Vienna Chess Open

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Avatar of DonnieDarko1980
Last week I played my first real big chess tournament, the Vienna Chess Open with more than 650 participants. I entered the C section which was under 1600. However, 7 out of 9 opponents were higher rated than me. I decided to share my good and bad games in this forum :)
I made 4,5 out of 9 points and a rating plus of 29. My starting rank was 47, and I came out on 34, so I'm quite satisfied with my result.
Round 1: The first game was also the best one, since I clearly outplayed a 1500 opponent (although in the end I won by a final blunder).
Round 2: I played a higher rated 10 year old (meant that he was probably even stronger now) with Black - he didn't even play so great, but I blundered this game completely :(

 

Round 3: A higher rated player again, we reached a highly irregular endgame with two rooks vs. three pieces (two knights - that night I dreamed of forks ...) and agreed on a draw.

 

Round 4: A horrible game. I managed to trap my opponent's rook, win the exchange, and then missed a mate in one in the endgame :-(

 

Round 5: A nice game vs. an 8 year old who I somehow feared after my initial experience with the 10 year old, but to my relief he played rather weak, lost a piece and a rook due to some nice tactics and allowed me to score the full point again.

 

Round 6: A decent game vs. a higher rated player which I lost, but not by a big single blunder but because he simply played better moves than me, won some pawns and built up his advantage - so I didn't feel that bad about this game as I did about the former two losses.

 

Round 7: A "must-win" against a much lower rated player. However, I botched the opening after he played a rather unorthodox approach vs. the Ruy Lopez, I missed a double threat on my pinned f3 knight and had to play gxf3 and ruin my king's castle. After he made a strategical blunder and closed off the kingside, I proceeded with a queenside mating attack :)

 

Round 8: A fighting game vs. a severely physically challenged opponent (wheelchair user, couldn't move the pieces by himself, so I had to make his moves which he announced), nevertheless higher rated and dangerous - I managed to secure a draw. I was on the defensive side in the middlegame. He declined my first draw offer, then offered me a draw himself after I seemed to win the pure pawn endgame several times which I declined :) then I still couldn't manage to secure the win since I dropped the decisive tempo somewhere, so it really ended up as a draw.

 

Round 9: Another decent draw vs. a higher rated opponent. He played a strange opening (1. d3), I wasn't sure how to best counter it and decided to simply build my favorite black "French" type setup. (I always enjoy this since everytime I play 1. e4 e6 as Black, I get the exchange variation ...) After some 20 moves neither of us seemed to see a clear way of winning, we were tired and hungry (it was lunchtime) :) and we were both holding at 4 points and wanted the 50 % result of 4,5, so we agreed on the draw.

 

It was really a great experience - apart from all the chess being played and the great atmosphere, it was also very nice to meet virtually all of my real-life chess friends in one place :) There's nothing like a big OTB tournament, all of you Internet-only players, go out there and play :)
Avatar of danianevem

Congratulations for earning so many points!

What I've noticed that you seems to be affraid of the higher rated players, I mean that you are not as aggressive as against the lower rated players. But +/-200 difference in Fide rating is not a big a deal, so try to not care about someone's rating. Because everyone can loose a game.

Btw, I think your 7th game was the best ;)

And about your 2nd game:

 

Sorry for being so critical, good luck for your next games. And I wish you'll win the next tournament. 

Avatar of DonnieDarko1980

Thanks for your comments. I've noticed that giving the exchange would have meant the better material outcome for me than giving a piece in round 2.

I don't think that I play less aggressively against higher rated players - this impression probably arises out of my current opening choices and because of the fact that I played White against both "weaker" opponents. As White I play 1. e4 which leads to more "aggressive" games for me, as Black I play the French which naturally seems more defensive, but gave me the best results recently. I've been thinking about trying the Scandinavian as Black, which seems to combine the positionally sound pawn structures of the Caro-Kann with a more aggressive/attacking approach (and I'm tired of seeing the exchange variation in 90 % of my French games), but a big "important" tournament like this didn't seem like the right place to try new openings :)

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