Waukesha Memorial

This past Saturday I played in the Waukesha Memorial, which is a one day four round G/60 local tournament that I have played in each of the past three years since I returned to playing chess.

My results were as you would expect for my rating, which is to say that I won against players rated 1315 and 1467 and lost to players rated 1953 and 2200.

However, the thing that I take away as both blessing and curse is that I missed a win against the 1953 under inexcusable conditions (I had plenty of time to calculate and miscalculated what was an unsound sacrifice rather than determining that I could accept my opponents unsound sacrifice (i.e. in my second round game I could have played Bxa2 rather than Bxf7+).

In the game against the master I was better after 20-25 moves and I blew it.  I lost a pawn, but could have drawn in the rook ending.  At that point, however, I had no time left to calculate. 

So I leave that tournament knowing that I am improving but still have some room to improve.

On the plus side, I think this is the first time I've gained rating points in this tournament!

To see the games go here.

Also, trivial note of interest...Black won all four games I played.