Portland Chess Club: Spring Open

This past weekend, I returned to Portland Chess Club for their Spring Open Tournament. I played in the Reserve Section (U1800), and I have to say, it was by no means a big success for me. My friend Mu actually won my section (congratulations to him), and my friend Elias split the prize for the best in the Open section U2000.  I played five games at my longest time control yet, with 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, and then 30 minutes for everything else (5 second delay).

DAY ONE

In my first game it was my turn to play the black side of a Winawer French. Unlike my game against Ethan Wu last week, I was not afraid to go into the most tactical of the lines, and for a while was actually better. However, I messed up an (ultimately winning) exchange sacrifice, and ended up down material. He offered a draw--twice, in fact--but my tournament inexperience and lack of skill in positional evaluation reared its ugly head, and I turned them down, before ultimately losing. 

My next game was played against an unrated player on the bottom board. He played the dragon, and mishandled it, letting me bust open his kingside. However, despite being unable to calculate anything concrete, I was convinced I was better, and so didn't win back the exchange--which allowed black to consolidate and win. My first loss against the Scillian in tournament play, and it was frankly very disappointing.

My third game was played against a young, unrated kid, who wasn't strong at all. He fell to what was essentially a non-threat, and I took everything and mated. I haven't bothered with commentary here; there isn't really much to say.