Winter Open 2018

David Kuhns directed a very nice tournament at the Roseville MN Skating Oval (in a large meeting room, not out on the ice). If you like to ice skate, Minnesota is the place for it.

The top section was FIDE rated, and I achieved my major goal of playing 3 or more FIDE rated players in one tournament (which starts a FIDE rating).

I played well against 5 higher rated players. I messed up my openings as usual, but managed to bring it around in the middle game: two wins, two draws, and a loss in the last round. I really like the time control game 90 with 30 sec increment. The head reshaping from the OLE chess camp is still working for time issues. I had no time pressure in any game.

I was tired in the last round and perhaps did not play my best. I need to work on my chess stamina.

My opening theory is really rusty. In particular, I need to work on mainline KID as black and QGD/Catalan where black plays ...Ne4 as white.

My second round game was a wild one, where we were off into new territory on my 4th move. I sacced a pawn early and gained great pressure from it. It was the only game in which I was better out of the opening.

Play online chess

game viewer from gameknot.com


Update: I now have a FIDE rating. I had played enough FIDE rated players in FIDE rated tournaments prior to the Winter Open. My rating is 1951 which is about my USCF rating. This should be good news for my opponents, as most FIDE ratings around here lag their USCF by up to 200 points.