Getting Back on Track! (10/26/13 OTB tournament)
Last Saturday I played in the open section of a small 4 round Swiss.
Since only posting the games here and not posting analysis is easier and takes much less time than getting my analysis presentable, I've only posted the games with brief comments before and after them. Although I haven't included my analysis, feel free to ask questions about the games.
At the start of the tournament I was paired against an 8 year old who had a 1696 rating! I was a little nervous since I'd lost to a 10 year old in my last tournament, but I just told myself to do my best and have fun.
The time control was G/70 with a 5 second delay.
Even though I didn't play some parts of the game too well, I was quite happy with the result. So now I have 1/1. I will have to study since I've felt this way in several games againt the Sicilian.
The next round I was paired against an expert. Strangly, I was hoping he'd play 1. e4 so I could play the Petroff which I thought would give me a draw. Why did I want to draw?!? I should have played my best and tried to win, regardless of rating!
He played 1. d4 and for some reason I played the Nimzo-Indian, an opening I know hardly at all. My moves were played too fast and I soon got into a very akward position. Next I blundered and let a knight get trapped. In short, I didn't play well at all.
So now I have 1/2. Due to the game ending quickly, I had a rather lengthy rest. Thankfully I didn't get down after that game. Maybe because I didn't put much effort into the game it didn't hurt very much to lose it. It wasn't much of a "I played well and yet got crushed" moment as much as a "oh, I didn't think last game and lost. I guess I'd better think next game" moment. 
Going into the next round, I decided to try 1. d4 due to not playing against the Sicilian too well in my first game and my opponent winning with 1. d4 in my second game.
I've played Mr. Carrido before in April. That game was drawn. I decided to do better this time.
The game started out as a KID in which I really tried to keep his pieces guarding his d6 pawn. He was able to advance his d-pawn and then many pieces were traded. A few moves later I found a way to reach a king and pawn endgame that I felt was winning. The way it turned out, I was winning and he resigned after a few moves. I think I need to make sure that while I trust my intuition, I also back it up with cold analysis. Going into the endgame I didn't use much anlaysis until it would have been too far to turn back had I wanted to.
So now I have 2/3 and I was quite happy with this result. My goal is to always at least "break even" and now I had a chance to do better than that. I knew my rating would go up since I'd won two players who's ratings were on average about 50 points lower than mine while I'd lost to someone rated over 250 points higher than me.
For the last round I got to play another expert. In the last round he'd won the expert who I'd lost against, so I knew I'd have to do my best. I played the same opening as I'd done in the 3rd round, but this time on move 6 he played a move that I vaguely remembered was good for black and a reason white didn't usually play my 6th move.
Though there were some dangers for me, I think I avoided them and he might have been losing compensation for the pawn. He offered a draw. After thinking for a minute I accepted it.
I'm not quite sure I should have accepted. Instead of thinking only about the position, I thought about how he was an expert, what would happen if I lost, and what my chances for a prize were if I drew. Thus, even if I was losing in the position, I accepted the draw with the wrong reasoning.
Congrats to my opponent for winning the tournament with 3.5/4!
I think that in the future I need to make sure I keep studying consistantly, not just in chunks here and there. If I do this I believe I will get even better results than I had here.
Anyway, with 2.5/4 points I won the class A prize and gained 41 rating points. I feel that I'm getting back on track 
