I’m currently in Pardubice, awaiting the start of round 1 in the main tournament.  On Wednesday morning I played in the ‘Superblitz’ tournament – 9 double rounds (i.e. two games with the each opponent) of 3-minute blitz – and scored a decent 4/9.  I played both GM Aleksandr Volodin and IM Petr Neuman, and although I failed to give either of them much to worry about I did manage to trade wins with another titled player, WIM Monika Tsiganova (2164 ELO).

On Wednesday evening and Thursday I played a 9-round rapid tournament, and decided to enter the top section, where I was seed number 151 out of 164 entrants, in a field which included David Navara and Robert Hess (and initially Sergei Movsesian, though he withdrew before it started).  In the first round I was paired with Ladislav Urbanec, 2293 ELO, and after initially having much the better of it the game reduced to a (probably) drawn ending.  A position was repeated three times and I claimed the draw, but alas in rapidplay if you are not recording the moves you have only your opponent’s sportsmanship to rely on in such cases, and my opponent refused to accept my claim and found a way to deviate.  A while later I overstepped the time limit and lost.  From then on my play deteriorated, and I ended on a rather miserable-sounding 2/9.  I’ll upload some of my games later if I have time.

Hopefully the main event, where I am seed number 169 of 264 in the B section, will go better.