Death in the Board, Batman OPEN recap

welcome back to the wizard universe for another recap where once more i return to my 2nd OPEN tournament classical which will be 40 minutes with 5 second increment. the tournament itself was held on the 17th otherwise known as international batman day also given the events name. i had a bit of a tough playing experience these past few weeks but lets see how it went. originally a friend was supposed to pick me up but i actually called my dad expecting him to get here faster so when he messaged me that he couldn't due to personal reasons i wasn't worried.

my dad came quick at around 9am and we made it there at around 20 minutes, stopping at a McDonalds drive through where i bought a crispy chicken and some weird fry for breakfast. i then simply ate it and was chilling with 2 friends there OTB doing some casual blitz games. we were discussing in general about the players, the OPEN event itself and how we expected today to go joking about some of the most dubious stuff but then pairings came and i was pumped.

ROUND 1 - will i win to get a good star for Batman???

alright so maybe there were some ideas but pretty much the games themselves were dry and didn't have much to offer considering it was a pretty hard advantage despite the evaluation in the endgame which was literally +1 and i was confused in how to convert. i think definitely the lesson this event teaches is to remember 2 key principles, having patience and finding value. its important to be able to identify the key goals for your own position and understand the timing involved while just simply having patience to navigate through it even if your winning by a lot.

GAME 2 - avoiding a forced draw, winning a long-term defense

the 2nd game i managed to clutch and was pretty well motivated by the win but also super disappointed as i just rushed a little and allowed a forced repetition. my opponent did have the chance however to force the perpetual and he even talked to me about it when i won and was analyzing the idea with the queen being attacked, he is a very nice fellow and i felt very great. after the third round when my game against a 1970 rated opponent ended, he actually came to us when we were analyzing and pointed it out to which we both again were having fun about it.

here is a cool picture after i finished my second round, watching a friend duel against a 2000 named john who later got third place by tiebreaks. the game was pretty much dry in the endgame and my friend who is 1900 managed to secure the draw, leaving afterwards when we played a couple time odd games going home with 2 byes. one thing i forgot to mention is i accidentally had 1 minute vs 3 minutes set on my chess clock, did it for fun and then felt pretty amazed that i was able to take down a 1600 4 times in our match and my friend twice, insane.

GAME 3 - your going to attack me? show me then

the third round i was versing against a 1970 rated opponent who i have practically been playing in my local club a ton of times in blitz and rapid events, usually dominating and barely losing games most of the time. he is the strongest member out of his family playing the event and his dad managed to win the OPEN for the first time which was a really nice moment and deserved. back to the game, it was actually a very dynamic game and had some interesting highlights but the key things were simply that the timing just didn't work for the attack and i simply defended.

once he lost all the fire left for the position, i pretty much had it within me to simply find the defensive resources, calculate very fast and see the easiest winning combination in the end. a bit of an instructive game again following the 2 same patterns, patience and square weaknesses.

alright one more game right? well i blew it and its hard to see how i lost as most of the game looked completely winning which makes it a bit unfortunate but that happens. i was very disappointed that i let myself lose to a London of all openings in OTB competition. definitely not going to let that happen ever again as that wasn't really humiliating rather subtle and upsetting.

LAST GAME - the london is boring as always, sad upsetting game

i would like to quickly note that really before this round, this was a must win game as i had 2.5 and my only chance at winning money would simply be winning the last round. a draw maybe would have guaranteed if i was lucky on tiebreaks but just had to try my best. i was going against a young kid who was very skilled and increasing elo but i knew he played the London and despite beating him last time with the Dutch, i wanted to utilize my new Slav and fight.

i have been trying to prepare the slav against D4 as usually now in my last few tournaments i have kept adapting the dutch defense for my main repertoire but the issue is i have been getting very annoyed by the engines recommendation with Bg5 after i play f5. its extremely excruciating and i think one of the many reasons most dutch players switch the move order as then it becomes more of a completely equal and dynamic positions with not much tricks at all.

I've felt more like this game was me just rushing on one move which just killed me long-term and i instantly regretted it for the rest of the game. looking back i am still very disappointed and surprised i played c4, its a long-term positional weakness and something people shouldn't do as it is basically a death wish. the tournament ended with me congratulating the winner, getting emotional a little when i was alone and then yeah got some Mcdonald to cheer me in the end.

What Did I achieve and what is my next goal?

well first off i like to say that really its not that bad if i lost some rating cause in general i am happy to say i at least crossed the mindset of what i always said was my expectations as a chess player which is to be in the 1800 range. i have never had high goals or high expectations and self credit to myself rather am more frustrated, self toxic and work the hardest i can to get better but in the end i do give credits to my opponents and often applaud them for their efforts.

the next classical event i will be doing will pretty much be quads which i will recap if it somehow manages to get done in the next 4 weeks. unfortunately last week it was postponed due to a member being sick but maybe that changes this week, who knows? for sure the next huge one besides quad will probably be the one in october after the Batman OPEN. i can't wait for it to update me as a new member of the 1800 club and yeah happy international batman day cheers