Round 2 Analysis: DarkSideOfTheMo0n

Background: 

This past year I have dedicated a lot of effort to improving my chess. I have fought my way up to 2000 rapid, defeated a handful of titled players in the process, and drastically improved my knowledge of the game. Now that I have established some ethos, let me also state that I am unfortunately still no stranger to getting blown off the board in less than 15 moves (more on this later ).  Nonetheless, my skill has reached an all-time high, and what better way is there to broadcast my improvements to the world than by advancing in the Daily World Chess Championships?

Round 1 Recap:

For the third year in a row, I won my Round 1 pool. Like last year, I finished Round 1 with 22 wins and 0 losses. However, I have been eliminated in Round 2 every year that I have entered this tournament. Therefore, I am not complacent just to advance; I'm coming in with hopes to at least make it to round 3. 

What to expect?: 

In this recap, I will take you through all of my Round 2 games that were not won on time. I'll provide puzzles featuring cool positions, offer extensive annotations of my thoughts and explanations, and guide you through a firsthand journey of my second round experience. This will be a long blog, so feel free to skip around to annotations of games that better interest you if you get bored. I'd like to note that I am still learning and have a lot left to learn about chess, so if any of my analysis seems a bit misguided, please feel free to comment your thoughts. But hopefully, we can all learn something new, and have fun seeing if I move on to the much esteemed Round 3!

Early Timeouts:

Per usual, the tournament commenced with a plethora of early resignations and timeouts. This afforded me 12 victories right off the bat, two of which were against a 2250 FIDE rated player. So, perhaps I dodged a bullet. I won't comment on any of these games as they were mostly in the opening phase—some were much prettier than others for me. Now, only 10 games stood between me and Round 3. 

Game 1: 

In my first real game of the tournament, I won early with tactics. With an undefeated record, I headed into game 2 confidently.

Game 2:

Aaaand then I was obliterated in just 14 moves...

Can you spot the crushing move my opponent played here?

I was very annoyed with myself after this loss, but the tournament goes on. I knew that I could still make a run for first if I win out. My next game would be against the top seed in my pool—BJLFS—who has been cruising thus far with an undefeated record.
Game 3:

Altogether, this game ended in a draw, making it a bit of a snoozer. I definitely need to brush up on the Botvinnik-Carls Variation in the future because I felt out of my element during this game. With a draw against the top seed, I could still make a run for first if I beat BJLFS in my other game. However, I would also have to win all of my remaining games as BJLFS has been winning all of theirs.

Game 4:

In this upcoming game there were a lot of tactics that I missed. I started playing the King's Indian Defense this year, in which black will often win with tactics, and not be afraid to get pushed around early on/sacrifice material to do so. The setup in this game is very similar to the types of games I have won in the KID online. But despite having my pieces in great position all game, I kept missing tactic after tactic. This is something that happens to me from time to time in Daily as it is not always easy to pick up where you left off the day before, and I more often overthink positions. 

Can you find this key tactic that I missed?

Altogether, I did a great job setting up my pieces for success but a relatively abysmal job of capitalizing. Fortunately, my opponent blundered, so I still head into Game 5 in great shape. 

Game 5:

The grudge match! And it didn't disappoint, this game featured 2 brilliant moves and ended decisively.

Can you spot my opponent's brilliant move? 

As you can see, I found myself down against Salad24 yet again. But this was a back and forth battle!

Do you remember the game winning move?

Now, 15-1-1, I rematch BJLFS who is still undefeated. Heading into the game, I thought that in order to make it to Round 3, I would have to secure a win. 

Game 6:

The most important game of the tournament:

I pushed way too hard for a win, forcing myself into a loss when the position was drawn. Ironically, BJLFS had several draws after this game, so if had drawn, I could have made it to Round 3 as long as I won the rest of my games. This loss effectively ended my hopes of making Round 3 . Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun playing and had 4 other interesting games to close out the tournament. The rest of the games feature minimal commentary because my tournament was ended here. However, I still believe they are both interesting and instructive games. Feel free to skip to the results if you are more interested in the tournament itself. 

Game 7:

Game 8:

This game featured a precarious position that required a lot of effort in order to push my advantage towards a win. I offered a draw because I was tired, and the thought of a loss bothered me far more than settling for a draw did. In hindsight, I should play harder for wins even when they are irrelevant to the context of the tournament. 

Game 9:

Can you spot the brilliant move?

Game 10:

I finished the tournament with a pretty sloppy game.

Final Results:

I finished my pool in 2nd place with 19 points. BJLFS won with 20. 

Overall, I was eliminated with a record of 40 Wins, 2 Losses, and 2 Draws. Chess can be brutal sometimes, but it was fun while it lasted. 

Conclusion:

If you made it this far reading, I commend you. I hope that my experience in this tournament was exciting to watch. I'm also hoping you were able to learn a few things from my games, I know I did. I'll look to keep improving and come back stronger next year.