This was my first time participating in the Missouri state games. From what I could tell, it was only open to Missouri residents. It was held in Jefferson City at July 21, 2007.I entered the under 1800 and the "Closed" championships. My rating entering the tournament was 1257 so I knew I would be playing a lot of people with higher ratings.
My first event of the day was the under 1800 where I was in a round robin with 3 other players.
My first match was against Stan Sokul from St. Louis. A crafty lefty who was at least 70 years old sported a 1700 rating. I started off slow losing the first two games in very short order. I then settled down and won the next two games at 4 and 0. The final game went back and forth but Stan won it at 9. This was a tough loss but gave me some confidence going into the day.
My next match was against Steven Jenkins of Rolla, MO. I had played Steve once before in a previous tournament earlier in the year where he beat me in four games. This time I was hoping it would be different. Although I seemed to be playing better, Steve got the best of me again. I was now 0-2 in the round robin with no chance to advance.
Although down about my two previous losses, I had one more match in the round robin. This time I played against at 1500 rated player. It was time to win, which I did convincingly. I finally got my offense going and was able to control the entire match.
