Dive into my 9-round OTB chess tournament experience, featuring game recaps, opponent stories, and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage from the 2024 New Years Open.
I'm an adult improver (1600 CFC, 1700 FIDE, 2150-2200 Lichess Rapid / 2050 Chess.com Rapid) who is very serious about trying to improve. I stream chess online and have a YouTube channel where I document my journey of trying to improve and increase my rating.
I recently finished a 9-round classical OTB tournament and made thorough recaps of every round, including stories such as backgrounds of my opponents (for example, I played a 7-year-old who was a literal prodigy!). I also have a little bit of extra footage such as arriving to the tournament, what the tournament playing hall looks like, and a tour of the Airbnb suite I was staying at.
I'm sharing this here as I thought some similar-minded people may be interested, particularly other adult improvers like myself, or those who have never played in an OTB tournament.
I do have a Lichess Study of the games, but didn't include them here because I think you will get a lot more pleasure hearing the ideas and stories behind the moves. Plus, due to the 50+10 time control, not all the games were recorded to the very end due to not being required to record moves once you get down to 5 minutes (but I explain what happened in the videos).
This was my first 9-round tournament (in fact, it was my first tournament with more than 6 rounds), and I absolutely loved the luxury of those added rounds. In a sense, it was almost like two tournaments in one, which is especially nice when you have to travel to go to tournaments, as it's more bang for your buck.
I actually have a few extra videos from the same event scheduled to be published - there was a 7 double-round blitz swiss tournament held after the main classical event that I didn't play in, but took some footage of, so those will be posted throughout the next week.
Anyhow, just thought I'd share my detailed experience of the tournament from an adult improver perspective.
