Success in Philly
I headed east again this Easter weekend to play in the Philadelphia Open, one of the larger U.S. tournaments, and one where I can face a different crowd than the midwesterners who haunt my local chess tournaments (and haunt my chess nightmares).
After a successful few months, I had just recently peaked at 1658, so this year I would be playing as one of the lowest rated players in the Class B section (I believe around #70 out of 89 players in the section).
But, I overcame the odds and tied for 22nd place, scoring 2 wins, 1 loss, and 4 draws. In my "easiest" game of the tournament, I was a 75 point underdog but my average opponent had me outmatched by about 150 rating points!
I am still analyzing my games but here are two, my best and my most disappointing.
Most Disappointing Game
This was disappointing because it was my only loss and I literally threw the game away after going berserk based on hand-wavy analysis. If I had maintained my composure, there is no reason I shouldn't have been fighting for a win in the game.
Best Game
In the following game I think I just outplayed my opponent. He came into the game 15 minutes late, having just suffered a disappointing defeat in the last round and seemingly not in a positive frame of mind. He seemed like he wanted to just blow me off the board. But he forgot that I had my own ideas about how the game should go. :-)
