NC Class Championship

This past weekend I played in the NC Class Championship.  It was my first 'real' tournament that I have played in since competing in the Wisconsin Scholastic Championship back in 1997.  I know, I'm getting old.  This tournament also had the longest time control that I recall having ever played with a 30/90, SD 1.  Yes, I had one game that went from 7:30 PM until 12:15AM and only to draw.

Over all, I think I did pretty well, at the end of the tournament I scored three points with two wins, two draws and a loss.  But, I was way ahead in both draws before I decided to give it back.  Over all, my favorite and best played game was in the fifth and last round.  I entered this round with 2 points playing the second place player with three points.  To finish in second place I needed a win while a draw would have put my opponent in a clear second place slot.

Half way through the game, things looked like they could have been a draw so my opponent offered one.  Because I needed a win I had to decline and then to make counter play and to create some chances, I took his knight with my rook giving up the exchange but obtaining a strong attack.  In the end he lost the game because he missed a complicated mating situation but even if he didn't miss that mate, I think he would still have been hard pressed to win.

Overall, I think I preformed well because of a few simple rules.
1)  In the opening, just develop pieces to good squares and don't attack to early.
2)  Play slowly and gain as much space as you can.
3) Once you get the initiative, attack attack attack.

Here is my fifth game.  I still need to annotate it and I'm actually thinking of sending it into Chess Life.

Oh, so I took second place in the Class C division.  I'm very happy with that.

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd8 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. d3 Bg4 6. Nf3 e6 7. h3 Bh5 8. g4 Bg6 9. Ne5 Bb4 10. Bd2 Nbd7 11. Nxg6 hxg6 12. f4 Nb6 13. Bb3 Nfd7 14. Qf3 Qh4+ 15. Ke2 O-O 16. Be1 Qe7 17. h4 Nf6 18. h5 e5 19. f5 g5 20. h6 gxh6 21. Rxh6 Kg7 22. Rxf6 Qxf6 23. Ne4 Qh6 24. f6+ Kg8 25. Bxb4 Qh2+ 26. Ke3 Qf4+ 27. Qxf4 gxf4+ 28. Kf3 Rfd8 29. Rh1 a5 30. Be7 a4 31. Ng5 axb3 32. Rh7 bxa2 33. Rg7+ Kh8 34. Nxf7# 1-0