I played better on the second day.

I won both my games for a final score of 2.5/5 (I took a third round bye). My opponent from the first game in the tournament won the section, he played very well. My first win was against the guy I played in the last round of the Evanston tournament a few months ago. He played the English again and I was a bit more ambitious. I think I had a bit of a positional advantage and then he slipped up, dropping a pawn. His position fell apart quickly after that. In the second game, I was against a low-rated junior. He played the Ruy Lopez, Classical Deferred, but got himself a cramped position. I used the fork trick to gain some central space and then won two pieces for a rook. I picked up another pawn and then went into an endgame with a rook, two minor pieces, and a couple extra pawns against two rooks. I didn't have to use my super endgame skills, though, as he made a tactical blunder and lost a rook. I think I'll lose a couple rating points from this tournament, which I don't particularly care about. I think I also picked up a few dollars. The tournament seemed to have far fewer people than they had hoped for (50 as opposed to far more, the quoted prize fund in the advertisements was b/250). I think it was because it conflicted with another large local tournament, the FIDE Continental Amateur something or other, which had about 100, as well as, of course, the World Open and everybody's 4th of July plans.

I'm still undecided about playing in the Chicago Class in a couple weeks. It's a choice between that and playing the NSCC G/45 event. On the one hand, I did get some cash money to make the entry fees a little better and it's a long time control. On the other, it takes all weekend and, even playing up a section, I'll probably face weaker opposition than I would at the NSCC event.

EDIT: Going over one of the games on the computer - I realize it's no substitute for master human commentary - I think it's amusing that, for four or five straight moves, Houdini insists that Black needs to play ...Nc5 and White needs to play c4. In retrospect, those are good moves...