My chess tournament- Part 8

Hi everyone! It's been a month since my last post in this series because I spent the rest of June studying tactics in preparation for a tournament which I was supposed to go to, the large tournament the World Open in Arlington, VA. Lots of my friends, both locally and here on chess.com did very well there! 

This past weekend I had a choice of going to a strong tournament in LA then going there again for another tournament in two weeks. Or, I could go to a small tournament, which was around a two hour drive. I chose the small tournament, since what's the point of going to LA, then going there again in two weeks? Quite boring! So anyway, I did quite well in this tournament. Even though my score was just average (could not beat anyone rated higher than me) , I noticed that my errors were much smaller than my last tournament in Vegas (which was a blunderfest due to time trouble and all). The problem of these open tournaments, or 1800+ sections, was that in the morning round I would face a hard opponent, and I would lose. Then, I would play someone around 100 points lower than me, then I would beat them. So I ended up losing all my morning rounds and winning all my evening rounds and finished with a 3.0/6 score.

I guess I decided quite late to go to this tournament so I just threw a lot of my clothes into a suitcase just in case we go to a hotel, I know, it seems weird. Why pack so much then NOT go to a hotel? We ended up going to a hotel anyway. But before, I had to play the first round. For the tournament you had to bring your own set and clock, so I came there first and put my set. I was white. Lucky me, I got a free chess lesson! I got to play the top seed in my small section of 25 people AND get to analyze afterwards! So I tried to play my best, and my opponent (who was a strong IM) played exceptionally well, and I ended up losing. Here's the game:

So we did a post mortem, and naturally I found mistakes, like cxd4, and he suggested playing dxc5 at some point too. I have 0/1.

Now we checked into the hotel, and got some lunch, then I went back for the evening round (round 2). I was able to get the position I wanted and I used an open file against my opponent's king to my advantage. Here's the game:

So we did a post mortem, and my opponent along with my help found his mistakes, like Na4 and all. I played pretty well, clean win. That evening I explored all the cool old buildings of Sacramento, like the old railroad, and the old fashioned stores. And I got to read all the statues and take pictures too. It was fun!

In the next round I was black again, which makes no sense since there were so many people with 1 out of 2. Well, I played a strong IM who has played for many years and is not as strong as he used to be but still good. The game started out weird, I had really active pieces, and for the first 27 moves of the game Fritz liked my play and had no variations. Then, on the 28th move, I blundered and lost. I went into a losing endgame. Here's the game:

So, a pretty good learning experience. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Fritz didn't help much, either. I had the active pieces, don't know what to do with them. Oh well. I have 1 out of 3. Since the game went on for a long time I didn't want to have a post mortem, and my opponent was also tired, like me. I thought, let the old man get some rest.

So I had time on my hands, but only time to grab some lunch, but no hotel nap time lol. So, I watched some games. There was one game in my section. Since I had only one point I could play a LOT of people, so I didn't bother trying to see who I would play. So my future opponent (whom I didn't know was gonna be my opponent) was down a piece, but somehow his opponent slipped and he PROMOTED! Both players were under 10 seconds, so pieces were knocked over and all. But there was a small delay so it wasn't too hectic. It was funny when my future opponent promoted to a queen, so he tried to invert a rook then it kept falling. Then his opponent got annoyed that he was doing it on his time. Then the TD called "pause the clock. Someone give him a queen". lol.

So my opponent complained to the TD a lot during his games, so he had a very unfavorable reputation everywhere he went. Once, he was winning but he got too fancy and sacrificed his queen, so he starting cussing loudly, then when his opponent offered a hand to shake for good sportmanship, he just waved it off, and I think he imitated a pistol shooting his opponent. Weird and rude. So naturally, I was scared to play him. But he played pretty horribly. I had an advantage since he couldn't take a break (his game went long). So I came first to the board, and I put my pieces. None of them were broken, and the board was nice and blue. But no! My opponent was black. So he kept my beatiful touch clock, but wanted to change my beautiful flawless board to a sticky, food infested, ugly, dark, smelly board. I mean, what's wrong with my set?? Is his set lucky? Oh PUH-LEEZ!  So I got really pissed at this guy. I think thats why I decided to finish this person off lol. He TOTALLY deserved to get crushed! Seriously, he could stop being so mean to his opponents. It's just a board game, not life or death! Okay, let's go on to the game:

Ha! Take THAT! That felt good. Of course, I didn't bother to ask for a post mortem with that person. My game ended quite early, so I grabbed some hot pizza and and explored the capital building. It was REALLY COOL! It looked pretty and there was a guard walking around. I couldn't get a tour inside since it was closed, though :(

The pairings for the next round came out quickly. I was playing a strong player who was in the same grade as me. We played thrice, I think, and I lost all of them. I was out for revenge this time. So we both ended up preparing against each other, as we both played Fritz moves for the first moves of the game. I had a strong position but I failed to convert it and let my opponent play a strong move, then he simplified and won with extra material. Darn! Maybe next time. Here's the game:

So, I made some mistakes. I should have taken on e5. And the Re4 was the wrong plan. It's hard to find the right one! My opponent played really well, even though h5 was weird. 

So once again there were a lot of people. I ended up playing the USCF president herself, WIM Ruth Haring. I fought Ruthlessly lol. So, the game was pretty even, but I got a good, active position. Then she played a bad move and I ended up winning material which I converted quickly. Here's the game:

So we had a pretty long and fun post mortem. I asked her a question about USCF and she told me what she does in the USCF. And we explored a lot of variations with her pretty chess set. I got a business card too :)

So, I ended up with a new rating of 2016. Not bad! I can already tell my game is improving. Next up, I'll post My chess tournament- Part 9 as the Tuesday Knight Marathon at a distant club. See you next time! 

Yay! More games to study from...

Thanks for posting...

Good luck in Toronto!

I have to say, I just love playing through these annotated games of yours. Makes my day. And the story about Baroudi made me smile

@Suvel thanks! My games aren't so professional though :)

@JMB2010 Thanks! What about them do you like the most?

Congrats on your new rating. You deserved it. Sorry to hear you had to play against such a bad sport. Even at the worst of times I don't think I've encountered anybody quite like you described.

Also, I forgot to mention this...

I love the way you transposed into the Elephant gambit in that last game!

I've been practing unrated tactics, using the 30 rules of chess! Applying it makes it so much easier to find!
Thanks! 

Well I love your attacking playing style, just like me :) And your stories alongside the game and your deep annotations, etc.

@Elubas thanks! Can't wait for LA tomorrow and the last round at my local club tomorrow! Then i'll have to get to work posting again

@Suvel Great job! 

@JMB2010 Thanks! hehe

New record, I played three titled players in this tournament!

Haha, mate in 20-some against the rude guy :)

Nice games.

Good stuff congrats! On your game against Oza could you have trapped his queen with 11...Nb4 then attacked it with the rook? I think unless he responds 12.Qb5 giving himself an escape on the diagonal after 12...Rb8 It's not like you had trouble with that game i just like to look for stuff and that jumped out at me but I make a lot of mistakes so maybe you can explain if that logic is sound or not. Regards. 

@waffllemaster Thanks! It felt good lol

@Brasigringo I definitely considered Nb4, but Qb5+ and white escapes! So close! White is good after Qb5+ but Nd4 and castling is more or less forced.

Nice job again!  I like the combination at the end of the second game.

@SJFG thanks!

Great games and annotations!

Hey Abhishek these were great games! I especially liked your game against Ziad Baroudi, I've seen him around and did indeed observed some of the things you described about him, and you finished him nicely. Art Zhao is a very sharp player so I enjoyed that game as well. One more thing though, a better word to desribe Nikunj Oza would be "inconsistent" rather than "weak and overrated". It agree to some extent that he did not play well in his game against you, but there are a few games where he plays exceptionally well. He's also been around the 1900 range for a very very long time so he's not exactly overrated. The rating is probably accurate if you're in that range for a long time. I'm not hating on you about this  so don't get me wrong :) Good luck in LA

Hi Abhishek - it was nice to see you battle it out with Art. Honestly, I thought you were winning that, but then your opponent is a resourceful fellow. As regards the game against Shipman, I think you should NOT have taken on d5 at the time you did it. A waiting move like Kh8 may have been called for (incidentally avoiding the check which proved rather bad). If he then played Ne5 then black can take on d4 with a good IQP formation. I am actually inclined to think that c5-c4 was good too, but then white gets a strong point on e5 supported by d4 and possibly f4 later, and your knight is stuck offside.

You should stick to the game commentary and stay away comments of a personal nature lest they feel bad if they happen to read them (or even you, if you read it three years later). Rating points don't mean anything in the grand scheme of things.