Passen Sie Auf!

Staying focused and paying attention during your chess game is paramount in a serious chess game. While this may sound simple, many players often do lose focus during a game and lose, including me.   So the moral of the story is to stay focused on your game so that you do not make elementary mistakes. During tournaments, one should not have discussions with other players, think about or worry about other players, or to engage in other activites while playing.  This seems to be my one of my major weaknesses (that and lack of experience!).  While these sound like, and are excuses for losing, I will endeavor to play more seriously in the future.  Garrett's 5 move draw against Larry Parsons was a valuable lesson, in that they both recognized the competitiveness of the tournament and perceived their near future lack of focus, and agreed to a draw.  What a clear example of why they are champions and win more than lose chess games.

Here are two games that I failed to win (when I was winning) during a tournament I was TDing: 
http://www.idahochessassociation.org/woodriverweekendswiss2009games.asp

Me vs. Erwin Kett (see move 27 - I began entering results in the computer for the tournament!)
Tyler Jaramillo vs. Me (see move 10 - I was cleaning up the tables, came back and moved without looking at board!  Move 31 - I lost interest in the game and began taking tables down and entering results, I also just had a conversation with Garrett about his 5 move draw and was worried that he was not enjoying himself!  Move 37 - I began cleaning again, returned, moved without looking at board and thought I had an en prise move!)

Every bad move was preceeded by a lack of attention and focus.  I could clearly identify what I was doing when I made these horrbile moves.  When I was attentive and thinking only about the game, I was in control of the game, and thoroughly unbeatable!