MLK Classic 1/14/17

On January 14 I partipated in the MLK Classic USCF tournament. I won the reserve section of last year's edition (my profile pic is from that tourney), but this year there were a lot more players (18 in my section alone!). In the first round I was paired with a player who I had a 2.5/3 record against.

I made a couple of mistakes in the opening of that game, but luckily they weren't exploited, and I felt I played well for the rest of the game. In the next round I played an opponent who I've played twice before, with a 0/2 score. However, the reason I lost the last game I had played against her was because I used too much time in the opening and consequently blundered later on, so I thought that if I managed my clock better this time I should be ok.

I was satisfied with the win and felt that I had played well for the most part. In the third round I faced an opponent who I had played four times before, with a score of 2.5/4. I had lost our last game, though, so I thought this should be a tough one.

So that was a pretty easy win. My opponent was playing too quickly and consequently missed some tactics. Going into the last round I was in clear first with 3/3, and there were two players with 2.5/3, one of which was my next opponent. This was only his second standard time control tournament, but he had won the Amateur section of his first with a perfect score and had 2.5/3 so far in this tourney, so I knew this would be the toughest game of the day.

That was a hard fought game. I barely escaped with a draw as white! The other player who went into the last round with 2.5/3 drew her game, so I got clear first in the reserve section and gained 51 rating points and $160.