Tim Just's Winter Open XXXI: Day Two

Day two of the Winter Open saw the weather getting even worse (if such a thing was possible). It was snowing like crazy, and because it was a Sunday, the plows were not as responsive as they would have been during the week. I left my house at 8:30, and walked in the door at 9:45, an hour and fifteen minute drive for what should normally take half an hour. As you would expect, plenty of people were late for the start of the round, including my opponent. Unfortunately for me, someone else mixed up where they were supposed to be sitting, and took his seat three minutes into the round. Since he was named David, like my opponent, I thought nothing of it--until the real David showed up and the TD decided to simply restart the game, since it had only been five minutes since the start of the round. 

I played a King's Indian Defense, but it's an opening I'm still getting familiar with, and I played without really pushing my agenda or the main ideas for black. Once white got a good knight in at c6, my position was pretty bad, and then I missed a discovered check that I had been worrying about for half the game. My real error came when I saw a pin and played it without thinking. Attacking the knight was correct, but I needed to do it the other direction. Since you're only as good as your worst move, it ended up losing me the game, and then when I fell for an obvious fork, it ended my misery quickly. After the game we went over it together, which was enjoyable enough and put me in a much better state of mind than I had been in since the third round yesterday--though it wouldn't end up making much of a difference in the end.

I don't really have much to say about my last game, except that it was rather lackluster on my part. General passivity and a few inaccuracies quickly sealed my defeat, and I booked it out of there without much thought. A disappointing way to finish, but there you go. They can't all be winners. Overall, it was a good experience, and by the end I had little by way of jitters--just exhaustion. I may play in a tournament on the 19th, but otherwise it's back to Portland for my last semester of school--possibly ever.