I will start with the chess first.
Due to a work meeting change known earlier this month, I switched my vacation & played in the 2025 Emiliano "Mike" Perea Memorial 2.0 hosted by the Albuquerque Chess Club
https://www.abqchessclub.org/
This was a well run tournament, & this organization runs a lot of events. If you are in the area, please go to at least one of them! Even the second round delay was smooth, & G/60 Inc 30 is now my favorite time control!
As part of the welcome twist, all the games are online as they were broadcast with a 5-15 minute delay on the lichess website.
https://lichess.org/broadcast/2025-emiliano-mike-perea-memorial-open-20/round-1/CnfBp7Gl
You click on a round, you click on a specific game, & you can see all the moves of the game in question.
Thanks to all those on instagram who saw my posts & were able to watch even on delay the games from the tournament, whether it was mine or someone else's.
I won Round 1 against an candidate master / expert, lost to an expert, drew a C player, drew a C player, then beat an A player.
I will do commentary on all the rounds, because why not?
https://lichess.org/broadcast/2025-emiliano-mike-perea-memorial-open-20/round-1/CnfBp7Gl/WDGbgnpG
Round 1 - Sosa-Chen
The game started out as an English, & my opponent was able to clear the center of pawns quickly while I was trying to castle. But there are consequences of grabbing a pawn as White found himself in some heavy pressure trying to hold on to the pawn as I was able to catch up in development.
The game was still very much in the balance throughout when he just dropped his bishop for no reason in the final position. He may have intended to do that Bishop move after my Rook left the third rank but there was a move order issue & I was able to take the free Bishop.
Round 2 - Chen-Motley
https://lichess.org/broadcast/2025-emiliano-mike-perea-memorial-open-20/round-2/Yu9owZJe/e8gQb7GZ
I had a chance to repeat the position with 36. R5d6 Qf5 37. Rd5, but I played 36. Qxa5 instead, which allowed him to open everything up.
Last chance. I had to play 42. f5 instead of 42. Qd7. I had the right idea in that I had to bring additional pressure against his King, but this was not the way to do it. He brought his Rook & Queen in & it was all over.
Round 3 - Serna-Chen
https://lichess.org/broadcast/2025-emiliano-mike-perea-memorial-open-20/round-3/4ke8Rhqt/zEcLLzHz
From the Petroff, I tried to open the game too quickly while I was significantly behind in development.
Having to play 20. ...Be6 sacrificing a pawn to blunt the attack was not on my bingo card, but I had to address the long diagonal problems somehow.
He never took it outright, opting to try to improve his Rooks & Queen. This game ended in a draw because I was able to trade rooks & then advance the isolated e-pawn to trade it off. Now we have a Queen ending with no screaming advantage for either side.
Round 4 - Chen-Acosta
https://lichess.org/broadcast/2025-emiliano-mike-perea-memorial-open-20/round-4/AIYlIB73/T6zCiqmr
Now the interesting thing about this game is that my opponent is a twitch streamer
https://twitch.tv/PawnToPro
So he probably covered it extensively from his side.
I developed my light squared Bishop to c4, eventually allowing Black to execute the Fork Trick. Here, I should have played 10. h3, as after the game continuation of 10. Qe2 Qxe2 11. Nxe2 Bg4 I can't avoid a trade of Bishop for knight that weakens my pawn structure.
The gaffe was exacerbated here.
I needed to play 18. Kg2 securing f3, as 18. Rd2? e5! 19. dxe5 Nxe5 20. Rfd1?? Nxf3+ is a winning fork.
Because of my incautiousness, he was able to grab the d-file, which is NOT what I wanted.
So this was a very difficult ending to try to draw, let alone win.
I didn't like this move (40. ...g5) at all for my opponent if he was trying to win, as I am not obligated to capture on g5. If after 41. Kd3 he plays 41. ...g4, my Knight is now a blockading knight & his King can't really get in. He needed to trade pawns & then run his h-pawn up the board, though this is easier said then done.
He used 29 of his remaining 44 minutes before playing 13. ...Nh6 later on. The check on h2 doesn't work as 13. ...Bxf3 14. Qxf3 Qh2+ 15. Kf1 leaves Ke2 as an escape square next & Black doesn't have enough attacking forces to continue the attack.
With Black's mate threat nullified, I slowly built the position up, using the c-file as a way to penetrate Black's position.
as 31. ...Rxa8 32. Rc8+ Rxc8 33. Rxc8+ Kg7 34. Bf8+ & 35. Bh6# is decisive. The game continuation of 31. ...Qg5 (threatening 32. ...Qxg2#) 32. Qxd8+ is not much better for Black as after 32. ...Qxd8 33. Rc8, even in the best case scenario with no imminent checkmate, I have two extra Rooks unopposed.
I also went to the turquoise museum in town.
Finally, I wanted to show some pictures I took of the tournament venue when the organizer led me on a small tour.
