Montana Open 2014, Round 2

My second round opponent was an experienced and solid player whom I had met but never faced. Interestingly, we had been talking just minutes earlier before the pairings were announced about the daunting possibility of playing my buddy Will, who was unrated and made a splash in the first round by beating one of the strongest players in the field. As it turned out, we were to play each other.

Bob played the Reti, a opening I had heard of but never faced in serious play. In fact, after 2.c4 I was already on my own. The Reti is hardly exotic, but a chess diet consisting almost entirely of chess.com blitz and bullet does little to prepare one for such solid, deliberate openings. After just fifteen moves I was already a half hour behind on the clock and situated with a fianchettoed bishop on g7, something totally foreign to me.

I basically lost the game when I blundered my bishop with 27....c4, but with a couple passed pawns, some accurate rook moves, and an apparenlty pursuasive draw offer, I managed to grab half a point.