2021 MT Closed (Championship)

This past weekend I travelled to Helena to take a shot at the MT Chess Championship for the 4th time. I came close to winning in my first appearance 5 years ago, but my next two appearances were less then stellar. I continue to work on my game, and am winning more and more online and in person. I scored 4/5 at the MT Open in May, beating my first Master and Expert that weekend. In other words, I was heading to the Closed with some confidence. I actually just missed qualifying on tiebreaks (which mystified me), but another player had to back out, and as the first alternate, I once again had a shot at the title. I brought my daughter and niece so they could hang out and do some swimming, and whatever else they do. My kids have proved to be a good luck charm in the past, plus I always seem to play pretty decently in Helena. It was held at the DoubleTree Hotel downtown. In the end, I was pretty happy with my play. I made just under 300 moves, a formidable task in and of itself, but with added stress due to the stakes and the fact that I couldn't take even one of them back. In the course of those moves, I was only surprised by an opponent's move a few times, thought this didn't lead to anything bad. On the weekend I was never down any kind material, even a pawn (with the exception of the botched blitz-off against Rasul that ended well). Spoiler: I took a clear 2nd place, but was right in the thick of it until the end; all a player can ask for, really. My post tournament rating is expected to be 1850, which is my highest to date!

And this is approximately the position when the draw was agreed.