Yesterday, I played in my first, rated OTB tournament since 2003. During my earlier, peak playing years, my USCF rating vacillated between 2010 and 1970, although when a returned to the game a few different times in late 90’s and early 00’s, my rating slipped down to the low 1900s, possibly at least a partial function of the noted deflation that had occurred among adult players due to the influx of juniors. My last published rating was 1913, so that is where I not begin again.

In the first round, I faced a 14 y.o boy whose rating on the wallchart was 1634, although I saw after the tournament was rated late last night that his “current” (e.g. floating, mid-month) rating was 1645, and after beating me, losing to a 2050, and then beating an 1898, he new “unofficial” rating is 1727 (!).

I’ve included the link to a Lichess llnk where I saved the game.

https://en.lichess.org/p05XSEDj/black




I played the Two Nights Defense to the Italian Game, and after sacrificing 4 pawns to my young opponent and previously eschewing a simplifying trade on d3, my pawn-snatching opponent blunders with 22. Qe3 -> Qd4??, allowing 22…Bxd3, 23. cxd3…Rxc3! My opponent now played 24. Kh1…




… and offered a draw, to which I responded “I’ll think about it” [yeah, right!]. As I dropped into a nearly 10 minute think, I didn’t like 24…Rxd3, 25. Qc4+…K moves, 26. g3 attacking the knight…BUT I FAILED TO SEE that…Qa8 leads to a mate

I also completely overlooked 24…Qg5!, which also leads to mate or heavy material losses.

Consequently, I could even have just retreated the R back down the c-file in order to consolidate and regroup.

Unfortunately, I played the horrific 24…Ne2??, and after 25. Qd5+ white wins the rook and eventually the game.

That was an awful lot of fireworks for my first tournament game in 14 years!

The rest of my day was anticlimactic, as I beat a 1750 college kid in 16 moves and then beat a 7 year old rated 1600 after I won a piece on move 13.

Really cool game... love the draw offer after Kh1 lol. I don't think I could look at myself in the mirror if I did stuff like that, but teenagers gonna teenager. This prolly goes without saying, but you play kinda maniacal!

The Ne2 move just looks like basic rust given that it is so inconsistent with how you played the rest of the game. I know that if I play a lot online but don't play OTB, my board vision gets all messed up and my nerves are less steady. I am sure you will quickly regain your top form OTB with a few more tournaments.

Congrats on the return to OTB chess. I also recently returned from a 10 year hiatus. Finished high school in the 1700s. After three tournaments this year, I'm in the 1650s due to losing to lower-rated juniors. I have a lot of work to do.

I feel like the board vision problem is even more pronounced for me since I now wear glasses. My everyday bifocals correct for distance (e.g. watching TV and driving) and mid-range (e.g. arms length for seeing my laptop). When I wear my bifocals and sit at a board, I can't easily see the entire board clearly.

For most of my three games yesterday I was wearing a pair of weak, store-bought reading glasses that I used to use to play live poker, although when playing chess I need to sit at least a foot back from the edge of the table to see most of the board clearly without having to move my head.

I'm still trying to figure out whether I may need to find another pair of glasses just for OTB chess

Very interesting game although not at all the style I seem to ever play.

It's kind of....strange to me that you play so aggressively sacrificing so much material and then make that kind of mistake after a 10 minute think. Obviously blunders like that happen where one just completely misses something after a long think. However, it would seem with your style that kind of mistake would either be happening left and right or basically not happen.

What was your calculation process like for that 10 minutes? Like, did you spaz out at the end and somewhat randomly play Ne2 after looking at Rxd3 for 9 minutes? I guess why I'm wondering is that you saw all sorts of fancier stuff than Qd5+, dxc3. In fact, the main line it sounds like you were analyzing involved Qc4+, which is a very similar type of move to Qd5+.

I am current ~1820 USCF and have put in quite a bit time studying the last couple years and not too much playing (yet). Feel free to drop by my log to tell me that my games are super boring. Actually, I should start posting the games I do play!

To be truthful, I never was an "attacking" player. Back in my peak years, I considered myself a defender and counterattacker (a la Korchnoi, LOL), and against 1. e4... I played almost exclusively the French.

But since starting up again in the fall and playing a lot online, I've been forcing myself to play more aggressively where the situation calls for it. But my combinational skills have not caught up with my interest in doing more swashbuckling. Given that I'm 53 years old, I'm not sure how much crisper or faster I can really can get the calculating part of my mind to work.




He had taken a good 10 minute think before playing ...Kh1, and during this time I had gotten up and stood about 20 feet from the board, realizing that I probably just walked into a won game, but reminding myself that the game was not over.

I can't easily remember what I was thinking when I sat back down, except that I was feeling a bit irritated at not seeing the board well, and I think after having now being in a state for close to 20 minutes where my rook was immune to capture, I sort of forgot that it could become vulnerable again very easily.

An excellent suggestion!