February 2017 Calvin Chess

February Calvin Chess, Swiss 3 rounds, Game in 45 minutes, 5 second delay

Basically same people as last time, except there's a 2140 player. Hopefully I can give him a run.

Game 1: opponent 1348: I played a terrible middlegame, was down a pawn with a destroyed pawn structure, but my opponent blundered in the endgame, and I ground out a win. Ugly, ugly win.

Game 2: opponent 2140: So, the big game. My opponent had earlier said he had been suffering from the flu the past 5 weeks, but had been feeling better, so I wasn't sure what to expect. We went into a tame line of the opening I know best, so the opening went fine. I made a small mistake in the middlegame, but it didn't end up costing me. My opponent then gave me the option of trading my queen for two of their rooks. I thought to myself "if this was a more important game, I'd probably play more cautiously, but hey, this is 45 minutes a side (pretty short) at Calvin, so let's go for it and have an interesting game." I possibly would have played it in a more serious game, but I also would have had more time to think. So I went for it, and it soon became clear that my position after the trade was much better than either my opponent or I expected. But it was still tricky as this trade is very difficult for the side who has two rooks. I won a pawn, then a piece for two pawns, so I had two rooks and a bishop vs a pawn which was a sizable advantage, but it was hard to manage my time, and for a while, I couldn't break truth my opponent's defenses. Finally, with less than 5 minutes on my clock, I did, but my opponent moved in to try to cut my king off for mate. However, I was able to use this to threaten mate, and I got a favorable trade for his queen, and was able to get the win. Very tense and difficult game, but a success.

Game 3: opponent 1532: Finally played a good opening for once. My opponent sacrificed a pawn in the opening, and I took my time, figured out what I needed to do, and got into a great middlegame. And then promptly hung a piece to a simple tactic. I resigned immediately. Ugh. My rating will barely break even this tournament, even with last round's win.

In summary, I won a game playing terribly against a much worse player, I won a game playing really during against a much better player, and then started playing great but threw it all away against a much worse player. 2.0/3, rating will probably not change.