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Pushing The Moon (3): Importance of Preparation

Pushing The Moon (3): Importance of Preparation

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Moon_Knight
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I just got done playing at the Continental Class Championships this weekend and I've got to say... I'm a little disapointed in myself. A lot of my chess study involves studying openings but I overlooked two openings that cost me a decent performance at the tournament. Which openings? The Scandinavian Defense. (I almost never face it.) and the Petrov: 2 knights variation. (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3). I was playing 3. ...d6?! by habit. Which let me tell you.. is a horrid, horrid move... Or at least for my style of play. I will show you exactly how those losses went, just so you know the downside of that variation...

Out of a total of six games, I won 3. One by forfeit, One by luck and a little daring and the last by skill, and possibly a bad move by my opponent? But without further stalling.. Here is my complete performance in the tournament! -sighs- I botched my notation yet again on the first round. To put it bluntly, black outplayed me and got me into an isolated d pawn position. And then later won a pawn with a tactic.

Round 1: (Black won, if it doesn't say. Notation got screwey so rest of game can't be displayed. >.<) I played as White, Black was an unrated player named Kelly. It was a boy.

 

Round 2: I played black against a 1305 named Danny.

To put it simply.. I got lucky.
Round 3:(Another game with screwey notation. >.>)
A great attack ruined by a lack of concentration and rushing. And miscalculation. Another sad "could-have-been".
Round 4:
Round 5: I'm glad to say! This last game; my favorite besides "Round 3" has no notation errors! This is the full game!In this game we start out with the petrov; but I don't play 3. ...d6! (I did some opening research inbetween rounds. If only I had done it sooner! This is my first time playing; The Petrov: 3 Knights Attack. (A not so drawish line in the petrov.. White wins 36% of the time but black wins 35%. A better percentage than the Four Knights game.)
That concludes my games at the tournament. A round is missing because my opponent forfeited. I finished 14th out of 24. With a score of 3 out of 6. Not a good enough performance to win... (The lowest score that won a prize was 3.5) But not bad enough to be ashamed. I'm positive with the knowledge I've learned, (the necessity of opening preparation, and PROPER notation!) that the next tournament I enter I can win... Something. Haha It was a blast even though I made some mistakes, but I'm still new to the whole tournament thing.
Hopefully seeing these games and my awful notation you've learned something as well and will move on to AVOID my mistakes! :D
I'm open to any questions or comments! ^_^