I didn’t end up playing Michelle Chen in round 4, but our own Steve Eddins of the Steve Learns Chess blog. I played my Scandinavian against him and got myself in trouble when he fianchettoed opposite mine and I didn’t take adequate defensive measures and dropped a piece. I played on and had a reasonable position (for being down a piece) where I made is bishop as bad as I could. It wasn’t enough and he ground me down.
In the final round I played Travis Nilsson, rated 1427. He played the French against me and I tried my KIA for the first time in an OTB game. I made some mistakes, but his were worse. I hope to put some notes in this game and stick it online later. At any rate, he got his pieces all twisted up and had to give one up (though he had chances to avoid it). He ultimately resigned about 40 moves in, down a piece and having used only 15 minutes. I think if he’d played a little slower he could have made this a better game.
So, I went 2.5/5 (with a half point bye) in the U1800 section and raised my rating to 1354. Thanks again to Mr. Frymer for prodding me to play up a section. In spite of the beatings I took I think I played reasonably well, and I’m learning that those 14, 15 and 16oo players aren’t really so scary after all.
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