In a tournament for seniors, playing like a kid who hasn’t learned anything

      IM Tim Taylor won the Northern California senior state championship held June 17-19 at the Berkeley Chess Center, ahead of IM Elliott Winslow and SM Michael Walder. With three strong players in the field, first prize came down to a round-robin between the three — Taylor beat Walder and drew with Winslow, while Walder and Winslow drew with each other.
      I could’ve helped my friends Elliott and Mike by drawing with Taylor in round 2, and the PGN shows how simple that could’ve been.
      I played most poorly, in terms of falling to old bad habits. I lost to Taylor because I panicked after a mistake that wouldn’t’ve killed me (one mistake won’t kill you, but panicking will) then went blind to a backward-going move.

      Against the Class B player Adkins in round 3, I just didn’t show up for the game following a bad loss. Competitors have to pick themselves from the floor after losing, which I never did when I was younger. I’ve been better about that in my senior years, but blowing that draw against the #1 player caused a regression.

      In round 4 against the unrated Aiyer, I reached an easily-won position, then played the single move to let it slip. Relaxing after complications end is also a bad.

      In round 5 against Class A player Kenny, I managed my clock time wretchedly — first leaving myself too little time, then after recovering lots of time with the increment, not using it to think — letting the win slip away multiple times.
      This PGN is broken into two parts, because the note to move 2 is so long that it broke something.

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