Last Round of US Open

(Photo of the lobby at the Westin Park Central in Dallas, Texas.)

I drew an ugly game on Saturday night against 16 year old FM Marc Tyler Arnold (2423) of New York at the US Open. Of course, I am always happy to draw with a talented young player rated 150 points above me. However, the quality of my play as white was disappointing, especially when I moved the wrong rook to d1 on move 13. Fortunately, I was able to trade queens and survived some pressure from my opponent. The game petered out into an opposite bishops draw.

I now have 6.0 after eight rounds, good enough for a share of 11th place. My performance rating is about 2300 and I am up about 4 or 5 points for both USCF and FIDE. Considering that my play has been spotty at best, I must be satisfied to be in contention for money going into the final round. Of course, I need to win against a 2100+ rated opponent. My blog readers can follow the action live at 1pm Pacific on both the MonRoi website and the Internet Chess Club.

My student Steven Zierk drew his round 8 game against a young opponent rated about 2000. Nicholas Karas continues to excel against higher rated players, crushing a 1907 in 32 moves with black last night by loading Alekhine's gun on the h-file. Nicholas now stands at 4.5 out of 8 despite facing seven opponents rated above 1900--and he'll probably be paired against a 1950 today. Gooooo Nicholas!