Journey to NM - Free Fallin

Hello there, welcome to the Lightning Reports! Recently, I had the opportunity (and by opportunity, I mean I paid a buncha money to fly across the country to move plastic figurines around a checkered board... go me!) to compete in the 2024 World Open. This was my first and, I assume, last World Open. To me, it’s one of those events a serious player just has to experience if possible, ya know? I've heard there's nothin quite like the World Open.  Now although I’m here for the experience… I’m here for rating as well. I enter the event as one of the higher-rated players in the U2200 section at 2157 (I believe I started somewhere near the top ten based on rating). I honestly enter this believing I could win the whole dang thing with a little bit of luck. However, winning the tournament isn’t my goal, if I could just score 7/9 and gain a good amount of rating, I would be very pleased. Anywho, we have ourselves a long blog here with 9 games, so stick around and see what went down in Philly!

ROUND ONE

World Open here we go! I chose to play the 4-day schedule because the 3-day schedule looked rather ridiculous, and the 5-day schedule meant an extra night paying for a hotel room. Because I played the 4-day schedule, the time control for my first two games is G60 d10. Games 3-9 are G90 D30, plus 30 additional minutes if you make it to move 40. And I am playing in the U2200 section because... I felt like I should be able to perform well enough to win some money.

Now. In round one, I was predictably paired down with a 1972-rated player. Obviously, I am aware not to judge anyone here based on their rating, but I absolutely expect to win games against anyone below 2100 here. If I just play like I should be playing at my rating, and I don’t face any undercover masters, what could go wrong? My first opponent, thankfully, was not an undercover master, but he sure put up a fight…

Alrighty, what a nice start to the event! I was very surprised when he let me take on c5 early on, I figured I would take it and make him prove he’s ok. Worst case scenario, I outplay him. Twas quite the enjoyable start to the event, but there's still a lot of chess to be played. This is only the beginning...

ROUND TWO

Alrighty, round two now and I’m feeling good, if the first game was any indication it looks like I’m gonna be playing good chess here in Philly. Up next I must face a strong 2066-rated player. I knew he was going to play the exchange French defense, which greatly displeased me. However, I came prepared….

Let’s gooo, 2/2! I was extremely pleased with the results so far, and quite happy with that game. I had never played 4… Nc6 before, but I knew the theory well enough to dare try it. I have no regrets. My opponent sure as heck made me work for it, but it was worth it in the end. As for him, he actually didn’t lose another game in the event, he had a few wins and draws, so good for him. 

ROUND THREE

Dude. I’m 2/2 so far with 2, in my opinion, well-played games. I’m playing good chess and I’m among the very few with 2/2, I'm pumped! Things could not be going better, and I’m very optimistic about reaching my 7/9 goal. Happy, right? Now on to rounds 3-9, where the time control changes to G90 D30, plus 30 minutes added after move 40.

In round three I was paired with a 2098-rated player. Honestly, there isn’t much to show in this game…

Yeah. That was just an extremely easy draw. I wasn’t thrilled by that but in retrospect, I am - this kid had an outstanding tournament and tied for 5th place, I'm glad I drew him. At the time of course I didn’t love having to draw so easily, but I figured 2.5/3 is a perfectly reasonable and respectable score. He played it well. 

ROUND FOUR

At 2.5/3 I am fairly happy with the results so far and I'm content with how I have played. I am extremely optimistic about the rest of the event. In round four I was paired with a 2045-rated player. Ok, cool, if I just keep doin what I'm doin I'm not gonna lose. Heh.

Yeah… tough loss, man. He played very well though, he earned that win by outplaying me. I dare say I helped him out by using a stupid amount of time on moves 12-20 and then lacking proper time to think and calculate thoroughly for the rest of the game. But really, I made an inaccurate decision and gave him a slight advantage by move 15… and he never let it go. It’s crazy, I'm not used to 2000s playing such mistake-free chess. I determined upon analyzing the game that he was underrated - I believe I was correct, he had a fantastic tournament and jumped all the way up to 2111. Very well played, GG.

ROUND FIVE

Ya know. It’s crazy how fast life comes at you. One minute you’re 2.5/3 and dreaming of winnin the whole stinkin thing. The next, you’re 2.5/4 and playing someone 300 points lower rated than you. I was rather annoyed by this set of circumstances. You see, my opponent on the pairings is marked as a 2000 - good, I should be playing a 2000 this round. That's what I want. However, he’s 2000 under a foreign rating… and only 1800 USCF. So seemingly he is at least 2000 strength but playing under an 1800 rating. Frankly… I got screwed there. Y’all are aware I very much dislike playing anyone a bit lower rated than me. Anyone below 2000… just not ideal. Especially when he’s 1800 and playing for a draw. Even still I felt confident I could win this one...

Yeah. I drew an 1800. In fairness, yes, he’s 2000 under a foreign rating, and he actually beat and drew other 2100s in this event, so he seemed to perform at a 2100 level in this event. But my gosh that sucks. If he was 2000 then it would be ok, but drawing an 1800 as a 2150 felt like a loss to me. Yes, I know he is not really an 1800... but this game is rated with him as an 1800, so that hurts my rating. Nonetheless, he played very well and earned it, he did nothing wrong, and that's hard to beat no matter what your rating is. He played quite well and earned the draw, GG.

ROUND SIX

Alright, well, suddenly I’m 3/5 and must win out to meet my 7/9 goal. Doable. It’s not like I’ve played badly so far - on the contrary, I’ve been rather content with my play. The results simply aren’t as ideal. Anywho, up next I face a 1985-rated player. I gotta tell y’all though, I almost didn’t make it to this game. That morning was a sleep through an hours worth of alarms type of morning… don’t ask how. I don’t know. I just know I awoke with a start when I noticed my game started ten minutes prior. By the time I got to the board, I was down about 20 minutes of time maybe? Not great for someone who uses all his time. But it’s fine, I felt awake, and ready to play. Surely I can beat this 1980. 

... yeah. Yikes. A loss so bad I could hardly even rant about it. I didn’t even want to talk about it, this was one I just wanted to forget about, slowly bottle up my emotions, and hope the next game goes well. During the game, I knew I had messed up the opening… and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. I tried and I failed miserably. I thought my f5-g5 idea was neat - and if it had gone according to my calculations, then it was fine. But my brain went on a vacation for this game and my position was promptly blown up. Totally lost by move 13. I was completely crushed by this, I couldn’t even pretend to be totally interested after the game when my opponent not so quietly told me everything I thought I already knew I did wrong (as it turns out, everything he told me was correct and I was wrong). I offered a small, probably sad, smile, and nodded as he educated me on how terribly I played. GG, well played. My opponent had a very strong event and appears to have been quite underrated (noticing a theme here…?) as he gained a large amount of rating... just like most of my opponents seem to have done.

ROUND SEVEN

Well. Suddenly I’m 3/6. I’m extremely bummed and I’m not quite sure what the heck is going on. How could I collapse like this? I’m better than this. I should not be 3/6. I have got to win the next game...

Ha

Haha

Hahahahaha

*goes crazy*

I’m playing a 9-year-old rated 1970. Sure. Kick me while I’m down. Why not. Make me play another underrated kid. Based on how things have been going, I had no doubt going into the game he was stronger than his rating. I still felt good about my chances… I’ve only had one game I was unhappy with. Just play good chess and I’ll be fine.

… Well, it's official. I'm free fallin.
That wasn’t a 1970. He played near-perfect chess and he saw seemingly everything. I was getting slowly outplayed and then blundered badly with very little time left, and everything collapsed. The kid was very nice, and I’m happy for him, he’s going to be a force at the chess board for years to come. I was happy to smile and talk a little about the game after and wish him luck in his remaining games. But truthfully I was dying inside. Absolutely dying. I’m 2157… and I’ve got a 3/7 score. But of course, I did what I normally do and I bottled up my emotions and got ready for the final two games, can't dwell on the losses for long when there is more chess to be played. But gosh was I hurting. I told my parents I might be broken…. and that I didn’t understand what was happening… or why this was happening…. bleh. It took me a while to come to terms with this though - I'm playing good chess. I've only had one really bad game. But my opponents are playing great chess. These kids are simply outplaying me. There’s only so much I can do. I’ve had no luck here. All I can do is tough it out and try to finish strong… 

ROUND EIGHT

At this point I don’t even care who I play, I’m gonna give him heck. I desperately need a win - to not lose more rating, and to just prove I can win. My confidence may be at an all-time low at this point, I'm not usually this nervous about playing an 1800 but here we are. Of course, playing an 1800 next isn’t ideal for my rating… but again, I literally don’t care. I just need a win. Let’s finish strong in Philly…

Oh praise the Lord, I so desperately needed that win. Not even to salvage rating... I really just needed to prove to myself I was even capable of still winning a game. The first ten moves weren’t the most accurate but I had that planned out because I like the position for black after f6 is played. Most people make the mistake of capturing the knight, or capturing the pawn and then the knight. Granted, I wasn’t sure how to prove it was bad when he took the knight, but I knew black's position was better and I just had to spend a ton of time trying to figure it out. In the end it was worth it. Plus my opponent was super nice and chill about it after the game. Most of my opponents weren’t interested in talking after the game so that was a nice change of pace, I definitely appreciated that after such a long torturous tournament. Thanks man, GG.

ROUND NINE

Well, I’m now 4/8 and still desperate for a final win. My initial elation from my previous victory passed quickly - I took more joy in simply not losing than I did in winning. I go into the final game just over it all. I’m over this tournament and so ready for it to end. Yet at the same time… I care a ton about this last game and I relish a chance to finish strong and save some rating. And I'm not ready for this tournament to end, I'm even sad my time in Philly is nearly over. Yeah, I had very mixed feelings. As for my young opponent, rated 1962, I wasn’t thrilled to be playing another probably underrated kid. But I was ready. Let's end this thing.

As @alphaous remarked, “bro tried to french mr. snow” haha. I of course feel quite prepared to face the opening I know better than any other. But also that was my first time playing that line otb. I was nervous as heck but didn’t show it (I like to think that at least) - in fact, I blitzed out most of my moves, it was great. Beyond the opening… yeah the game was sloppy, but I won’t beat up on myself for that as it was at the end of a grueling tournament that beat the crap out of me. I was very happy with the sequence that unfolded at the end of the game as well, it was nice to end my tournament like that. GG man, you made me work for that one, thanks for giving me a great game to end with.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So I finished 5/9 as a 2157 in the U2200 section. Started and finished 2/2… went an embarrassing 1/5 in the middle. And my rating dropped from its peak 2157… to 2135. Which I actually thought it'd be a lot worse so I'm really thankful I only lost 22 points. The World Open was an embarrassment for me. I'm fine with how I played in 8/9 games… I feel like I was solid, I played good. But my opponents played great. Good doesn’t beat great. If I had been playing actual 2100s and 2200s instead of underrated 1900s and 2000s who played like 2100s and 2200s… this would be a different story. But that’s not the case. This was a pitiful, putrid, pathetic performance from me. However. I will bounce back. This will make me stronger. I will get my rating back soon. It’s all part of the journey to NM, I can’t just have good events there have to be bad events as well. This was certainly a bad event. I will bounce back stronger next time. The journey to NM continues, my friends, longer than we hoped. But we will get there in due time.

RANDOMNESS

Just a few random notes from my World Open experience...

I met @moonwarrior_1 and one of his discord friends, that was quite interesting and I’m thankful I got to meet them, especially Moon who I’ve known for years now (I got him famous but don’t tell him I told you that).

Another highlight was… wait for it… the lemonade. Seriously I got lemonade from the hotel vending machines every day there and it was great. I mustn’t be the only one who thought so, either, cause they were out of it on the last day there...

I would also like to say, by the way… I was stopped by several people at this tournament who said they were fans of my blogs. And y’all… I really appreciated that, that was really nice. In such a horrendous tournament where I was mostly feeling down, it was really good and encouraging to hear. Genuinely a highlight of my World Open experience. So thank ye kindly, and I hope y’all had a great event yourselves 🙃

THE "GOOD JOB, YOU MADE IT TO THE END" PART OF THE BLOG

Good job, you made it to the end. I am ever so proud of you. Actually, if you did read the whole thing, let me know, cause I'm impressed given how long this one was. Thank you so much for reading, I truly hope you've enjoyed your time here. My World Open experience may not have gone quite how we hoped, but it will make me better. Despite how poorly I performed, I do not regret playing, and I enjoyed the experience overall. This was my first solo trip as well, all on my own, so that was something that was also great to experience. 

As for what's next, I've got another blog coming out in about a week or so about a local event I'm playing in to attempt to get my rating back. And then I have another local event... if I don't just recap both events in one big blog, I'll post about the later event in early August. We'll see how things go. I don't know what's next for me after July, if I keep performing poorly I may just need a break... anywho. Thank y'all for reading, once again I hope you enjoyed your time here, I'll see y'all in the comments 🙃