So I played the weekender, 4 rounds of it anyway and
I scored 3/4 which was alright.
On the last round that I
played one of my best attacking games ever,
a 25 move miniature against a talented junior who was having a good tournament (he busted a couple of 1800s and drew with a 2100, impressive for a kid).
In this game I did a crushing
kingside attack and sac-ed a bunch of pieces to drag his king out from safety.
Full game is here, I was white:
http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game....php?id=107957
1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e6 3. g3 c5 4. Bg2 Be7 5. e4 Nc6 6. Nge2 d6 7. O-O O-O 8. d3 a6 9. h3 Qc7 10. f4 Bd7 11. g4 Rab8 12. Qe1 Nb4 13. Qg3 Rfc8 14. a3 Nc6 15. g5 Ne8 16. f5 Bf8 17. g6
pawn break fxg6 18. fxg6 h6 19. Bxh6!
The first sacrifice to weaken f6 (gxh6 20. Rxf8+ Kxf8 21. Qf4+ now Nf6 doesn’t work) gxh6
20. Rxf8+!!
20. ... Kg7 accepting the sac inevitably leads to the promotion of another queen (20... Kxf8 21. Qf4+ Ke7 22. Rf1 Kd8 23. Qh4+ Ne7 24. Rf8!) 21. Qf4 Ne5 22. Ng3 Kxg6
23. Nh5!! There were alot of ways to win at the end but this one is nice
23. ... Kxh5 (23... Qd8 24. Rg8+ Kh7 25. Qf8 the king will fall) 24. Bf3+ Nxf3+ 25. Qxf3+ 1-0
On a less well played game,
I missed a theoretical drawn position against the eventual tournament winner from overseas (he was rated near 2200). I misplayed the opening and dropped a pawn early on, dug hard to trick my opponent into an
opposite coloured bishop endgame. Unfortunately, under
time pressure on the critical position, I played the one losing move! This is a huge leak of mine in chess. When I’m unable to evaluate the variations accurately, I sometime just go with my gut and this time it was wrong.
The position was reached after move 32. Both 33. a4 or 33. f4 holds and creates a fortress. My thought process was about 1. How I can keep the black king out of the queenside – defend the light squares with my bishop? 2. How I can hold on to prevent the black king from getting in the kingside 3. How do I keep an eye on the d2 pawn. Post mortem analysis suggests that I didn’t need to deal with the d2 pawn at all by taking it. But due to having like 2 minutes lft on the clock I had to go with intuition.
Despite intending to play a4, which would have drawn, I panicked in time trouble (and having bystanders)
and played 33. a3?? So so bad… I was worred about the d2 pawn holding me up but in reality I would get the bishop to defend the light squares on the queen side while holding up the kingside with my king if the black king tries to enter that way. But now
33. a3 Bxa3 34. Kxd2 Bb4+! (I thought I could get Bb5 if he goes a4 because the bishop is in the way but he checks with tempo and) 35. Ke2 a4! 36. e4? a3 37. Bc4 fxe4 38. Ke3 b5 39. Ba2 Bc5+ 40. Kxe4 Bxf2 41. g4 Kg6 42. Bxe6 Kg5 43. h3 and I go on to lose in time trouble. Just kept making mistakes one after another. I was pretty unhappy about losing this game after working so hard. Shows that my calculation still needs work to be efficient with time constraints.
This game signifies the importance of time management, especially in defending positions. I made so many mistakes in time trouble. Part of practical strength in chess
also include practicality, time management skills, nerves.
My rival also competed in the tournament, well hes not exactly my rival right now, because he’s a far worse player atm since he quit for over a year now, but he was the one that got me into doing chess again in uni (and hence somewhat responsible for this thread), he was also my rival in poker, unfortunately for him, he’s lost all his money playing it and since fallen behind me in that too. But he was someone who had a lot of ego and that pushed my competitive drive. He got back into chess recently. This tournament he didn’t perform so well, getting ran over by stronger players and barely escaping with draws against weaker players, and forfeiting a round or two. He proceed to tell me he’s taking a break from chess and that it’s full of unattractive and unsuccessful losers and old people. The guy is salty as f**k about it, and while it laughable, it is a shame that he has so little grit despite having big ambitions. That means I lose a rival which could serve as a source of motivation to improve. Nevertheless, I will continue with my study. Why did I decide to write about this on the thread? It is because I think a big part of success on and off the chess board, involves having the right mental attitude.
I have another
big open event on Oct 1st so I will have a month to prepare for that.