Annotated Chess Games From My 10th Tournament

Playing this tournament has convinced me that, in the future, for tournaments that are not that important, I should try playing up a section. I had one aggravating loss against one of the lower rated players in the tournament ( a game which he played very well), however the rest of my wins just seemed too easy. Time control was 1:25 with no sudden death, and for the most part I managed my clock pretty well.

The first round game which I lost quite badly. I was having a tough day but I still played to aggresively and confidently and did not correctly assess my oponenets threats. In the future, I will remember to respect my oponent regardless of his or her rating.

A quick win, my oponent dropped multiple pieces.

My oponent here was a young kid of around 10 years. I should mention that I have yet to lose to any children (although I almost did, but I was able to epicly swindle a win (see my game against Praveen Sharan http://www.chess.com/blog/EliasAStern/fourth-tournament))!!! He fell into an opening trap in the smith morra gambit and I was able to maintain the advantage throughout.

My oponent in this game said he was not feeling well. He misplayed the opening and I went in to the endgame with a pawn advantage and an enormous lead in development and won without too much trouble.

This is my last NYC tournament. I will be returning to Portland Oregon in a few days and will play my next tournament as soon as possible.

Until next time,

Elias