Waldorf Open Round 1

I played in the Waldorf Open yesterday, and tied for 1st in the U1600 Section. The guy I tied with I drew in the third round, in a game where I had a lot of pressure, and then something went wrong, and then he had a lot of pressure. We both ended with 3.5/4. I was talking to him later and he said he played in the HP Challenge in Minnesota, so he is the level of player I will see in Philadelphia. Anyways, we will get to that later.

In my first round game I decided to go back to 2. Nf3 against 1.. e5. I know so much about the Ruy Lopez it really doesn't make sense for me not to use it in my money games. But me and the King's Gambit had a very hot, if short relationship, but it was one of those relationships where you know that it could never really go anywhere, it was just for a few months of fun. Now I am back to the old and steady Ruy Lopez. You know exactly what you are going to get when you play it (unless the other player does something devious like 2... Nf6). Now I'm not saying that I won't take the old KG out for a one-nighter every now and then, because we both know I will, but the Ruy will become my everyday opening again. I feel that this is the opening I am going to use at the World Open.

Anyways, I had an easy win going (my moderately rated opponent dropped a piece on move 5) and instead of just simplifying I kept the pieces on and practiced my tactics. This is good and fine if this were the only game I was playing today, but I had six hours of chess to go after this game, and I think it suffered because I used too much energy. From now on, in an early round of a tournament, if I am up a piece, I am just going to hoover the pieces off and win in the endgame, and save all of my energy.

Askine 1597 - NN 581

I will post the second game later tonight.