Road to Master - First OTB Games
Hi everyone, welcome to my first blog! I've decided to start blogging my OTB (over the board) chess journey, as well as uploading educational chess content since it's a good way to track my chess progress and development.
My first OTB tournament happened on March 12-13 2022, the 2022 Mississauga Winter Open. The event was CFC (Canadian Chess Federation) & FIDE rated for my section (u2000). Time control was 90+30 and it was a 5 round swiss.
Round 1: Playing good chess (or not)?
Coming into round 1 I was unrated since I've never played OTB before! I showed up 20 minutes early to the first round since I didn't know what to expect, it was definitely worth it to figure out where everything was. It turns out my first round opponent was a twitch chess streamer I used to watch around a year ago, so that was quite a surprise! He was 1751 CFC rated but over 2100+ online rapid so I knew it wouldn't be an easy game.
So... that happened. Overall I was happy that I was playing good chess, but I was definitely disappointed how the game turned out. I couldn't think about it too much since the next round was going to start soon.
Round 2: A better game??
My opponent was 1346 rated (CFC) in round 2, but after the event I found out he was 2350 rated online! This was probably the most uncomfortable game I played in the tournament, the position was a bit wild for me. This game could've gone either way, but the end result was well deserved.
Definitely a nerve-wracking game, I felt confident about my position one moment, and then not so confident the next. At this point my score is 1/2 in total, which I thought was pretty good.
Game 3: Pushing for the win!
My third round opponent was 1794 rated, my highest rated opponent yet. I was pretty tired of draws so I decided to play more aggressive this game, I wanted a win.
There we have it.. the first win! I was happy with how I played this game, even though it might not have been the most accurate way to play. This was the final game of the first day, I finished 2/3.
Game 4: Another win??
I was paired with a 1933 rated opponent this round, my biggest challenge yet. Did I win? Keep reading to find out!
This game was a pretty disappointing result since I feel like I should have won the game, but drawing against a 1900 is still great for my rating! Going into the final round I was 2.5/4, so I really wanted a win so I could have chances of making it into the podium.
Game 5: The final stretch
My last round opponent was rated 1697 and I had the white pieces. I felt like I had good chances to win. I was debating before the game if I should go 1.b3 or 1.d4, and I decided to play 1.b3 to keep the game flexible so I could transpose into any position if needed.
So there we have it... I ended the final round with a win! I'm happy with the result, it was a pretty smooth game overall from my side. It was a unique position that I learned a lot from, I've never had this kind of position before. I also found it interesting how when I played more aggressively (games 3 & 5), I won! Maybe I will tweak my play style going forward to adapt some more aggressive ideas.
Final thoughts & comments:
I finished the tournament 3.5/5 and tied for 3rd place. My OTB rating is now updated to 1864 (CFC), which I consider pretty good for a first tournament! All my opponents were extremely cool and they made it a great first OTB experience for me. Thank you for taking the time to read through my first blog, hopefully there are many more to come. I plan on using my blog to keep track of my OTB journey, while throwing in some educational chess content blogs here and there. If you have any comments you can leave them down below and I'll do my best to respond to everyone. Signing off for now, see you all in the next blog!
