A disasterous tournament. (All games annotated!)

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zezpwn44

Aug 3, 2015

This past weekend, I had one of my worst tournaments in recent memory. I'm not really sure what to say in general or where to go from here chesswise, at this point, so let's get to the games...

As usual, I've annotated the games to provide insight into my thinking process, and to hopefully provide some instructive value, despite the games' poor quality...

Game 1: 1500 vs Me (2140)

Game 2: Me (2140) vs 2400

In some sense, I suppose there's not much shame in losing to an opponent who plays that well, but the "little things" I keep missing during my games were bothering me. It's also worth noting that throughout the game, I was getting very annoyed with some of the spectators - little kids who would hover over the game and come way too close, people who think it's somehow okay to talk in the tournament hall "as long as they're whispering," and the like. I'm not sure how other chess players overcome this issue, or if I'm just too high-strung, but I need to quit wasting energy worrying about spectators somehow...

The worst chess is still to come.

Game 3: 1950 vs Me (2140)

With 1/3, I strongly considered withdrawing from a tournament for the first time in my chess career. Something was clearly wrong, I had no shot at a prize, and I had little motivation to come back the next day to play a couple of 1500s. Nonetheless, I gathered myself and showed up, hoping to learn something from the games and redeem a few rating points.

Game 4: Me (2140) vs 1550

Game 5: Me (2140) vs 1550

Conclusion

So...I finished with 3/5 and managed to lose only 15 points, but not by any means a good 3/5. I felt like every single game I played was absolutely horrendous, this tournament. From allowing (much, much) lower-rated players to have very saveable endings 3 separate times, to getting a worse position after your opponent drops a piece in the opening, to my mindset, to all the little things I missed, I'm left wondering how I ever got a 2100+ rating in the first place.

Any thoughts? I know everyone has bad tournaments, but this seemed rediculous. It's not like I had a traumatic event recently happen in my personal life, either - I can't think of any reason why I should have played so bad. Hopefully some of the games had some instructive value, and I'd like to hear your thoughts, whatever your rating might be!

zezpwn44

Aug 3, 2015

(Fixed some typos)