Stories or Experiences by or about those who've attended the World Open in the Past.

1979, 1981, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999

In 1997 John didn't play.  He got married on July 5th with a honeymoon in Pittsburgh, PA.  John says "to quote W.C. Fields: On the whole I'd rather be in Philadelphia (his epitaph)"

This year his wife Carol and Stepson Geoffrey will spend July 5th at the World Open together!

1997: Rating 1785, so I was a contender in the U1800 section. The tournament was nine rounds. I started 2-0, lost the next two, then won five straight games to finish 7-2 and in the money. Two guys won the section at 8-1 each, there were a couple of 7 1/2s, then about five or six of us tied at 7. I got $467 in prize money.

1998: I started off even better than the previous year with 2.5 points after four rounds (two wins, a loss, and a draw). Of course I knew I wasn't likely to go 5-0 down the stretch as I had a year earlier, but if I could, I'd be in the big money. And indeed, I reeled off three in a row to reach the final day with 5.5 out of 7. But alas, I lost my last two games to finish out of
the money with that same 5.5 score.

1999: For the third year in a row, I won my first two games -- and then instead of the third-round loss that had been my pattern, I won again. 3-0! First time I had done that. I came down to earth quickly, though, with two straight losses. A win in Round 6 put me at 4-2, but a loss in Round 7 quickly snuffed out all the dreams. A win and a loss on the last day closed it out with exactly the same score as that of a year ago, 5.5.

"Wait till next year!"

1998: Rating of 1534.  I've always considered my play better at the short time controls but this event changed my thinking around.  I played in the three day event.  The first five games were game 50.  I won one game that should have been a loss and lost two games that should have been win to end up with 1.5 for five rounds.  Not a very good showing at this point.  The next four games were all at 40/2, SD/1, a time control that normally drives me to boredom.  Well, I managed to win all four games to give me a 5.5 out of 9 rounds.  In the end, not too bad a showing.  I finished half a point out of the money.1996: Rating of 1625.  I figured it had been ten years since I last went, I've been playing regularly at the club and I've got 179 games under the belt now.  Well, for a 9 round tournament, I lost 10 games.  The first 5 games were G/75.  I prefer the shorter time controls but it didn't help.  I played some good games but just couldn't manage a win.  So, I figure I'm out of the running and faced with only long time controls so I withdrew after round 6 and entered a four round-robin.  Some of the worse chess I've ever played and all in the space of a few hours.  The end result, tanked my rating but good.  The first time I ever need a rating floor and they move the floor to 200 points.  Great, thanks a lot.

Despite my poor performance, I decided to return every other year to see how I'm doing and take another shot at the big bucks.  It's 1998 and time to go back.  This time will be different, I've already got my rating near my floor.

1999: Rating of 1612.  I was very excited about this years World Open until I got a rude surprise in the June supplement.  It seems that a tournament I had played in was not sent to the USCF within the required time which in turn made it miss the June supplement.  So, instead of having an 1585 rating for the World Open, I ended up with 1612.  The section break was at 1600 so in stead of being at the top of the lower section, I'm at the bottom of the upper section.  Oh well.

Here's the round by round story: 
Round 1: Win   1 - 0 - 0
Very calm, possessing inner peace, I grind out a win.  4 hours. 
Round 2: Lose   1 - 1 - 0
10:00 am, noticeably not in a peaceful state of mind, surprisingly tired, just plain played badly, lost it in the opening and continued to throw away pieces.  Really bad play.  Only played an hour to lose this game.  1 hour
Round 3: Win   2 - 1 - 0
Great attack and position working for me but I get to critical point and do a deep think for a half hour.  Can't find a sure line that works so I select the one good set-up move.  Ugh.  The whole game turns against me.  I manage to trade off his attackers after he misses a killer move.  While I do have a passed protected pawn in the center of the board, one correct move by my opponent and he solidifies his position and I have no play.  He has a rook to my bishop.  Ahh, he make a very natural looking move of the King to the center of the board.  Wrong move buddy.  I'm on the attack and I roll down the center of the board using my King, bishop and pawn to squeeze him and keep him from any counter play.  I win this game.  3 hours
Round 4: Lose   2 - 2 - 0
Playing a little kid who looks like he's going to cry every few moves.  Remember though that he is rated about 150 points higher than me.  Had a nice attack from the opening going, putting the squeeze on, still searching each move for the mate combination.   Can't find the mate.  Opponent finally gets some space and wiggles out.   Only choice is to go into a tricky bishop Vs same colored bishop end game with a small advantage.  Things going ok until I played one inaccurate bishop move.   First loss of a won endgame in the last year of so.  3 hours
Round 5: Lose   2 - 3 - 0
I now come up a little old lady with a bad hand.  I'm crushing her in the opening.  She's taking so long on each move I get a little tired and I misplay a simple move order on two pawns that will driver her only developed pieces back.  My position is completely busted.  I'm pretty sure that she has a mate coming up in my messy position.  My only chance I figure is to go into the endgame even though I'll be on the wrong side of two pawn majorities, 6 Vs 4 on one side and 2 Vs 1 on the other with each of us having a Rook and Knight.  I play endgames, even ones I'm losing like I'm the one who winning and go on the attack.  She's eating up gobs of time.  I manage to hold on for another 60 moves.  Several times she could have misplayed and I would be on the winning side but it was not to be.  5 hours
Round 6: Win   3 - 3 - 0
My opponent plays a book Kings Indian defense for the first 12 moves and then makes a weak pawn move followed by a badly placed bishop, all with the intent of winning my center pawn.  I play my rook on an open file that doesn't support my endangered pawn.  What he didn't realize that he can not move any of 5 pieces.  He wins the pawn and I win the game with a series of exchanges on the back rank, or rather would have but he resigned when he saw the obvious continuation of my rook to his back rank.  This game takes only 25 minutes.  1/2 hour
Round 7: Lose   3 - 4 - 0
I thought I found someone who was slightly worse than me in tactics.  It turns out that I was slightly worse than him.  Not a pretty game.   3 hours
Round 8: Win   4 - 4 - 0  
This time I am slightly better with tactics and win a punch and counter punch fight.  4 hours
Round 9: Win   5 - 4 - 0  
My opponent plays something I have no idea about in the opening.   I see opportunities to develop while I harass his pieces.  I do make a weak move that should lose for me but he reacts the move I made and not the one I missed.   I push on into a RRB Vs RRB endgame and out play him there.    2 hours

Considering that the total game time could have been 6 hours x 9 rounds to total 54 hours of play, due to some quick wins and losses, I only took about 25 hours over the course of 5 days of play.

At least I finish with a plus score and a gain of about 70 rating points.