the passed pawn was still very strong.

Gratz, I dont know that I ever beat an expert expect for one time scramble win.  By the way, check out http://www.365chess.com/view_game.php?g=650223 for an IM game with the exact same line through move 4.  However, agree that just because an IM played 4 ... d6 doesnt mean you cant give it a question mark, its an odd move!

You should calculate your performance rating for the tournament... that should give you a good feeling!

You played well throughout, good game.

You are an inspiration; Thanks for sharing!

It was actually 2300 (!), but that was influenced by a draw offer on move 9 by a 2265 (wanting to clinch 1st place and win money badly, I assume, as he had 3.0 to my 2.5. Maybe he wasn't so sure he would win because of my results prior to this last game!). But still I almost beat another 2100 but drew, and also beat a 1900 pretty convincingly.