Urbanarama
The Urbana tournament last weekend was at the spookiest hotel I've ever stayed at. (Someone described it as looking like a Bavarian version of the hotel in "The Shining.") Thank goodness I don't believe in ghosts, or I would never have gotten any sleep!
I fully intended to improve my penmanship during this tournament, but I'm afraid I'm a hopeless case. I could probably go over the chicken scratches on my score sheets to analyze my games, but it seems like so much trouble - although I'm sure that the lack of analysis will keep me from ever becoming a great player.
I was hoping to at least gain some ratings points from the highest seed, a woman with a 1769 rating who hadn't played a tournament for almost 15 years. But, unfortunately, right before I was supposed to play her, her travel companion (whom I had played against earlier) had to be taken to the hospital for heart problems, and both of them had to withdraw from the tournament. Instead of having byes, the director opted to play the opponents of those who withdrew against each other, so I ended up playing the lowest seed, who beat me handily, and then beat me again two games later.
I ended up 5-7, and my rating will drop back below 1600. And my best game of the whole weekend was the one I played after hours (and after two games of poker and four Long Island iced teas....) against Darin True (after he won the poker games)! Why couldn't I have played like that against him earlier that day?
Congrats to
jonbosco for taking first place, and to
faithenuff for placing 2nd, even though she wasn't even going to play in Div. 1 until she was asked to play up at nearly the last minute!