MCC Ind Day Swiss Wrap-Up

Hello from Paris!

Just got around to catching up on all of the other chess blogs out there and decided that I'd post my July wrapup while my wife showers. Then, it's off to the catacombs.

First, the link to the online replay of the month's games:
http://www.njord.org/~steve/mychess/mcc0707.htm

If you only look at one, I suggest the last. I didn't think it was that solid a game, but a friend told me it was one of the cleanest he's seen me play, so....

Quick round by round summary, excluding round 1 which I already discussed:

• Round 2: White vs George Goulding. He responded to e4 with e5 and we played a bishop's opening. I have a hard time resisting the early f5 in these lines, even though it's not book. I just love the way it restricts black's queen bishop. The center got locked and he missed my threat to win his two central pawns. After that it was just a little defense and then it was all over.
• Round 3: White vs Calvin Hori. I played Calvin once before and knew we'd play the Sicilian. I was pretty upbeat before this game: I was +5 =1 -1 in the Closed Sicilian, I was +1 =0 -0 against Mr. Hori, I was +4 =0 -0 in rematches and +10 =1 -0 in my last 11 games with white. Well, none of that did me any good when I proceeded to hang my b pawn (both losses with the Closed Sicilian that I've had have now featured the hanging of the b pawn) and went on to lose a long game.
• Round 4: Black vs David Harrington. We played a Scandinavian with 2 e5. David (1535) is now the highest rated player to play e5 against me in the Scandinavian. I know it's not a good move, but I always have trouble against it. In this game he made several pawn exchanges that developed my pieces and left me with a pair of unopposed, connected central pawns. Eventually he had to give up a piece due to this. We then traded down into an endgame that was harder for me than it should have been, but I ground it out for the win.
• Round 5: Bye

I'm still disappointed by the loss to Hori, but all in all, a good tournament for me. 3/4 vs 1075, 1615, 1650 and 1535 sent my rating over 1500 for the first time ever.

Ok, time to go look at some bones!