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Florida State Championship Day 1 - My Game Recaps
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Florida State Championship Day 1 - My Game Recaps

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AyushBlundersAgain
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Hey guys! Ayush here - I decided to make a blog post detailing my experience at the Florida State Chess Tournament!! As a student at the University of Florida, I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to go with 5 other students to compete in this tournament on a sponsored trip.

Heavily anticipating my second OTB tournament in the last 3 years, I decided to challenge myself and enter the U2000 section instead of the U1800 as a 1700-rated player(though I suspect I'm a bit underrated). I promised myself I wouldn't put too much pressure on me to win, because stress and chess don't work well together in my past experiences happy.png. 

In a spontaneous decision Saturday morning(Day 1 of the tournament), I decided to compete in the Quick tournament(time control 15+0 for those wondering), in which I was in the bottom half of the participants rating-wise. Surprisingly, after a flurry of upsets(beating players rated 2178 1893, 1948, and 2022!), I was 4/4 and a FULL POINT ahead of second place!! So in the last round, against a 2082-rated player, all I needed was a draw... Did I get it?

Pain. After the final round ended, everyone awaited the final standings. While four people were tied at 4/5, the winner by tie breaks would get the Florida State Quick Champion trophy. As the TD posted the standings, I rushed to see who was at the top.... and was shocked to see my name. Overall, a very good result and rating boost!

Now on to the main tournament, a lengthy 6-round, 120 d5 time control. In Round 1, I was paired as Black against Carlos Rivas, an 1874-rated player. This was the first 1800+ opponent I've played against over the board in over 4 years, this was going to be a real test. Without a further ado, the game:

Yeah, I got completely outplayed. When my opponent stopped c5, it squeezed the life out of the position for me. 
In Round 2, I was paired as White against Arthur Hernandez, a 1567-rated 14-year-old who also played up a section. While I wasn't happy that I was playing a lower-rated player, I was ready to play a good game. And a good game I played(especially 21. Rf6!!):
According to the engine, I had 3 brilliant moves in this game! But I think the only one that should really count is 21. Rf6! An absolute savage move to show how weak Black was on the kingside.
 After this game, I kept tabs on the Florida vs Utah college football game and was stoked for a W with an AMAZING last-second interception! Content with two Ws that night, I was ready for the next morning.
Stay tuned for the Day 2 post!
Ayush out.