June Swiss

As I noted earlier, I won the first round game last week in the Reno CC June Swiss against G. Smith (1255). The game went:

[Event "Reno CC June Swiss"]
[Site "Reno, NV"]
[Date "2006.06.08"]
[Round "1"]
[White "R. Pearson"]
[Black "G. Smith"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B41"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. c4 Nc6 6. Nc3 Bc5 7. Be3 Nxd4 8. Bxd4 Bxd4 9. Qxd4 Qf6 10. e5 Qh6 11. Ne4 Ne7 12. Nd6+ Kf8 13. Qb6 Nc6 14. Qc7 Ke7 15. Rd1 Nxe5 16. Nxc8+ Raxc8 17. Qxe5 Rhd8 18. Be2 d6 19. Qe4 Rc7 20. O-O f5 21. Qe3 g5 22. f4 g4 23. Bd3 Kf7 24. b4 Qf6 25. Rfe1 Re7 26. Bc2 Qb2 27. Bb3 h5 28. c5 d5 29. Rxd5 Rxd5 30. Bxd5 Qf6 31. Bc4 h4 32. Qe5 Qg6 33. a4 h3 34. g3 Qf6 35. b5 Qxe5 36. Rxe5 axb5 37. axb5 1-0

The interesting thing is that on move 15 I thought I had him all tied up and ready for the kill--but as Nevada State Champion Arkia Bayati pointed out in the postmortem, instead of the piece-losing 15. Nxe5, Rd8! would have given good counterplay.

I have a tendency to think too highly of my position and miss opportunties for 'the other guy,' which is one of my biggest weaknesses and something that's limiting my progress. Tonight I will probably be playing a high-rated A-player or expert. As part of my training, I'm going to have a note under my scoresheet that says something like "Look for his good moves, too!" We'll see if that helps.