Winter Thaw 2025 - What A Mess
Last weekend I traveled to Bozeman for the first tournament of the year, eager to find out whether I could get my head screwed on straight and play well again. I found out, alright. In the first round I walked into a perpetual check and had to settle for a draw. In the second round I managed to win, but I made it much more difficult than necessary. I was planning to play in the third round so that I could take a bye at the end of the tournament and drive home early to avoid an oncoming snowstorm. However, I was so drained and disappointed that I took a third-round bye and hoped to bounce back the next day. In the fourth round I played well against a tough opponent and was on the verge of winning when, under extreme time pressure (4 seconds on my clock), I made an unthinkable blunder that cost me the game. The only bright spot was the fifth round, when I scored a fast win and was able to drive home early anyway. My rating will surely tumble even closer to my floor of 1700.
It stings, but I love the game and the tournament scene too much to walk away just yet. My challenge is to play faster and avoid the frequent time scrambles that cause me to make blunders. It's not that I have trouble thinking, but rather that I think too much about all of the possibilities I see. Perhaps I've been spoiled by playing daily games on chess.com, which allow me to stare at the board for long stretches without any time pressure. When I can do that, I win very often. I'll just have to economize my thought process for tournaments.
Anyhow, I'll share what I consider the most interesting games from the tournament. This one is from the second round, where I seized an early advantage but almost threw it away by overthinking and getting into time trouble (as usual). What makes this game interesting is that I decided to exchange my queen for two rooks, something I rarely do but found unavoidable here.
What happened in the fourth round on Sunday morning was perhaps the most painful game I've ever experienced. My opponent was Luke Miller, a young man who recently stormed onto the chess scene and has done very well. I came up with a creative attack that required a sacrifice and was working like a charm. However, under the extreme time pressure I missed a winning move and threw away my queen, losing pretty much on the spot. I've lost a lot of winning games, especially in the past two years, but this one takes the cake. Most of the last few moves are from memory because I had to stop recording. I won't share the eventual coup de grâce because it's too outrageous.
Since I already had taken a half-point bye the previous evening, I felt obligated to play in the final round despite the distinct possibility that I would driving into a snow storm. I was hardly in the mood to play, given the disaster from the previous round, but I hunkered down and figured I would try to get at least 3 points out of this tournament. This would add to my Grand Prix total for the season and help me qualify for the championship again. As luck would have it, I not only got my 3 points, but I won quickly and was able to hit the road early enough to get home safely. My opponent was another young man I'd never met before, but he defeated former state champion Jim Skovron in the first round, so I wasn't sure what to expect.
