Brian Rountree Chess

 Round 1 I bought the Excalibur King Master computer the other day at the Ark store; it says on the box that it plays at a 1600 level, but I was eager to try it out.  There are 72 levels, but I played this first game on level 30, with the Black pieces. I was moving quickly through the opening, but then slowed down, as if I were playing a real tournament game, which is something difficult to do online, because of the quicker time-controls.  From a chess point of view, it was more satisfying to try my best at calculating, rather than using the clock as a weapon, which I feel that online quick-chess does rather splendidly. [Event "First match"] [Site "Home"] [Date "2020.05.23"] [Round "1"] [White "Excalibur"] [Black "Brian Rountree"] [Result "0-1"] [BlackElo "1903"] [ECO "A00"] [EventDate "2020.05.23"] [WhiteElo "30"] 1. Nc3 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 Bf5 4. Bf4 e6 5. h3 Be7 6. g4 Bg6 7...

   This was an unrated tournament, and yet was still treated seriously by the players.  With no realistic prospect of any tournaments soon, due to the covid, I voted to have this tournament be un-rated, largely to avoid renewing my membership.  Though there were only enough accommodations for two boards, it still bothered me a bit that there had been no advertised tournaments, which had actually taken place in Colorado, since the pandemic.  To me, not listing or giving a notice of a tournament somewhere, during the pandemic, makes it seem a bit undercover.  That being said, I see nothing wrong with holding chess tournaments, and I believe that it is high time to go back to the past way of doing things; air elbow-bumps are cute, but no cigar.  It still didn't feel like this tournament was real, was really going to happen until the clocks started; it was a last second vote to agree on time-controls, and whether or not it would be rated.  One thing I...