I’ll be playing my first round in the open section tomorrow night in Baltimore, and I’m pretty excited about playing in a tournament for the first time this month. This will likely be my last major tournament before the Virginia Scholastic Championships in March, so this is my last chance to improve my seeding in the K-12 section.

Last month at the Chesapeake Open I score 2/5 in the Open section, so my goal this time around is 3 points and a Candidate Master norm. Might be difficult, but a rating of 2100+ or better is definitely appealing.