This was my second OTB tournament. I wrote about my first full OTB tournament in my introductory post. It was very disappointing as I did not win a single game against a 1000+ opponent, and lost a couple of games very badly. I will soon post my games from that tournament. This tournament was a 1-day G45 tournament, which is a little too fast for my current style of play. So this is what I set as my goal for the tournament: Regardless of my opponent's strength, I should not get rolled over in the opening phase. I should try and avoid tactical blunders early in the game so I get to play games of good duration. It would be a good learning experience for me that way, regardless of the result.
To accomplish my goals, I decided to go prepared with a few openings that I could force my opponent to play into.
- I remembered I felt comfortable playing lines resulting from d4-d5 in my first tournament. In fact, the couple of games which I did really well were both queen pawn opening games. So I decided to play d4 as white and go with a queen's gambit setup as much as possible. I studied the main line for queen's gambit and quickly read through the most popular variations.
- I really want to avoid theory-heavy and tactically sharp e4 openings at any cost, Sicilian and Ruy Lopez in particular. I just don't think I am ready for them yet. So I studied Center Counter defense (a.k.a Scandinavian defense) a little bit and decided to stick to it as black if White goes for e4 opening.
Here are the games I played
Game 1: (Won)
Being the first round, I was paired up against a 1600+ player. I was playing White. My goal was not to get crushed in opening, not to blunder away my pieces and play a good game that I can learn from. But I really surprised myself by winning (yes!) this game. The nice thing is that I did not win because of my opponent's blunder. I slowly gained a positional advantage, cramping my opponent's pieces, and slowly converted my positional edge into a favorable endgame in which I had a couple of passed pawns. This is my first win against a 1200+ player and it turned out to be a game that I am really proud of. Honestly, I really don't think I am a 1600 player as my subsequent losses showed. But this game gave me a lot of confidence and made me feel I can get there with lot of study, and practice. My final state: Ecstatic
Game 2: (Lost)
After my surprise win in game 1, I was paired up with a 1700+ player. I thought I played really well. In a middle game with queen and 3 minor pieces, I was a pawn up and even had a strong attack going. I had my first bad moment in the tournament at this point. I lost my important dark-squared bishop to a skewer that proved to be decisive. I played a few moves after this, but my opponent was too strong to give me any chance of counter-play. I resigned soon. I played a good game against a strong player until I made that blunder allowing a hard-to-see skewer tactic. It was a great learning experience. My final state: happy.
Game 3: (Lost)
I faced e4 for the first time in the tournament and per my original plan, went with Center Counter defense to avoid tactical lines. I did reasonably well in the opening and the middle game, but was really having time trouble as we entered a rook endgame. It should have been a draw with a precise play, but I was simply outplayed here. My opponent successfully got rid of his doubled pawn and used his queen-side majority to promote his passed pawn. My time trouble didn't help either. I really need to work on my endgame skills to hold these kind of positions. My end state: slightly disappointed not to draw the game, but still ok.
Game 4: (Lost)
Playing d4 as White, I was hoping to get a slow positional game, but changed my mind midway when I saw an opportunity to attack. This was the lowest rated player I was playing in the tournament (1250) and I felt I should get out of my comfort zone and go for a pawn-sacrificing attack just as a learning experience. I went ahead with it, and after some really good attack, made a blunder and lost a minor piece. The game was probably lost here, but I continued my attack and put my opponent under some pressure before my attack fizzled out. My end state - wasn't too happy losing the 3rd straight game, but it was a conscious decision to play a risky line and I did learn a lot playing this. So I was ok.
Game 5: (Won)
I faced e4 again and once again employed Center Counter gambit. That allowed me to get into a decent, equal middle game. I once again was getting into time trouble, but got an opportunity to play a tactic that won a pawn and an exchange for me. I managed to use my material advantage to win more pawns, and trade away the remaining pieces. Though I had less than 2 minutes in my clock at this point, I was able to promote couple of my pawns and get a checkmate. End state - happy to sign off with a win. 2 out of 5 also did some justice to my overall play which I was very happy with.
Overall, I was very happy with my performance. My win in game 1 was a huge morale booster. Though I lost 3 out of 5 games, I met my basic goals of not getting crushed in the opening, and playing games of good duration without making major blunders so it's a good learning experience for me. My USCF rating will jump to around 1050 due to my wins against higher-rated players, which would mean I can expect to get paired up against higher-rated players on an average in future. .I expect to continue using Center Counter defense to avoid sharp e4 openings, but I am beginning to realize that's not going to work in the long run. So I need to start studying tactically sharp openings sooner than later.
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