February 1-2, 2025; Neenah, Wisconsin The 2025 Northeastern Open was my first tournament in two years. The results were horrendous. In my first game, I was easily ahead in a won endgame against a player rated in the low 1300’s. With two connected, passed pawns. Incredibly, in a completely won position, I missed a mate in one. It was an odd game. At one time I brushed against my king when I was marking an exchange. My opponent called in the tournament director and asked for a judgement. Fortunately, he showed tons of common sense and let the exchange stand. However, I was seriously short of time and was not using a good process to check and select my moves. The result was missing a mate in one: a beginner’s error. The second game was a Scandinavian where I took an offered pawn and attempted to hang on to the extra material for as long as I could. Once again, I used tons of time on relatively simple moves and didn’t use a good process for selecting and evaluating moves. That got me into trouble and I ended up a pawn down in a rook and knight ending. I was lucky to have my 1500-rated opponent accept a repetition of moves and skate away with a draw against a lower rated opponent. My third game was also against a 1500-rated player and we played a French Defense where we worked through a French Advance where I thought I had the better of the position. Unfortunately, the computer thinks otherwise and so did my opponent. While I thought I had a significant advantage on the queenside, it was there where he broke through and eventually overwhelmed me. I lost the second of the first three games. When Sunday came I was pretty distressed about the results. I ended up playing a Stienitz Defense in the Scotch Game against a player who obviously had never seen it before. I grabbed a pawn and doubled a set of his and then held on for dear life and won on time. The last game was with a young kid from Chicago who bashed out the moves in seconds. After about 25 moves I had used nearly an hour and he had barely used five minutes. He had a clear repertoire that involved giving black doubled pawns without the ability to castle. I set up a four versus three pawn majority and got him to isolate a pawn. His lack of any endgame skills showed as I eventually created a protected passed pawn and won - but not after a queen and rook endgame which he might have drawn except for my ability to exchange the queens into a easily won rook and pawn endgame. Several things are clear. First, the process for evaluating and selecting moves needs to be substantially improved. Second, and almost as important, I need to do something about my opening repertoire. I had trouble getting out of the opening in every game. Third, I missed tactics in every game. Part of the problem is the candidate move process, but I could use some work on tactics. I’ve clearly got to study more if I want to improve in 2025. No more chess books until I get this slide under control. And, more practical play - either online or in-person. I’ll obviously be in the 1600’s after this. Back to [[Chess Tournaments and Results 2025]].