2015 Monroeville Autumn Open

My second round opponent played a Stonewall, which I expected would be tough to break through. However, the dark squares became too weak after a certain ...Bxc3, allowing me to control the rest of the game.

My third round game shows that White cannot just play anything and get a draw against the Caro-Kann.

My last game against Joe Mucerino (half a point behind me) turned out to be a quick draw. I don't know much about the Colle systems other than 9...Qc7 (instead of ...dxe4, which trades into a less desirable endgame) and controlling e5. There were few tactics and after we breezed through the opening, the only imbalance was an IQP of mine that was pretty easy to defend, so Joe offered a draw and I accepted.

Some kids asked me if I took the quick draw just to guarantee quick first. This is silly, of course, since there was no money involved and only a few rating points at stake. But from an "experience" perspective there wasn't much to play for. If everything was defended and Joe didn't want to play for a win, no reason to annoy him by playing on in a microscopically worse position. So NB! Maybe I'm making excuses, but even though it's tempting don't be too quick to judge quick draws, especially Black!