Game 3 (My First Tournament)

Tale of a 4 foot killer.

I knew coming into this tournament that I was going play a lot of kids AND lose to them.  In the end, I played 5 matches and the combined age of my opponents was the same as my age.  In game 3, I played a 6 year old boy.  At one point, I looked up from the board and realized that he was standing up AND HAD BEEN FOR A WHILE.  Same height either way.  But in the end he took me apart.

I am still learning to understand the unfolding impact of various tactics.  The one that got me early was when he pinned my knight to my queen.  This allowed his knight to advance under the helpless watch of my pinned knight and do considerable damage.

It was only a few moves later when he had broken the pawn wall in front of my king and managed to park both his queen and bishop on the h file.

There were blunders on both sides but I was never able to capitalize on his errors. One of my own major errors lay in failing to bring my queen forward to support my rook in defense of my king.

In the end I could not dislodge his presence on the h file and I ended up receiving my only checkmate of the tournament at the hands of his bishop-queen combo.

I took some time to remind myself that I came to the tournament to learn how they are run (for the kids in my high-school chess club), went back to my hotel room, took a nap and went out for some Mexican food.  At this point, I was surprisingly exhausted and I was starting to wonder how I was going manage the next day. 

I very much like the concept of swiss tournaments.  Though you don't know who you might get in round 1, as time goes on (and losses continue) you at least continue to encounter people who are having similar experiences as you.  So I went to bed, hopeful that a win was still in the realm of possibility.