Man, I'm tired.
I lost my fourth game, and it's the only game I played today that left me feeling disappointed. I'm anxious to go back through the game and see if I was doing as...okay as I thought I was doing. I was playing a pretty tight game and was even up a pawn, but my opponent (another unrated player, a UT student) forced me into a really weak pawn structure. That meant that while I was trying to put an attack together, I had to defend all of my loose pawns as well. The reason I'm disappointed is because I worked hard to get back into the game, and I even had some good attacks going - but in the end, I was a pawn down and it ended up costing me the game. I was fighting for a draw, then got the lead, then was fighting for a draw again. I even considered offering a draw earlier in the game - I wonder if he would've accepted. I should have asked him after the game.
So, all in all I posted one win and three losses. Considering the fact that my goal was to get a single draw, I can't really complain. I learned a lot and played over 6 hours of chess across 4 games, and maybe most importantly, I learned some things that will help me get better. And I talked to the mother of the two kids that beat me, and she said they both told her I played very well for an unrated player (verifying that they meant it when they told me - and yes, I'm hanging by the compliments of ten-year-olds). The people were really nice, in general. Actually there was a pair of hooligans that were college-aged and cocky and loud, but I didn't have to play either one, thankfully.
I was there from 8:45 am to 6:15 pm - kind of ridiculous! Some of my online chess friends told me to get plenty of sleep, to eat well, to stay away from caffeine until the afternoon, etc., all of which were great recommendations. I can't blame my last game on being tired, though, because my opponent and I talked before the game about how exhausted we were and how much the level of exhaustion surprised us both! It's too bad I didn't burn any calories along the way.
The tourney was a great experience for me. I'm proud of myself for jumping into it without anyone there with me, and I hope to play in another tournament sometime soon, maybe in Cleveland before my internship starts. Anyone who wants to see my games (read:Derek), let me know.
I have much else to post, starting tomorrow, with pictures from Ashley and Max's visit to my trip to Tunica with Dad. Have a good weekend!
1 comment:
hey what's up, man. to answer your question, i probably wouldn't have accepted a draw just because i was curious how things would turn out even if i lost. hope the analysis proves enlightening, let me know if you have any insights. do you have any software to help with that? suppodedly fritz and chessbase are great resources for dissecting matches though i haven't tried either of them.
-ian
Post a Comment