Las vegas tournament- half time analysis
I have 2 hours to go before the next round and instead of indulging in gambling and escaping reality, I thought of doing a little introspection analysis here of what went wrong and correct. I am playing in the U-2200 section of las vegas open, and I am in the top 5 seeds for my section. This is the first time ever I am playing in a section other than the 'top' section. I have mixed feeling about this, I never thought I would not be competing for the absolute best, but also this tournament involves a lot of money, so I thought I would stand a good chance to gain something here. One painful thing to be in mind is I have to be very careful in this section because most of my games I would be playing against lower rated players and I have to win against them to maintain my rating. Winning is not simple!
Right now I stand at 2/3 a bad score but what I am saddened is more by my blunder rather than my result. Let's first see the game that I lost now.
I saw Bg5 move when I am about to press the clock! What's going on in my mind? Has vegas got into me or something? How can I miss this simple move that traps my queen?
What has gone wrong, I made a serious blunder. Am I new to this? No, when I starting now I was very much like this, getting excited and carried away by the greatness of my plans. I am reading in this Kebu's article that most of the blunders are made in a heightened state of excitement and I think this is what happened to me. I was tempted by the great classical KID struggle ahead and was only thinking of my opponent moves that would help my plan. I am not thinking his best move or better yet - thinking in his shoes for my imaginary move.
Honestly speaking, I should have gotten this treatment even in my first round, I again missed an obvious move and had to sacrifice my queen for 2 pieces. I only won because my opponent was in time pressure and did not make the right moves. Let's see that game now.
