The closer Labor Day weekend gets, the more syked I am about the NC Open Championships. Watching the US Masters (also in the same hotel that weekend), competing against Class A players with the chance of breaking 1800 for the 2nd time in my career or even breaking my all time high of 1810, and even the chance of rooming with GM's...all exciting prospects. But in following the games and cross tables of the past few Opens, what is most exciting about the coming event is the fact that I'll be seeing quite a few players that I have not seen for years. I have already reconnected with some of them here, but Labor Day weekend will, for me at least, have the feel of a High School reunion. While I hope to play well amid all the potential distractions, my real interest lies in making the most of the weekend socially. I was in a funk the other day and struggling to get through, yet another long night shift. Things were slow and I decided to bust out the magnetic set and browse some of the pgn files I keep stashed on my laptop. I'd forgotten that I had put my USCF file there for safekeeping (you can never have too many backups of stuff). Anyway, I opened it and started looking at games. It was strange, but just reading the raw file brought back memories, not only of game situations and positions, but people and places. Needless to say, it threw me into a very nostalgic mood. Quite ironic considering my outlook for the NC Open. So I've decided to start pulling games from my archive and blogging them here. Of course, my best accomplishments will be presented, but I will also show the most competitive games and even a few average to below average games that have a good or unique story. Although I'm no world champion (or even an Expert for that matter), I'll name these "My memorable games". I might get up to 60, but I'm not going to push it and I hope you enjoy them...
I think it would be fitting for my 1st entry to by my first USCF win. It was my 2nd tournament and 5th game overall. And as it turns out, this win would be decently impressive miniature. I only provided alt lines at the critical point since we are both about 1000 rated at this time...
