Downward Spiral
The Senior Open in Chicago did not go well for me. Soon I may have to change the blog title to "The Backsliding Old Guy Blog." I came out of the tournament with a score of 1.5/6 and a rating of 1528 – my lowest rating since March 12, 2006 (the date on which I played my second USCF tournament ever). I'm seven months into my slump and, at the rate I'm going, if this downward spiral continues, I will hit my rating floor in another seven months. But let's not dwell on that. Instead let's resolve to put in the hard work needed to get back on the right track. My coach has proposed a return to 1650 (where I was at the start of this year) as a goal to focus on, so that's what I'm going to do.
Here's a short report on the rounds from Chicago
Round 1: Loss (opponent rated 2100)
Round 2: Win (opponent rated 920)
Round 3: Draw (opponent rated 2000)
Round 4: Loss (opponent rated 1808)
Round 5: Loss (opponent rated 1300)
Round 6: Loss (opponent rated 1579P)
Were there any rays of light in the event despite the poor performance? Probably three:
- I drew against a 2000-rated player (though I missed a clear win, and even having missed it, should probably not have accepted the draw, as my coach and some stronger chess-friends have pointed out to me).
- In the first five rounds I was never worse out of the opening. I had very reasonable positions, sometimes even better positions, in every game except round six. This is a big change from practically all the tournaments I've played recently, in which I was hanging on by my fingernails in most games right out of the opening. I think this is significant in that I held my own and gave as good as I got for a much longer time in these contests than I have in other recent games. True, a beating is a beating, but somehow it's less humiliating when the other guy is nearly as bloody and bruised as you are when the dust settles. I'll call that progress.
- Stamina did not seem to be the issue I feared it would be, at all. I really didn't seem to feel tired until the start of round six, and even then, it wasn't too bad.
Still, I have some things I seriously need to work on. I haven't had time to start analyzing my games, but my initial reactions reveal the following major issues that killed me in this tournament.
Work Objective #1. I have to keep working on tactics (the Polgár mates). These have been helping my game, and I'm missing fewer things, but I need to do more. Much more. I spoiled an extremely good position in round five with a tactical blunder. And I missed a game-winning one-move tactic in my round three game that would have been lights out for my 2000-rated opponent. Here is the position from Sax-Coski, round three, with Black to move:
Here, after a seven-minute think, I simply overlooked the crushing ...Nc4! forking White's rooks, and instead played ...Ne4.
Work Objective #2. I need to get cracking on my endgames. Even having missed that game-winning tactic in round three, I was still better and should have played on for the win. Similarly, I think I should have been at least equal in my round four game, and might have managed at least a draw (possibly even a win) if I hadn't messed up the endgame. This means I need to hit the Silman Endgame book in a major way.
Of course, I will continue analyzing my games, especially the long ones from the Dojoliga tourney and the Senior Open.
In the meantime, I'm planning to get in one more short tournament, in about two weeks, before summer break ends. Let's see if I can start putting Humpty Dumpty back together again between now and then.
