Winning my first tournament of the year!

Hey guys. I've been active in tournament chess for a while and recently for the past 6 months I've been in a slump. I dropped from my peak rating around 1850 all the way down to 1740. So recently I have only been playing in quick tournaments and it quite fun. I played in a team tournament with my friends recently and score 4/5. This helped gain a little confidence in my playing. So the new year starts and I decide to play in the January Quick tournament at my local chess club. I didn't expect to win or have such a good performance, even beating 2 2100+ players . This tournament was a quick 25min+10sec tournament. Note, that my quick rating is very low since I have only played in 2 quick tournaments prior to this one! Also, I will not be posting names for their privacy

My first opponent was a junior rated about 1733. He made a miscalculation that costed him a minor piece and I was able to attack his queen side effortlessly. 

My next opponent was a senior and former club champion and University champion as well. He was 2250 back in his prime and 2121 today. I played black and found a neat tactic for the win thanks to the open b file. I overlooked a few moves including 25. e6. Nonetheless it was a good win.

In my 3rd round, I played white against a very nice friend rated 1864. I have never played against this opening in a longer time control so I was a bit confused. I quickly lost my advantage when I didn't play 11. bf4 even though I saw it. However, I still maintained an advantage. I quickly got into time trouble at move 26 which explains the blunder at move 29. 29. f5 would have crushed me... Good thing we both had about 1 minute on our clocks which caused him to miss this mate in 2.

In the 4th round, I played black against an opponent rated 2126. He is very active in tournament chess and has achieved great results in regular time controls last year. He recently broke 2200 in regular rating despite fluctuating. I didn't know what to expect from this game. I played a solid opening and somehow found good moves. I thought I was better throughout the middle game but turns out we were equal. I failed to maintain an advantage after 33. Rg4 since I traded queens. I thought after 37. bxa6 I was losing, but I quickly found a way to win that pawn and promote my own. This endgame was relatively easy but could have easily been a draw. I just told myself to keep all my pieces on black squares. 

Although a perfect tournament would have been nice, it didn't happen. I needed a draw with black to take 1st place. Instead I lost to this player rated 2002. I made a huge blunder at 26. Qxc3, I lost shortly after.

All in all, I shared first place with the opponent I lost to in the last game. However, I won off tiebreaks and got myself $40 ($80 if I drew the last game...) and a New In Chess Yearbook. What a great start to the year. I'm expected to have a performance rating of 2209 and have a 400 rating increase . Hope the new year for tournament chess is going well for all of you!

congrats!