Very tough game yesterday vs 2240 WIM. I managed to win, but was definitely very lucky, as my preparation went horribly wrong and I was lost throughout the most of the game. Tried to make it as hard as possible for her, create problems, and somehow succeeded in muddying the position enough to get some chances in time trouble, and when she went wrong showed good technique to finish it up in the endgame.

It is fitting that I drank beer called "Lucky bastard" one evening here, as I for sure was this game

On the health front, I feel like absolute **** (temperature, nose, and now also dry coughing) and I honestly feel a little bit of a hero that I have 3 out of 4. It is incredibly fatigue-ing to play chess in such condition. For example in yesterday's game during the 5th hour of play there were moments were my head was so dizzy that the room was literally spinning, had to physically pinch myself or stand up and go outside to just be able to start focusing a bit. It seems like I feel a bit better this morning so I have hopes that maybe it is finally going away, but if I feel like yesterday during today's game I don't think I stand a chance.

Playing vs 2419 Ukrainian young guy (no title, though :/) as black today, so wish me luck, as it will be hard. Maybe I need some more "Lucky bastard"

Good luck!

Glglgl! That is some impressive grit!! I need to read this for inspiration next time I am a bit sick before a tournament.

Drawing the 2419 and moving to 3.5/5 was fine and all, but you're still only on board 9, and only the top 6 boards stream on Chess24, so I'm going to need you to beat that 2610 GM you're playing next round, so that I can actually watch you live in the round afterwards.

Consider it a personal favor to me.

Drew as black vs 2419 yesterday in what I felt was a rather OK game where I was never in any real danger, and in the end he had to find the only moves to force a draw, so rather happy I guess.

As BJJ correctly noted, got paired vs a top seed, 2610 GM as black, so the pairing is not ideal - but only if I lose! That is why I came here, to play vs guys like that, so I am excited and will do my best

+1. I want to see your games live .

Seems like an ideal pairing! Especially if you're at all feeling a bit better. It seems this point in the tournament you want a shot at a top rating so a draw or win keeps the norm train going. And if a loss, no big deal you still can finish the tournament strong.

Nope

So yeah, the game vs 2610 GM yesterday did not pan out as I wanted it to, got pressured throughout the entire game, fought hard to make it as tough as possible for him and managed to make it to mutual zeitnot (six moves left and one minute each), where anything could have happened and indeed, he made a big mistake which allowed me to get back in to the game (basically 0.00), but I did not capitalize and still lost. Was not happy with the quality of play, but was happy with the fighting spirit

Today beat a 2270 guy as white, which was also not easy. Guy reached an endgame and got very excited that he will reach a draw, and even offered it, despite the fact that I was the only one who could push in that position and could do it for 3+ hours. That's kinda what happened, except that it only took an hour for him to make some major mistakes and I capitalized.

Overall, after 7 rounds I am at 4.5, after losing to two GM's, drawing vs 2420, and beating four lower rated opponents (2033 [+31 this tourney], 2186, 2240, 2269). I am gaining 5 rating points and still have chances for the IM norm, however, even if I win tomorrow I will HAVE to get paired vs IM or GM in the last round in order to meet all the requirements, and not lose that game. However, chances of getting a titled player if I win tomorrow are probably 95%ish, so let's say chances are there, but still a lot of work to do. But in any case, I am fairly happy with everything, even if I don't get the norm. I feel like it is a matter of time anyway

Tomorrow as black vs a young German 2288, who is playing very well this tournament and has drawn 2500+ and two 2400+ guys (only won vs much lower rated guys tho). Won't be easy as black, but if there is one thing I don't lack this tournament is fighting spirit, so let's hope it will be enough!

Fight, fight, fight! You are a big inspiration .

Oh, I didn't notice you hadn't met the titled opponent requirements yet. I had only looked at performance rating, and thought if you won tomorrow, then you just needed to be paired with a 2336+ (and then win or draw) in the final round. The fact that it has to be an IM or GM makes the pairings gamble a little more nerve wracking.

Good luck getting the win tomorrow, and making the pairings lottery relevant!

Does this tournament manipulate pairings for norm chances (ie, ensuring you play a IM/GM in the last round)? I know a lot of American swisses have that option.

Good news - won rather easily as black today.
Good news - got a titled player in the last round so the requirements are met.
Bad news - its a bit of an overkill, since its 2580 GM

You got this bro!

Rooting for you!

Bad news: you didn't crack the top six boards and I still can't watch live.

All told: much better news overall than if the chance was off the table. Go get it bro!

Awww yeah! So you need a win or will a draw suffice? I assume a win but if you draw in 10 moves I will change my mind lol.

Win or draw and we can celebrate IM YKW

Awwwww man. Still a good tournament. Extremely good considering how sick you were/are. You're still my hero!

Sorry dude but as you said it's only a matter of time! Seems like you are often IM strength or above!

Yo fellas, thanks for the support. It was close, but what can you do. But honestly, before the tournament I did not have any expectations at all, so I'd still consider it a rather solid performance - beating those 2250+ guys is not easy at all, and I managed to win all of those this tournament, while the only loses came to 3 GMs with an average rating of like 2560 or so, and in all three games right before collapsing I had equal positions - so I can hang, but not for long enough. The solution I believe is simple and not chess related - continue to improve my physical shape, which should help the fatigue issues at the tense endings in time trouble.

As promised, the game analysis will come, but gotta take care of a lot of piled up work first. Hopefully I'll post the first game on the weekend

Yo, did chess.com change the FIDE rulebook or something? I just flagged a guy in an endgame where I have a king + bishop, he has king + opposite color bishop + 2 pawns, and it said draw because insufficient material? WTF? This is sufficient material even without the two pawns!! Or am I behind on my rules?

As a side note, I've played quite a lot of chess recently. Firstly, last Friday played in a traditional blitz tournament held at the university where I am an alumnus. Played pretty well, I was the sixth seed and got third place and gained ~20 blitz ELO, which was nice, though my blitz rating is terribly low compared to my classical one (now blitz will be ~2250), but maybe this will mark the beginning of the ascent in that regard the results are here: http://chess-results.com/tnr422350.aspx?lan=30 (pay attention to my buchholz btw!)

Then, immediately after during the weekend second stage of the Lithuanian chess league took place. After the first stage, i.e. first two rounds, we were sharing first after winning both of the first two matches. During the second stage three more matches were played and we won all three, so we are currently 5 out of 5 and clear first in the league by two match points (i.e. one match win). We are only the 4th seed, so so far it is an outstanding result, since this weekend we beat the 1st seed (who even had ex-world champ Khalifman on board one, two more GMs, IM on board 4 and 2350 on board 5), the 3rd seed and then the 5th seed. In the 25 individual games this season we are yet to lose a single one! Everyone is playing very well. Me personally, I have 4.5 out of 5 (had 4 out of 4 but played terribly in G5 and had to fight super hard just to escape with a draw), for a nice rating gain of 8.5 ELO. So far in this season I've beaten 2061, 2157, 2388 IM (that was nice!), 2171 and drew 2242 ( ). Should I not massively **** up in the last two rounds which will be played at the end of April, I will be back in 2400+, cause I currently stand at 2396 after Prague.

So 6th and 7nd round will be played on the third stage and in R6 we will face the 2nd seed, which will probably have a couple of GMs on boards 1-2 (probably Kaido Kulaots, who just won the Aeroflot open, on Board 1), so it will be a very tough match. Thankfully, we have some cushion and will have decent chances to win the competition even if we lose the match, but of course it would be very nice to win the match and win the competition with a round to spare

However, two years ago we were actually in an eerily similar situation, also 5/5 going in to the last weekend, just one very strong team to face and then a weaker team in R7, and we managed to lose both matches and not finish first. I also had 4.5/5 going in to that weekend, won both my games for a total of 6.5/7 and an individual gold, but it was not enough. I would absolutely fully agree to lose both my games this time around, as long as the team wins

The results are here: http://chess-results.com/tnr407927.a...=30&art=0&rd=5

K+B is enough to mate? Is there some way he can get trapped around his B and 2 pawns?

Aww, yeah!

Is buchholz TB1? What makes yours higher than everyone else's, does it mean you played the toughest schedule? I assume it doesn't mean your performance rating was the highest...

On board 4? On any board that is outstanding!!

Damn, you gotta get on board 1 and take shots at Khalifman and Kulaots - that'd be sweet!

Yeah, K B vs opposite color B and K is enough to mate, for example K on a8, bishop on b8, opposing king on a6, bishop anywhere on h1-b7. With two extra pawns there are also other possibilities, so I was very confused...

Yeah, Bucholz was TB1. It shows the amount pf points your opponents have scored in total in the tournament. I got lucky tho, because I won by forfeit in R1, which for the purposes of Bucholz counts as 4.5/9 from that nom-existant opponent, while other guys might have played vs someone who scored like 3pts for example in the forst round. Still, even without that difference my bucholz rocked, just needed more actual points!

I have played one game on Board 2, two games on board 3 and two games on board 4

https://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.h...8&view=article


"6.9 (...) if a player does not complete the prescribed number of moves in the allotted time, the game is lost by that player. However, the game is drawn if the position is such that the opponent cannot checkmate the player’s king by any possible series of legal moves."


I have also found a maybe older version that included "even with the most unskilled play".


http://www.e4ec.org/immr.html


The FIDE Laws of Chess says in article 9.6:

"The game is drawn when a position is reached from which a checkmate cannot occur by any possible series of legal moves, even with the most unskilled play. This immediately ends the game."

Thanks, Louis!

So it means I was not out of my mind after all. Now I am wondering whether chess.com just uses a different set of rules, or it was just a bug in the app.

Chess.com is a US site. They might be using USCF rules, which state that a lone bishop is not mating material regardless of what the opponent has, unless there is a forced win:

14E. Insufficient material to win on time.
The game is drawn even when a player exceeds the time limit if one of the following conditions exists as of the most recently determined legal move [...]
14E1. Lone king.
Opponent has only a lone king.
14E2. King and bishop or king and knight.
Opponent has only king and bishop or king and knight, and does not have a forced win.
14E3. King and two knights.
Opponent has only king and two knights, the player has no pawns, and opponent does not have a forced win.

Chess servers probably fail to implement the forced win portion of those rules.

http://www.uschess.org/docs/gov/ches..._2_11_v7.0.pdf