My First Tournament - Results

I finished my first tournament last weekend, the Austin Chess Club April Standard Swiss. Overall I played OK, but there was a lot of room for improvement. My final score was 2.5/4 (2 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss). My performance rating was 1478 according to the USCF website, so I assume that will be my provisional rating. Overall I had fun, but really wish I had done better in that first game which was just terrible. Hopefully I can just chalk that up to "first tournament anxiety". We shall see! I think I learned a lot, so it was a good experience. Feel free to check out the games. I'm not happy with all my notes on them yet, but I figured if I waited to finish them before posting the games I would never get around to it.

I'm not sure I will play in the May event since I'm fairly busy, but next month there is another 4 round tournament where I can play in the U1800 section. That should be fun!

I had a tough loss against my weekly sparring partner OJ last week. I resigned with a mate in on the board because due to a poor thought process I was not checking the checks. This was after having a very nice position in the middlegame. I'm glad I lost since it has really motivated me to work on my thought process. I still have a long ways to go, but in my last two games (the tournament and a game against Chris Kilgore) my thought process was better. Not 100%, but better than usual. I guess a good drubbing really helps every now and then!

Anyway, I'm currently working on tactics, reviewing master games, and trying to broaden my repertoire a little bit since I was out of book very quickly in my tournament games.

Hope everyone is well!