Yeah, it's a new experience. I have a unreliable junior rating, but no FIDE rating at the moment, but once the charts are updated I will :)

Good luck in your first!

are you fide rated or not yet ? I am playing my first tournament ever in my life trying to get a FIDE rating to know where I stand, OTB is quite different and a lot more exciting than online where sometimes you are not sure if your opponent is a complete human or half human half engine :)  to add more OTB games have that tension-psychology-nerve effect on ones play which I didnt experience before.

Thankyou Eric! Yes another person on this site felt the same way!

Using the open b-file would have been the way to go rather than trying to open the c-file.

Your opponent seemed quite lost strategically (and tactically as well, for that matter), but you handled the game nicely anyway. I think you should have played 13. bxc3 (instead of Rxc3) gaining easy control of the b file for your pieces (and your doubled pawns wouldn't stand bad at all) with good activity.

(Rybka here supports me and says that 13.Rxc3 is indeed a minor positional blunder)

Thankyou for your comments dalephilly!

So you think that 8.Nh4 was not a speculative move, that is possibly strong? No notation do you think?

Nice game!  I think 8.Nh4 was alright, I'm not sure why you gave it that notation, honestly.  I really like 22.Rd6, and yes it does look to me like black's only viable move is Qa5, leaving the queen on a sad square.  At that point, black's position looked pretty busted.  I spent a minute or two trying to see if 22...Qc7 could work for black, but 23.Rc6 kills that plan.

Time controls were 60mins + 30secs  per move.