Turkey Open 2017 - Round 1

I did well at this year's Turkey Open, recuperating my lost rating points from the Closed, but I fumbled the last game for no good reason and wound up with only 3.5 out of 5 when I should have had at least 4 or 4.5 (I took a bye in the third round for the easy half point and was outplaying all my opponents). Just goes to show that staying sober before a tournament is necessary but not sufficient for success. My upward march continues, and the only player who stopped me was a wunderkind from out of state whom I've beaten before and look forward to facing again, sans blunders.

In this first round I faced Daniel Carlino, who frequents Greg Nowak's club and is far better than his humble rating (under 1000) suggests. This sort of game is a "must win" because a draw or a loss would make my rating plummet. Daniel played a good game, but fortunately I came out on top.