My chess tournament- Part 13

Hi everyone! It's been a long time since my last post, mostly because I was embarassed to post my games. Recently I have been doing very badly in the past 5 months. My confidence level dropped, I lost some interest, and the amount of homework I get is colossal. Plus, I skipped posting about my Thanksgiving tournament. 

I am posting about the North American Open, which took place at Las Vegas, Nevada from December 26-29. As you can see (from My chess tournament, Part 1) I did extremely well last year, finishing with 5 out of 7, which was quite unexpected because the previous tournament, I had lost all my games (but I was playing up). I just had a sudden burst of confidence, and I even played my best game at that tournament. This year, I wasn't sure if I could do nearly as well as I had done last year- I had been losing to 1800, 1700's, and 1600's! And I never played any nice games either. This year, I played in the U2100 section like last year (since shown by my rating, I clearly did not improve). I was not expecting to win that much, as I had little confidence.

Some time before the tournament, my coach was back in town (he was busy for the last 11 months). Of course, I was delighted at the chance for another class after so long. After going over my games from Thanksgiving, I realized my weaknesses and worked on them. I blame my good performance on this class. However, I don't think anything helped me more than the burst of confidence I got. I prepared a lot by working on puzzles and getting exercise.

The next morning after a truly spectacular Christmas, where I got tons of stuff, I went on a 10 hour drive to Vegas. I came there early enough, so I had time to freshen up before the first evening round (I had taken the 4-day option). Our hotel was only 3 miles to the tournament hotel (Bally's Casino and Resort), but it took so long. I mean, 35 minutes for 3 miles. I could RUN faster than that. But if my game ended late, it would be hard to go back in the darkness. 

Not to mention the elevator and escalator situation. As usual, I had to hold my breath walking across the casino, but the elevators were so crowded. If I were claustrophobic I wasn't sure what I would have done.

Okay, enough complaining and on to the first round game. I played an 1918 from Texas. He looked younger than me (he's only NINE years old). It's pretty rare to play someone younger than me, especially in Vegas with all adults. I got a great position out of the opening but missed several key chances to checkmate or win material. All of a sudden, while getting at his king I found my king to be in greater danger. Then I got my queen pinned (Extremely annoying). Not the best start. Here's the game:

This game showed me I need to work on my tactics, to be able to use them to exploit my winning position. I needed to be better at finding the knockout, one which I had multiple chances to do. Currently I have 0.0/1.

In the next game I played a 1914 from Texas. I went into an endgame by move 11 that was supposed to be slightly better for white. I've played the particular endgame before and looked deeper into it with my engine so I knew the features of the position. From there I simply outplayed my opponent. Not a bad 2nd round. Here's the game:

Overall, I played a pretty good game. My opponent had chances for a draw though. I currently have 1.0/2.

In the third round I played a 1985 from California. The third game was pretty easy. My opponent missed a tactic which decided the game. Here's the game:

I'm sure my opponent was probably just having a bad day. Since the game ended super early, I took advantage of it by exploring Paris (connected to Bally's), which was lots of fun! I currently have 2.0/3. Then, I slept a bit earlier, because I knew that the next games were going to be really hard! I was pretty happy that night because last year, I drew round 2 and an awesome study-like draw in round 3, so I also had 2.0. Now I knew I can try to beat last year's record, which was surely going to be tough!

The next day I faced a very hard opponent- a 2077 from Texas. I went into an endgame with a new idea with my opponent having the advantage. However, my opponent could not make it much bigger so the resulting position was a draw (opposite colored bishops). Then my opponent got his knight trapped, and since he didn't sacrifice the trapped knight immediately I was a piece up. The win was slow but sure. Here's the game:

Very well played on my opponent's part overall. I was trying to hold the draw and I was just lucky my opponent blundered. A bit more accuracy and I would have lost. I currently have 3.0/4. 

In the evening they took forever to put up the pairings. There was a huge crowd of people waiting for the pairings, and the round got delayed by around 10-15 minutes!

In the next game I played someone hard too. I played a 2000 from California. I had the better position but I let my opponent get his pieces active. Then, I found myself in time trouble. Luckily for me, my opponent blundered his queen when he had a clear advantage. From there I converted without any trouble. Here's the game:

So, not the cleanest victory. I failed to convert my advantage properly, and with inaccuracies black managed to gain an advantage, until the catastrophic blunder.

Woo hoo! I have 4 out of 5 now. I knew that I was going to play my 6th round opponent the day before, so I made sure to prepare against him.

The next day I played a 2019 from California. I've already played him twice this year as black, managing to save a worse position both times. This time I got white again, which I didn't expect. I missed easy chances to win. I blew my initial advantage and got a much worse position. Then, I blundered a piece and I lost. Quite unfortunate. Here's the game:

That sucks. A win would get me in good competition for a big prize. Sometimes, there's just one way to exploit your advantage, and if you don't see it you lose. I was literally one move away from winning. I have 4 out of 6 now.

For the last game I didn't lose my confidence. My opponent was 2 pawns up but he let me attack his king, and under extremely severe time pressure it didn't take much for him to blunder. Here's the game:

 After the game I did an extensive analysis with my opponent, who seemed to overestimate his position.

I ended up tying last years record of 5/7, which is still pretty good, good enough to win money. Amazingly, there were 9 other people to tie with me, so I ended up getting $185.40. Last year I got around $120, so I was pretty happy. Even though I lost my potential to get more money (everyone with a half point above me got $2684 since the top player's real rating was 2140 so his prize was limited to $2000), I didn't mind too much. 

Here are the full standings: http://chesstournamentservices.com/cca/2013/12/north-american-open-2013-standings-under-2100-section/

My new rating came out to 2032, higher than I expected! I'm pretty happy I'm back above 2000 after so long. Additionally, I beat 3 people 2000 and over, which I haven't done in a long time. The tournament was poorly run (escalators were broken, elevators were crowded, and pairings came up late). Some suggestions to fix this were be to post the pairings online, and not get the pairings delayed so much. 

Thanks for reading!

cool games, looked at the results, and a lot of ppl from the bay area gained a bunch of rating!

@ChessLegend28 thanks!

@BulletMatetricks thanks!

Hey Abhishek long time no see...

The first game was hilarious, but you should have crushed him. Nice wins against those 2000+ guys! I guess it really pays off when you go outside of the Bay Area and play. I couldn't go to the tournament because my parents always schedule stuff exactly on tournament dates (with eerie accuracy). lol wow you had to face Jeffery, huh (I personally hate the BDG). Oh and btw, thanks. Now that you know what to do against the English, I'm not going to play c4 against you anymore (probably). All in all, nice tournament. You won more money than I ever have, so you should be proud.

lol, sucks for you. If you play c4 you'll be in big trouble. Yeah, I faced Jeffrey in February and August. thanks!

Oh really...I really like planning opening surprises...If I ever face you in a tournament...

Again, I like your openings in every game!  Good job

And I agree the tournament was very poorly run. They wouldn't let people walk up the escalators, when they could just as well be used as stairs.

lol, you don't know what surprises I have either.... 

by the way, did you realize I didn't have a single Elephant in this tournament? How strange.

Thanks! I didn't use the escalators for safety reasons lol

@ abhishek2

actually, you've pretty much revealed all your openings. I have yet to fully show my hand. Let's see...I know you play all these gambits, like to play against c4, and recently switched to the albin-counter gambit and sometimes 1.d4. And if you try anything else... I will be waiting. I hope you still play the wing gambit, because it would be fun playing against that.

lol, nice. But just 1 opening move doesn't reveal everything.

Good point. But that's ok. I will deviate first 

Have you considered a writing career? :)

lol no