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My Games 17/10/2016 - Day 1 at SMAK 6 Cup

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williamn27
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So today, I was going for a big mission: to defend my title as the champion of SMAK 6 Cup Chess Competition. However, I knew that it won't be anything near easy, since I must be better than the other 15 players (whereas last year's competition was only participated by 8 players). 

To be honest, the committee looked very confused, since they don't even quite understand how to arrange the system of tiebreakers in the Swiss system. Furthermore, the time control was rather amusing: all games would be played with no time control until one hour, and just after that the players are given each 10 minutes to finish the game (maybe because they don't have enough chess clocks?). Anyhow, we might actually pretend to think for our first move for like the entire hour, and only when we are given the clock do we start our play. However, I observed that none of the players is actually cunning enough to do that.

I sometimes think that my best games are from OTB tournaments, therefore I really want to post the games I played in the competition. Here are they:

 

17th October

 

 
 
 
As a conclusion:
1) The first game in a Swiss tournament is usually the easiest. However, it is not easy if you underestimate it. The move Ne6 trapping the queen is actually not so obvious.
2) A player with outstanding opening knowledge doesn't necessarily mean he is capable in other fields of play. Even though my second opponent memorizes the entire KID lines, he didn't realize that opening a diagonal for my bishop is fatal.
3) Pushing too hard for a win usually costs you half a point.
4) A g4 push in a Ruy Lopez should be considered in every move.
5) Don't be stressed by your own opening knowledge! It should be a weapon and not a border for you. I was extremely annoyed when I cannot push d4 in a move in the third game, however, d2-d3-d4 is not a problem at all.
 
Goodbye for now, folks! See you soon in day 2!