April 12 2025 - Sun Prairie, Wisconsin A few more than 30 players converged on the little shop that houses GrowthChess in Sun Prairie. This was a four-round, one-day event that started at 10am. In my first pairing, I met the eventual winner of the tournament. We played a Reti Opening, so I found myself out of preparation almost immediately. I believed that I was equal into the middlegame and then my opponent set a trap for me. I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. I thought I was at least winning an exchange, but it turns out that I had put my queen in grave danger. When I moved in to exchange a bishop for a rook I failed to notice an alternate recapture and my queen was nowhere to escape. I played on for another five moves, but I could have easily resigned on the spot. It shows the weakness of my opening preparation to not have anything ready for the Reti. In my second game, I played a 1200s class player and had the white pieces in a Closed Sicilian. This is an opening which I have played for years and which I know pretty well. Things were going reasonably well for me, but I failed to repel the usual attack on the queenside. Black kept pushing queenside pawns and making space for his pieces. I was also forced to give up an important bishop and my opponent's bishops became very strong. In the end, I failed to take black's queenside expansion seriously and he was able to break through. Another loss that had echos of my third round in the Northeastern Open back in February. For my third round I was paired up with Guy Hoffman's wife. She's a better than 1300-rated player, but she moves very quickly. I kept to my own rhythm and discovered an attack - in a Vienna Game - with the black pieces. I was very quickly up two pawns and, after some nervy middlegame moments, I was able to make my a-pawn run right down the board. Bishops with opposite colors helped in this case and I won fairly comfortably. The final round had me playing the white pieces against a teenager that didn't really seem to have his heart in the game. Playing as black and fianchettoing both bishops, I was able to create a powerful central pawn mass and use it to supports tactics. The game only lasted 19 moves. The slide doesn't yet feel under control, but I felt much better about this weekend's chess than I did after the Northeastern Open. There still isn't enough study and my next tournament is only in five days. Back to [[Chess Tournaments and Results 2025]].