2012 Newport Summer Open Round 1

I am going to do 5 different updates this week, one for each game I played at the Newport Open this weekend.

The first 2 rounds the time control was G/90, and then for rounds 3-5 it switched to 40/90 + SD/30. I played relatively fast in all my games as I often do, but still I think my fastest game I spent about 45 minutes, so still a good chunk of time.

I was the 10th seed in the tournament, and in round 1, I was paired with the 2nd seed. Paul Shannon was quite friendly when I chatted with him over the weekend and quite knowledgable. His rating was just over 2000, maybe 2009? Somewhere around there. He was more or less retired from chess, but decided to play one tournament last year, and one tournament this year. So he wasn't at the peak of his playing strength, but still a formidable opponent and 300 rating points above me so as often happens in the first round, I tried to shake off the rust and jitters and just play a good game against a large rating mis-match.

1-0. I could have resigned after g5, but I figured I would play a couple more moves. I deserved a draw after how well I played the midgame, but I deserved to lose after how I didn't even play the endgame, so hopefully I learn my lesson and don't just give up when I think I have equality as the game is still quite easy lose.

Despite losing, I thought I played well, and was ready and eager to play my 2nd round game.