UNM Octagon

Well my first rated tournament has come and gone! Saturday, March 1st, 2008 was my first rated tournament and I didn't do too bad! I came in third place and I won the U1100 section for a measly prize of $10!. There was only three rounds and my results were pretty much a break even: One win, one loss, and one draw. My opponents were pretty low rated players and I should have won every game but it turns out I wasn't fortunate enough to capitalize my advantages. My first game was against a 1209 player. He opened 1.d4 against me and I matched 1...Nf6. I played the King's Indian Defense for the first time and it seemed pretty successful. I came out of the opening a pawn up and I gave it right back for no apparent reason. He offered a draw and I took it. My second round opponent(another 1200) was the same player whom I played my first rated game. I felt a little nervous just for the fact that he beat me my very first rated game but I was also confident. My confidence payed off as the game was pretty much a complete slaughter house(as you will see shortly). I played 1.e4 and headed straight for the Scotch Gambit. He transposed to an odd line of the Italian which didn't bother me one bit. My last round opponent was a little stronger (1300+). I took the Black side of the Sicilian Scheveningen. I came across a position where one simple pawn move would have won the game for me, but I completely missed the opportunity and the game. I learned several lessons from that game. Here's the diagram of the said position:


My last move was 12...Nc5. My point was to put more pressure on e4. My opponent responded 13.Bf2?. The winning move for black would have been 13...b4!! but instead of the brilliant move, I played Nxd3 followed by a couple more blunders and the game was lost for me. Well here are all the games in order of rounds:








My provisional is now 1101(p6) which is up over 100 points! I know it's not much but I 'm very excited to finally have my rating over 1000! You can look at the final postings of the tournament at NMChess.org. It's nice to see my name on the front page there!