I have played in two tournaments since the last update, both of which have gone well. The first was an international team event in St. Petersburg, open to teams comprising people who work in the rail industry. I scored three wins and two draws, which would have netted me 20 ELO points, but sadly despite the official nature of the event (Kirsan turned up for the closing ceremony) it was not rated. One of my wins is given below:
Although some of my team did not fare as well (we ended 11th out of 14), the event was hugely enjoyable, and St. Petersburg is highly recommended to anyone looking for an interesting holiday.
The second of my tournaments was the British Championships Weekend Open, where I got off to a storming start with 4/4. Facing the top seed (2226) with black in the final round, I needed only a draw to win the tournament, but despite getting an excellent position out of the opening he was able to outfox me. Losing in the final round pushed me down to shared second with two others.
Ratings
FIDE standard: 1983-2020 (expected), +27 points
All of these points came from the British Weekender. As previously stated, the railway event was unrated, and I may come to rue these lost points (together with the last railway tournament, that’s 44 extra points I could have). Still, this is the first time I have pushed significantly above the 2000 mark this year, and it may still be just in time to make 2100 by September if the next two tournaments go as well as my last two.
I will be playing in Figueres and Sants back-to-back over the next few weeks. Both are strong events in the Barcelona area. If I am able to maintain my energy and play well in both it is certainly possible to gain the required number of points.
Assessment: Red (cause for concern)
Study
I have not (yet) returned to using my study log, and will not be doing so over the next few weeks either. Still, I have been reasonably productive and have managed to patch up a couple of critical holes in my opening repertoire. Naturally I will not be studying as normal during the upcoming tournaments, and will just be doing opponent-specific opening preparation and looking to go into each game well-rested and energetic.
Assessment: Amber (some cause for concern)
As always, I encourage you to post any questions or comments you have below, but I may not respond until after my tournaments. This will likely be the last ‘Road to 2100’ review – for better or worse, see you in September!
Awesome job! It’s cool to see you cross over the Expert mark.
Thank you. 🙂
I think if you get close enough to 2100 you should continue. I had a peek at your games in the past and the new one looks to be a different level of chess. I’m around 2000 myself, and I would say your initial games looked worse than mine- but this new one looks better, so you are clearly improving. Keep it up!
Thanks for your kind comment, Sagar. I have done exactly that.
Hi Will, congratulation on your win, interesting game, I”ve been studying the Maroczy bind set up for white against the accelerated dragon and I think Black tried to implement the dark square control idea with Qb6 in the wrong situation, this idea works only if the white rook is on a1 that way the knight can’t go to d5 and black has time to play Rfc8,the the black queen will retreat at some point but the idea is to have this kind of set up: Rfc8, h5, Kh7, Qh8 but in the game presented in the book I was reading (mastering the Chess Opening – john Watson Vol1 game: Bareev – Pavlovic [Plovdic european team ch 2003]) it seems that white can get an advantage with simpler play.
Off topic:
I finished 3rd place in the tournament, sadly I lost the last game, I missplayed the opening sacrificing a pawn in a French Defence/Advance Variation but it was not the correct line,but I gained some initiative and the bishop pair for a long time and at some point I had an strong attack, but I threw it all away in a bad trade of queens due to time trouble, I just calculated a drawn rook endgame with a pawn down and I went for that but I missed a fork and I endend up in a lost endgame 2 rooks plus a pawn vs rook and bishop.
I’ll be more prepared the next time I compete, two mistakes were clear for me, I need to play what I know and have experience with, the pawn that I sacrificed was a try to get a win I wanted first place so bad, I need to calculate the position’s possibilities after the variation, sometimes treats don’t come at the end of a tactical variation but 2 move later, in my first game I was 2 pawns up but then I almost get check mated cause I missed a “calm” move that gave black a terrible attack against my king, sometimes keeping pieces coordinates is better than material.
Hi Isaac. I don’t have that book, but looked up the game. Interesting game, and a useful observation about Nd5 not being possible if the rook is still on a1.
Well done in your tournament – 3rd is still a good result, even if you’re disappointed about the last game – and best of luck for your next one.