PAN AMS Day 3

WELCOME!!!!! 

OK, an energetic introduction for absolutely no reason. Day three of Pan Ams was not fun.  

If you don't know what I'm talking about, I started a series in which I made a non-binding agreement to post once every blue moon. If you don't know what Pan Ams is, well... Wikipedia has a freaking article about it, so go check it out!  Joking aside, it's a huge collegiate chess tournament, colleges from all over the country congregate to Virginia to compete. (now that I'm thinking about it, Virginia is a weird location... call me crazy, but wouldn't tExAs be a more central location?? ) The top four finishers move on to the President's Cup, which I believe is the national collegiate team chess championship (it was actually just played a few weeks ago... I'm too lazy to check who won).

In case you need some context, check out day one and day two of my series! 

At this point, Baylor is sitting on 1.5/3 in the overall standings. We're fired up that we got a match win! And things are going to go very smooth for our pair of Saturday games, right? RIGHT???





Our fourth round pairing was against UC-Berkley... and their board one was IM Josiah Stearman (2497 USCF)  My first competitive game vs an International Master. Great. Not to humble brag, but it's not every day I'm matched up with someone 600 points higher than me. That's unprecedented in my recent career. I decided to just have fun with it, and try to play my best. 

Before we begin... my opponent was late. A good deal late. Maybe 30 minutes? The forfeit time is one hour (I think). I was getting anxious. On the one hand, it would be good for my team to get the forfeit win, but I would also lose my competitive opportunity vs an IM. But, he showed up, and the game started...

Our team lost to UC Berkley. I don't remember what the score was. I think we got 0.5 or 1. That's what happens. You start 1.5/3, then get a tough pairing!

In round 5, we were paired up with Connecticut College. I was individually paired vs Jordan Groff (1918 USCF). I was excited for this pairing, because I thought with a win, it could solidify a good tournament for me, and maybe help my team out. 

Yes, that was a very sucky game. We lost 1.5-2.5 I believe. I learned a lot about myself psychologically from that game. It dawned on me that I'm trying too hard to win. I busted out this opening prep, and got waayyyy too aggressive and optimistic with castles queenside. If you still don't believe (for some reason) that I overthought this whole tournament, then hanging a whole Rook is a testament. 

Well, Pan Ams Day Four tomorrow, right? Well, probably not. We played one game Sunday. Unfortunately, I lost the notation from that game (I might be able to find it, IDK), and didn't save it to my computer. We were paired vs Texas Tech's D-team, I was individually paired vs Ryan Lanier (1419 USCF). He actually played me very tough, but I swindled him in a rook endgame. We won that match 4-0. At least a positive note to end on!

However, to reflect on my experience a little bit, Pan Ams was discouraging for me. Even though I got tough matchups as our board 1, going into the final round with four losses and one draw is not great. I also felt like every time I had the opportunity to shine, a thunderstorm overshadowed it... possibly accompanied with lightning, rain, and maybe hail? It was just a very big disappointment for me. 

However, I'm very happy for my team. Board two and Baylor Chess Club President Mark Mettler raised his rating from 1562 to 1630 (he's as high as like 1670 now). Board three Evan Sherman went from 1426 to 1465 (and has since risen to 1650), and board four Andrew Henson was able to go from 1178 provisional up to 1290. And after a few monster tournaments, he's over 1600!  I'm very happy for my team, and I'm pumped to play much better in 2023 Pan Ams! We might bring two teams! Our team might be so good, I may not have to play board 1!

But all that to say, I took a little break from tournaments after Pan Ams. I returned to the tournament scene two months later. I'll be posting about these games as soon as I'm able to. You can always look up my tournament history if you wanna know how I'm doing, but otherwise, stay tunned for the next post!