My Weekend Tournament

Hello everybody! On September 11, I played in a cheap online tournament and came in 5th out of 20 people. The games were exciting and stressful. The time control was G/45+10. Thankfully, there were only four rounds, so my headache wasn't THAT bad, but still bad enough. Here, I will give you the games and my thoughts on them and my concluding thoughts.

Round 1

Game one was a very fortunate draw for me. He gave up the struggle for the win at the end and settled for a draw, even though he was two pawns ahead. I made some stupid opening mistakes due to nerves, poor preparation, and pure stupidity. The middlegame seemed to hold some light for me, but I threw it away in the end. The ending was cruel on my poor mind, and I was ready to resign. But something inside me told me to play on. It ended in a draw by three move repetition because he was tired, or just thought it was drawn. Here's the game with full annotation by me.

This should be a lesson to us all. Prepare your lines, and never give up. I had no time to celebrate, however, because the next round started almost immediately.

Round 2

Game two had a weird opening, some chances for me in the middlegame, a missed forced win by me, and a completely drawn endgame. I didn't want another draw because that would mean almost so chance at first place, but is was basically forced. Without further adieu, here's the game.

I felt angry for missing the win, but you win some and you lose some. And apparently, I draw even more! The lesson from this game is to always look for extra checks and attacks, even if they take two or three moves. It could be the difference between a win and a draw.

Round 3

Game three was my only win in the tournament. The rest were draws. My opponent didn't seem to know his opening very well because he took some time deciding on the moves after move 4. He ended up dropping a pawn in the middlegame and offered a draw after I took, basically saying that the pawn wasn't poisoned and that he thought he was losing (which he was). He dropped a Bishop by letting me trap it, giving me a Bishop for a two pawns which only seemed like one because of the one he dropped. Little by little, I simplified, making sure not to get careless and drop a pawn (c2). He dropped another piece because he didn't see a simple tactic I had. I sacrificed one of my two extra Knights for his passed pawn giving me three pawns and a Knight versus two pawns. I had to be careful not to botch the game because my King was far away, but I found the win. He was checkmated on move 60. Here's the game.

I don't have many comments about this game. I won a pawn, he missed some tactics, I checkmated him. Always be on the lookout for loose pawns and pawn islands, though. That was one of the major factors in this game.

Round 4: Final Round

I was the only one to score positively against the winner of the tournament. At this point, I was in second place because of tiebreak. The only one who was three for three was first place. I realized that if I could take him down, I might just win the tournament. But, of course, I didn't. We came out of the opening with a roughly equal position. In the middlegame, I pushed for a win, but it backfired. I left my back rank weak, and, taking advantage of that, he won a pawn. Then another. He ended up with two passed pawns on the queenside and was advancing them down the board very slowly. I managed to get my King over just in time, but I lost my kingside pawns, giving him a passed pawn on the kingside. I decided to try one last trick. He fell for it, and I was able to sacrifice my Knight for his kingside pawn, the gobble up the two queenside pawns, creating insufficient material. Here's the game.

I was thinking after the game that he may have let me draw, because he had already clinched first place. The game was wild, full of blunders, but I managed to pull out a draw. The lessons from this game are always be aware of piece placement, your back rank, and the queenside majority. And never resign! That is how I pulled out a draw in games 1 and 4.

Concluding Thoughts

With a score of 1/3/0, I came in 5th out of 20 players. The tournament was rough, considering how poorly I played. I learned to always be aware of piece placement, the queenside majority, and to always look for checks, captures, and threats, and to never give up. I also learned that I need to work on preparation, calculation, and long time controls. The tournament was a great experience and I hope you learned from my mistakes too! Give this blog a like if you liked my annotations, comments, or just thought that my stupidity was funny. Thanks for reading!