Chop Wood, Carry Water: The First Postmortem
So, I survived. That’s a good start.
In most ways the tournament was about what I expected. Tougher than it would seem, not too formal, and definitely about endurance as much as pure skill. There were a few things I wish I did differently, and I realized that even before I sat down for the first game.
Still, this went reasonably well, even with a few hiccups. Doing this thing with a friend definitely made it better.
13/10, would recommend.
So before I get too deep into the weeds, here are my top line results:
Previous Rating (USCF): Unrated
Round One: Win
Round Two: Loss
Round Three: Loss
Round Four: Win
Round Five: Draw (1/2 pt bye)
Total points: 2.5/5
Final Table Position: 13th (out of 24)
Current Rating: 722
Not a bad first showing, but definitely some room for improvement. I stumbled in the middle, and I’m not sure how much of that was fatigue — I didn’t get as much sleep as I planned to — and how much of it was just shortcomings in my game.
I had meant to get in a quick nap on our lunchbreak, but the event started half an hour late and the Tournament Director made up the difference with a shortened lunch. I’d like to think that with a couple hours more sleep (and with fewer first-time nerves) I could’ve gotten a result out of one of my two losses. Of course, I really did play poorly in those games, and even the ones I won weren’t my best work.
In terms of the expectations I set for myself, I pretty much split the difference. I met my first two — getting at least one positive result, and getting at least one win. I tied with a few other players at 2.5pts, and I might’ve finished in the top half of the table but for a lower rating. Obviously I didn’t score high enough to win a chess clock. I did win an extra book for finishing with a positive score.
One other neat thing: I ranked second among all the unrated players. (There were eight of us. One player ahead of me posted 3.5 points and finished 5th overall.)
So, again, a decent showing all things considered.
Here’s how my games played out. You can play through them all on Lichess.
Round One: Bryant Hendrick vs James Bridget Gordon
1.d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. Rb1 d6 5. g4 Bxg4 6. Rg1 O-O 7. h3 Bxf3 8. exf3 e5 9. Ne2 exd4 10. Nxd4 Re8+ 11. Ne2 c5 12. Bd2 Nc6 13. Bg2 Nd4 14. Kf1 Qd7 15. Nxd4 cxd4 16. Be1 Qb5+ 17. c4? dxc3+ 18. Qe2 Qxe2# 0–1
Round Two: James Bridget Gordon vs Jade Bates
1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 g6 3. e3 Bg7 4. Nf3 O-O 5. c3 d6 6. h3 Nbd7 7. Nbd2 c5 8. Bd3 a6 9. a4 Rb8 10. c4 Re8 11. dxc5 Nxc5 12. Bc2 e5 13. Bg3 Bd7 14. O-O b5 15. axb5 axb5 16. cxb5 Bxb5 17. Re1 Bd3 18. Bb1 Rxb2 19. Ra2 Rxa2 20. Bxa2 Qd7 21. Ng5 Rf8 22. Bc4 h6 23. Bxf7+ Rxf7 24. Nxf7 Qxf7 25. Nb3 Qxb3 26. Qxb3+ Nxb3 27. Rd1 Nc5 28. f4 Nfe4 29. Be1 exf4 30. Bb4 Bb5 31. Bxc5 dxc5 32. Rd8+ Kh7 33. exf4 c4 34. Rb8 Ba6 35. Rb6 Bd4+ 36. Kf1 Bxb6 0–1 White resigns
Round Three: Kevin Oberhausen vs James Bridget Gordon
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. Bb5 Bd7 6. c4 dxc4 7. dxc5 Qa5+ 8. Nc3 Bxc5 9. Bxc4 Rd8 10. O-O Nge7 11. Bd2 Nb4 12. a3 Nbd5 13. Nxd5 Ba4 14. b3 Bxb3 15. Qxb3 Bxf2+ 16. Rxf2 Qc5 17. Be3 Qa5 18. Bb5+ Nc6 19. Bd2 Qxb5 20. Qxb5 O-O 21. Nf6+ gxf6 22. exf6 Nd4 23. Nxd4 Rxd4 24. Qg5+ 1–0 Black resigns
Round Four: James Bridget Gordon vs Lois Bugg Shadrick
1. d4 Nc6 2. Nf3 a5 3. Bf4 e5 4. Bg3 exd4 5. Nxd4 Nxd4 6. Qxd4 c5 7. Qe3+ Be7 8. Bd6 Nf6 9. Qxe7+ Qxe7 10. Bxe7 Kxe7 11. Nc3 d6 12. e4 Ra6 13. Bxa6 Bg4 14. Nd5+ Nxd5 15. exd5 bxa6 16. O-O h5 17. Rfe1+ Kf6 18. f3 Bf5 19. c4 g5 20. Rf1 h4 21. h3 Ke5 22. Rae1+ Kd4 23. b3 g4 24. fxg4 Bd3 25. Rd1 Rh6 26. Rf4+ Ke3 27. Rf3+ Ke2 28. Rdxd3 Ke1 29. Rf1+ Ke2 30. Rdf3 a4 31. g3 hxg3 32. Rxg3 Kd2 33. bxa4 Kc2 34. Rff3 Kb2 35. Rg2+ Kc1 36. Rf1#
Round Five: Bye
Some stray observations:
While familiarizing myself with tournament etiquette was definitely a good thing, it was wholly unnecessary for this game. The TD ran things pretty casually, and that plus short-handedness meant there were one or two issues (besides the late start time). There was a lot more conversing between players than I thought there’d be. In Round Four there were even arguments, one in a game between two adults who needed the TD to resolve a rules dispute, and another at the board right next to me between two kids who were getting a little too rambunctious. So with regards to etiquette and formality, I feel like I over-prepared a bit. I suspect this is due in part to the number of children who were competing — I wonder how different it would be if I played in the Plus-Score event down the hall, or in some other competition with a different Adult-To-Child ratio.
(To be clear, I’m not dissing on the presence of kids there. My first two opponents were young’uns, and my Round 2 opponent, a girl of about 9–12, totally wrecked my shit. But there were one or two issues that came with having that many kids, and one of them did cause a distraction in my last game, for me and my opponent.)
Another unexpected hiccup — the TD decided right before the start of the first round to merge the two sections, so the U1200s were playing the U800s. That seems like kind of a big decision to make on the fly, but, again, this is my first tournament.
I also over-prepared in terms of what to bring. Sets and clocks were provided, and it definitely wasn’t worth it to bring my own, at least to this specific event. Also, I probably could’ve left a few things from my checklist at home. At least I know now!
And then the last thing I want to mention was my last opponent. Lois was just a lovely person to talk to inbetween rounds. It was her first tournament as well — she’s a teacher and leads a chess club at her school — and she brought a level of whimsy to the proceedings that I feel like chess could use more of.
One of her things was giving plastic chess piece keyring fobs to all of her opponents.
Better than any trophy.
