HCA - RMS Tournament

My son and I played in the RMS tournament here in our hometown.  This was the first time I played chess in almost a month.  Work and family life have been so extremely busy, that I hardly have time to play, study or write about chess.  But things are starting to slow down again to normal speeds and my chess enthusiasm is starting to come back.

The HCA RMS tournament was a scholastic tournament, but adults are allowed to play in the advanced section.  I knew I would be playing against mostly kids and teenagers.  Time controls were G/45. I ended up playing three Asian kids (between the ages of 7 and 10) and one adult who I played against in the Class Championships.  It was nice seeing and talking to him.  Another adult in the section was the father who was helping his son cheat in the Class Championships.  The kid was also playing, but in a different section.

First off - all the games were very quick.  All my opponents played very quickly.  We had completed our first 20 moves and only 5 minutes would be gone off the clock.  The game went down to the wire and I was able to rattle off a few checks while the clock was beginning to expire.  I was able to mate him with 8 seconds on my clock.

The second two games were boring and both ended up on a draw.  In fact, the third game should have been a loss for me, but I was able to force a draw by repetition.  Afterward, a few other kids analyzed the game and showed us how the kid could have beaten me.

My last game was easy.  My opponent dropped a piece early on and I won no problem.  It was satisfying as this was the gentleman I drew with in the Class Championships.

My son did well for his first tournament.  I won a couple and drew one and lost the others.  He had fun.  His games got over much quicker than mine did.  He enjoyed it enough that he wants to do it again.

I need 10 more games to get the P to drop from my rating.  I'll be trying to find some time to play a few more rated games over the next few months.

*Update* Here is the crosstable for the section in which I played.  Looks like my new (provisional) rating will be 1244 ... up from 1114.