Some more bad chess: Clark Harmon Memorial Rounds 1-2

On April 9th, I hoped to kick of with a 3/3 start in the Clark Harmon Memorial reserve section (U1800). Being top seed by nearly 100 points, my chances really should have been pretty good, and if I had gotten my usual luck, like in the FIDE Junior Invitiational, I probably would have done just that. 

I came to the venue (Seattle Chess Club) around 9:30am, and by the time the first round was to start, at 10am, everyone was there. Luckily for me, I had lots of company at this tournament, almost too many to list! It was a really fun event. If only my chess had been better it would have been a really fun event. (Oops, I just said that, whatever, point made). 

Now, to the chess. In the first round I played John Hyman, rated 1516. He sure seemed to play a lot stronger, or maybe that was because I didn't know the opening and gave him a huge edge. 

So it was a victory, but not smooth at all. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Kou pulled off an 400 point upset against Murlin Varner and Brandon Jiang beat Cedric Davies, a 300 point upset. Steve Rowles beat Victor Pupols in the open, a 327 point upset.

Between rounds I had lots of fun playing bughouse with Ishaan Puri, Surya Gorantla (who got so much better during this event! Beware!), Andrew Fletcher, Alec Beck (who I would play in round 2), Revanth Pothukuchi, and Anshul Ahluwalia (who I would play in round 4). I personally played bughouse well, at least I only got mated three times during the whole event, after playing dozens of games (Maybe around 50?) 

I played Alec Beck in the next round, and was way too confident. A little bit more thought rather than talking and watching people play Agar.io would have likely changed the result. However, Agar.io is fun. I tell kids to make their usernames URSTUPID--->>> and UWASTEURLIFE->> and then they annoy other users. It was so fun that I did not play my game correctly. In fact, it was a horrible game! It was my second worse game, don't worry I still can play worse than this:

I did not play a horrible game here, but I would still say there was lots of room for improvement. In any case, Alec deserves credit for a draw against me, I am the best after all (Or actually I'm not, I played horribly in the last round!)

Meanwhile, Brandon Jiang pulled off yet another upset, this time against Anshul. I would play him in the last round. 

Dustin Bosch, a provisional player with a rating of 1685, had so far won his first two games, and since Brandon Jiang took a half point bye, I would play him in round 3. My dreams of a 3/3 start were already gone, but could I get 2.5/3?