My First OTB Tournament In Two Years

Here I was, it had been two years since I had been to an over the board tournament. Was I washed up? Would this kid that was sitting in front of me devour my soul? I have played enough kids to know that just because someone is young didn't mean they couldn't squash me like a bug. During the CGC I had met a friend Priyash, who's name I am probably butchering beyond compare right now. Despite his age of 11, He's around 2000-2100 so I never underestimate my opponent just because they are young. And then there is my brother who at 11, is 1100-1200. So skill can vary quite a bit! Having no idea what I was facing, I decided to try my luck, whether or not this would be the person who would make Magnus shiver in his boots with the black pieces in twenty years... Or some nobody who just wanted a juice box, either way I didn't want to fight in a theoretical battle. Despite the warnings, and the angels on my shoulder telling me not to play the scandinavian such a long time format the devil on my shoulder got the better of me. Once I saw e4 on the board my hands almost couldn't help but to play d5.

Would this one careless decision spell the death of me, or would I live to fight another day? Well in this case I would live to see another day and thrive! My opponent I would argue lost the thread of this game the moment he didn't suck it up after making his mistake and trade queens. His position would have been unpleasant but playable. I was planning in the game to bring my dark square bishop out to d6, and try to induce the move f4 but my opponent was very generous and ended up playing the move for me! I will confess I am very grateful for a quick and swift victory. Though I was a bit disheartened as I saw the joy leave my opponent's face right after they made the move f4 leading to the force mate in two. They were a good sport and shook my hand but I saw the pain inside. I'm sure he's just at the start of his chess career and maybe one day he'll get his revenge! Till then I'm going to enjoy this victory.

This game has quite the story the circumstances to this game are a little bit scuffed! I will confess had circumstances been different, then perhaps I wouldn't have tied for first in my section. As it stands, I am not going to complain. And to quote a famous president. "What is, is." I am probably butchering the famous quote and am to tired to look it up, regardless I think giving some context on this game is in order. I was playing in the lower rated section as this is only my second OTB experience. My first one did not end up going very well where I lost three games, and then saved two other games. In the first round the tournament organizer accidentally marked my game down as a loss! I actually have to thank my opponent here as without their keen eye I would not have noticed the error due to my lack of experience on this front. So I got perhaps, an easier pairing. Also unfortunately for my opponent we played a blitz game before the match in-between rounds. He had arrived late, and I beat him with the scandi in a purely casual game before round two even began. This gave me a good idea of his level which is why I played this so professional opting for a ruy lopez, as I was confident if I got a solid enough position even if my opponent survived eventually I would outclass him in an endgame. Ultimately I was right, he got a bit to zealous with his bishop and got it trapped in the corner. But he really lost his cool and the game I think when he moved the knight to d8. I knew at that moment once he blundered that e5 pawn that there was no real danger of letting him back in the game. His Nb7 move just added to my confidence. I may have acted a bit unprofessional and smug. Before the match was over I was fully leaned back and relaxed in my chair fiddling with a pawn, before unleashing my final move of the game, Bxf7+ to which he promptly tipped his king over and resigned with class. I think he was psyched out by the fact he paired against me and I won in our casual game against each other, the odds of that were unfortunate! But those two games didn't have me prepared for what the next game had in store...

This final game is quite the story! My opponent said that their rating after the game was about 1400, and I was just thinking in my head "No way that's totally cap." I didn't want to give my opponent such high praise, as if I were to phase him again I'd much rather him think that I thought he was an ineffective clown that I took way to long to beat. But if he didn't tell me his rating I would have thought that he was at LEAST on the bare minimum side of things high 1800, if not low 1900. I didn't think either of us were playing like 2000s, but this was a really solid game where I think there were chances for the game to go wrong for either of us. My opponent probably will be thinking about this game much more than I will. As I did see him as he sat down begin to jot down the move Nf3, before taking about 45 seconds and scratching it out playing c4 instead. I think this was a really unfortunate choice for my opponent, as my move order has been influenced by the likes of Fabiano Caruana with this Nf6, e6, c5, and eventually d5 approach to transpose into a Queen's Gambit like position. In this particular case it would have transposed into something akin to a Catalan whereas usually it's more like a semi tarrasch defense with almost completely symmetrical which leads to a complicated game. Now the final position here you might think I put in the result wrong, black won this??? But the position is equal! Unfortunately while my other two games concluded far before the other rounds, this one, was the last game of the night. Not only the final round, but we both had used about all of our time to reach the position you see on the board here. In summary how I won was the King side pawns got traded, I ended up losing the center pawn, but I traded down into an endgame up two pawns with a C and A pawn, that A pawn ended up being promoted to a rook for a good laugh, before my opponent resigned the game with less than 50 seconds on his clock! I was lower on time by up to nine minutes for the majority of the game, until the endgame where my opponents weaknesses became magnified with the time pressure. I think I won this game because of low time and had my opponent had an extra 15 minutes we both probably would have shook hands and eventually gotten a draw! Sadly, in the time scramble I had more time and had only blundered one pawn, whereas he had no pawns left by the end, I will say there was an interesting point of deviation, when the c pawn took on d5, I considered taking back on d4 instead and entering a sequence where we both queen, the problem I saw is white doesn't have to play ball with you and could just take back the pawn instead in said scenario and my light square bishop might have a harder time finding a home, whereas in the game it served it's time well on g4 and f5, I think I spent about 6 minutes trying to evaluate that line before dismissing it and playing in a way that felt more principled. So yeah this was the first tournament I have played in two years, and second tournament ever. Getting three wins without a loss was great and the time pressure, and my final opponent truly had me feeling euphoric as this final win definitely felt earned whereas the other two I feel my opponents just got a rough pairing, this dude should not be anywhere near the 1400 range if this is how he usually handles himself and I think he has a bright future. I don't know if he is much older than me, or even a bit younger, but I was impressed! I don't know what I would have done had he played Nf3, I might have played Nf6 and we very well could have transposed to what we had in the game, I think he just got really unlucky that I've looked at this move order a lot as I think had I played e5, this dude might have squashed me, I think he was disappointed not to get a reverse Sicilian on the board by his body language. These are just my thoughts on the game and Thank you @SamWri for telling me about this tournament I had a lot of fun and hope to see you next Monday if I get the chance to go again!