My Ugly Tournament Performance

Yes, the title is correct. This is a reference to my tournament I played on March 20th, 2021 in Fort Worth, Texas, the weekend after the Sugar Land tournament. So... let's get to the games, and just scroll down if you want spoilers!

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My first game was against Paul Poston (1544 USCF). Shoutout to him, as he follows my blog, and even mentioned before the game how he was looking forward to the blog mention! 

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OK, round one win in the books! 👍 I was pitted in round two against John Capps (1820 USCF). In my opinion, his playing style is somewhat exotic, which leads to interesting games.

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OK, so an ugly game overall. During the lunch break, I tried to treat rounds 3 and 4 as the beginning of a new tournament, which I hoped would help me keep my mind off round 2. Round 3 was vs. Robert Heise (1569 USCF). Let's see how I attempted to recover! 

Photo credit: not me... (I was not wearing a mask, cause I just had just eaten Taco Bell for lunch 🙃)

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So yeah... not a good result. I had one more game to play, against Greyson Abrams (1559 USCF). Um... let's see if I can recover this time!

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Photo credit: the tournament director. Me playing my third-round game. The venue was not the prettiest thing in the world, but it works for playing chess, and "socially distancing"!

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So, that was the tournament! Here is how my rating changed:

1791 --> 1766. So, a loss of 25 points. It's obviously disappointing. As an overall reflection, I was disgusted with the blunders I made throughout the tournament. However, having looked back at the games, I am not too disappointed with how I played. I think I just need to be more deliberate with practice and working on my weaknesses. Here are some key lessons I learned from the tournament games:

• I should try less to "force things" (especially against lower-rated players), and play the position for what it is.

• Although it is always good to blunder check I had come off a week of inconsistent practice... consistency is key!

• Right after a rough game, it's important to try and recover for the next game!

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So yeah, that was my tournament! My next tournament is planned for April, I will probably talk about it next post. Take care guys, and feel free to leave a comment!