2007 Kindergarten Open

er... Cardinal Open rather. I played in it this weekend in the under 14 y/o section. er... under 1400 section rather. Boy there sure were a lot of kids there. I scored 4/5 and I am not sure if I won anything yet tied for second. I believe I won about $100 which means I played for free.

Here is the summary. I'll try to post the details later.

phorku Halasz Gambit Sicilian var - Sicilian 0-1

• I lost due to a mental abberation. 11 Qe1 was my first choice move. I decided e2 was a better home. I make my sanity check and play Qe1. Duh! Then I make a horrible move next and end up with a choice between ugly, uglier and ugliest. Jettison the Bishop for a possible mating attack, Trade queens and hope I have enough left for a mating attack - he is going to castle out of it, or trade queens to a hopelessly lost endgame.

e4 - phorku Scandinavian 0-1

• an uninteresting game where my opponent played for a mate in 1 when I had mate in 3 on the board

phorku Bishop's - French 1-0

• I learn that I need to play harder when I am ahead. I was careful but totally missed my opponents chance to equalize. (No Crafty it is not 22 ... Qd3) Luckily my opponent had the complimenting disorder of getting frustrated when behind and missed his opportunity.
• There is an interesting feature in this game. I call it artifacting. I screwed around going for simple mates instead of trading down right away. My opponent traded down for me and left me with an isolated pawn which would normally be weak. Look at the role it plays later in the game controlling vital center squares with the Bishop while the King mops up and protects the promotion square.
  

Queen's Pawn - phorku Dutch / Indian 0-1

• A trial of my modified opening against a much weaker player.
• Fun game.
• Got way too cocky.
• Start understanding how to take advantage of color complexes instead of being taken advantage by them.
• A seemingly innocent patzer move (no this is not the stonewall that square is verboten) then a horrible move totally destroys my opponents position.
  

phorku Halasz Gambit Sicilian var - Sicilian 1-0

• A fun game.
• I penetrate his position like.... never mind.
• I pass up calculating several mating attacks (or miscalculating as the case may be) and win material / simplify.
• Opponent totally blew all my plans by castling long and had to get my head around a new game.
  
• A subtle move tears open his postion.
  
• Free Rook Lift. Thanks buddy. Crafty you don't have any sense sometimes, though you still humble me.

And the biggest thing I learned is Kramnik must drink a lot of Diet Pepsi ;-)



My first game was against a 10 y/o who was rated about the same as me. Due to losing the first round all my other oppenents were much weaker. Since I am not playing for money I will never play at the top of a section again, I will play up.