Fall Open 2015

This tournament was larger than expected, with a good representation from Oregon as well as Washington.  I was too tired Friday night to play in the first round, so played the game/60 accelerated round Saturday morning instead, against a master:

I wasn't happy with my clock handling, but losing to a master is something I can face with relative equanimity.

Round 2 I was paired down, but against a player I've played several times with less than stellar results--something about his style troubles me.  I was surprised he didn't repeat the Exchange French against me, as he'd gotten a good position with it last time before losing on a poorly calculated combination.

I hestitate to publish the round 3 game.  Objectively it's just a terrible game.  But I think it's worth examining on psychological grounds:  both players apparently had severe brainworms, thinking a particular move was possible when it was not.  And two pretty strong players miss a completely lethal combination because it doesn't fit the expected search image.

To my great surprise, the result of drawing a master was being paired with a 1400 player.  No criticism of the TD here--I got the same results trying to hand-pair the rounds--but my pairings were weird overall:  every single opponent was 300+ points from my rating, one way or the other.

In the last round I was paired against Samuel He, and sitting next to me Travis Olsen was paired with his brother Daniel He.  They may be twins; they sure look similar to me.  Halfway through the games Travis and I took stock and found we were both down two pawns.  The brothers have a very confident appearance over the board, which was well justified in this round.

So a final score of 2.5 against 3 masters and 2 C-players.  Weird tournament.  I wish I'd beaten Bragg, but I did enjoy myself throughout.  My Dutch is still struggling, though neither game was a Stonewall which is what I've mainly been studying lately.

Josh Sinanan told me that a WA Womens' Championship is being organized for December.  Unfortunately it falls on a weekend when I'm away at a scientific conference.  Phooey.  Maybe next year.  I still hope to play in the Booster section of the WA Championship, though we have so many young players improving so fast that I wonder if I'll make it.  We're suddenly awash in tiny Experts.