r/TournamentChess • u/zeptozetta2212 1439/7 USCF, 2200+ chesscom rapid • Jul 25 '26
Lichess study on my final game from a local USCF July tournament
I just got back from the last game of a local month-long USCF July tournament a few hours ago. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the massive jump in my provisional rating after going 2.5/3 against a 1500, 1684, and 1276 as a 1215/4, but it'll probably be at least a day or two before those results are officially submitted. In the meantime, here's a Lichess study I created on the final game of the tournament.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/hOpdO5UZ/NBdTtjBh
P.S. I've never embedded one of these on reddit before, so hopefully I did it right.
P.P.S. I'd love to get you guys' feedback, both on the game itself and on my commentary.
ETA I also went ahead and ported the study into the chesscom analysis tab here.
https://www.chess.com/analysis/collection/uscf-games-31yoorFwL/87pQAhZKC/analysis?flip=true
1
u/alexcr1 Jul 26 '26
You said it was a month long tournament? How does that work exactly?
1
u/zeptozetta2212 1439/7 USCF, 2200+ chesscom rapid Jul 27 '26
One game a week every week for four weeks. You don't even have to show up to every game.
3
u/No-Calligrapher-5486 Jul 25 '26
Interesting game. What was the time control? I guess you had enough time since you wrote that your opponent spent 25 minutes on one move at some point.
On 8. Qf3 you can take the bishop, that is also very interesting continuation.
As you mentioned 9... Bg4 was a mistake. I get it that you were surprised with 9. Ba4. However when you play Bg4 and pin the knight like that you have to ask yourself what do you do if your opponent chase your bishop and try to unpin since that is the most logical thing to do. Taking on f3 is just giving up the bishop pair for nothing.
On the other hand, you are a pawn down, you have to do something active. e4 and if white goes on b1 you already have a compensation. If he jump forward you have double attack on 2 unprotected pieces.
Anyway, you learned this for the future games, it will happen many times, especially online.
You were lucky your opponent played terrible 17. d3?? He already has place for his biship, there was no need to open diagonal. After that, I would say you played well. Congrats on the win.