President's Cup 2016
It was a big(and small weekend) at the President's Cup at the SCC. Big because many people attended to get out of valentines/presidents day. Small because it ran along w/ the WA State Championship. Considering the Open section's Big Dawg was below expert(Sloan Seitadikurnia(1959-1963)), who won the event 3.5/4 with a 1/2 point bye; tying with Travis Miller(1853-1876), and Zachary Zhang(1691-1735).
The big dawg in the reserve section was Murlin Varner(1568-1594), who got clear 1st scoring wins against Emily Tang(1132-1201), Mike Munsey(1311-1277)(yours truly lost to munsey), Boas(Slowly Drifting) Lee(1566-1580), Aidan Lawler(1331-1385), and drawing to Ethan Pogrebinsky(1287-1305).
Anyways, onto the tournament. Because he had to take a bye in round 3, your's truly chose not to bye the 1st round. But you know, I(1110-1089) drew the 1st round to Owen Xuan(1562-1530). I was down 2 pawns until Owen trapped his rook in the middle of the game. At the end, Owen told me we performed a 3-move repetition, but I replied "No, but lets agree to a draw.", so he shook my hand, and we drew. I was white.
The next game went off badly, when Your's Truly blundered a knight. My opponent this time was Mike Munsey. Strange enough, I was white AGAIN.
The next day started of BADLY for me, considering I lost to an 800 after I blundered my knight. This game was (a little) upsetting for me so it gave me withdrawal thoughts.
I was sad about my loss to an 800, so I needed time by my self. A few hours later, Brian Raffel(1450-1465), who also lost his round to Braxton Casey(1579-1585), went on a walk to some random park. I asked him if I could tag along. He said "yes." So I went along. Halfway into the walk, I was feeling better and went back to the club myself. I then found myself a freebie 5th round win. I was paired against James Frasca(745-725).
Anyways, this tournament was not a good tournament for me, and many other people. A lot of elementary schoolers like Owen Xuan went to the Presidential Scholastic(which he won), to make up for the losses. The next tournament I will go to is most likely the Spring Open, so stay tuned!
