2014 World Open Experience

     For those of you who went to the World Open this year (2014) in Arlington, VA, I am just wondering how everyone did. 

[1] What section did you play in (Open/U2400/U2200/U2000/U1800/U1600/U1400/U1200/U900/UNR)? 

[2] What schedule did you choose to play in?

[3] What was your overall result?

[4] How was your overall experience?

[5] Any interesting games from the tourney that you want to share?

For me, I played in the U2200 section again taking the 5-Day schedule instead of the 3-Day schedule like I did last year to see if I do any better in the first 5 games since I have more time to think things through in games and more time to rest in-betwee games.  I started off the first 4 games in the tourney with a score of 3 out of 4 [2 wins (where I played black against roughly 2000-rated people) and 2 draws (where I played white against roughly 2200-rated people)].  But encountered harder competition in the last 4 rounds where I managed to score only a total of 4.5 out of 8 [3 wins, 3 draws, 2 losses] before deciding to skip the last game.  Overall, I can say it was an interesting experience and I enjoyed the tourney.

Personally, I think it's stupid for the U2200 section to not have been FIDE-rated this year as the section was FIDE-rated last year.  But whatever.