2013 2nd Quarter April Fools!

As promised or perhaps threatened is a better choice of word, a game from the first quarter of 2013.  Technically the game is from the start of the 2nd quarter.  It was played on April 1st, but since it was from the Grand Pacific Open that started on March 29th I'm including as part of the first quarter.

Spoiler alert!  Skip to the game if you don't want to know how it ended before the end.  Otherwise feel free to read on. 

I can't blame this train wreck on time pressure.  For the most part Game/90 with a 30 second increment does not lead to insane time scrambles I've experienced in Thursday Night "Cracktion".  Perhaps if I had 10 seconds left then maybe my move could be excused.  I had over 10 minutes left, and I spent almost two minutes on the final move.  My opponent on the other hand used less then a minute to respond.  I suppose losing a game in this manner was very fitting for April 1st.  My last move certainly had all the makings of a great April Fools joke.  Unfortunately getting mated is no joke.

End of spoiler. Let the game begin.

I can't even begin the explain what the heck happened there.  I totally outplayed my opponent the entire game, but couldn't quite finish him off.  I can't even blame it on being over confident because I had a crushing position.  I've done that many times in the past and did it a few times in 2013.  Some things just never change.  In this game I think I became fixated on Black's pinned rook and forgot about his queen.

No USCF rating points were harmed in the making of this disastrous tournament.  I think my Canadian rating took such a hit that I don't even show up on the CFC website.  I'm not sure why that is since I've played in the tournament 4 times which means I should have a Canadian rating based on 24 games.  When I do a cross table search on the event nothing comes up.  Maybe all these chess trips to Victoria have been a figment of my imagination.  Silly me.