How I almost lost to a 600 in an OTB tournament --- My third chess tournament

Yep, I was late again. I know...

Hello, fellow friends, gang members, followers, and casual blog viewers, welcome to my third tournament blog. A few weeks ago, I played in the Coppell Chess Club’s October FIDE Classical tournament, which was my first classical tournament ever/my third tourney ever, and also my first tournament in several months. The games were G90;inc30 (90 minutes with 30 seconds of increment from move 1, for those of you that couldn't read that lol) and I played in the U1400 section. (The other sections were U1800 and Champ, both of which are definitely above my current level lol. Champ is basically the highest level.)

I played in the two-day format: three games on Saturday and two games on Sunday. There was a three-day option where you could play the first round Friday night, play two games on Saturday, and two games on Sunday, but we couldn’t do the three-day one since we live so far away from where the tournament was…

During the weekend, I journaled my experiences/thoughts about the games, so you'll see some comments in present form, so just an answer before you ask the question. XD

Here's a picture that my dad took when we got there:

Yes the shirt is where my old pfp is from. And here’s what the playing hall looks (or looked) like:

They also had seven DGT boards there. (No titled players were playing there :/ I think that the highest rated player was like 2000-ish, maybe 2100) That was my first time seeing a DGT board (actually boards) in person. Pretty cool. (They’re also very expensive.)

And here’s the first game!

So, first round loss…I don’t feel that affected by it because I think I did great against him. Pretty much just a few inaccuracies cost me the game. I think Rfe8, losing a pawn, was the major mistake that ended up costing me the game. Heck, during the post-mortem he said he was hoping I went there…lol. I also didn’t double check for blunders on that move since I spent a good deal of time on that already and was like “well let’s just go for the gusto”, which I definitely shouldn’t have done. I probably should’ve resigned earlier but the game had only been going on for about an hour and a half or so and I wanted to keep playing…eh whatever lol It is what it is.

He also mentioned he was 1700 rapid on chess.com so I’m pretty proud of how well I played for going against a 1700 XD

As for the opening, h6 was not the right move. I should have gone b5 anyway, but not for the purpose of defending the pawn from being won, but to stop b3/a4. Probably I could’ve put the b8-knight on a6 (which I had in fact considered briefly) instead of d7. Then my bishop ended up being trapped there anyway, and I was practically down a whole piece the entire game. I think I could’ve gotten at least a draw if I’d have done that. And I also should’ve spent a lot more time thinking about what to do other than taking on c4, completely oblivious to the fact that I was abandoning the center. As the rule in the Slav goes, if White does not prevent …b5, play …b5!

Now, I’ve just finished eating lunch, and have an hour until the second round starts…I hope this goes well…

That game felt like it was maybe 30 minutes long, but apparently it had been an hour and fifteen minutes XD I used basically no brainpower that game. At least I had a *relatively long* game like I wanted haha

After that, we (as in just me and my dad, he took me for the entire trip) went to the Grapevine Mills mall which is very close to CCC. It’s a HUGE place frfr. I’d been there once inside their aquarium a few years ago with the rest of my family, but we went inside just that. Now I was able to take in the rest of the huge size of the place. That pretty much just means walking around, but still! It had a huge arcade/bowling lanes, a kids play “place” center, a giant Lego “discovery” (whatever it’s called) place, not to mention their very large food court and the tons of shops and other places to spend a bunch of money. If you haven’t, go google some pictures of it, it really is a mega-mall. So we had dinner there (Sonic more specifically), walked around looking at most everything, and then we headed back.

Heading into the third game, I was feeling pretty good about it beforehand, and I was sure that however this game went would probably affect the rest of my tournament, so it was kinda a must-win situation. Although I decided that a draw would’ve been fine as well. Anyways, without further ado, here’s the third game…

And yes, that's a Sonic cup I got from dinner that day at the Grapevine Mills Mall. It was a lemonade slushie...and also that day was the first time I'd ever gotten a brain freeze before.

So, I beat the highest rated player in my section! That’s really awesome for my results and my rating. Let’s see how tomorrow’s games go…I hope that I play well, that’s all I care about…for now, good night! I’m utterly exhausted. (mostly physically but yeah)

That night we slept at a friend’s house. I didn’t sleep well the night before, so even though I slept “okay”, I was still tired. 😫🥱😭 (I got about 7 hours. According to the CDC 7-8 hours is recommended for most adults, and for teens about 8-10 hours. I usually sleep 9-10 hours, so I felt super tired anyways since I didn’t get a normal “full” amount of sleep.) Luckily as time passed, I became more and more awake, so that was good.

After the game that morning, we went to a church called Milestone Church. The reason I mention this is because it is a sister church to the church that my family and I go to. And their pastor helped my pastor start the church we attend now. Anyway just thought I'd mention that XD 'Twas a very cool thing to do (and it's a really cool place in and of itself XD)

Here’s the fourth game:

After I sat down at my game for the last round, the drowsiness really started to set in. Around after the opening was pretty much finished, I started yawning a lot and *struggling* to focus and actually be able to calculate and visualize clearly. I could barely see three moves ahead! But I’ll stop talking about how tired I was, here’s the game:

Two losses in a day…oof. Sure, they were both against slightly higher rated players, but that barely means anything to me.

So I finished 16th place out of 27 players in my division. I didn't play as well as I could have, but it was still an okay placing. I didn't play as well as I wanted to, but it is what it is. Also, fun fact: in every single one of the games, white won. lol

Thanks for reading to the end, that's really rare. You're the best lol. Unless you simply skipped to the end, or you skimmed it. XD I'll probably delete comments that say "first" or useless spam lol. Beware lol