The 2006 New Year Open-A Weekend and a Monday at the Chess Club

I've used the same format I employed in my comments on the 32nd Annual Eastern Open so the entry is split into 3 days with my impressions on anything and everything to do with the tournament that I experienced on those particular days.

Day 1: The first day of the biggest (to the best of my knowledge) open tournament to happen in Kansas City in awhile showed promise for a smoothly run event. My first game was an exhausting 3-4 hour 84 move marathon in which I barely managed to squeeze out a win but definitely an interesting battle! This was followed by a complete screw up in the second game which I managed to lose in a mere 23 moves but that provides an important lesson in playing to your strengths since I chose the Two Knights Defense when my track record with it is very poor. These long time controls have been brutal but allow for some very interesting games since you generally have the time to find creative moves.

Day 2: This was another smoothly run day with no major hiccups that I was able to notice and my play was fairly decent although I didn't play particularly well after gaining the advantage of a pawn in the second game but managed to rise to the occasion in a tense rook endgame with careful play to garner the point. The first game provided a reminder that one quick inaccurate move can kill an otherwise meticulously played slow paced game since a wrong relocating of the rook after easing the pressure in a tough position left me down a pawn with a subsequent loss of the game. There's been a phenomenal level of sportsmanship displayed by all of my opponents and I noticed this trend in observation of other player's encounters as well. This day was also marked by feverish bughouse activity in the skittles room that provided for a lively spectacle apart from the main event.

Day 3: The last day of the tournament wasn't nearly as packed as the first two because of the beginning of the work week and thus many people took byes to be at their respective places of employment but there was still a decent number of players. I ended up being reminded of the importance of having a fighting spirit and playing tough even in the face of what may appear as a hopelessly lost situation when I was faced with a bishop vs knight endgame with 3 pawns down but managed to create an outside passer. This led to a pawn race with both sides queening but I had the move and was thus able to continuously check my opponent's king with the outcome being a draw by perpetual check with proper play but I traded queens on the basis of visualizing the resulting king/pawn endgame as drawn but this turned out to be a misvisualization leading to a loss. There appeared to be no major problems in the operation of the tournament and the atmosphere was just as pleasant as the previous two days with excellent sportsmanship being displayed as far as I could tell.