I have a confession to make, In the past month since my last tournament I have done 0 chess studying, almost no puzzles and a strangely obsessive amount of the game "geoguessr". So going into the Minnesota Open I did not have high expectations for myself, just hoping I would not throw winning positions like usual when it mattered haha... (foreshadowing)
Round 1: Waiting on a mistake
(92.4% accuracy, 2200 performance rating)
A 1500 in the first round is a bit of an annoying pairing, but after enough pressure he eventually cracked, 1/1 score going into my next round, which happened to be against the number 2 seed.
Round 2: Perfect chess
(97.5% accuracy for both of us, 2500 performance ratings)
While the accuracy may look impressive, we simply didnt blunder anything big and calculated fully, trading pieces into a complete draw where neither of us had any real big chances, overall I cant complain about my play, I held him to a draw and that was one less high 1900s rated player for me to contend with, 1.5/2 score.
Round 3: Horrible. Horrible throw.
(80.3% accuracy, 2000 performance rating)
Honestly I didnt even know what to think, only 19 moves long I thought it was game over and he was almost ready to resign at move 15, and the computer says my "blunder" was actually correct, but I also know nothing about this game, 1.5/3. With 1 round left in the game if I wanted to do well in this tournament I would need to win the next 3 games in a row...
Round 4: 50% pawn moves...
(92.7% accuracy, 2350 performance rating)
Another very nice positional squeeze, he didnt pose many problems and made a lot of retreating moves, admittedly I got a bit too creative with all of my pawn pushing but in the end he never was able to properly respond so I simply took my chance and kept squeezing. 2.5/4 going into day 2 was a solid place to be at, all I would have to do is come back fresh and perform and not have more games like my round 3...
Round 5: Being attacked all game
(85% accuracy, 2150 performance rating)
Solid game, I game him some huge chances in the opening by accepting the pawn sacrifice, however my gamble that someone of his caliber would not be able to fully punish me was correct, and while he wasted his time on a struggling attack I found my own play, 3.5/5 going into the final round, where I would have to face the number 1 seed...
Round 6: The #1 Seed final boss
(87% accuracy, 2350 performance rating)
Honestly im super proud of this game and tournament overall, I managed to comeback from a bad loss with 3 good wins in a row, I have been playing strong and overall am not playing as bad as I would expect with so little studying or progress online.
Conclusion:
Thank you all for reading! I am very happy and likely gained around 60 rating points from this event, coming in 4th overall as the 13th seed I definitely cant complain! I hope you all have a good day and ill see you at the state high school championship in a few weeks.
