4th Austin Chess Club Something or other. 2018
As usual, Lori was a magnificent TD for the tournament. It was a pleasure to see Drew, as always. I had been kind of checked out of chess for the past 4 months. Not quite sure why but I was...on my twitch channel, I had people giggling that I don't even seem like a 1375 USCF. And I couldn't blame them.
I was apathetic as the days before the tournament came on me, but then the day of it...approximately 3 hours before...I got tachycardic and shaky. That horribly familiar feeling that always feels great before my academic exams but feels like fear and the unknown before my OTB chess games. Naturally, I texted both Todd and Jeremy about it and they both told me I'd be fine. Oh sure. I could barely remember what I'm supposed to look for over the board!! Surprisingly, it did start to come back a bit.
Before I look at all the analysis I'm going to say I am somewhat proud of Game 4. I thought I executed beautifully and was creative. I played Game 5 poorly in the opening...but I found a hail mary and from there, I played quite deliciously also.
Game 1 was fairly painful for me. I had really great ideas early on...and then I struggled between two ideas...my plan and a new more positional Idea that I thought was more refined (you see, I make decisions in my chess based on how stylish, reserved, and refined I think the choice could be). Big mistake. Why? My earlier plan was foolproof...while my second stylish plan missed one single refutation...and then cringed when I saw it two moves before my opponent actually did it or possibly even calculated it. You'll see. In that one swift move, I went from +3.5 (earlier plan) to slightly losing but in a very suffocating position. To my opponent's credit, he did each time pick the one move I wanted him not to pick. And his endgame was very fluid. He was also very polite. I had a great set of opponents this tournament. I liked my first 3 considerably and the other 2 were not bad.
Game 1.
Only one thing pleased me about this game...and it's that I had correctly interpreted where I lost my advantage before looking at the game again. Not sure I can take that to the bank but it's something.
Game 2. My opponent was a very affable 11 year old. When he wasn't happy with his position, he snarled at the board and said "I hate that" (without offending me) and made it clear he was disappointed. We had a weird Taimanov Sicilian...which I knew I was not supposed to play the English/Yugoslav Attack against it but I felt somehow justified. I really need to understand the French Sicilian lines far better than I do.
Apparently I played the best move 47% of the time while he did it 19%. Though apparently I have 4 mistakes and 1 blunder to his 3 mistakes and zero blunders. This game is a great illustration of how if you don't get your attack going in the Sicilian...you're um...screwed. Game is super even after my queenside castle. His first real error was Qc7 after my b4. Which delights me because I literally said in our post analysis that "I know I see Qc7 but she just didn't seem to be doing anything there....couldn't figure out why you put her there." Apparently his best move was Na5...which certainly would have concerned me more. My h4, h5 march was apparently not at all best. Computer wants g5 on both those moves.
Game 3. This was against a very refined and sweet 11 year old boy named Oliver. The game really went on far too long and I was exhausted mentally...struggling to figure out the smartest way to conclude it. He was also intermittently amusing me with small polite comments and then using the captured pieces to create a fort on which he tried to set my queen on top...all during our game. I knew he meant no malice so I'd just grin until he finally got her to sit upright...to which I then did a soft clap for him and he laughed with delight. As much as I liked his company I was getting exhausted and at some point I very sweetly asked Oliver..."Are you having fun?" and he sheepishly grinned and said "kind of". I thought to myself...well, in that case he should certainly play on. And he did. I'm not particularly thrilled with this game but I've been too tired to analyze it. I'm sure there's something to learn here.
