First OTB Matches!!!

When summer comes along, and I travel to Arizona and New Hampshire for vacation, I can do things I can't do back home in rural Missouri. One thing I've been able to do is play OTB matches: long ones. Playing with a clock was an entirely new experience. In my first game, (luckily, all my games were unrated) I payed a price for my lack of clock experience. The game was played with a time control of 20 0, with a delay of 5 seconds.

I made my move, but hit the clock 1 second too late. The clock at this time? White: More than eleven minutes

Me: Nothing (obviously)

It was quite a wake-up call to me, and I made my moves much faster in my games at a chess camp I went to late in their program (The 4th and 5th day of their 5-day camp). I was placed in Section A, on board 3, to my surprise, and thus, was nervous when I played the next game. This game was played at 40 0 time controls, and I am white:

Most of black's last moves were wacky because at this point, he knew he was lost. He didn't run down his clock or anything, just played fun desperation moves.

---

That night, I went to another event in Gilbert, their Friday Knight Frenzy at Mathnasium. Everyone I played before was there, and the people I played at camp were in my section (Section B). The difference, though? This was(is) a casual double round robin blitz, followed by bughouse. Everyone creamed me, 0-7-1. We were all laughing almost the entire time, though, and it was fun . Kibitzing, missing hanging kings(!), and everything in between . Oh, well. I guess my luck just ran out.

-GatheredDust