Second Half USATE

Another USATE is now in the books yet the first competition ever where Pure Salt Gaming has participated. It was a fun family team with myself, John Mullanaphy, alongside my childhood friend Daniel Sprechman and both of our fathers, James Mullanaphy and Hal Sprechman.

At the end of the day I'll be losing about 7 points due to all of my wins being against much lower rated opponents. Doesn't help I had lack luster games against the 2300s but such is life. Here's the second half of my games.

Round 4, black against Danil Poliannikov 2305

Unfortunately another time playing up as black. This time the opening didn't get away from me until we drifted into the middle game. There was one maneuver I hadn't really seen before by Danil and I liked it. Well, I didn't like that he played it against me yet it was pretty nifty.

Round 5, white against Ray Cao 1632

This game... I had completely blanked that I had prepared to play 2. c3 Sicilian this tournament after playing and working it for the past two years. Instead I instinctively moved some pieces before my coffee hit and next thing I know I had a great position to a dead lost position before getting a swindle. Ray had found the right moves to punish me before losing the plot slowly.

The game did have a Queen versus Knight ending and I did seem to be able to find the path to victory.

Round 6, white against Nick Figorito Jr 2107

This was a cool cat, seems he's in a similar boat as me. Not enough time to seriously put the time in as we're both busy with school and work. This was a rather calm game and after I played d4 figured it was going to continue to be calm. I do like my position better at the end of the game yet I was comfortable enough to take the draw and wrap up the 2020 USATE.

After the blunderfest in the morning a straightforward draw was a nice way to end it. Would have enjoyed playing on yet not confident in the way I played today.

Plans going forward

Next year I would like to form a competitive team to play under Pure Salt Gaming, one where I'm board 3 or 4 and allows me to avoid these drastic differences in ratings that. Store will be going live February 29th, 2020 for: