Sunday, June 18, 2006

June 17, 2006 Bloomington, IL

June Open
G/70 5 sec. Delay 4 Rounds


The 43 player field was was well directed by Dennis Bourgerie. The playing site was excellent. Below are a couple of pictures from the tournament.

I won the first round against 1482 player. In the 2nd round I was playing white against an expert and took a draw in the following position because I was short on time. Fritz says I have the edge.(White to play)

I was paired against another expert in round 3 and had the following postion. I am black.

I played the useless Bg3 and ended up losing later in a time scramble, Fritz likes Nf4 with th idea of going to d3. An out post without pawn support!

I won the last round against a 1250 player after dropping a knight in the first few moves! I really have to learn not to pay any attention to the players rating. After losing the knight I was completely lost but played on, I then won the exchange and had a rook for two knights. I still didn't have any winning chances since my rook could not get behind the pawns. I then won a knight and it was my turn to be completely winning. I then lost my rook to a knight fork! I was lost again. But I managed to queen a pawn and win. I played the last 15 moves or so with 12 sec. left. If not for time delay I would have lost on time.

It was a 3 way tie for first with Jon Burgess , William Brock & Anthony Cozzie (Who has a provisional rating of 2400!) finishing with 3.5/4.

Result : 2-1=1

Rating: 1800-1805

4 comments:

  1. Be up front with yourself about your real goal. Is it really/only to reach 2000? Then why play 21 games at the US Open? Wouldn't you learn and improve more by playing just a few focused games, and spending the saved time and energy in analysis and study? (Your own analysis, NOT Fritz.)

    My own 20 year plateau is just above the 2000 mark you've set for yourself. I don't feel I understand a thing about chess. I do think I know what I need to do to get better - and I know I'd rather spend the hours playing guitar. But I don't confuse the junk games I play once in a while with "studying" chess.

    Do you have a teacher - a master or better?

    Are you studying endings? Do you know by heart ALL the basic positions in Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual? Now there's a good way to get to 2000.

    Last but not least - why time trouble so often? How are you addressing that?

    -ashish

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  2. http://www.ilchess.org/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=18;t=000001;p=1#000000

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  3. On www.videosearchtool.info there are plenty of videos that teach about a planning agenda to reach level 2200 which is close to 2000.

    What I would recommend to reach that level is hard work such as studying Chess opening and Evaluation of a position..Also Tactics which is very important..

    Hope it helped.

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