Chess in Texas

After leaving Wisconsin I played in the San Antonio City Championship and had a pretty good result. After that it has been all down hill. I usually don't play rated games with a time control faster than G/60, but since I did not have much options in Corpus Christi decided to play in 3 such events which brought my rating down from 1852 to 1821. (I am going to stick to G/60 of slower!)

I was looking forward to the Houston Open with a time control of G/120 to recover some pride, but it was not to be!

I played round 1 of the 3 day schedule and had the following position as Black.
Some times you lose because you do not see tactics, other time you lose because you see tactics that are not there. Can you guess Black's losing move. (Answer in comments)

I decided to re-enter the 2-day event and had 1.5/2.0 before I got to the following position with Black to play in round 3 . Here I had to make a decision:
a) ...Rxa4 and after Rb4 play Ra7
b) ...Rxa4 and give up the b pawn and activate the rook behind Whit's b pawn
c) ...Rb5 and go for the pawn endgame

I thought that all the options would lead to a draw and chose option c, but managed to lose. The reason I lost was because I did not play b6 to cut off the White king.

That loss was hard to take. In round 4 I some how managed to draw a position that evaluated to +4.5! (I was white)

I had the following position in round 5 after the moves ...Bc2 and Rf1.
I played ...h6, allowing White to play e4 and trap my Bishop. Although I could have complicated matters with ...Rfd8, I did not find that move during the game & lost.

---

I met fellow blogger Donnie from Liquid egg product who tied for 1st in the U1600 section. We played a few blitz games after the event.

My next tournament will be the Pike's Peak Open in Colorado Aug 1-2. That will be on our 2009 road trip.

Houston Open History
2009..153..JACEK STOPA
2008...94..KIRILL KUDERINOV
2007..156..AMON SIMUTOWE
2006..123..DANIEL FERNANDEZ

World Open : Wisconsin's Alex Gianos-Steinberg wins $14,000 Alex Responds (see comments)

Alex won clear first with 8.0/9.0 ! in the U2000 section.

He is also Wisconsin's newest expert!

Who is Alex Gianos-Steinberg?

All I know about Alex is his MSA record at uscf. After his first tournament at the WCC in 2001, he has only played in the Chicago Open until now, with very good results.

2002 U1400 Tie for 26th
2003 U1400 Tie for 4th
2004 U1600 Tie for 22nd
2005 U1600 Clear 1st $5000
2006 U1800 Tie for 8th
2008 U1900 Clear 1st $5000