My Round-2 Game from the 2009 Colorado Open

We had just completed Round 1 where the top seeds (I was one of those in this section) were paired with the lower seeds and had previously won my 1st round game. This round I was paired with the top seed in my section (the tournament pairing system used was a Swiss System where every round winners are paired with winners, losers with other losers, and those that draw with others like them who drew their game, every round) and we were playing on the Reserve Section Board number 1 which was set off from the rest of the playing area where our section was playing. I won this game, ended up playing the rest of my games on Board 1 for the rest of the tournament, and went on to score a perfect 4–0 though the 4 out of the 5 rounds, drawing my last round game with Dean Brown and winning my first ever tournament in clear first place! I was a bit shocked at my own performance here myself! My Grandfather, having been a chessplayer himself, would have been proud I am sure! This was one of the more memorable games of the tournament for me.

I was not happy at all with my own play in this tournament. I thought I had failed to follow a strict move selection method as I had been taught, and I simply played inaccurately all of the way through. I mentioned to my coach Life Master Brian Wall afterwards that I had not 'greased my way' to a finalist's position like this in a competition, since making it to the finals in my first collegiate debate tournament in college back in 1974 held at Colorado College at the time. My debating partner and I, having never competed together in a tournament prior to this at that time, made it all of the way to the finals. Even our Debate Coach at the time did not bother to accompany us to the tournament as he had little in the way of expectations for us. Interestingly we were debating the question of Nationalized Healthcare as a topic for the national Collegiate Debate Competition way back for that academic year. We are all still 'debating' this question in 2009. Well....some things never change I suppose.