Ulster Chess Championship 2016
This is my first blog post. I'm going to post about my games and also some other interesting games I come across.
Recently, I played in the junior section of the Ulster Chess Championship held in Belfast from 27th to 29th of August, 2016. It was a six round swiss tournament and I finished joint first on 4.5/6. So, here are my games.
Round 1
So, it wasn't a great start to the tournament. I should have won this game and was very disappointed at the end. On to the second round...
Round 2
In contrast to Round 1, this was probably my worst played game of the tournament. I managed to squeeze out a draw in the end after a marathon game of more than 4 hours. Not a good first day overall!
Round 3
What is going on?? After hours of endgame study, I still manage to botch a completely winning endgame. Need more practice!!
Round 4
Finally I win! I love playing unusual openings against Ben so I decided to play 1. b4. My shortest game of the tournament.
Round 5
Probably my favourite game of the tournament. Andrew is quite a strong player and I am glad I was able to win this game after deciding to give up my rook for his knight. After 5 rounds, I realised I could still finish joint 1st if results go my way in the final round (although I could only finish second on tie break)
Round 6
This was also a good (albeit a bit lucky!) win for me. Stephen is also a strong player. I managed to come out of the opening a bit strong, messed up the middle game and still won in the end as I made the second last blunder of the game. (Story of my chess life!)
Overall, I finished with 3 draws and 3 wins. In hindsight, the draws in Round 1 and 3 stung quite a bit but I'm glad I finished the tournament unbeaten.
