Chicago Chess Center 5th Jane Addam Day 2

I went into the second day of the event with much more confidence than I had on the first day. I had a better nights sleep, actually got in a breakfast, and had a perfect score to start the day.

Unfortunately, day 2 did not go as well as the first. I won't spoil how I did overall. For that you will need to read to the end.

Game 4

This game was unfortunately a loss. Although I didn't feel too torn up about it. It was the highest rated player in my section. And he was a good sport afterwards, which always helps.

I did an analysis of this game and added it inline of the board above. The first thing I note is that I ran into time trouble at the end. I don't have the end of the game, but that is definitely where I lost.

Also, I ran the game through the engine. My opponent and I up until that point both had 0 blunders and a 91.4% accuracy. Pretty solid for me considering how much higher rated he was.

Throughout the game there was some moves that I could have done differently. But it wasn't bad. I think aside from time management, I need to reevaluate how I counter this opening in the future. The engine questioned a good number of moves. But either way, the game was pretty even coming out of it.

Game 5

This game was a solid win. My opponent dropped a pawn out of the opening. From there things started to go downhill. I think the psychological effect of taking a hit that early in the game probably helped me out.

I think my opponent's first mistake was not taking back on c3 on move 6. Instead he opted for 6. Qf3. Seemed like his thinking was to fork the two minor pieces. I assume he did this to avoid messing up his pawn structure. However, it allowed me to grab 6. ..Bxe4.

What ended things for him was two moves later. He moved his bishop with 8. Bd3. This allowed me to pick up the rook. From there all my moves seemed fairly intuitive.

Again, the engine didn't pick up any blunders. Which at this point I think is what I should be shooting for. I didn't get into time trouble. Although this game was fairly straight forward early on so I didn't need a lot of thinking time. But again, overall a solid game.

Game 6

This game had my only blunder of the tournament according to the engine. No surprise it ended in a loss. There were a couple of lessons learned though not related to the game itself I took with me.

Like all the other games, this one felt straight forward. I had a couple innaccuracies early on, but the game was pretty balanced. Being the last game of the tournament, I almost wanted to offer a draw. But the prospect of being someone who going into the tournament was rated about 400 elo higher than I was kept me playing.

My blunder didn't come all the way until move 42. My opponent moved his Queen to 40. ..Qb7. We had did a similar dance back and forth. Me, thinking I could win, opted for a different move than dropping back my rook to a5 (what I should have done). I went 42. Qa1. This was huge. It allowed the 41. .. Qb5. From there the Queen got in. It was all over.

I didn't get to record all my moves. Time trouble again. But the game ended with his pawns breaking through. Rooks and Queens got traded off. And his pawns were marching to promotion and couldn't be stopped. I resigned before that could happen.

Lessons Learned

Overall I am super happy with my performance. I think the main themes I got out of this tournament were time control, and physical preparation. Meaning getting good rest, good meals, and relaxing between rounds.

One other aspect I could learn from is not being afraid to get half points. If I would have taken a bye in the last round, or offerred a draw, I would have finished a position up. Even my opponent in Game 6 told me he was considering offering one himself! I should have done that instead of trying to push for the win.

Tournament Results

In the end, I had a 3 way tie for 2nd! I was super happy with that. And I was able to jump almost 150 elo, which is great as well.

Overall I was super happy with how everything went, and I came out of it even more determined to improve for my next OTB tournament.