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October 30, 2011

Over the course of Halloween weekend, I played in the 2011 Utah Open. It was simply scrumptious. I finished with a final score of 3.0 out of 5. Overall, I am pleased with my result. My favorite game was my round 1 match against David Vasquez. For your viewing pleasure, I have annotated the game below.

Jamie Olsen-Mills vs David Vasquez
Round 1, Utah Open 2011

1. e4 c5?? What a joke.

2. d4 cxd4?? Who plays this??

3. c3! White is clearly taking the lead here. ...dxc3

4. Nxc3 Nc6 5. Nf3 g6 6. Bc4 Bg7 7. 0-0 a6 8. Bg5 b5 Probably not the best square, but I had it all worked out in my head.

9. Bb3 Bb7 10. Qe2 h6 11. Bf4 Nf6 12. Rfd1 Nh7 13. Nd5 d6 14. e5 0-0 15. exd6 exd6 16. Ne3 Qf6 17. Bxd6 Rfe8 18. Qd3 h5 19. Bg3 Rad8 20. Qc2 Na5 21. Rxd8 Rxd8 I thought I could avoid doubling my pawns on the b file...

22. Be5 Qc6 23. Bxg7 Kxg7 24. Qxc6 Bxc6 25. Ne5 Nxb3 ...but it turns out, I did double my pawns on the b file.

26. Nxc6 Rd6 27. axb3 Rxc6

At this point I have no idea how the game continued. Rest assured that I did win, due to Black's horrible choice of an opening (1...c5??), coupled with a small post-annotation blunder on David's part.

In conclusion, the Utah Open was so totally awesome. I am pleased to say that I won the Utah Women's Championship, and will take home with me a nice shiny trophy. I look forward to rigorously studying for the Utah Closed, for which I have now qualified.

There were 25 players total in the Open section. Congratulations to the other winners: Josh Smith, 1st place overall; Shahram Nazarinia, 2nd place overall; John Coffey, 1st place U2000; and Andrew Roach, 1st place U1800.

Jamie Olsen-Mills shows off her shiny trophy

Grant Hodson and Steve Hoisington ponder the meaning of chess and life