[mrkajz44]

Just signed up to be in again - I can't kick my addiction.

Thought I'd give my side of the final game, though I was extremely disappointed with how it turned out.

I was very happy with how the opening played out, and even though I had stacked pawns on the f file, I ended up with two pawns controlling the e5 square, which I thought would be helpful in the midgame.

As with some of my other games, I think I hurt myself early by trying to be too aggressive and going for the kill too fast. After 13. Ng6 I saw I could either: grab the d5 pawn for free OR try to set up mate with Qb3. If my opponent had left d5 undefended after my queen move I could have grabbed d5 with my knight setting up a discovered check with my queen. In retrospect, it was a really dumb plan as it was likely very obvious what I was doing and it cost me picking up the pawn for free early.

Later in the game I looked through what I thought was every permutation to make sure if my queen took the b7 pawn that I was able to get out alive. I figured I could do it and was able to gobble up the queenside pawns and then get out without getting captured. Only problem was my retreat (26.Qb4) allowed the x-ray attack pretty much nullifying all my good work to that point.

My other major error came almost immediately after and I think I was still kicking myself for the queen x-ray error as I missed a very obvious and easy move. Black played 29...Qa5, and a simple 30. Rf1 an easy response, leaving all my key pieces safe, but I instead moved 30. Nc3. Things just tumbled downhill after that as I figured I was pretty much cooked and tried to make a few desperate plays.

My key takeaways:

1) Assume your opponent will always play the right move after your play, so don't get too cute. Take the obvious edges that are presented, even if they are small, as the big edges never seem to materialize

2) Don't be afraid to play a passive position. If all your pieces can stand protected after a move, then that is fine. You don't need some great follow-up attack. Sometimes you need to play defence and wait for that right opportunity to open up

Still having a ton of fun and looking forward to the next tournament!