Window shopping......

First of all I wanted to post congratulations to my parents Roger and Sharron Jones on their 40th wedding anniversary today. I think they both chose their spouse wisely.

Now onto the chess...... Since there was a gap in the tournament schedule this week in North Carolina, Gary Maltzman hosted one of his two-round tournaments at the Morrisville Outlet Mall (The one that had been slated to become the Chinatown Mall.) These tournaments are two round Game/25s with a five second delay, which is the minimum time control allowed for a USCF standard rated tournament. There was a pretty good turnout of 22 players and of course, I was in the top division.

My first opponent was Josh Taylor who is one of the most active players in North Carolina. The last time we played I pretty much swindled him. This time I got an early lead and kept putting on the pressure.

After this I got paired with Steven Abrahams who currently lives in Maine, but is working with his father at the Ravenscroft Chess Camp. He is moving to the DC area soon so hopefully we'll get to see him more here in Raleigh. Steven competed in the Arnold Denker Tournament of High School champions a few years back (representing New Hampshire) and is on the verge of becoming an expert. Hopefully the move to DC will give him plenty of opportunities to make that next jump and even beyond.

After all was said and done I expect I'll pick up a few rating points in my quest to get back over 1900 (Hopefully for a little longer than the one tournament I had a couple of years ago. )