I wish I had started my comeback six months ago. I could have played in the Canadian Open and the Canadian Closed (!!!) both of which happened recently in July and August respectively. Apparently they changed the format of the Closed to the highest 24 rated players who want to play and pay $200 for the privilege. There was supposed to be a reserve section too but no one wanted to play so they made the closed a 30 player nine round event. The floor was mid 2000s with one player in their 1800s which may have been a junior.

There is an event in Toronto this Labour Day weekend but I'm not ready yet but I have signed on to play at an out of town event that is free to masters and limited to masters and experts at the end of September which is about two weeks before I had planned to play but the free entry and the opportunity to play strong players persuaded me. So far I'm the lowest rated master (which is to be expected). I am #14 by rating out of 16 players registered.

Hopefully I won't get thumped out. If I score 2/5 (without any byes) and don't lose any rating points I will consider it a successful first tournament. It might be easier to get in 25 Canadian games against masters and experts than I thought.

Crash

I'm really starting to look like the underdog in my comeback attempt. There are a total of 19 players preregistered. I am number 16 on the list by rating. One of the preregistered players is the nineteen year old winner of the Canadian Closed. Two of the players who I outrank by rating are just 11 or 12 years old with a 2030 rating! The third is a former Canadian women's champion. There are a lot of very young players in this tournament and a few of the older ones are strong 2300 or 2400 players.

Crash

Not the underdog- the cagey old tiger!

This is the ideal tournament to start with as long as the rust doesn't cause too many problems. Being one of the lowest rated players means that I don't have much to lose. I have historically scored well against young players even when they are better than I am, rating wise. I have also done well against players that are a lot higher rated as long as they weren't 2500 or better. Most of my opponents will be in the 2300 to 2490 range which is ideal from my point of view. On a good day I can beat any of them.

On the one hand they can prepare for me by looking up my games which are available online from various sources. On the other hand I can prepare for them the same way. The key will be putting myself in the right psychological state going into the tournament and to guard against the tendency to play poorly in an early round. I have to win or draw my first game to keep playing against the top players.

I will probably order some repetoire/opening books today to get myself ready for the work of refurbishing my opening repetoire. I won't be doing reviews of those books until after the tournament though...

One of the players is an old (friendly) rival from my college days. I have a good record against him but in our last game around 1992 he should have won. He was a master back then I think and I was a not so lowly A player. He made an error in time pressure that cost him a thoroughly winning game. He touched his king and made what he thought was the winning move but it was illegal. Then he had to move his king which gave me the tempo I needed. Chances are that we won't get the chance to play since we are close in rating.

Crash

Crash,

Best of luck! I know luck has little to do with it. In any case, I hope you exceed your expectations! Maybe you could growl at your opponents before you make the first move, just to psych them out! (Just a joke).



B.

Actually luck does have something to do with it and I am usually on the receiving end of that good luck. I expect it and usually I get it. Its one reason why I never resign unless it is almost checkmate. You would not believe how many hopeless situations I have weaseled my way out of. You just have to remember the phrase, "Evil never sleeps." and be ready to apply it when needed.

In team competitions I would often get myself into trouble when I didn't play the opening in the most appropriate manner and then I would be lost and yet would somehow find a way to escape. It got to the point where my teammates would count on my winning even when I was losing. One of my mentor/teammates accused me of having ice water in my veins as I would calmly play moves which posed problems to my opponent but which ultimately should have been insufficient with best play by my opposite number.

Of course as time went on and I worked the mistakes out of my repetoire this would happen less and less often. I feel good about my prospects in this tournament. If I can get two points out of five I will probably gain rating points. If I get on a roll I could do much better than that. If I only lose five rating points it would still be a success as it would put me 1/5 of the way towards my goal of 25 games above 2200 and the Canadian NM title.

The only discordant note is that my speed chess is stinking right now but I was never a particularly good speed player and it was a common experience to beat people in tournament games who could beat me in speed chess.

Crash