1st OTB tournament tonight

Got slaughtered by the 8 year olds...

Won 1, lost 5.

Oh well, at least I didn't lose them all.

I know the feeling but it is amazing when you get that first win!

This reminds me of my rapid chess tournaments ...

first one: 0 out of 5 points

second one: 1 out of 5 points (there actually was one weaker player than me, and I slaughtered him in the final round :)

third one: 1/2 out of 5 points (that was a tough one, but my opponent was the one to give the 1/2 point to me because after a heavy attack he just kept me in perpetual check)

and in slow chess tournaments there was a draw against a 1223 rated opponent and one win against a 1680 opponent who didn't show up (too bad that doesn't count for rating :)

My first season (32 years ago), all long-play: 40 moves in 2 hours each:

1st tournament: 0/8

2nd tournament 0.5/8

I got beaten by old men who could barely stay awake, old men who were incontinent, old men who forgot to punch their clocks and, of course, other kids. I suppose I was lucky that no dogs had been entered.

Don't worry about it, humiliation is all part of the process.

My 1st tournaments:

Blitz (10 minutes): 3/8

Rapid (20 minutes): 3/8

Normal (1 hour): 4/8

My 2nd tournaments:

Blitz: 7/8

Rapid: 7.5/8

Normal: 8/8

The point of these results has been to show you how much you can learn from your first tournament. :)