Isle of Man International: Masters section TR; tldr
10-12-2015
, 06:27 PM
I mentioned this in the LC thread, but I hope people don't mind if I write my TR as a stand alone thread.
To begin, some background about my chess. I started playing in 1992 at age 18 and quickly got engrossed in the game. After 7 years or so, I had progressed from beginner to earning my national master title, a feat I was pretty proud of. However, this also coincided with graduating university and a choice had to be made - pursue chess seriously, or get on with a normal life. I looked at the stronger players in my area's lives (they were's exactly what I would deem financially successful), and I looked honestly at what I thought my absolute top peak could be (I guessed perhaps weak IM), and the choice was pretty clear. From then on, I became an infrequently playing, sometimes dangerous opponent, and as time went on, I nearly stopped playing. However, my move to the Isle of Man coincided with the International, and despite playing only 2 rated games in the past 2 years, I decided to bypass playing the second section and jump right into the masters, featuring 37GM and 27IM in the 108 player tourney, plus me at the #94 seed.
First up was the Michael Adams simul; despite preparing something and getting it, I was quickly rolled up and put in a little box, ending in an embarassing checkmate.
After that was the chess/poker event; in this event, we played a six round blitz tournament (time control 5mins+2sec increment). The tournament had 34 players, of which I believe about a third were GMs, including all the top super GMs - Harikrishna, Adams, Fressinet, Howell. And who should my first round pairing be?
As you can see, I was giving him some strict instructions about no tricky knight moves. However, this didn't deter him from once again beating me quickly. The rest of the blitz tourney went poorly for me, and I finished with a measly +2 -4, well below the expectation for my rating.
This then led to the actual poker tourney; in this, we started with 7000 chips, plus 1000 more for each point we scored in the blitz; as a result, I started with 9000, while I think the leaders started with 11500. However, that didn't seem to have a very big effect, as many of them seemed very new to poker, unsure what to do or how to call or bet or raise, and had some confusion about hand rankings. Further, they seemed tentative, which was superb for me as the structure was fast to say the least; I was playing extremely aggressive and winning many pots, reaching the final 10 before running into a real hand and being eliminated. An actual poker player (Kenny Shei) won the tournament, with Adams finishing second.
So, with that completed, it was time for the real tournament. In round 1 I played IM Richard Pert (2460). I was on the black side of the french, and tried the same line I played against Adams in the simul, and quickly once again got a bad position when I failed to ever find the right moment to break with e5, then lost control of e5, then lost control of the c-file, and then had my position infiltrated in every possible way. Here's a glance when it had all gone wrong..
So, down to 0-1, but at least I'll have white in the second round, and my opponent appears to be relatively easy to prepare for. Of course, he's still IM Simon Ansell rated 2360, but you gotta take the positives where you can. As it turns out, I once again predicted the opening and got an excellent position where he fought back extremely hard. I'll provide the whole game for this one as it was an exciting one:
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d6 6.c4 Be7 7.N1c3 a6 8.Na3 Nf6 9.Be2 O-O 10.Nc2 Be6 11.O-O Rc8 12.b3 b5 13.cxb5 axb5 14.Qd3
During the game, I thought he'd mis-timed ...b5 and that Qd3 was nearly a straight refutation as his b5 pawn is going to be incredibly weak for no compensation of any sort (he hasn't managed to trade dark squared bishops, and I still have firm control on d5). I was further heartened by the fact that he went into the tank for a good 40 minutes after Qd3 before continuing..
14...Na7 15.Ne3 b4 16.Ncd5 Nc6 17.Nc2 Rb8 18.Bd2 Bxd5 19.exd5 e4 20.Qe3 Nxd5 21.Qxe4 Nc3 22.Bxc3 d5 23.Qd3 bxc3 24.Bf3 Bf6 25.Qxd5
As it turns out, he had done some amazing trickery to get compensation, but I am now officially up a pawn. It's far from a straight and clean pawn, but I was feeling pretty confident at this stage. The story is far from over though..
25...Ne5 26.Rfd1 Qc8 27.Be4 Rd8 28.Qa5 Qg4 29.f3 Qg5 30.Qa7 Ng6 31.Qe3 Qa5 32.b4 Qc7 33.a4 Be5 34.a5 Bxh2+ 35.Kf1 Qc4+ 36.Qe2 Qe6 37.Nd4 Rxd4 38.Rxd4 Be5
After some dicey feeling moments where I was defending, and offering the exchange for his dark squared bishop and pawn, instead he has sacrificed the exchange and I'm starting to think seriously about winning if I can just make a couple more consolidating moves. However, I miss the probably winning Rc4 here, and the *definitely* winning Rd5 (idea Rd5 Nf4 Rxe5 Qxe5 Bxh7+), and decide to liquidate into an ending I think I can win and definitely won't lose:
39.Bxg6 Bxd4 40.Qxe6 fxe6 41.Bc2 Rxb4 42.Ke2 Rb7 43.Kd3 e5 44.a6 Rc7 45.f4 Ba7 46.fxe5 draw agreed
Definitely a mistake to agree to a draw here as I have all the winning chances. I had a GM review the game with me after and he uttered amazement that I would take a draw here as I can simply run the king up the board and then activate my rook and put him in a big problem trying to defend both the a and e pawns. I would chalk this one up to straight up nerves. However, I deemed the opening two rounds a success, as any result when paired up 250+ points has to be considered good.
Unfortunately, work committments meant taking some byes, and round three was the first of those.
It didn't get any easier in round four as my next opponent was a young FM from Switzerland named Gabriel Gaehwilar (2307). Once again, I successfully predicted the opening, but this time forgot some of the preparation and almost immediately fell under massive attack and got wiped away, culminating in this final move:
Round five was another bye, but one with a scary twist; despite speaking with two different arbiters and confirming my round five bye, I logged in on the morning of round five to see who was playing who on top boards, and noticed that I had been paired! Several frantic phone calls later, it was all sorted out.
Upon returning, I entered round six with an official score of 1/5, and my first reasonably even matchup vs a local player rated 2006. After a relatively decent opening where I gave him an isolated d-pawn, he launched an excellent attack which I underestimated:
25.Nh5+ Nxh5 26.Rxh5 gxh5 27.Qg5+ Kf8
to my horror at this point, I realized I'd missed that Qc5+ was going to be possible here, regaining his rook and leaving my king horribly exposed. While I was cursing and regretting that I hadn't played 26...Rxd3, he quickly shocked me by playing 28.Qf6?? This then led to far and away my worst move of the tournament; a rook up and not seeing any threat at all, relieved out of my mind that he hadn't played Qc5+, I snap played Rxd3, which was met with the expected Rxe6, threatening seemingly nothing...except the obvious and completely missed by me Qh8#. With no other defence, I played Kg8, and was perpetual checked by Qg5+ for a draw. Obviously, had I taken a minute, I would have seen the easily winning 28...Qd7, guarding my rook and e6, leaving me a rook up for nothing. Very very disappointing.
After my final work related bye, I entered the last weeked with 1.5/7, where I faced a 2060 from Italy named Logallo. I wasn't sure what to expect, but got a decent position out of the opening against a bluffy looking attack; I was accumulating edges like superior bishop, more center pawns and such, while he was betting it all on the attack. In the post mortem he agreed it was a big bluff, but it had just enough to get to this position with his saving sacrifice for perpetual:
This led to a new experience for me - having to justify the draw to the arbiters, as the tournament was ostensibly being played under the "no draws before move 30" and we were done on move 19. However, as we were scrubs on the bottom boards, they didn't care that much, and it was clearly a legitimate game, so nothing more came of it.
This was kind of disappointing, but that's sort of how it goes sometimes. I did consider (instead of my last move of Kh8 there, allowing the perpetual) playing Qe8, allowing Rxh6 Qxg6 Rxg6 Rb8 and just playing down a pawn and trying to exploit my other advantages but it just didn't seem quite good enough.
Soooo at long last, we entered round nine. I had completely mis-read the prize structure and believed that a last round win might get me 1st place <2100 (there were not many of us, and we were all getting hammered - most were tied with me or worse, and the couple who were a half point ahead looked to have a difficult last round task). Unbeknownst to me, however, there was no such thing as an <2100 prize. Armed with that lack of knowledge, I found I was playing a 17 year old WFM from Germany named Alina Zahn (2130). Looking at her FIDE history, she seemed to play a lot, and had taken a very big step forward recently, with multiple 2200+ performance, and in looking at her games, I was expected a Lopez, and a Marshall attack if I was so inclined.
One thing about my chess philosophy is that I believe the main lines are the main lines for a reason - they are the best moves. I endeavour to take people on in their main opening and try to do better; sometimes it goes well like vs Ansell and I stand on the shoulders of giants to get a good position, sometimes it goes like my game vs Gaehwilar and I get smashed beyond recognition. So, with that, you should all know that I was going to go for the white side of the Marshall and see if she could bust me.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 O-O 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.d3 Bd6 13.Re1 Qh4 14.g3 Qh3 15.Qf3 Bg4 16.Qg2 Qh5 17.Nd2 Rae8 18.Re4 Kh8 19.f3 Bh3 20.Qf2
After forgetting some preparation (15.Qf3 instead of the correct 15.Re4), I had had some awkward moments but she had not exploited them correctly. and now having gotten in 19.f3, I felt that I was quickly consolidating my extra pawn and that I had excellent winning chances. She continued to dither a bit but my position was hard to improve, and she started finding a more aggressive plan:
20...Qg6 21.Nf1 f5 22.Rxe8 Rxe8 23.Bxd5 cxd5 24.f4 Qh5 25.Be3 h6 26.Re1 Kh7 27.Nd2 g5 28.fxg5 hxg5 29.Qf3 Qf7 30.Qf2 Qh5 31.Nf3 Rg8
while her position and attack looks kind of menacing, I still felt that everything was well under control here - her king is now exposed as much if not more than mine, and I've completed my development without giving my extra pawn.
32.Bd4 f4 33.Be5 Bxe5 34.Rxe5 Bg4 35.Re7+ Rg7 36.Rxg7+ Kxg7 37.Ne5 Bh3 38.Qf3 Qe8 39.gxf4 gxf4 40.Qxf4 Qh5 41.Nf3 Bf5 42.d4
by now, it is totally clear her attack has failed and she's just down two pawns. I could literally see all the fight going out of her at this point despite the fact that significant technical challenges can still be posed given that my king is wide open and queens are on the board. However, I can imagine how she was feeling after several really successful months in a row and now she's flushing all those rating points and finishing pretty damn close to last overall in the tournament. Not easy, and she just packed it in quickly:
42...Be4 43.Qe5+ Kg6 44.Qxh5+ Kxh5 45.Nd2 Bd3 46.Kf2 Kh4 47.Ke3 Bg6 48.Kf4 Kh3 49.Ke5 Bf7 50.Nf1 1-0
Huzzah, I thought, finally won a game, and I think I'm gonna get me that (non-existent) prize money. Watching the other results, I notice that one other <2100 managed to salvage a draw and join me at 3 points, so I guess I'm going to split the prize. I make plans to come back in a few hours for the ceremony and get my monies!
However, once I get home, I realize my hilarious mistake and that I'm not going to get any prize - the section is actually <2200, and another player rated 2188 scored 3.5 so it was all for naught. Nonetheless I decide to go to the ceremony anyways; it will be fun to see all the GMs one last time, and Isai Scheinberg is going to personally award the first place trophy.
They start the prize ceremony with the lower sections, and when they get to the master section, they announce "And the winner of the <2200 section and £500, <me>". I ask them if they are sure. They say yes, and I say "really really sure?" and they say yes again so I pose for the picture and accept the money, deciding I'll wait until after the ceremony to explain that they clearly have it wrong.
The ceremony concludes, and I go ask for an explanation, only to find that instead of straight points scored in the bottom rating groups, the prize is awarded for biggest rating gain - ie, who performed best relative to their rating. As I gained 7.6 FIDE points, and every other <2200 lost points, the winner actually was me. Pretty unusual, but I can't really complain so I happily accept the biggest chess prize I've ever gotten.
So, in summary, the tournament was (for me) pretty close to a total success - a result against an IM, rating points gained, and prize money won.
To begin, some background about my chess. I started playing in 1992 at age 18 and quickly got engrossed in the game. After 7 years or so, I had progressed from beginner to earning my national master title, a feat I was pretty proud of. However, this also coincided with graduating university and a choice had to be made - pursue chess seriously, or get on with a normal life. I looked at the stronger players in my area's lives (they were's exactly what I would deem financially successful), and I looked honestly at what I thought my absolute top peak could be (I guessed perhaps weak IM), and the choice was pretty clear. From then on, I became an infrequently playing, sometimes dangerous opponent, and as time went on, I nearly stopped playing. However, my move to the Isle of Man coincided with the International, and despite playing only 2 rated games in the past 2 years, I decided to bypass playing the second section and jump right into the masters, featuring 37GM and 27IM in the 108 player tourney, plus me at the #94 seed.
First up was the Michael Adams simul; despite preparing something and getting it, I was quickly rolled up and put in a little box, ending in an embarassing checkmate.
After that was the chess/poker event; in this event, we played a six round blitz tournament (time control 5mins+2sec increment). The tournament had 34 players, of which I believe about a third were GMs, including all the top super GMs - Harikrishna, Adams, Fressinet, Howell. And who should my first round pairing be?
As you can see, I was giving him some strict instructions about no tricky knight moves. However, this didn't deter him from once again beating me quickly. The rest of the blitz tourney went poorly for me, and I finished with a measly +2 -4, well below the expectation for my rating.
This then led to the actual poker tourney; in this, we started with 7000 chips, plus 1000 more for each point we scored in the blitz; as a result, I started with 9000, while I think the leaders started with 11500. However, that didn't seem to have a very big effect, as many of them seemed very new to poker, unsure what to do or how to call or bet or raise, and had some confusion about hand rankings. Further, they seemed tentative, which was superb for me as the structure was fast to say the least; I was playing extremely aggressive and winning many pots, reaching the final 10 before running into a real hand and being eliminated. An actual poker player (Kenny Shei) won the tournament, with Adams finishing second.
So, with that completed, it was time for the real tournament. In round 1 I played IM Richard Pert (2460). I was on the black side of the french, and tried the same line I played against Adams in the simul, and quickly once again got a bad position when I failed to ever find the right moment to break with e5, then lost control of e5, then lost control of the c-file, and then had my position infiltrated in every possible way. Here's a glance when it had all gone wrong..
So, down to 0-1, but at least I'll have white in the second round, and my opponent appears to be relatively easy to prepare for. Of course, he's still IM Simon Ansell rated 2360, but you gotta take the positives where you can. As it turns out, I once again predicted the opening and got an excellent position where he fought back extremely hard. I'll provide the whole game for this one as it was an exciting one:
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d6 6.c4 Be7 7.N1c3 a6 8.Na3 Nf6 9.Be2 O-O 10.Nc2 Be6 11.O-O Rc8 12.b3 b5 13.cxb5 axb5 14.Qd3
During the game, I thought he'd mis-timed ...b5 and that Qd3 was nearly a straight refutation as his b5 pawn is going to be incredibly weak for no compensation of any sort (he hasn't managed to trade dark squared bishops, and I still have firm control on d5). I was further heartened by the fact that he went into the tank for a good 40 minutes after Qd3 before continuing..
14...Na7 15.Ne3 b4 16.Ncd5 Nc6 17.Nc2 Rb8 18.Bd2 Bxd5 19.exd5 e4 20.Qe3 Nxd5 21.Qxe4 Nc3 22.Bxc3 d5 23.Qd3 bxc3 24.Bf3 Bf6 25.Qxd5
As it turns out, he had done some amazing trickery to get compensation, but I am now officially up a pawn. It's far from a straight and clean pawn, but I was feeling pretty confident at this stage. The story is far from over though..
25...Ne5 26.Rfd1 Qc8 27.Be4 Rd8 28.Qa5 Qg4 29.f3 Qg5 30.Qa7 Ng6 31.Qe3 Qa5 32.b4 Qc7 33.a4 Be5 34.a5 Bxh2+ 35.Kf1 Qc4+ 36.Qe2 Qe6 37.Nd4 Rxd4 38.Rxd4 Be5
After some dicey feeling moments where I was defending, and offering the exchange for his dark squared bishop and pawn, instead he has sacrificed the exchange and I'm starting to think seriously about winning if I can just make a couple more consolidating moves. However, I miss the probably winning Rc4 here, and the *definitely* winning Rd5 (idea Rd5 Nf4 Rxe5 Qxe5 Bxh7+), and decide to liquidate into an ending I think I can win and definitely won't lose:
39.Bxg6 Bxd4 40.Qxe6 fxe6 41.Bc2 Rxb4 42.Ke2 Rb7 43.Kd3 e5 44.a6 Rc7 45.f4 Ba7 46.fxe5 draw agreed
Definitely a mistake to agree to a draw here as I have all the winning chances. I had a GM review the game with me after and he uttered amazement that I would take a draw here as I can simply run the king up the board and then activate my rook and put him in a big problem trying to defend both the a and e pawns. I would chalk this one up to straight up nerves. However, I deemed the opening two rounds a success, as any result when paired up 250+ points has to be considered good.
Unfortunately, work committments meant taking some byes, and round three was the first of those.
It didn't get any easier in round four as my next opponent was a young FM from Switzerland named Gabriel Gaehwilar (2307). Once again, I successfully predicted the opening, but this time forgot some of the preparation and almost immediately fell under massive attack and got wiped away, culminating in this final move:
Spoiler:
Round five was another bye, but one with a scary twist; despite speaking with two different arbiters and confirming my round five bye, I logged in on the morning of round five to see who was playing who on top boards, and noticed that I had been paired! Several frantic phone calls later, it was all sorted out.
Upon returning, I entered round six with an official score of 1/5, and my first reasonably even matchup vs a local player rated 2006. After a relatively decent opening where I gave him an isolated d-pawn, he launched an excellent attack which I underestimated:
25.Nh5+ Nxh5 26.Rxh5 gxh5 27.Qg5+ Kf8
to my horror at this point, I realized I'd missed that Qc5+ was going to be possible here, regaining his rook and leaving my king horribly exposed. While I was cursing and regretting that I hadn't played 26...Rxd3, he quickly shocked me by playing 28.Qf6?? This then led to far and away my worst move of the tournament; a rook up and not seeing any threat at all, relieved out of my mind that he hadn't played Qc5+, I snap played Rxd3, which was met with the expected Rxe6, threatening seemingly nothing...except the obvious and completely missed by me Qh8#. With no other defence, I played Kg8, and was perpetual checked by Qg5+ for a draw. Obviously, had I taken a minute, I would have seen the easily winning 28...Qd7, guarding my rook and e6, leaving me a rook up for nothing. Very very disappointing.
After my final work related bye, I entered the last weeked with 1.5/7, where I faced a 2060 from Italy named Logallo. I wasn't sure what to expect, but got a decent position out of the opening against a bluffy looking attack; I was accumulating edges like superior bishop, more center pawns and such, while he was betting it all on the attack. In the post mortem he agreed it was a big bluff, but it had just enough to get to this position with his saving sacrifice for perpetual:
Spoiler:
This led to a new experience for me - having to justify the draw to the arbiters, as the tournament was ostensibly being played under the "no draws before move 30" and we were done on move 19. However, as we were scrubs on the bottom boards, they didn't care that much, and it was clearly a legitimate game, so nothing more came of it.
This was kind of disappointing, but that's sort of how it goes sometimes. I did consider (instead of my last move of Kh8 there, allowing the perpetual) playing Qe8, allowing Rxh6 Qxg6 Rxg6 Rb8 and just playing down a pawn and trying to exploit my other advantages but it just didn't seem quite good enough.
Soooo at long last, we entered round nine. I had completely mis-read the prize structure and believed that a last round win might get me 1st place <2100 (there were not many of us, and we were all getting hammered - most were tied with me or worse, and the couple who were a half point ahead looked to have a difficult last round task). Unbeknownst to me, however, there was no such thing as an <2100 prize. Armed with that lack of knowledge, I found I was playing a 17 year old WFM from Germany named Alina Zahn (2130). Looking at her FIDE history, she seemed to play a lot, and had taken a very big step forward recently, with multiple 2200+ performance, and in looking at her games, I was expected a Lopez, and a Marshall attack if I was so inclined.
One thing about my chess philosophy is that I believe the main lines are the main lines for a reason - they are the best moves. I endeavour to take people on in their main opening and try to do better; sometimes it goes well like vs Ansell and I stand on the shoulders of giants to get a good position, sometimes it goes like my game vs Gaehwilar and I get smashed beyond recognition. So, with that, you should all know that I was going to go for the white side of the Marshall and see if she could bust me.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 O-O 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.d3 Bd6 13.Re1 Qh4 14.g3 Qh3 15.Qf3 Bg4 16.Qg2 Qh5 17.Nd2 Rae8 18.Re4 Kh8 19.f3 Bh3 20.Qf2
After forgetting some preparation (15.Qf3 instead of the correct 15.Re4), I had had some awkward moments but she had not exploited them correctly. and now having gotten in 19.f3, I felt that I was quickly consolidating my extra pawn and that I had excellent winning chances. She continued to dither a bit but my position was hard to improve, and she started finding a more aggressive plan:
20...Qg6 21.Nf1 f5 22.Rxe8 Rxe8 23.Bxd5 cxd5 24.f4 Qh5 25.Be3 h6 26.Re1 Kh7 27.Nd2 g5 28.fxg5 hxg5 29.Qf3 Qf7 30.Qf2 Qh5 31.Nf3 Rg8
while her position and attack looks kind of menacing, I still felt that everything was well under control here - her king is now exposed as much if not more than mine, and I've completed my development without giving my extra pawn.
32.Bd4 f4 33.Be5 Bxe5 34.Rxe5 Bg4 35.Re7+ Rg7 36.Rxg7+ Kxg7 37.Ne5 Bh3 38.Qf3 Qe8 39.gxf4 gxf4 40.Qxf4 Qh5 41.Nf3 Bf5 42.d4
by now, it is totally clear her attack has failed and she's just down two pawns. I could literally see all the fight going out of her at this point despite the fact that significant technical challenges can still be posed given that my king is wide open and queens are on the board. However, I can imagine how she was feeling after several really successful months in a row and now she's flushing all those rating points and finishing pretty damn close to last overall in the tournament. Not easy, and she just packed it in quickly:
42...Be4 43.Qe5+ Kg6 44.Qxh5+ Kxh5 45.Nd2 Bd3 46.Kf2 Kh4 47.Ke3 Bg6 48.Kf4 Kh3 49.Ke5 Bf7 50.Nf1 1-0
Huzzah, I thought, finally won a game, and I think I'm gonna get me that (non-existent) prize money. Watching the other results, I notice that one other <2100 managed to salvage a draw and join me at 3 points, so I guess I'm going to split the prize. I make plans to come back in a few hours for the ceremony and get my monies!
However, once I get home, I realize my hilarious mistake and that I'm not going to get any prize - the section is actually <2200, and another player rated 2188 scored 3.5 so it was all for naught. Nonetheless I decide to go to the ceremony anyways; it will be fun to see all the GMs one last time, and Isai Scheinberg is going to personally award the first place trophy.
They start the prize ceremony with the lower sections, and when they get to the master section, they announce "And the winner of the <2200 section and £500, <me>". I ask them if they are sure. They say yes, and I say "really really sure?" and they say yes again so I pose for the picture and accept the money, deciding I'll wait until after the ceremony to explain that they clearly have it wrong.
The ceremony concludes, and I go ask for an explanation, only to find that instead of straight points scored in the bottom rating groups, the prize is awarded for biggest rating gain - ie, who performed best relative to their rating. As I gained 7.6 FIDE points, and every other <2200 lost points, the winner actually was me. Pretty unusual, but I can't really complain so I happily accept the biggest chess prize I've ever gotten.
So, in summary, the tournament was (for me) pretty close to a total success - a result against an IM, rating points gained, and prize money won.
Last edited by Punker; 10-12-2015 at 06:34 PM.
10-13-2015
, 12:23 AM
10-13-2015
, 10:09 AM
10-13-2015
, 12:31 PM
10-14-2015
, 02:21 AM
10-18-2015
, 01:04 AM
Fun thread, way to go!
And nice slow roll of you winning a prize!
And nice slow roll of you winning a prize!
10-19-2015
, 03:18 AM
10-19-2015
, 05:45 AM
That's awesome Punker, I'm planning on playing in the Major section next year so maybe you'll still be around in the IoM? Great pic with you and Mickey btw
10-26-2015
, 11:00 AM
Nice TR!
I played in the tournament too, and was also completely surprised to hear that I won a (shared) rating prize even though another player scored half a point more.
But then again I didn't give prizes any thought before the round, since I had a chance for my first GM norm (which I managed to score
)
I played in the tournament too, and was also completely surprised to hear that I won a (shared) rating prize even though another player scored half a point more.
But then again I didn't give prizes any thought before the round, since I had a chance for my first GM norm (which I managed to score
)
10-26-2015
, 12:47 PM
Quote:
Nice TR!
I played in the tournament too, and was also completely surprised to hear that I won a (shared) rating prize even though another player scored half a point more.
But then again I didn't give prizes any thought before the round, since I had a chance for my first GM norm (which I managed to score )
I played in the tournament too, and was also completely surprised to hear that I won a (shared) rating prize even though another player scored half a point more.
But then again I didn't give prizes any thought before the round, since I had a chance for my first GM norm (which I managed to score
)
10-26-2015
, 05:32 PM
