My OTB experience and my first classical OTB tournament

My way into OTB chess

Shortly after I actively started playing online chess in November 2019, the Covid pandemic began, thus shutting down any thought of playing otb anywhere anyhow for the time being. However when restrictions here eased up during late summer 2020, I informed myself about the local club and saw that they were about to restart their weekly club evenings. I decided to go and certainly enjoyed the new experience, but also had some trouble adapting. Board vision and time management were and still are, to some degree, major challenges. Shortly after, I decided to join the club. However due to Covid and the rise of cases in Autumn and Winter, my hopes for playing official, rated OTB games were still far from being fulfilled.

My first tournament experiences

After another long while, I was able to find the opportunity to participate in two blitz tournaments in late June 2021. The first one was certainly not a pleasant experience as I went 4.5/29 against an average opposition of 2200 and ended dead last. The second one went significantly better. It was a team event, 4v4. Although my team as a whole didn't do too well (we had one of the lowest average rating to be fair), I was quite happy with my performance. I managed to score 7/13 against an average opposition of 2130. In the process, I also beat an IM in what was admittedly not the most impressive game, but a win is a win.

When summer break finally came, I made sure to get vaccinated ASAP so travelling wouldn't be a problem. The classical tournament I found, and will talk extensively about later on, was on the last weekend of my summer break. Hungry to play some more OTB, I looked for other tournaments and found a rapid tournament (10+5) not too far away.
I got high hopes after scoring 4/4 in the first rounds, but this was subsequently shut down and I ended at 6/9 against an average opposition of about 2000 (if I recalled all my opponents correctly, I only noted this down after the tournament), placing 10th out of 98. Overall this was also rather satisfying even though I still made certain mistakes I don't think I would make on a 2D online board.

My first classical tournament

Now time for the main part of this blog. In late August 2021 I finally got to play my first classical tournament. It was the U1900 section in a 5 round tournament over 3 days. The time format was 2 hours with no increment and 30 extra minutes on move 40.
The start was a little stressful since I had some trouble with my accomodation and the registration at the playing hall took ages due to covid measures. In the end, we started half an hour late.

Round 1

I went into the first round with a lot of confidence, as my opponent was an older man rated slightly below 1600. I was also proven somewhat right when my opponent went for a very suspicious strategical decision after a rather solid start in a French defense.

After a couple more exchanges we arrived in a position with opposite coloured bishops.

This, against popular belief, doesn't mean it's an easy draw. Especially with all the heavy pieces still on the board, this greatly benefits the attacking side, which is white.
A few moves later I got to execute f5 and my opponent crumbled shortly after.

Round 2

After a solid start I was in a good mindset for round 2.

We entered a rather uncommon King's Gambit which, in my opinion, is rather uncomfortable to play for both sides.

Due to an early queen maneuver by my opponent I managed to gain some tempi and develop an early initiative, which I however failed to continue.

Eventually I ended up significantly down on time on the backfoot with my opponent having a strong kingside initiative.

Lucky for me my opponent chose a bad attempt at trying to continue his kingside play and allowed me to free up my position with Nh5 after which white is the one to worry about weak squares.

However after being on the defense for a long time I tried to force a queen trade where I thought I'd only temporarily lose a pawn but get some initiative and probably even win the pawn back, however it appears white could consolidate the extra pawn. Lucky for me my opponent believed me.

After some more moves I had finally managed to take back control of the game and gain either an extra pawn or paralyze white on the e file. My opponent chose to give the pawn.

Some trades later and we arrive at an endgame that is clearly winning for black due to the 3 on 1 on the kingside.
This game certainly didn't go as smooth as the first one but remained an interesting and exciting experience.

Round 3

Aight, coming up is my favourite game of the tournament

My opponent starts off with a very weird opening choice already, allowing me to set up a positional bind with c4.

After the opening phase it becomes clear how strong this positional bind is: Black's piece placement is passive and black has no realistic pawn breaks. White is in charge and controls any active play.

To underline this, I went for advantageous piece trades to end in a good knight vs bad bishop situation. However both me and my opponent missed that bxc6 is actually possible, which would've enabled black for more active play along the b-file or with a potential d5 break later on.

Now the result of this piece transformation can be seen: Black's bishop has very limited scope while my knight supports the queenside, has a strong square on d5 and has potential ideas on e7 or f6.

At this point my attack on the kingside is coming and black is in a hurry to create counterplay. However here black missed a small tactic for white to win a pawn. I did see the initial sequence with Rxf7 however I misevaluated the resulting position and ended up discarding it.

Shortly after, black made two fatal mistakes: 1. He did not force a queentrade. 2. He broke the ancient rule of never playing f6. It's sometimes a good idea to play a pawn move to prevent your opponent from playing it, however here it is a lethal tactical target.

The killing blow. Recognising that after the knight recaptures, black is forced on the f-file and has no escape after Rf1. There are some ways black can avoid getting immediately mated and suffer a slow and painful death, but instead my opponent took the quick way out and allowed me to quickly deliver mate in the process.
After the game I had a nice post-mortem with my opponent, which was completely new to me. Overall, my performance up to this point and especially in this game raised my expectations significantly and I went into the last day with delusions of even winning the tournament.

Round 4

3/3 so far, a good mindset, a nice Sunday, what could go wrong?

Right out of the opening we already got a very unusual position: Black has a strong lead in development, but it is unclear how it can actually be used.

Both me and my opponent spent a lot of time evaluating whether or not Ng4 works and we both incorrectly came to the conclusion that it didn't. For the time being f3+h4 is threatened to trap my knight. Considering that white has a serious lack in development I judged that the alternative, e5, that sacrifices a pawn, is favourable.

A few moves later I have accomplished exactly what the idea of e5 was aiming for: White still lacks development and has to choose between making serious concessions due to my d4 thorn or castling queenside, where I can easily attack the overextended pawn chain. White went for the latter.

Now we see how the queenside attack is progressing. However I was too hesitant to commit fully with the immediate b6 and instead opted for Ba4 and a trade, getting rid of a good attacker on my side, and a target on his side.

Thus, my attack was too slow, but I managed to regain my pawn with a small tactic.

Eventually it became clear that white's king was still a weakness and my knight certainly had more potential than white's bishop. However the clock was ticking and I just couldn't find anything concrete.

After a few moves that seemed very aggressive but ended up being harmless in reality with precise defense from my opponent, my pieces were suddenly very awkwardly placed. The clock was still ticking, seemingly faster than before, and I gave up on any ambitions to attack.

Time control has been reached and I have emerged in an endgame which I was quite happy with: My king is well placed, my knight has access to good squares like c4 and white's bishop is restricted. It'd be quite an effort to lose such a position.

I didn't mind the rook trade as I should be able to control the bishop easily and had basically no risk of losing. White offers a draw, but I decline.

Well, no risk of losing had I played h5 that is. Objectively this is still drawn, but by playing h5 himself, white has a permanent weakness to attack. This is especially hard to deal with in knight vs bishop endgames, as you are vulnerable to Zugzwang.

Although there are still objective chances to hold after this, this move basically settled the game. The knight has to guard h6 while the bishop can shuffle between f8/g7 and white's king can just infiltrate via Zugzwang.
This game was of course quite the cold shower, given that I had a lot of good chances but managed to mess up each one of them and went for more than five hours just to lose.

Round 5

The final round. After the previous game I wasn't as motivated and confident as before of course, but I was still keen on ending on a high note.

Usually I love facing the Caro-Kann but at the same time these nonsense-sidelines always irritate me and here I just allow black an early, strong c5 break.

Nevertheless due to a bad trade by black we reach a position where, similar to round 3, white has the game under control and determines the active play.

At this point I had the opportunity to reach a queenless middlegame with a very clean edge. However I felt the black queen was misplaced on c4 and therefore declined. My opponent agreed and proved me wrong at the same time by just moving back.

At this point the dynamic of the game is quite clear: I am in control, black is mostly just waiting. My opponent offered a draw here but I immediately declined for obvious reasons. Although given my experience with declining draw offers and the previous round, maybe I should've just accepted.

Black finally decides to castle, hanging h5 in the process.

This trade is just completely unnecessary: An active knight with much prospect for a passive, limited bishop. This is the turning point where black suddenly develops strong counterplay and I lose control of the game.

A perfect illustration of my mindset at this point: I had no plans, was imagining nonexistent threats connected to Rxd4+Nf5 and just had no idea what was going on.

Black is playing it very patiently and slowly infiltrating and piling up pressure while I desperately cling onto cheap attacks. I had mentally resigned already.

That this can't be good was obvious to me of course, but I figured it was the best try to swindle with ideas of Rxf5 and the passer might be useful too.

I don't know why and neither did my opponent. Maybe he thought Qf2 was possible? Black is still winning, but I had some hope, the b6 pawn is looking very strong.

Just being too ambitious and missing a critical idea with Ne3 after Qf2, that would've just been lights out. Lucky for me, my opponent didn't see it ,even after repeating, and threefolded. Another game of more than five hours, I certainly had enough chess for that day.
Overall with a score of 3.5/5 and a good tiebreaker I placed 10th out of 88 with a performance of 1840 DWZ.

Takeaways

The first takeaway might be completely unrelated to chess, but still important: Book your accomodation in time and make sure, especially if you use public transport, that there is a good connection. Also make sure you have plenty of energy drinks. I neglected both things and ended up somewhat far from the tournament location and, had I not found a lucky alternative, would've had to take an eight hour trip home for a distance of less than two hours by car.
Now more chess related: Make sure you're in the right mindset. This covers a broad range from just getting rid of everyday stress to not getting overconfident or staying calm, even when you feel like you're losing control of the position or are getting into time trouble.
Another very important aspect is, to set the right goals and keep those in mind: At least in my situation, my two primary goals should have been 1. gain experience and 2. have fun. Given these two goals, there is no need to get worked up over a loss or be disgusted at your own play. Every mistake is a learning opportunity.
Lastly, and probably very specific: Don't get psyched out by draw offers, maybe even force yourself to accept them when the position calls for it. I just can't help myself but feel pressured to win whenever I get offered a draw. My score when declining draw offers so far is 0.5/4 in official games.

Moving on

First of all, thanks for reading. I hope you had as much enjoyment reading, as I had writing it. I hope the analysis was insightful and not too superficial.
Credit to @eccentricism for proofreading and saving this blog from being a mix of endless sentences, typos and awkward expressions.
Now, what are my OTB plans after this? For the time being I will try to get in one classical tournament per season and am also playing in the club team league. We even had our first match of the season already and won quite convincingly. Besides that? I don't know to be honest. I just keep an eye out for what happens in my region and go from there.