I see you got 5 out of 9. That's better than my 4.5 the first year I went to the WO. Yes, please share a game or two with us. If you put it in a Blog, then post the title here so we can find it. And did you take advantage of the free GM analysis?
Debating playing up a section (World Open)
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I didn't have time to attend them. I was probably better off trying to rest when I could anyway.
once at the tournament, getting some rest and food is probably the most important thing. didn't play this year, i think columnist iryna suffered the most painful result at the world open this year [probably more painful than me missing 2 mate-in-ones against masters last week --- and also realizing it immediately after, then losing both]:
| 14 | Iryna Zenyuk | 2343 | PA | W77 | W36 | W4 | W10 | D9 | D16 | D1 | D6 | L2 | 6.0 |
Estragon wrote:
After my first two WO's, I started taking two 1/2 point byes, scheduling them for the morning rounds on two days, spaced apart to allow me to rest and recover a bit, take my time over a leisurely brunch, take a long walk, swim, etc. It made the whole experience more enjoyable.
After my first two WO's, I started taking two 1/2 point byes, scheduling them for the morning rounds on two days, spaced apart to allow me to rest and recover a bit, take my time over a leisurely brunch, take a long walk, swim, etc. It made the whole experience more enjoyable.
When you have a bad game, it is important to figure out why. Sometimes it is a combination of mistakes on the board, and off the board - being tired, hungry, anxious to hit the road, bored because out of the money, etc. Once you figure that out, you can take steps to avoid it happening again.
I was originally going to take a bye Saturday night, but kept putting off the decision until the cut-off point passed. I think I just really wanted to play as much chess as possible.
I completely understand my mistakes both on and off the board. Off the board there were a lot of problems. Very little sleep a couple of nights. The worst was I forgot to take my Synthroid on the last day, which left me with even less energy than usual. I had my thyroid removed two years ago due to cancer, so without it I have no metabolism at all.
Petrosianic wrote:
[probably more painful than me missing 2 mate-in-ones against masters last week --- and also realizing it immediately after, then losing both]:
Ouch! Can you post the games?
Part one of my World Open blog is up with the first two games - http://www.chess.com/blog/JamieKowalski/u1800-tales-from-the-world-open-pt-i
Let me know what you think.
Just back from a quick look at the Blog. Well written, well balanced & well done! Not overly analyzed and just enough background to put us in the scene. You should consider writing for this site.
anpu3 wrote:
Just back from a quick look at the Blog. Well written, well balanced & well done! Not overly analyzed and just enough background to put us in the scene. You should consider writing for this site.
Excellent writing! Unlike anpu, however, I'm much lower rated and would enjoy a little more annotation. But you can't please everyone...
Looking forward to the next installment.
I had a little more notation in my original analysis, but pasting the pgn into chess.com's editor was a big mess and I lost some of it. I'll try to prepare a little more carefully next time.
Thanks for the comments.
Good read, thanks.
Part II was good.
Did you take a walk over to check out the top boards in the open section?
JamieKowalski wrote:
I'm playing in the World Open in Virginia in July. This will be my first big tournament in about 10 years. I'm USCF rated 1745, but have probably progressed a good amount since my last rated game. So instead of playing in the U1800 section, I have been toying with the idea of playing in the U2000 section.
When I decided I wanted to play the tournament, I thought a little warm up event would be helpful, and I played in a mini one-day tournament a couple of weeks ago. It was a very tiny tournament with only two sections, U1700 and Open. It was g45/d5, which is a little quick for me, but I did well. In the first round, I was beating a CM (rated 2227), but lost in a time scramble.
On the one hand, playing in U2000 will almost certainly count me out of any prizes (and it's an expensive event). But I wonder if it would be worth it for the higher level of play, and better opportunity to learn? I feel like it's the nobel thing to do, but you know... money.
What would you do?
I played up two sections in 2009 (1437 playing in the U2000). I learned a lot. I finished with a dismal 2 points in the tournament, and a lost a meaningless 3 points. The biggest thing I learned, which you can only feel if you do it, is that the psychological tension and mental wear increases in the higher divisions. With the sandbaggers in the lower divisions, I didn't feel there was much of a difference in playing ability between the top U1600 players (I played the 2008 winner of U1400 in either the second or third game of the that selfsame tournament.)
I got a great deal of confidence from the tournament, and I think it was one of the things that helped me to get over 1600. In my games, I had two wins that I lost in a single move in each game, and one of my draws should have been a win, but I let my guard down and stalemated. I was three blinks away from achieving my goal of 4-4.5 points in the U2000 section. After that tournament, I would begin drawing and beating players much stronger than myself, including a win over the Pittsburgh Chess Club champion, Daniel Gordon (upper 20xx at the time).
Milliern - This thread is from 23 months ago. He's talking the 2013 World Open, not 2015!
While it's strange to necro this thread, I think Milliern's comment is appropriate today just as it would have been 2 years ago.
SmyslovFan wrote:
While it's strange to necro this thread, I think Milliern's comment is appropriate today just as it would have been 2 years ago.
:-) Yeah, the idea was that I had an experience that legitimately added to the already-mentioned considerations. There's no "add comment but don't bump thread" option.
Hey, at least he said "sorry."