Slow Swiss #5 - Round 2 game

Round 2 - Cripes, another opponent whom I believe is about 477 points or so higher than me in rating?   For Cripe's sake.  How on EARTH am I going to do that?   I was even mildly irritated that three rating points were at stake.  "well," I thought.  "that's three more points down the drain..."

Forget ratings, Cris Angel!  Just do your best!

OKay, FINE.  I will.

I'm afraid it was a bit typical at the outset.   I don't like Sicilian; it's tricky so I was a bit flustered that the opponent played Sicilan.  Nonetheless, it is what it is - so let's just use sound principles and fight for the center.  Don't break the rules.  Move a piece once before you move a piece twice.  Develop your pieces.  Build a strong center.  For cripe's sake, DEFEND the strong center once it's built.  No hanky panky until fully developed. 

And of course my goals for all of my matches:

1.   Focus as much as possible given my skill level.

2.   Do NOT give the opponent an easy win.

Okay.  We fulfilled goals 1 and 2 here.  And I tried to just follow the regular guidelines as above.  Unfortunately, I'm inexperienced.  So this all takes time.... and... it just ran out at the end.   I was STILL choosing between a few options and when there was about fifteen seconds to go, I KNEW... well, that's it.  So I thanked my opponent at that point.  I really tried hard. 

Ready to see it?  Don't be expecting brilliance although there is ONE move in here where I'm very pleased.  hehehehe.