Live, from Foxwoods!
Submitted by
TimMoroney on Thu, 03/20/2008 at 9:37pm.
....Are we rolling? ...Is this keyboard on? ...Oh, oh! We're recording! I had better get started then.
Hello, everyone. This is my first blog posting here at Chess.com, so please excuse me as I make myself comfortable. Today I am writing from Mashantucket, CT; where I am competing in the 10th annual Foxwoods Open. This is my first year competing in Foxwoods, and I would like to take a moment to thank my sponsors for their help in making this possible. Thank you.
The Foxwoods Resort & Casino is a beautiful place for a tournament. Surrounded by forested hills it is truly a sight to witness. I can only imagine the view during more leafy seasons, with an endless coating of green frosting the tree tops; but as I do imagine it I believe it might look something like their website http://www.foxwoods.com. The inside is gorgeous, and the room is certainly the most lavish of those in which I have made my stay. Though it's difficult to compare with most hotels, as they don't tend to have the beneficial cash flow of a downstairs casino.
The trip in to the playing site was comfortable and fairly uneventful. I am traveling alone on this journey and tend to keep a bit quiet around myself, so I don't have many memorable qoutes to share from the plane ride. So without further entertaining discussion -- on to the next topic!
The turnout for the event seems great; though, admittedly I don't have previous experience to go on, and I haven't yet crunched through the numbers of previous years. I will update later with those figures, along with the final count of all this year's sections combined. In my section, the Open (top section), the final count comes to 119 players, of which I am ranked 101st. This tournament holds the largest turnout of titled players I recall ever having seen. We have 10 GM's, 11 IM's, 1 WIM, 21 FM's, and 1WFM.
Today was the second day of competition, and we have completed three matches so far. Round one was against FM Paul Mac Intyre (2286), a very interesting game in which I had a bishop and three connected passed pawns for a rook, but I missed the only definitively decisive line with 20 seconds left on my clock, resulting (after he, in turn, found the only saving resource in the position) in a full swing of the outcome of the came to my loss after 66 moves;
Round two I played FM Josef Friedman (2208), who put his FM abilities on display as he dispatched me convincingly in an unfamiliar line of the English Opening in just 31 moves;
Round three saw my first game against a non-titled player for the event, young Ryan Goldenberg (2167). He found me in an aggressive mode after my previous round. I sacrificed a pawn at move 14 in a Dutch Defense. He fell under very heavy time pressure, down to just 10 minutes on his clock by move twenty (out of the full 2-hours each player is given at the outset). Through a lot of complications my attack finally broke through at move 32, and there the game ended, with me claiming my first victory of the event.
And so I bring the second day of Foxwoods to a close (perhaps with a wiggle of my nose?), and look onward to the three remaining days of competition (which is quite competitive, by definition).
In recap: My score currently stands at 1.0 out of 3.0, all with decisive results (+1 =0 -2), and six matches still to play. Given my opening standing at 101 of 119, I would say a good final score would be 2.5 out of 9.0. I am aiming for at least 3.5.
Thank you everyone for your support and encouragement. More updates are to come!
More information about players and rounds, as well as up-to-date results and pairing info can be found online at http://www.foxwoodsopen.com. (note this is a different website from above)
Links from this blog:
http://www.foxwoods.com (Hotel Website)
http://www.foxwoodsopen.com (Chess Tournament Info)