I came to the venue much better rested on day 2 of the Rapidplay, and was resolved to make up for day 1 by winning most of my games. I was paired against Martin Seeber in round 7 (the first of the day), who at 131 was significantly lower graded than me. However, the game turned out to be anything but a walkover, and I was worse or even lost for much of the second half of the game. In the end it was sheer determination which won it for me.
Round 8 was a reasonably good victory on the black side of a Ruy Lopez, against Abigail Pritchard, with whom I drew last year in Blackpool. In round 9 I was doing well, but stumbled. Here’s the game:
Round 10 featured a crazy opening king walk, and is presented below:
I won round 11 on the white side of a Tarrasch French, and so completed a good comeback, with 4/5 on the second day. My next tournament will be the London Chess Classic next weekend, where I’ll be playing in the very strong Open Weekend section. I’m really looking forward to it, as it was a great event last year and promises to be even better this year, with Carlsen, Kramnik and Anand all playing in the main tournament.
In the final game it looks like 14…b6+ may be better. Your mileage may vary 🙂
In the game against Richard Gavin, did you consider playing the interesting 11. g3 in response to 10…Qh4+? 11…Nxg3 is met by the simple 12. hxg3. Note that your Bishop on d5 is nicely protecting your h1 rook. Also interesting after 11…Nxg3 is, 12. Nf3!? Qh5. [12…Qh6, 13. f5 wins outright] 13. Bxf7+ Kxf7?! [13…Kf8 is better; you can still play 14.Ng5 Qxd1. 15. Kxd1 and now the Knight on g3 as well as the bishop on b4 are hanging so you should win] 14. Ng5+ winning the queen on h1 next move is a cheap shot you could have tried too 🙂
[Incidentally, do check out my blog for some interesting and difficult positions which should help you – let me know through a comment on any of the posts or as a reply to this post if you wish to work further together!]