Submitted by
chessiq on Fri May 30, 2008 10:05pm.
After winning 3 games in a row, I knew that maintaining the wins would be very hard as the opponents would get stronger. I also knew it would be fun playing higher rated players. So, the self-talk began. I suspected that the rest of players I woul... Read more »
Submitted by
chessiq on Fri May 30, 2008 7:15pm.
I went into my 4th game wanting to maintain the momentum I had (gained) after winning both my games the day before. I am looking at the scoresheet to see what I remember about this game, and it appears it was a pretty quick game. We had 6 hours to... Read more »
Submitted by
chessiq on Thu May 29, 2008 9:21pm.
The first two games featured "Indian Defenses" and I thought they were King's Indian Defenses. GotGoose correctly pointed out that those were Benoni Defenses. The third game was a Benoni. (Which one? Old? Classical? or...?) I am not ... Read more »
Submitted by
chessiq on Wed May 28, 2008 10:45pm.
After losing the first game with White, I decided to study/review the King's Indian Defense and use it as Black against 1.d4. In the previous couple of tournaments, I had played the Gruenfeld Defense. Going to this tournament, I had not settle... Read more »
Submitted by
chessiq on Tue May 27, 2008 10:11pm.
Here is my first game in the 17th Annual Chicago Open that I played in over the weekend. I was White, and I lost to a King's Indian Defense that I mishandled at various points. At first, I lost a bunch of tempos - (poor/inconsistent decisions)... Read more »
Submitted by
chessiq on Tue May 27, 2008 4:43pm.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, I participated in the 17th Annual Chicago Open, that took place at Westin Hotel (Chicago North Shore), Wheeling, IL. It was amazing seeing all the people that play the game. It was bigger than the previous big tourna... Read more »
Submitted by
chessiq on Sat Mar 8, 2008 2:41pm.
Here is my 5th and last game of the 2008 Mid-America Open tournament that was played last weekend. At the time, it appeared I was already assured of being in the top two or three. I needed a draw to be an outright winner. I do not know how to play... Read more »
Submitted by
chessiq on Sat Mar 8, 2008 10:55am.
Here is another Grunfeld Defense which almost went wrong! After winning three games in a row the day before, a friend told me that I was the only one with 3 points after 3 rounds in our section, U2000. It was exciting. Could I make it 4-0? This wa... Read more »
Submitted by
chessiq on Fri Mar 7, 2008 3:27am.
After winning the first two games, I was under some pressure to win the third game so that I could finish my day with 3 wins. I knew it was going be tough as the people I was playing were getting stronger. I told myself to not worry about it, as a... Read more »
Submitted by
chessiq on Thu Mar 6, 2008 6:06am.
Here is my second game of the 2008 Mid-America Open tournament. It was the Slav Defense of QGD. I was happy with how I had relentless pressure against the Black King. I later sacrificed a pawn for a winning attack... I have annotated the game and ... Read more »