Tension!!!

At 9:45 p.m., over two hours into round one of the November Thursday Knighter, only one game was finished. Vince Wisniewski played his Alekhine's against an unrated, but strong player.

I was only at move 18 on the Black side of a Caro-Kann, in which my opponent made me work hard. I stepped out of the room for a moment, and when I walked in, found that we were all roughly at the same point...move 16, move 19, move 19, and...move 12?!!! Kevin Landman, a 1500+ player, was playing Black with a strong time advantage against 1900+ Reed Russell.

Roughly an hour later, after I finally resigned, Dennis McGrath finished an excellent game against Steve Turmo with a victory.

Reed was concentrating head down, with just over five minutes left. I was exhausted and couldn't stand any more tension, so I left.

But it was one of those nights where everyone seemed to be playing their best!