Mass Open 2006, Day 1

I found that even though they told me on the phone that wireless was complementary, it isn't. It costs about $10 a day. I'm not dying, so I'll at least avoid the temptation for today. It was a pretty good day, though I was really getting tired after the 1st round. Larry and I left at around 8:30 this morning, so I would say that I had about 7 hours of sleep. Not terrible, but apparently not enough.

So, what were the highlights today? Most of the excitement was during the 1st round. Walter Chesnut, who used to come to the chess club years ago when Sean ran it at the Hampshire Mall, is playing in the lower section. His first game I happened to be checking out when his opponent blundered away a piece. Being higher rated, his opponent was somewhat pissed. He slammed his piece down on Walter's clock to finish his move. Walter gave the guy a somewhat polite smack-down. After that the guy kept playing, though clearly not paying so much attention to the game.

Speaking of polite, when my opponent got into a difficult position and noticed he had just blundered away a pawn, he went into a 40-minute think. It was pretty freaking boring. I'd occasionally stop by and listen to him chewing on the strings of his sweatshirt. But mostly I just walked around watching other people's games. At one point this one guy had stopped by the game of one of his friends. Thinking that the game was over he started moving some ofthe pieces to show his "friend" what he saw. Guess what? Oops! The game wasn't over. The other player walked up and was pretty pissed! In the end, he continued the game anyway. I'm not sure what the result was of that one.

Finally the 40-minutes went by and my opponent moved. He was a young kid and really not that bad. It's just that when you're hanging around for 40-minutes you start to wonder if your opponent is so pissed that he's just going to run the clock down. That wasn't the case:

[Event "Mass Open 2006"]
[Site "Hotel Marlborough"]
[Date "2006.05.27"]
[Round "1"]
[White "James Shao"]
[Black "Edwin Borowski"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1670"]
[BlackElo "1884"]
[ECO "B23"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bc4 a6 6. d3 e6 7. Be3 b6 8. O-O Nge7 9. e5 Nf5 10. Qd2 d5 11. exd6 Qxd6 12. Kh1 Bb7 13. Ne4 Qc7 14. c3 Na5 15.Bb3 Rd8 16. Qf2 Nxb3 17. axb3 Rxd3 18. Neg5 h6 19. Nh3 Rxe3 20. Rfe1 Rxe1+ 21.
Rxe1 O-O 22. Nh4 Nxh4 23. Qxh4 Rd8 24. Qf2 Rd3 25. Re3 Qd7 26. Rxd3 Qxd3 27.Ng1 Be4 0-1

After the round I noticed the sandwiches they were selling outside the tournament. It didn't seem so bad, but I was trying to wait for Larry to finish before eating. In the end they closed down the food before I had a chance to smarten up and buy something. Larry ended up saving his tough game in Round 1, so that was good. They were having a book auction during the day today, so Larry spent a lot of time at that. There were some really good deals, with many books going for just dollars. I ended up taking a run to McDonalds because I really needed to eat something. Not a healthy choice, but the choice I made. Larry and I finally went up to the room at around 5:30, a half an hour before round 2, and rested a bit. I noticed that he eats dry oatmeal. Disgusting! I've never seen anyone do that before.

I was a little nervous going into Round 2. Not nervous as in nervous, but nervous as in I wasn't feeling at my best. I was tired. But at least I was White, and I feel pretty solid about my white openings. Even though I did end up misplaying it a little, and it turns out that my opponent is much more knowledgeable than I in the opening I chose. Still, having knowledge and being able to apply it are two different things. Lucky for me!

[Event "Mass Open 2006"]
[Site "Hotel Marlborough"]
[Date "2006.05.27"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Edwin Borowski"]
[Black "Bennet Pellows"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "1884"]
[BlackElo "1719"]
[ECO "A40"]

1. d4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Bf4 Nf6 4. e3 c5 5. c3 Nc6 6. Nbd2 b6 7. Bd3 Bb7 8. Qe2 Bd6 9. Bg3 Qc7 10. Rc1 e5 11. dxe5 Nxe5 12. Nxe5 Bxe5 13. Bb5+ Ke7 14. Nf3 Bxg3 15. hxg3 h5 16. Nh4 Rhd8 17. Nf5+ Kf8 18. g4 Qe5 19. Bd3 g6 20. f4 Qe6 21. g5 Ng4 22. Qxg4 gxf5 23. Qe2 Kg7 24. Kf2 d4 25. exd4 Qxe2+ 26. Bxe2 cxd4 27. c4 d3 28. Bf3 Bxf3 29. Kxf3 Rd4 30. Rhd1 Re8 31. Rc3 Re2 32. Rcxd3 Rde4 33. R1d2 Re1 34. Rd1 R1e2 35. R1d2 Re1 1/2-1/2

After the game my opponent told me not to worry about losing too many rating points for the draw, because his rating is actually around 1850. He's gone up several hundred points in the past few months and the "official" rating hasn't caught up yet.

So, 1.5/2 for me, and I'm not sure about Larry. He was in the middle of another very tough game when I finished. So we'll see.

Until next time, Ed.