My First Chess Tournament

On June 1, 2019, I had the opportunity to attend my first chess tournament, as well as set the record for my longest solo drive to date. The tournament was the 2019 Clarksburg Open held at the Harrisonburg Senior Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia, almost three hours away from where I live. The time was 6:30 AM when I abruptly awoke on June 1, the day of the tournament, one hour past the time I had set my alarm to the night before. I had planned to meet a friend and drive with them to the tournament, but since my alarm malfunctioned, this was out of the question. After a few minutes of self-argument, I decided to make the trip on my own, as I calculated that I could still make it in time to register. I planned to use Google Maps' navigation service to get there, but since I live near the radio quiet-zone, this was unavailable for the first leg of the journey. I managed to reach Elkins unaided at which point my GPS kicked in and guided me for the remainder of the trip. 

upon arrival, I registered for the scholastic (U18) section of the tournament and met my friend, who had arrived before me, who introduced me to some of his other chess friends while we waited for the pairings to be generated and the tournament to begin. Since this was my first tournament, I was unrated and, according to the Swiss-style of the tournament, was paired with the lowest rated player in my category: a young girl named Audrey. 

As we set up of the pieces, I inquired about her previous tournament experience and she replied that she had participated in several prior tournaments. Then I informed her of my utter lack of tournament experience and speculated about her good winning chances against me. This is the short game that followed:

After winning my first game in little time, I milled around the room examining all of the yet ongoing games. Since I won my first game, my next opponent was someone who had also one their first game, a young boy named William Northey. He proved a little tougher than my last opponent:

After barely winning round two in a crazy position, I had some more time to view the other games in the scholastic and adult sections. After Round one of the adult section was completed, there was a break for lunch. I discussed some games with my friend while we ate. 

My opponent for round three was about my own age and the strongest contender in the scholastic section: a boy named Matthew Ellis (rated almost 1100). I obtained an early advantage by winning a piece, but then gave the piece back a few moves later on. I still had an three-pawn advantage, though, but I lost two of those subsequently and only barely managed to evade all of the nasty traps my opponent set. In the end, after a great struggle, I pulled off a third win. Unfortunately, I lost the annotations for this game and will not be able to show it here.  

By the time I won my third game, a contender from the adult section had dropped out and my third round opponent decided to take his place in round four of the adult tournament. My opponent for round four was Landon, the brother of the little girl I played in round one, and he was out to avenge his sister: 

After the award ceremony during which I received a trophy for first place, there was yet another dropout from the adult section, which was still in the third round. This gave me an opportunity to play one more game, this time in the adult section. My opponent was a man named Gary Garden II (rated about 1180) and we ended our game by agreeing to a draw. I had a slight edge throughout the game, but missed my one chance to possibly push for a win. Unfortunately, I made a mistake in my annotations and was unable to reproduce the game at home, so I will not be able to show it here. 

After my final game, I drove home without the aid of my GPS as my phone had run out of battery. Overall, I am very glad I decided to attend this tournament not only because of my good result, but also because it boosted my confidence in my ability to move independently through the world and was a lot of fun. I plan to participate in more chess tournament in the future, and my next one should be the Beckley Summer Open on July 13, 2019. I will accompany that tournament with another blog post analyzing my games, so stay tuned!