April 18-20, Brookfield, Wisconsin The US Amateur North had more than 120 players in three separate divisions and was dominated by a large group of scholastic players who were plentiful and fun to be around. I felt like my play was starting to improve, but the lack of preparation - especially in the opening - is still really showing. Openings that I usually feel comfortable with - like the Slav and the Sicilian Closed - proved to be a weakness. The way forward is clear: there needs to be better preparation and self-improvement, but I'm not as depressed about as I was after the [[2025 GrowthChess April $1,000 Open Summary]]. In my first round I played the eventual winner of the tournament and got surprised by a pretty traditional Reti Opening. I played surprisingly well. In fact, my opponent (rated north of 2000) breathed a sigh of relief when he finally won. The game was a reminder that I can play well, even against superior opponents. My opponent used up almost all of her 90 minutes, but she seldom looked at the board - instead her gaze was all over the room for the entire game. Very odd. My second game was, frankly, a wipeout. I had a 1300-rated scholastic opponent that didn't really make it successfully out of the opening. The two things I noticed about their play in this tournament is that 1) they try to exchange all the pieces off the board as soon as they can; and 2) they play out lost positions all the way to mate. Earlier in my chess life this would of annoyed me, but now I work to keep the pieces and possibilities on the board and just smile as I end the game. The third game was my disaster at the tournament. Against a 1300 player again, I played a Slav Defense where I tried to keep the extra pawn. In keeping with how things were going in this tournament, my opponent tried to exchange all the pieces off the board as soon as he could. We were left with a position where I had a passed a-pawn and he had a five-on-four majority on the kingside. Eventually, the a-pawn fell and my opponent was able to make the five-on-four majority work. The early round on Sunday found me against another 1300 player and once again my opponent barely made it out of the opening. With his king trapped in the corner against a useless rook, it was easy for me to develop the initiative that overwhelmed what remained of his forces. the game took less than an hour. The last round of the tournament left me with a really bad taste in my mouth. I was paired, incredibly, against someone who purportedly has a 1000 rating. In a Slav with g3 and Bg2, I was uncomfortable with an opening I used to play all the time. At the start of the middlegame I lost the exchange which was eventually my undoing. During the middlegame I had a raging attack on the kingside which he defended well. There were about fifteen moves where it looked like I might be able to breakthrough. During the play, I was wondering to myself "How can this really be a 1000-rated" player defending like this. Eventually the rook proved far more powerful than the knight and he got a clear passed pawn. After the game, he told me that his online rating was north of 2000, but his over-the-board rating hadn't caught up. I was really disillusioned after that. An entire tournament passed where I didn't get to play a single opponent that was the same strength as me. It's not the Tournament Director's fault, but I came home angry and a bit disillusioned with these big tournaments. Not a good feeling when I have the US Senior Open and the US Open coming up this summer. Back to [[Chess Tournaments and Results 2025]].