Annotated Games From My 20th Tournament (Portland Chess Club Quad in 45)

Hello Guys,

I am glad to report that I actually had a decent tournament this past Saturday. I managed 1.5/3 in a pretty strong field, but I feel like I played pretty well, although I could have played more quickly.

My first game was against Micah Smith. I got a nice position out of the opening, but I lost a pawn. I had more active pieces as compensation and I ended up getting the pawn back with a nicer position. We ended up trading down into a draw when both of us had less than a minute on our clocks.

My next game was against Brian Essler. I thought I played most the game quite well but I ended up flagging in what was probably a lost position.

In my final game, my opponent blundered terribly in the opening playing very strangely and not developing his pieces. I played extremely slowly to make sure I did not make any mistakes and I won without any real event.

My rating went back up from 1791 to 1811 so Im pretty happy with how this tournament went :3 It also felt like I was playing decently for the first time in a while, however, I still played a few risky moves that could have cost me if my opponents had been more accurate.

I may not get to play for a little while because I am very busy with school, but I will play as soon as I have the time!

Thanks so much for reading and until next time,

Elias