Marlins Gambit OTB Blitz Victory :)

The SouthMiami Chess Club event, Marlins Gambit

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welcome back everyone to another OTB recap which this time however won't be as long or incredible due to the lack of resources at my disposal for the event. the first thing is that this was my first Blitz tournament since December of last year in the Orlando bughouse and blitz alongside the main event where i boosted rating. the difference however my friends was that this time control wasn't 5 minutes, rather it was 3 minutes with 2 second increment which did play a rather interesting role as i could be able to think while playing and not worry much.

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Background to getting there
as most users know my OTB tournament was the week before and last weekend i had another tournament scheduled at the marlins stadium. i used to live near there a couple of years ago before we moved so for me it was more close than to go to Pinecrest. i have said it many times but since its been getting pretty explanatory, i live in Miami and try to travel to many cheap tournaments nearby and so i came into the lucky timing of being able to play at my old friends chess club for 20 bucks per entry though this blitz entry was 40 bucks.

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Diego is the owner of the @SouthMiamiChessClub which is a place where i currently go nowadays to improve my ratings and mostly try to make some cash. anyways i walked for 30 minutes and got there by 2:30 where i met the players and was playing some games. due to the lack of players in the open however, Diego decided to integrate all sections to play together yet the final scores would be marked towards their own individual section.

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The Atmosphere and winning the money
the stadium was such a beautiful place and sparked so many memories in my childhood from traveling and passing there numerous times in the past. everything is pretty expensive as before but the hype is better than ever, especially for the marlins gambit blitz event here.

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the place where we were playing was private, being reserved for Marlin Gambit members only (people who registered for the event) and the view was amazing for spectating the game at the top and for playing chess there as well. lots of players and boards were set with us simply being paired for 9 rounds and over the span of 9 games, i managed to win 7 losing to two 1900's from the OPEN and having the highest score regardless (they were the only 2).

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#FEEL THE POWER - SouthMiamiChessClub

the games during rounds had highlights from a win due to an illegal move, to beating a 2000 rated player in classical, and just chilling with my new friends afterwards to have fun. i was hungry afterwards and haven't ate anything except candy for the past week. i went into the stadium looking for things to eat but they only accepted cash so we had to get a friend to lend us their credit card, i bought some popcorn, chicken tenders, fries, and soda while playing with my friends some blitz and spectating the kings in action eating :)

Here is a video of a friend playing a casual blitz game against one of diegos friends
https://youtu.be/FJLf70jwDnE

the whole event was really just a blast and i apologize for not having too many resources to show the games and even record some while live. i did manage to record this game so thats all i have apart from the pictures Diego sent, after the tournament he agreed to drive me home so that was nice of him. i ended up winning the money as well and overall my blitz rating has skyrocketed a lot from this tournament, cant wait for the next fun one
Here is the Trophy, i also won $75 for the cash prize, also they were giving free hats saying Leon which i think were due to the baseball game and i got a free marlines T-shirt along with everyone else as they were generous to give some to us due to the security guard

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apart from the free hats and shirt, there was also some interesting facts like the idea that we practically had that private area all to ourselves till the baseball game ended. i am not a sports fan but the atmosphere was just amazing and Diego said that he might do this maybe next year as well so if you guys ever want to meet me, thats a chance right there. anyways thanks for reading this small recap and i hope you guys cheer me on in more of my upcoming blogs :)