Heartbreak and Good Attacks! OTB Tournament Review

Hey all! I've just (as of about an hour ago) completed my first OTB Tournament since 2014! I had a really nice time at the East Devon Chess Congress, and figured I'd share my games with you - some are funny, some are good, most are draws.... let me know your thoughts on the games, and see if you can guess my or my opponents' OTB ratings... (ECF) The time format was 1:40 to make 40 moves, then an extra 0:20 after that point.

Day 1:

Round 1 vs Dave Tomlin (As Black) 1900hours

I was quite nervous going into my first game, and wasn't overly keen to play this particular queen's pawn opening. Nonetheless, I left the opening with a very strong position (even if I abandoned potential early winning chances for what I thought was a more positional approach. Stockfish, of course, thinks I'm an idiot). Move 22 saw the proper launch of my attack, which my opponent mishandled completely with the move 24. Re1. I was completely winning, with, I believe, M4 on the board. Unfortunately, I lost focus for a moment while analysing the position on move 29. (For those interested, I think that, somewhere in my mind, my opponent's queen was already pinned by the check that I didn't play...) I blundered my queen, and with it the game! Disastrous first round and I was, understandably, beside myself...

0/1

Day 2:

Round 2 vs Tim Fox (As White) 1000hours

Ah! My first game with White! Finally, I get to dictate how we play! I'm going to use all my prep and have a great time! and --- oh, he played d6... okay, I guess we can play a Pirc... wait what on earth is Nd7??

The above is a transcript of pretty much my thought process for the second game. This was a position that I, in thousands of online games, had never had before. And, already rattled by my loss the day before, my mindset for this game was less than ideal. Nevertheless, I was sure that with moves like 8. ...g5 and 9. ...b5 my opponent was overextending, and I must be better. And I was! I was playing for a win in my second game, despite the strange opening. So I set about trying to convert the position. I absolutely loved the move 21. h4, and, just a few moves later, I was up a pawn, then two pawns with a monster attack! I couldn't possibly mess this one up.

The move 33. Na6 speaks for itself. I had once again blundered away an easy win. This time, however, I soldiered on, and agreed to a draw a few moves later.

0.5/2

Round 3 vs Hazel Welch (as White) 1500hours

The afternoon rolled around, and, though I was tired from the game in the morning, I had a much more positive attitude when I sat down at the board. My previous game had shown that I was capable of scoring points, and I was hungry for more!

With a Sicilian Defence, I knew immediately that this was going to be an exciting game. I settled on the Grand Prix Attack as my weapon of choice (although in a slightly strange move order). And, after my opponent played (in my view) slightly passively, I decided it was time to launch an all-out attack on the Kingside. Throughout moves 11-13, the engine finds the nice defensive resource for black, e6, which my opponent (and I) had overlooked. Instead, my attack crashed through, and, on just move 16, there was M1 on the board.

And, of course, I missed it. So concerned with black's bishop on g7 guarding the h8 square, I completely overlooked a simple move. Nevertheless, my attack had led to a sizeable piece advantage. Learning my lesson from the first game, I immediately cashed in - trading off heavy pieces until we were in a completely winning endgame. The next time a forced mate sequence came round, I found it, and secured my first win of the tournament.

1.5/3

Day 3:

Round 4 vs Stanley Rimmer (as Black) 1000hours

When my opponent played 1. e4, I was excited to play a game in one of my favourite openings, the Caro-Kann. I had been, for the tournament, prepping the Classical Variation the most. I assumed that, at an OTB tournament, the advance or exchange variations would be less popular. And yet...

My opponent entered the Advance Variation. Not to worry, I know this line, I play it all the time online! The Botvinnik-Carls Defence leads to a very balanced position, which, with black, I would be more than happy with. 4. bb5+ caught me off guard, however, and I forgot my limited prep. 5. ...Bf5 looked very natural, but is a serious positional error according to the engine. I spent most of the remainder of the middlegame trying to win back my pawn and thought, on move 15, that I had re-achieved equality. My opponent had other ideas: 16. Be3 being the only move that maintained White's advantage in any real sense. I jumped at the opportunity to trade bishops, and did so without thinking enough lines through; and, to my horror, as I clicked the clock right as I noticed I'd blundered 17. nd6+, threatening checkmate and at the very least winning a pawn! 

Thankfully, my opponent missed it too, taking back my bishop with the Queen. Convinced I was losing as the position was hell to play, I instigated an exchange of Queens on move 21. When I tell you that my opponent spent a full 15 minutes on their response, I'm not exaggerating - he was desperate to avoid this exchange, but, seeing nothing better, accepted the trade. (The engine, as it happens, finds f4...). Very shortly after, we agreed to a draw. Ironically, this was in the position where I had the best winning chances of the game!

2/4

Round 5 vs Connor Wilkinson (as White) 1500hours

At an even 2/4, and annoyed that I had missed opportunities to win in the earlier rounds, I was going to give it my all in the final round of the congress. With 1.e4, we were off.

And, yet again, no-one seems to want to play 1. ...e5! Instead, my opponent opted for a Caro-Kann. No problems there, let's have fun in the Caro. I considered playing the Fantasy, but figured that my opponent would be well-enough prepared against it. (Talked to him after the game, lovely bloke, wasn't prepared for the fantasy so might've been an idea!)

Instead, we played a Classical to move six, where my opponent deviated from theory with the inaccurate h5 (h6 being the accepted move.) I knew that this was wrong, but I couldn't remember what I'd prepped against it, and so carried on with the ordinary plans for the position as if he had played h6. I had, I thought, a very comfortable position coming out of the opening. In post-game analysis, however, the resident IM at the tournament correctly assessed that my Knight on g5 was somewhat misplaced...

I was, unfortunately, failing to make the kind of progress required to secure that elusive win. And, seeing nothing better, opted to trade Queens and a set of Rooks into an equal endgame. However, I blundered on move 28, as my opponent jumped in with 28. ...Ne4! There was a nasty idea behind it, too, if I had opted to pin the Knight to the Rook and attempt to apply pressure with my pawn - my opponent might've played the exceptional Knight check and won my rook! Instead, I played Rook c2 and accepted my doubled pawns. I missed my best chance at equalising (on move 36) as I was so committed to the (futile) defence of my misplaced c pawn. Thankfully, my opponent also missed a forcing line wherein the rooks would be traded and his King wins the footrace to allow for promotion. Instead, on move 45, we agreed to a draw as both of our Kings were cut off from the action and our pawns neutralised each other.

2.5/5

Not a bad result! I'm overall very pleased with my performance, if a bit frustrated that I missed winning chances in some of them. I'm excited to play again, and similarly excited to hear any feedback you guys have! Thanks for taking the time to read all this...

Adam  

(Also, if you've viewed this, please do comment as it keeps the post fresh in the forum and I like sharing my experiences )

😃

For the blog verion:

Heartbreak, Attacks, and Draws... my OTB Tournament - Chess.com

Good job on your first event, otb is a lot of fun

thank you!

Nice write up Adam. I think you have had very good tournament and 2.5/5 is a decent score. A few mishaps in games in which you might of had the upper hand is a good sign for the future. Just need to stay focussed when in an good position. Best of luck in your next tournament.

thanks sean. For those interested, apparently the ECF Magazine "ChessMoves" have picked up my blog and want to add it to this month's issue which is wild. gonna do some editing lmao

Thank you!

Very cool news - the very much edited and added version of this blog has been published in ECF Magazine "Chessmoves"! Very cool.