Kansas City Area Chess

This photograph was taken in The Chess Club in Riverside (Think Kansas City), Missouri. It depicts the scene and action of a tournament in progress. What is missing is the ticking of the chess clocks...tic, toc, tic, toc! It is maddening to listen to. What you can't see is the nervous-worried-anxiety filled faces, the fingers running obsessively through ones hair, and the various twitches of the body that is a result of concentration and frantic thought. This was very much the scene on Saturday during the April Rating Only tournament.

My tournament didn't go as planned. First I was late getting out of the house, as I couldn't leave with out my my chess books and things. Then the traffic was heavy for some reason. I arrived before the tournament started, but I wanted about an hour to look through my preparation. This was more like ten minutes. My first opponent was much stronger than I. To make it worse, I would have to play with the black pieces and hold on for dear life. It began at 10 a.m. with the call to start the clocks...tic, toc, tic, toc! Walker-Forbes: 1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 Nc6 (better 3...d5!) 4. cxd4 Nf6 5. e5 Nd5 6. Bc4 e6 7. Nc3 Nxc3 (black can get a slight plus with 7...d6) 8. bxc3 Be7 9. Nf3 0-0 10. Bd3 d5 11. h4 a6?? ....Oh, that hurt! I was thinking about controlling the square b5 and about freeing my light square Bishop. What I should of been doing is creating threats with 11...Qa5. This would have kept the game even and even gave my chances to win if white misplays. Instead I allow a mating attack and would resign on move 20. This was to be my only loss and my only game as black.

After reviving myself with a Chinese buffet, 3 cups of coffee, and a brisk walk. I came to my next game with a clear head. I had the white pieces. This would be the pattern for the next two games and I would play almost the same way. My second game of the day started at 1 p.m. and was over in about 30 minutes. His name was Daniel and he was new to the chess scene. He started our game fine, but on move 7 he started moving pieces twice and soon I had an attack the Bobby Fischer would have approved of...sac, sac, mate! Daniel would go on to lose all three of his games this day. Sorry Dan!

My third and last game started at 4 p.m. and I faced a higher rated opponent. This too would be a Sicilian. My first game was in the Smith-Morra Gambit variation, my second game was in the Njadorf variation, and now....the feared Dragon variation! I played the Yugoslav Attack and missed a win on move 15. Instead of playing 15. Bxg5 I should have played 15. h6! and my attack would have been irresistible. We agreed on a draw after move 50. My score for the tournament: 1.5/3 +1 -1 =1. So I had a dead even day and felt okay with the results. I even got a small boost in my rating.

Those of you that are really curious as to my chess career can go to the site and click on schedules, then click on USCF tournaments, find the April RO and click on reports. This takes you to the USCF ratings site and again click on April RO and find my name and click on it. That gives my whole tournament history and rating. If you want to view one of my games? Instead of schedule, you click on games/reports. Find the Kansas City Open and click on it. This takes you to a viewer and if you will find my name on the left hand side and click on it will bring up one of my games.