My (awful) performance pt. 1 of 3

Submitted by mueller on Tue, 09/02/2008 at 8:18pm.

I decided to go to the Oregon Open Chess tournament. I did about as comically middle of the road as possible. My wins from blunders, my loses were due to blunders. It was a 3 day tournament, 2 rounds a day, 40/20 SD/1. I can make excuses, but basically I just need to focus more and not try to wrap the games up quickly.

I finished this game in about 5 minutes, and had lots of time to spend until the 2nd round began about 6 hours later.

The second round was a much tougher fight. I was paired against Yun Teng.

I still have 4 more games, and I will post them in the next couple days. I know my annotations are more of my thoughts than specific move sequences, but I figure if I can correct the way I think, it will be a greater improvement than if I can merely list possibilities of play.

» posted in mueller's Blog

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Comments:

by estevon - 10 months ago
Maine United States

Member Since: Oct 2008
Member Points: 1481

White 22nd move against Yun-Teng should been to Pc4 instead of Rfd1.

White 23rd move should of been to Rd8 indtead of R4d2.

by estevon - 10 months ago
Maine United States

Member Since: Oct 2008
Member Points: 1481

Mark McNown 7th move should of been to Bf5 instead of (Queen captures Pawn=d4).

by rellswor - 13 months ago
Eugene, OR United States

Member Since: Aug 2008
Member Points: 389

Thanks for sharing your experiences with me. I play in my first tourny, Santa Fe Open, this Saturday. I'm going to be sure to focus and not try to force the game.

Best, -Randy

by mueller - 14 months ago
United States

Member Since: Feb 2008
Member Points: 230

For me, I wasn't really particularly nervous, but instead I was just mostly impatient. Whenever my opponent took a long time to make a move, instead of using that time, I just sort of wandered around and thought about what I would do after the game was over. I am hoping by going 2-2-2 at this one due to stupid mistakes, I will be more patient and thoughtful at the next tournament.

I feel like I did bad because I didn't play well rather than doing bad because I was horribly outclassed by all the other players. If they were all much better than me I would probably be more discouraged because as far as casual games go in coffeeshops, I rarely lose and I'm doing pretty good online. But there definitely is a difference between playing online and playing OTB at tournaments.

by davidetal - 14 months ago
Tarragindi Australia

Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 1755

Good for U for playing in the OTB world.I have yet to do that; feel nervous about it for whatever bizzarre reason.

Enjoyable games (well, the second one!) In the second, why not 5 Bd3? Or 5 Bg5. Or even 5 Nxf6 bxf6 6 Qd4. 5 f3 seems unlikely to me, though it wasn't a big problem in the game. Agreed: 22. Rfd1 was probably the losing moment. Thanks for sharing.

by Burnt_Toast - 14 months ago
Queens, NY United States

Member Since: Nov 2007
Member Points: 18

I just wanted to say that I sympathize with your tournament performance. I went to my first tournament a month ago and went one for three, winning the one after losing a rook in a blunder and losing the other two horribly. I think nerves have a lot to do with it. I think with exposure to tournament conditions you'll calm down. At least that's the theory I am counting on.

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