My Seventeenth Chess Tournament
This tournament is one that comes around once every year at my university, usually in the early Summer. Last year I played in the U1600 section and did very well in it, winning three out of four games. However, this year the pairings for the tournament were not sectioned based on rating or anything else. This meant that I had to play a couple of games against players who were several hundred rating points above me. Needless to say, these were the games that I lost rather quickly. I did manage to win the other three games, one of which was actually a win by forfeit. This gave me enough points to have the highest score of all players rated under 2000 in this tournament. While this feat was not enough to win any prize money this year, I at least got a small trophy.
Round 1:
Themes: Double Attacks, Overloading, Decoys and Deflection, Forks, Pins, Simplification, Open Game, Using Bishops, Using Rooks, 7th/2nd Rank Control, Initiative, Passed Pawns, Converting Extra Material, Mating Nets, Attacking the Uncastled King
Round 2:
Themes: Common Checkmating Patterns, Double Attacks, Decoys and Deflection, Sacrifice, Forks, Back Rank, Zugzwang, Pins, Weak and Strong Squares, Closed Game, Using Rooks, Semi-Open Files, Initiative, Fianchetto, Exposing the King, Mating Nets, Attacking 0-0
Round 3:
Themes: Double Attacks, Removing the Guard, Forks, Zwischenzug, Pins, Discovered Attacks, Weak and Strong Squares, Using Knights, Undermining the Center, Opening Traps, Attacking the Uncastled King
Round 4:
My opponent for Round 4 failed to show up within one hour of the start of the game, so I won the game by forfeit.
Round 5:
Themes: Double Attacks, Decoys and Deflection, Forks, Zwischenzug, Pins, Interference, Weak and Strong Squares, Simplification, Using Rooks, Initiative, Isolated Pawns, Weak Pawns, Backward Pawns, Doubled Pawns, Converting Extra Material, Queenside Attacks
