3 quick games: FIDE Junior Roundrobin Day 2

Day two came, and I suspect many of the players were tired. After playing until midnight the previous day, we were not ready to play 3 games today, and also we would not have many breaks if we kept having 3-4 hour games. Lucklily for me, my games were all decided fairly early, so I was able to relax more. During the course of the day, I socialized mainly with my opponents: Rushaan Mahajan, Brendan Zhang, and Patrick Huang. There was not many low rated players, so I wasn't talking as much as usual. However, I still recieved many comments that I was talking way too much. However, that didn't stop me. 

My play today was probably just as bad as Round 1, but luckily for the first round I got to play the lowest rated player in the field, Rushaan Mahajan, rated 1454 USCF. To my surpise, the game was surprisingly easy. I had played him in the Vancouver Open in August of 2015 and he beat me in 6 moves! At least I was white this time. 

So I started off with 2-0! Patrick Huang was also tied with me for first. He beat Brendan Zhang, and Brendan gave him high praise and said that he was super good. And I would play him in Round 4.

Rushaan Mahajan reacted very well to losing. He lost all 7 games, and yet he always had a positive attitude! I should work to be more like him, because after a loss I tend to not want to talk, and get grumpy and just antisocial. Luckily, after an hour I act like myself again. In Round 3, I played Brendan Zhang. We always argue with each other, going in the game our record was 1-1. But that was to change. 

I was actually quite upset at myself for loosing the game. I had not thought enough and missed defenses and his b6 ideas. But I reminded myself that it didn't really matter (which actually is NOT always comforting!, like when people are talking about themselves that way!)
Brendan was quite nice after beating me, not trying to rub it in at all. He told me that he hoped that I would beat Patrick so that if he won (which he was sure of) that he would be tied for first going in the last day, along with me and Patrick. Meanwhile, Patrick was seemingly unstoppable, beating not only Brendan but pulling off another upset by beating Travis! He had beaten the top two players! Anyways after Round 3 the top 5 were:

Patrick Huang: 3/3

Neil Doknjas: 2.5/3

Me, Brendan: 2.0/3

Travis Olson: 1.5/3

It was exciting that I would get to play a decisive game against Patrick. He arrived a little bit late, and maybe that led to some mistakes. At this point he was the favorite to beat me and win the event since he was 70 points higher rated and beat good players. 

The (not really) dramatic game ensued. This game may have been the turning point of the FIDE Junior Roundrobin.

Brendan Zhang beat Neil Doknjas and that put Me, Brendan, and Patrick for tied first (3/4) going into the final day and 3 rounds. 

Thanks for reading!