Back in the Game

Hello my friends. Thanks for visiting and I hope to publish more frequently than in the last few months. After a busy few months of chess during the summer I took a brief recess of a few weeks. I attended the US Open in Vancouver Wa, in August. What a great location for that tournament! My chess was so-so at this event and I have more than a few suspicions that my opponents were receiving extra cranial assistance during the games. Beyond that I have to admit the location itself was distracting. My rental was upgraded from a lunchbox to a Chevy Malibu: A great great touring car. I put 421 glorious miles of use into it in various jaunts in Oregon. Some pictures to follow. I was fortunate to see the boardwalk at Asbury Park NJ during the Boardwalk Open in October before Sandy busted through with a crushing combination of wind and surf. To all those affected please accept my deepest wishes for a speedy recovery. I'm taking a brief pause from tournament play for the next several months. I failed to achieve my goal of a 2000 rating but I think I would have succeeded minus the computer assistance. I'm going to focus on opening play and my favorite strategic theme the exchange sacrifice in the off months. Here is a nice game by the late Svetozar Gligoric from 1967: Here are some pics from Oregon: Oregon is fully worth the visit. Definitely on my list of places to visit every few years. Hey USCF please have a tournament in the Portland, OR area again soon!