Monday, February 16, 2009

She was listening to Taylor Swift; I was listening to the Flaming Lips

This weekend I competed in the Sophomore section of the 116th Annual Minnesota Open. Including this weekend, I have played in it six times since 2003. (I only missed '04 when I was living in Phoenix.)

I had a very enjoyable weekend, and I wanted to share some anecdotes, which may or not be in chronological order.

In round two I sat down to play a girl, who I guessed was younger than my own daughter. As we were both donning on iPods, I asked what she was listening to. (See title again.)

Other than the little smile in recognition of divergent tastes in music, we began our game. She played the English. It turned into a very wild reversed Sicilian variation, in which I was under constant attack. As I expected that she knew these lines well, I was shitting bricks for quite a while. Unlike the game I had played the night before, which was much more balanced, this game was completely about defense for me.

When I finished playing move after accurate move grinding down her attack, we had nothing more than a drawn position. I was relieved to escape this tense game with that draw!

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