OTB Tournament in Rochester recap!

Hey y'all on Saturday October 16th I played in my 2nd OTB chess tournament held by the Rochester Chess Center and this is my recap of my tournament

10:00 AM: So because I'm lazy I wake up at 10:00 AM. Awwwww yes the privileges of being homeschooled means you can sleep in😎. The tournament starts at 02:00 PM luckily so I have plenty of time. Now you're probably wondering what my prep was beforehand? Well even though I had a whole week to get my openings tuned up, I'm quite smart and said I'd try to simultaneously learn 5 openings in 1 day! The result? Burnout by mid day!  Yes my friends after I tried to learn all the theory I quit and decided to just listen to music and solve some puzzles.

The tournament is 3 rounds of 60+0 with a 5 second delay. Round 1 at 02:00 PM, round 2 at 04:00 PM, and round 3 at 06:00 PM

01:00 PM: So we left. Stopped at a gas station on the way there. I thought I'd tell you guys even though it has no meaning. Then we arrived at the Chess Center. Me and my Dad went inside and I payed for the tournament. It was $13 for kids in HS (Awwww yes the privileges of being a kid😎). Then my Dad went back to the car and I sat in the tournament room awkwardly as I didn't know anyone there. I was listening to some guys talking back there. Although I can't really tell you what they were saying as there was a lot of cursing and we want to keep this blog pg, no? Then an older guy named Jim asked if I wanted to play a game. So I said yes as I wanted things to be less awkward. I had black and it was a pseudo pannov attack! Sadly we didn't get past move 10 as the tournament was starting. To be quite honest I liked Jim, he seemed very nice which is never a bad thing! In game 1 I was paired against Sam Luger. Now for those of you who don't know who Sam is, he's the 2nd highest rated 9 year old in the U.S.A with a USCF rating of 2032. So in round 1 I was playing a child prodigy who will probably become a super GM in the next 10 years. Ahhhhh yes we all know what the outcome would be. I had the white pieces:

To say I was mad at myself for throwing so hard would be an understatement. It's a bit soul crushing to almost beat a child prodigy, only to blunder after playing for over 2 hours. Not to mention that this was the last game of round 1 meaning I had no time to rest for game 2.

I was paired up against Joseph Sarratori who was an older guy rated 1067. Please excuse my awful play, I was in a bad mood due to game 1. I have the black pieces:

Not a great game but a win’s a win, no? Also because this was the 1st game done I had plenty of time to rest for round 3. I went to the car to tell my parents how my tournament was going. That’s when I found out during round 2 my Mom was staring through the window of the Chess Center trying to see me playing my game. I wish I could tell you I was joking but, nope my Mim was actually doing that even after my Dad said it wasn’t a good idea. Sighhhhhh I hope no one saw here. While I was in the car I tried to shove some almonds down my throat but couldn't due to chess nerves. Then I went back inside and briefly talked to Joseph (we’ll call him Joe though as that’s what he went by). To be very honest Joe was a cool guy. He told me how he never has studied chess a day in his life and just plays for fun which I respect, as I take the game to serious sometimes. Then I asked the TD Ken if I could buy a chess set and scoresheet book. I spent $25 and I’m going to show you what they looked like because I have nothing better to do.

I know the picture quality is crap but you just have to deal with it as I'm on an IPad. Oh also idk why there upside down but I can't seem to fix them. After I bought my stuff I put it in the car and was ready for round 3. I was paired up against Erik Li who is rated 1593. I was in a better mood now and was gonna try to finish with 2/3 and hopefully gain some rating! Here is the game, I have white:

Yeah I'm not going to lie I was very disappointed in myself. I could have had 3/3 if I didn't throw my games. When I got back home I had a headache, and was sad from playing so bad. Nothing I can do though I'll just have to learn from these loses and get better. Here's the link to the tournament http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202110162522.1-30211004

My OTB dropped from 1570 to 1511 but to be fair I'm still overrated hahaha I'm probably 1400 max. To end this on a positive note, while yes I was disappointed in myself for my awful preformance it's motivated me to study harder and get better at the game. Not quite sure when I'll be playing OTB again, hopefully at least one more this year though and if 1 things for sure it's going to be a long road to NM...........

Well thanks for taking the time to read this and have a good rest of your day