2014 US Open Game 9

The final round of my first U.S. Open! Going into this round, I had 2.5/8 points--playing right about at my rating level for the tournament. In this game I was paired up with a teenager rated 1298. This game happened to be the only one in the tournament where I wasn't at least a 200 point underdog, so I felt I had good chances to walk out of the tournament with 3.5/9 points--which would have been a good performance.

I'm very thankful I had the opportunity to play in an event of this magnitude. Playing chess for 9 days straight gave me a lot of material to learn from, I got to watch some exciting game by players such as IM John Watson, and the sustained intensity of the tournament forced me to be 100% focused on chess for almost two weeks, something that most amateur players never get to experience.