Thoughts on the 2009 Texas Amateur Championship
Submitted by on Sat, 06/06/2009 at 7:58pm.
I recently competed in the 2009 Texas State and Amateur Championships held in San Antonio, Texas. It as a great tournament and wonderful experience.
For me personally, my results did not meet my expectations; however, my play exceeded imagination. My goal was to score 3.5/7 in the tournament. However, because I needed a half-point bye in Round 6, 3/6 was my personal goal. I finnished 2.5/7 for the tournament and scored 2/6 personally. I was quite disappointed in this respect.
I worked really hard in the days leading up to the tournament and felt well prepared. I was also well rested and ready for the fight. My belief is that these were the keys to good play. It was unbelievable how exhausted I would become as the tournament progressed and how much it would affect the end result.
This was not my first tournament, but it did feel like a bit of a comeback. I've been playing competitive chess for many years, and at times it feels like an eternity has passed since the previous tournament. The last tournament I participated in was back in November and I only played two rounds. Hardly a huge effort even though I won both games.
So now, after reflecting on what I have learned the past several weeks and what preparations need to be improved upon for this month's City Championship, I'm renewed with a sense of confidence in my play I have not felt in a long time. And at the same time some insecurity knowing that I will not be able to learn everything that I want to learn in less than two weeks.
I will plan on preparing in much the same way as I did for the Amateur Championship, but with a bit more emphasis on my tournament strategy. The one lesson I learned that I hope to apply is that while I can play the tournament one individual game at a time, I will have to also consider the tournament as a whole and ask myself: "How will this game or this position I am in help me to achieve my greater goal?"
Having killer instinct and playing to win every single game, every time is necessary to win tournaments, but not so to achieve my goals. I found playing to win to be very taxing on energy and that hurt my ability to perform in such a long tournament. Determination will get me to where I want to be eventually and for now, it will carry me to victory.