A Great Tournament Result!

Hi all!  On March 16 I went to a USCF tournament.  I decided to share my games and thoughts because I had a great result.

Preparation

About a month and a week or two before Mar. 16 I heard about the tournament and planned on going to it.  Before this tournament I've only played in a few scholastic tournaments and a in the reserve section of a tournament.  My USCF rating was 1553.

I looked at some of my loses and made a plan for how to improve.  Here are some of the things I did:

• Exercise.  I walked or ran at least a mile per day and did 50 push ups.
• Reviewed tactics.  I went through most of the book Winning Chess Tactics by GM Yasser Seirawan.  I also solved several tactics on chesstempo each day.
• Played slow games.  I played one 45|45 game per week in the DHLC slow quads quads and also played a few 30 minute games.
• Tried to make chess fun.  If I don't enjoy chess I usually don't improve or do well.
• Studied the middle-game.  Usually before a tournament I would cram as much opening theory into my head as possible.  This time I decided to fight my fears and only briefly study openings after live games and during correspondence games.  My parents gave me IM Silmans book, How To Reassess Your Chess.  I read it and learned a ton from it.  Now I'm not afraid of leaving the opening theory I know.  I'm confident I'll be able to find a middle-game plan, or at least learn something.

 The day before the tournament I took easy.  Usually I've done as much chess stuff as I can right before the tournament, but I decided to try taking it easy.  I think this was a good idea as it relaxed me and helped me not worry about the results so much.

Anyway, here is the first game:

All the games were G/50 with a 5 second delay.

I didn't expect to win playing against a 1900.  I was very happy after this game.

Since it was the last game to finish, I didn't get much of a break between it and game #2.

Now I have 2/2 against 1900s!  I was very happy and decided that even if I lost my two remaining games it was still a good tournament result.  Most of the players were quite surprised that I had won two 1900s.  I was too.

I had a break for lunch before the next game.

The pairings were up a few minutes before I the third round started.  I was going to play the top player in the tournament, a National Master rated 2212!

During most of the game he moved very fast.  On move 20 I think he'd used only about 5 of his 50 minutes.

After the game several players told me I should have tried for a win, but I was still very happy about drawing with a 2200.  I've drawn with titled players in correspondence games, but this was the first time OTB.  I was happy!

In the last round I played the second highest rated player of the tourney.  His rating was 2196.  I wasn't sure if he was a National Master, but I thought he probably was.  He is a National Master.