White, 872 vs. Robert Bemben, 1833

This was my first game in the 2023 US Open, and also my first with such a long time control—had we both used all of the time permitted to us, in theory the game could have lasted upwards of five hours. (In fact, it lasted somewhere between two and three hours.)

Swiss system tournaments generally begin by pairing players on opposite ends of the rating pool, in order to ensure that the final result is decisive even though there aren’t enough rounds for every player to face off against every other player. As this was an open tournament, the rating pool ranged from total beginners all the way up to masters; so, it came as no surprise when I ultimately lost this game. Still, I felt I played well enough as not to be embarrassed—which was nice, since lately I’ve had a bit of a losing streak where I’ve often felt I should have been able to play better. Indeed, Lichess’ evaluation suggests I made “only” three blunders and managed 83% accuracy, vs. my opponents zero blunders and 90% accuracy.

I managed to keep things fairly even until move 19 (the first of my three blunders), when I obliviously gave up the c3 pawn that, as it turned out, was keeping my whole position together. I think I put up a decent fight afterwards, but it was all downhill from there.