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.
Last edited by DrChesspain; 02-26-2017 at 02:52 PM.