Chess.MN 3rd FIDE Invitational

I participated in the 3rd FIDE Invitational run by Dr. Sisira Amarasinghe of Chess.MN. The tournament was held in St. Paul, Minnesota and was a round robin that saw nine rounds played over two consecutive weekends.

Of course, in such an event, I knew the player list in advance. My initial goal going into the event, based on rating, was to score 6.5/9 which would raise my rating by 10-12 points. However, Robert Donahue (2101) was replaced by Kevin Wasiluk (2279) just before the start of the tournament and so I needed only 6/9 to gain rating. I set my sights on 6.5 nonetheless, and looked at how I migh accumulate those points. My goal for the first weekend was a quick 4.5/5, as I was paired with 4 of the lower rated players in the event and one of the four masters. I came close, hitting 4/5 in week one. Coming back, I wanted a 2.5/4 score but knew that would be difficult as I would be up against the remaining two masters as well as P. Amarasinghe (2130) and B. Purcell (2137).

In the end, I scored above my goal, hitting 7/9. Going into the final round, myself, NM Iwu and NM Wasiluk were tied with 6.0/8. Iwu drew Odeh and in a very tense encounter, Wasiluk had to settle for a perpetual against Amarasinghe, so I was left in clear first place when the dust settled. I will put some games up on chessunderground.org when I have time.

Crosstable:
http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201003077341-12542549

For now, the recap as it applies to my quest:

Round 1: WIN vs. Ratliff, David (2072)
Round 2: DRAW vs. Mattson, Dane (2080)
Round 3: DRAW vs. Iwu, Okechukwu (2211)
Round 4: WIN vs. Odeh, Kenneth (2050)
Round 5: WIN vs. Hortillosa, Andres (1980)
Round 6: WIN vs. Dahl, Matthew (2200)
Round 7: DRAW vs. Amarasinghe, Prashantha (2130)
Round 8: DRAW vs. Wasiluk, Kevin (2279)
Round 9: WIN vs. Purcell, Brendan (2137)

New Rating: 2255
Games Played: 282
Games left: 18