Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Continued Slide

The MN Winter Open provided me much material to learn from: +1-2=2. I started the tournament with a loss to a master in an endgame, which I entered with a slight advantage. I finished the tournament by getting crushed by an expert while defending with a Pirc (I relied on a failed combination to hold my position together). My two games as white were in my new openings (Open Catalan and Tarrasch), in which I made opening errors and had to struggle to get draws.

I definitely need more experience in my new openings, a lot of experience. Once the chess season is over, I will definitely work more online games into my routine.

Based on my game with the master (who played a kind of QGD in reverse, so I went with a kind of Catalan in reverse), I think my opening change will be good for me. I will be stressed in exactly the areas of Chess where I am weak and need work.

It sure is going to play havoc with my rating, in the short term, though.

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