Tuesday, July 24, 2007

2007 Missouri Show-Me State Games

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.




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