Back from Hamilton

Well, I am back from the Hamilton Winter Open, which was a strong single section 5 round swiss tournament. I had a less than stellar performance point-wise but I was happy because most of my games were against players with ratings around 400 points higher than mine. Though I came out of the tournament with only 2/5, I consider this a valuable learning experience.

For example, in the first round I was paired up against a guy rated 1966..he played an exchange french, waited until I messed up tactically, and won. In round 2 I faced a kid much lower rated than me and won easily. In round three I was up against a 1750 fellow. It was a long fight but I eventually blundered and lost. In round four I drew against a 1400 which was rather disappointing. In round five I drew a game against a 1900 player, which made me feel pretty good. Anyway, this tournament was good for my practical strength if not my rating. :P