The Intermountain Chess Open

On Saturday I went to the Intermountain Chess Open. It was really cool. I was participating in the under 1200 section, so my opponents weren't as tough as they usually were. Still, I had my hands full holding my own.

My first game was my easiest. I didn't have much trouble there. My second game was my second to hardest, against Avi Gublusomething or other, but I still managed to win in the end. Next was the hardest game of the match, against 30-year old Allen Bolen. (I thought that was funny, Bolen vs. Boren.) Anyway, the game was tough from the beginning, even though I was playing white, which usually gives me the upperhand. Allen, in addition to declining my pawn sacrifice at the beggining, played a totally unexpexted bishop move on move seven. This threw me off gaurd, and the game slowly declined for me from there. Eventually I was left with three pawns and a bishop against two rooks, and then I lost the bishop to a brilliant skewer by my opponent, and he went on to win, sacrificing one rook to prevent my three pawns from promoting into queens.

The fourth and fifth games were both equally difficult, but I managed to hold my own there. Finally, when the dust cleared, Allen had won the match, defeating the person who everyone had expected to win the tournament, Harrison Unruh. I tied for second overall with Kobey Love, and also tied with said player for the under 800 section. Officially we both won the under 800s, and we both collected fifty dollars in prize money, but we had to play an unofficial blitz game to decide who won the trophy. I guess I must have had a lucky break, because I won.

Anyway, the tournament was really awesome, and now I have half reached my goal for this year: to get both of my ratings above one-thousand. (My quick rating [which got influenced even though I was playing a regular tournament] has gone up to 1001, just above my goal, and my regular rating is now 920.)