For a short but intense period I have been building my database of games. The focus has been two-pronged. A database of OTB games I've played and a database of master's games using This Week in Chess as the major games contributor. It has been an instructive process and one I hope yields a useful tool going forward. I am currently using SCID as my database for the games and must really recognize the phenomenal job done in programming the free database for storing chess games. So far, it has everything I've been interested in using and is rather intuitive as well. Check it out!
The 2nd Annual Austin Chess Club Championship was held the 1st full weekend in January and I think it was again a complete success. I believe the tournament was full and good competition was abundant. For myself, I had a successful outing consisting of 3 wins, a loss, and a draw. Reflecting back a year ago, I feel many things in my game have changed for the better. Mainly, my familiarity in the tournament milieu. I distinctly remember the anxious energy from the 2011 tournament and this year it was markedly subdued. Whereas previously I was thinking about results, this year I was anticipating the game itself and I think that made a world of difference. My focus was on playing and enjoying the game. It made for a much more enjoyable experience. Additionally, I learned from the Southwest Open to, if possible, play the longer schedule. In traveling to Dallas the morning of the Southwest Open, I was not focused on playing well but rather simply finding the hotel in time. Later, I was very tired from having gotten up so early to travel to Dallas. Here, at my home club there was no travel and I played the 3 day schedule getting the first game under my belt Friday evening. This meant a leisurely Saturday morning and a more relaxed tournament on the whole.
Just to add some frosting to this, the Austin Chess Club just announced a summer tourney this July with the same format as the January tourney. I'm very much looking forward to another well-run tourney.
Here's I game I just played against a true gentleman of chess Dale McClemore. We've played several times and I always get beat but these are always enjoyable games. A couple of things I've noticed in quickly looking this game over is the utter uselessness of White's dark bishop throughout most of the game and the defensive shell I retreat to or rather am pushed to develop. It's never a good thing to be a piece down but even less so when the piece is still on the board! Argh...
So enjoy this "what not to do" example.
