PianoWow

I play tournament chess.  Chess is governed in the United States by the US Chess Federation (USCF).  Their website at uschess.org keeps track of ratings and tournament results. You can look up my profile here.

I recently played in a tournament, the 2009 Michigan Class championships, which dominated my entire weekend.  The format was 3 rounds of game in 120 the first day, and 2 rounds of game in 150 the second day. That’s three possibly four hour games, followed by two possibly five hour games, for a total of 22 hours of chess in one weekend.  I played in the C section.

I was doing very well after the first day, with a score of 3/3. My games all lasted under an hour, finishing quickly.  I was in clear first place, no one else having a perfect 3. I decided to take a half point bye in the fourth round, wanting to sleep in, and not have to play two possibly 5-hour long games on Friday. Three people had 2.5 points going into the fourth round. One of them, Terry Combs, was paired against someone with 1.5 points, and the other two played each other. I was very lucky to have their game end in a draw. Terry won, and so he and I were the only two going into the final round with 3.5 points. The game he and I played would decide the champion.

I played him last year at the same tournament as black, and he had a big advantage right out of the opening, and proceeded to clean my clock.  I checked my database for possible improvements on my opening before the game started, just in case I had black again.  This time, I would be prepared.

I did end up handling the black pieces again this year, and while he still got an advantage after the opening, it was much smaller than last year.  The middle game was a slow, positional struggle for the center.  I kept forcing him to retreat and to defend what control he had.  After some sublte maneuvering, I was the one with a slight edge.  He decided he wanted to trade queens, and I was happy to do so.  Afterwards, I was about to finally break through in the center, trade down to a better end game and win, but my opponent blundered… touch move style.  Three hours into the game, he picked up the wrong piece, and no matter where he put it, it lost material.  Up a piece, I won the endgame quickly.

It was a difficult, monumental, four-hour game.  I’ll remember it for many, many years. In the end, I wish I hadn’t won on a technicality.  But it was nice that even before he blundered, I had a winning position.

That game secured my victory as the 2009 Michigan Class C Champion.  I won a nice trophy and $175.

You can view the game on my chess blog, where I post all of my rated games.  Also of chess-related interest is the Lansing Chess Club blog, where I am a contributor.