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.
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:
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.
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