Round five: Cashin - Macfarlane
I apologise for not keeping up as I intended. Round six on Wednesday ended up a default as I called in sick - first my employer, then the tournament director. My mind hasn't been quite as sharp as I would have liked since, so I'm holding off on much of my analysis. It will come, though I might end up recruiting some software assistance - looks like I need to dredge up my copy of Chessmaster.
Still, none of this should be keeping me from publishing the moves. I'm dedicated to getting caught up.
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nxe d6 4 Nf3 Nxe 5 d4 d5 6 Bd3 Bd6 7 o-o o-o 8 c4 c6 9 Nc3 Re8 (and at this point I'm no longer sure of the precise move order, but know that I'm as far along a main line as I've managed all tournament) 10 Qb3 NxN 11 bxN b6 12 h3 Na6 13 cd cd 14 Bb2 Nc7 15 Rfe1 Be6 16 Qc2 g6 17 Rad1 Qf6 18 Ne5 Bc8 19 c4 Ba6 20 Re2 Ne6 21 c5 BxB 22 NxB Bc7 23 Rde1 Rec8 24 Ne5 Nf4 25 Re3 h5 26 Qa4 h4 27 Qd7 bc 28 dc BxN 29 BxB Qg5 30 BxN QxB 31 Rf3 Qc7 32 Re8+ 1-0
Interesting side note - I had eight minutes left on the clock, and nine moves to make, when I resigned. I made it to move nine in four minutes. I'll leave you to work out how much time that gave me in between.
I wouldn't describe myself as consistantly having time
trouble, but round after round, I'm certainly exploiting every minute available to me in the first time control. Round two I resigned with eight minutes remaining for thirteen moves. Round three I'm not certain exactly where I hit 40 moves, but I know I was over two hours for a game that went into a second time control, almost an hour more time used than my opponent. And in round four I made move forty with 1:17 showing still on my clock - plenty of time.
This is the last round of that, though. After my sick leave, games are going faster. Not because I'm playing particularly faster, but because they're shorter, and the moves are more obvious. You'll soon see what I mean.
Canadian Open round three: Gauer - Macfarlane
Who knows when I'll get around to analysing this one? I didn't get much of a chance to look it over with my opponent, because access to the skittles room was cut off without hotel staff assistance, which requires going down two floors to head up five. Long story short, my opponent, rated well below me, had a crushing attack on my castled king, and had managed to shrug off my counterplay. I found defense resources, but it may have been a matter of an inexact attack - that's what needs analysis the most, I think. The execution starts on move 23.
A draw was offered by white on move 34, and I thought long and hard before deciding I had some chance to end the threat presented by the K-side pawns, which would leave me winning.
And finally, in the endgame, after I'd promoted a pawn, my opponent made me play on, and rightfully so - I had a long think to make sure I wasn't giving a stalemate. That's the rust right there.
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 d3 Nc6 4 c3 d5 5 Nbd2 Bc5 6 b4 Bd6 7 b5 Ne7 8 ed (which knight? Long think, followed my taking the pawn off the board, then another long think - I think I annoyed my opponent with that) Nfxd 9 c4 Nf6 10 Ne4 NxN 11 dxN Bg4 12 Be3 BxN 13 gxB Ng6 14 c5 Be7 15 Qb3 o-o 16 Rd1 Qe8 17 Bc4 Nh4 18 Ke2 Ng2 19 Rd5 Nf4+ 20 BxN exB 21 Rf5 g6 22 Rhg1 h6 23 Rxf RxR 24 Rxg+ Kf8 25 Rxh Bf6 26 BxR QxB 27 QxQ+ KxQ 28 h4 Rd8 29 Kf1 Rd2 30 a4 Ra2 31 h5 Rxa 32 Rg6 Ra5 33 Rg2 Rxb 34 h6 (draw offer) Rb1+ ("Not yet") - to be continued when I can, though I think the seeds of my win are pretty obvious here.
Welcome to yet another revmod blog
Back in 2000, I entered the Canadian Open of Chess, right here in Edmonton. Rod, my partner on
Bullets, and I travelled to Edmonton and roomed together, and I owe large chunks of the analysis of the games of that tournament to him. I wanted to force myself to really think deeply about my play, so I published a webpage - a blog before I'd ever heard of blogs. Rather than use a convenient tool like Blogger to publish, I manually added code to a word document, then saved the entire thing as a web page and ftp'ed it off to my ISP. This is going to be way easier, which is a good thing, because my analysis time is going to be cut back severely.
I re-present, with minor changes for formatting and having lost the links, the original Chess is Not For the Meek:
Canadian Open 2000:
Don’s Edmonton Adventure
My final result: 3.5/10. This is, I’m afraid to say, not quite what I was hoping for. But it’s not bad; my new rating, now that it’s caught up, is 1670. And about time, too.Day –4: The last CFC rating list in advance of the Canadian open was published, and my last two tournaments haven’t yet been included. Since I hadn’t crossed 1600, even with my recent remarkable performances, this is a little disappointing. As a result, I’ll be starting the tournament seeded as a 1433, just 5 rating points above my lowest regular rating ever.
More disconcerting is the fact that Juraj Pivovarov, another Calgarian on his way up, will still be under 1600, despite his excellent performances in those same two tournaments. But, in sporting fashion, he let me know he’d rather take the U1800 prize anyway. As I indicated to him, as long as we took home $1200 between us, I wouldn’t complain.
The trip: My roommate for the week, Rod, and I leave Calgary shortly after 9am. As we traveled East down Country Hills, windows open to the warmth, the fiddle music hit my ear before the scent of pancakes has been fully understood. We took a quick left, and did our quick bit of Stampeding before we abandoned Calgary for the week.
We discussed one anothers’ strategies while we drove straight through to the tournament site, where we got our packages and toured around quickly. We checked into our hotel, and tried to do something with our nervous energies while we waited a couple of hours to see our first pairings, and start our games.
Round one: I have white against Jason Lee, a kid from Delta BC, who played in the Youth tournament immediately preceding the Open, and who stayed for the big tournament. There are quite a few youth players at the tournament like this. Jason already has his chess head well fitted, but I can't seem to get mine on --- I'm restless, and wander around the room and the grounds. Jason comments to a friend of his that I'm boring him, and that he's concerned I'm heading down to the bookstore on my wanderings, looking for strategies. If only I'd had that much foresight.
1 e4 c5; 2 f4 d5; 3 ed Nf6; 4 Nf3 Nxd; 5 d3 Nc6; 6 Be2 e6; 7 c4 Nf6; 8 Nbd2 g6; 9 Nb3 Bg7; 10 o-o b6; 11 d4 cd; 12 Nbxd NxN; 13 QxN Bb7; 14 Rfd1 o-o; 15 Be3 Qc7; 16 Qe5 Qc6; 17 Rd6 Qc8; 18 (and my first and fatal mistake) Bd4 Ne8; 19 Qe3 NxR; 20 (a try to get a piece back that failed in a miserable way) BxB (I saw the continuation KxB, giving me a chance for a queen check giving me the knight) Nf5 white resigns.
Rod and I returned to our hotel after he finished his game, and we played backgammon and drank watermelon wine (Thanks, Mike!) until I flaked out. When we left the site, Juraj had a huge advantage over his much-higher-rated opponent, and Carolyn appeared to have good drawing and winning chances. In addition, Steve Hansen is giving a game to Igor Novikov on board three. A bad day for me, but a good day for Calgary.
Round two: my opponent Theo Buitendyk, is shocked and amazed by the Petroff, and gets in trouble early:
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nxe d6 4 Nf3 Nxe 5 Nc3 d5 6 Be2 Be5 7 o-o Bf5 8 d4 Bb6 9 Re1 o-o 10 h3 c5 11 dc Bxc 12 Nd4 Nxf 13KxN Qh4+ 14 Kg1 BxN 15 Kh2 Be5+ 16 Kg1 Qg3 17 Bg4 Bxc 18 Qe2 Re8 19 Qf2 Qh2+ 20 Kf1 Bd3+ 21 Be2 Bg3 22 Qg1 QxQ+ 23 KxQ BxR 24 BxB BxN 25 cxB Nc6 26 Bf4 d4 27 cd Nxd 28 Kf2 Re6 29 Rb1 Rb6 30 RxR axR 31 Bc4 Nc6 32 Bd2 Re8 33 Be3 Ne5 34 Bd5 Nd3+ 35 Kf3 Nc5 36 BxN b6xB 37 Bxb7 Re7 38 Be4 c4 39 a4 Kf8 40 Ke3 f5 white resigns.
After this game, I'm feeling about 100x better about my chances in the tournament.
Round three, also Sunday: I'm in a great mood to have a second game on the same day, the only time this tournament there will be two games played in a single day. My opponent, Rick Chranowski, is a huge man... he called himself fat, but that doesn't suit at all. He's an intimidating mountain of a man, but remarkably friendly and engaging. He's also odd, as all chess players are: he walked into round four with a stringy black women's wig. I think he delves a bit into the psychology of the game.
1 e4 b6 2 d4 Bb7 3 Nc3 e6 4 Bd3 Bb4 5 Nge2 Nf6 6 o-o d5 7 f3 a6 8 Bg5 h6 9 Bh4 g5 10 Bg3 c5 11 a3 BxN 12 NxB cd 13 Ne2 de 14 fe Nc6 15 b4 b5 16 Nc1 Nd7 17 Nb3 e5 18 Qh5 Qe7 19 h4 Nf6 20 Qf3 Nh7 21 Rf2 gh 22 Bxh4 Ng5 23 Qh5 o-o-o 24 Qg4+ Kb8 25 Raf1 Rdf8 26 Rf6 Nd8 27 Nc5 Nde6 28 BxN hxB 29 NxN fxN 30 Qxg Rfg8 31 Qxe5+ Ka8 32 Qxd Qg7 33 Kf2 Qxg+ 34 Ke1 Rh1 35 RxR QxR+ 36 Ke2 Rg2+ Rf2 Qh5+ 38 Kf1 Qh1+ 39 Ke2 Qh5+ 40 Kf1 --- black offers a draw and white accepts.
In later analysis, white avoids the perpetual check, and would be a pawn up in the endgame, but I was still in blitz mode despite passing time control just before… I didn’t think deeply enough about the draw.
1.5/3 --- I'm feeling very good about this tournament.
Round four: I'd played my fourth round opponent, Greg Harris, once before, at a Calgary club tournament. He's not much for the Tuesday nights, however, and was still an unknown quantity despite being a local. He'd played the black side of a Caro-Kann in our previous game, but what would he play as white? He played a King's Gambit, and I was in heaven: my own opening, played against me. I'd be able to handle this, right?
1 e4 e5 2 f4 ef 3 Nf3 Be7 4 Bc4 Bh4+ 5 Kf1 d6 6 Nc3 Bg4 7 d4 Qf6 (What am I thinking? I love wasting tempos) 8 Nd5 Qd8 9 Nxf4 c6 10 h3 Bd7 11 Qd3 b5 12 Bb3 c5 13 dc dc 14 Bxf+ Kf8 (I elected not to take the bishop for fear of Qxd+ Ke8 QxR, (his plan with the sac) but analysis showed that if he takes the rook, Bf6 Qxa Qd1+ and white loses in a hurry. On the other hand, he can Qxd+ Ke1 Qh4+ and win back the bishop, but that's better than what I got.) 15 Be3 Bg5 16 NxB (I can't take back with the Queen --- Nd6+ will lose her to the B) Qf6 (Somewhere between tenacity and arrogance lies my reason for continuing this game) 17 Bxc+ Ne7 18 BxN KxB 19 Qg3 h6 20 e5 Qf5 21 Bg6 QxNg 22 Nd5+ Kd8 23 QxQ+ hxQ 24 Rd1 Kc8 25 Ne7+ Kc7 26 Be4 Nc6 27 NxN BxN 28 BxB KxB 29 Kf2 Rae8 30 Rhe1 Rhf8+ 31 Kg6 Rff5 32 e6 Rf6 33 e7 Rd6 34 RxR KxR 35 Kg4 Rxe 36 RxR KxR 37 Kxg5 Kf7 38 g4 g6 39 c3 a5 40 b3 Kg7 41 c4 and black resigns.
Greg and I went for beers afterward, and analyzed this to death, while I lobbied to have him show up again during Tuesday night tournaments. I'd love to have a second shot.
1.5/4... I'm behind by a bit (at least one player, Skylar Malito, is at at least two, with a couple of sweet scalps in the first three rounds) in my section, and there's a logjam at 1.5, but I'm still feeling good about my chess.
Round five: Tuesday afternoon, two GMs put on a simultaneous exhibition, playing against 20 players each. The only victory against either G came from Juraj… good job, man! We’ve taken to calling him GM Molson for his flawed post-game analysis over beers, but then, my suggestions haven’t been terribly stronger, earning me the moniker of GM Warthog.
I have white against an Edmonton player, John Macnab. He’s another Albertan that never comes out, so again, I’m unfamiliar with his play. He gives me the Sicilian, I push into the Grand Prix, and once again, my opponent gives me d4. This wouldn’t have bothered me so much if it hadn’t been for round one; I needed to be careful to avoid a repeat.
1 e4 c5 2 f4 d5 3 ed Qxd 4 Nc3 Qd8 5 Nf3 Nf6 6 Bc4 e6 7 o-o Be7 8 d3 o-o 9 Ne5 a6 10 a3 b5 11 Ba2 Qd6 12 Qf3 Ra7 13 Be3 Bb7 14 Qg3 Nd5 15 Ne4 Qc7 16 Bf2 Ra8 17 Rae1 Rd8 (at this point, I’ve taken 30 minutes to my opponent’s 45, but the position is terribly complicated, from my perspective. I want to boot his centralized knight, but how? I look at about four different plans, taking a twenty minute think, and end up making a move that does nothing but waste a tempo) 18 c3 Nd7 19 c4 (putting the damn thing where it should have gone in the first place) Nd5f6 20 Ng5 NdxNe 21 fxN Nh5 22 Qg4 BxN 23 QxB Qc6 (and the tide turns) 24 Re4 Rxd 25 Rfe1 g6 26 Bb1 Rd7 27 Rh4 Ng7 28 Be4 Qc7 (whoops. He complained afterward that after the complexities and time trouble he was starting to get, he didn’t think far enough on this one) 29 BxB QxB 30 Bxc Rc8 31 Bd6 bc 32 Qh6 Nh5 33 Rg4 Qb6+ 34 Kf1 (huh?) Qb5 35 (realizing my error) Kg1 Qb6+ (we both have a little time pressure… this repetition relieves it somewhat) 36 Kh1 RxB 37 exR Qxd 38 QxN (and my opponent speaks out loud, extremely unusual for a tournament like this; “Oh, I forgot all about that, how could I forget about that, stupid, stupid, I need to take a walk…” This with about twenty minutes left on his clock for three moves. A little time for a walk, but not lots. Then again, he’s down a full rook now… he could return and reasonably resign. Riana reported that he walked past her, still muttering “stupid”.) Qd2 39 Qe5 c3 40 bc Rxc (and now, having made time control, I did expect him to resign. But he saw my rating, I expect, and decided correctly that I was fully capable of blowing it.) 41 Rb4 Rc8 42 Rb8 Qd8 43 RxR QxR 44 Rd1 h5 45 Qf6 Kh7 46 Qxf+ Kh6 47 Qd7 Qc4 48 Qd2+ Kh7 49 Rc1 Qh4 50 g3 Qf6 51 Qc3 Qf5 52 Qc7+ Kh6 53 Qf4+ and with the Queens being forced off, black resigns. I spent just over two hours on the game, and my opponent just under.
At 2.5 out of five, I’m thrilled. Carolyn McMaster and Juraj are also both at 2.5. Meanwhile, there are two players in our section at three. I discovered that Skylar Malito, the 1505, hasn’t played in a CFC rated tournament in a decade. But he plays in the Edmonton casual Monday night tournaments, and has a “John rating” (which is balanced annually to CFC rating levels to avoid inflation) in active (30 minute) time controls of around 1900. Strictly speaking, he’s not sandbagging, but he’s certainly going to be a difficult opponent to pass in the section.
Round six: I’m paired with another BC player, Brian Sullivan. He’s an older gentleman, and a really nice fellow. He’d actually delivered a message to me before the first round, from a buddy in Edmonton who had met him on the bus, and had suspected I’d be at the tournament. I Petroffed him from black anyway, but made a fatal touch-move error on my fourth move (my first in six years of tournament play) and lost horribly. Full credit to Brian, he took the advantage and exploited it relentlessly.
1. e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 (White takes a long think about playing or avoiding my opening, and decides the latter) Nc3 Nc6 4 (He takes another long think, realizing that he doesn’t know anything more about the four-knights, and I head down to the bookstore and pick up a couple of unrelated opening books) d4 (I think for a good deal of time as well. What should I do? I could take with ed, probably followed by e5, and we get into a difficult little variation with some winning chances both ways, or I could play d6, protecting the pawn. If he pushes, I think, I can recycle my knight back to e7 and his strong-looking center begins to weaken. Yeah, that’s the one. So I write d6 on my scoresheet, and grab the knight. I look at my hand holding the piece for a moment, then slap it into e7 in disgust, get up and walk laps around the building muttering obscenities to myself) Ne7 5 (and my opponent starts thinking again. “He put that down with such force, this must be a really great tactic. What am I not seeing?” before he plays one of many correct moves) de (and now my other knight gets to leave, too) Nfg8 6 Bg5 d6 7 e5xd cd 8 Bc4 Qc7 9 Bb3 Bg4 10 o-o Nc6 11 Nd5 Qd7 12 Qd3 f5 13 ef Bxf5 14 Rfe1+ Be7 15 Qe2 Kd8 16 NxB NcxN 17 Rad1 Rac8 18 BxN, and with not enough left to defend the other knight, black resigns.
Round seven: I’ve stopped beating myself up about my touch-move error, and I’m feeling good about my chances this evening. I’m white against Zoltan Daku, who is yet another player rated in the 1700’s. I’ve been doing pretty well against that group, and I’ve prepared my lines in the Grand Prix attack much better than I have. I don’t feel afraid to give it a third try. But Zoltan decides to play e5 instead, and I happily go into a King’s Gambit.
1 e4 e5 2 f4 ef 3 Nf3 (he picks up his bishop, hovers over c5 for a moment, thinks better of it, hovers to d6, thinks a moment more, and plays…) Be7 4 h4 Nf6 5 (I make a positional blunder here… my bishop should not be stuck behind these pawns. Nc3 is correct.) d3 d6 6 Bxf Bg4 7 Nbd2 Nc6 8 Be2 o-o 9 Ng5 BxB (and my blockaded light-square bishop is happily exchanged) 10 QxB Nd4 11 Qd1 h6 12 Nh3 Qd7 13 c3 Nc6 14 Qf3 Ng4 15 Nf2 NxN 16 QxN Ne5 17 Qg3 Qg4?? 18 BxN black resigns, muttering “you weren’t supposed to take that”.
Juraj is now ahead with 4.5 out of seven, after beating Art Milne. At 3.5, I’m paired with a strong expert, and he has a weak master. So much for the Swiss gambit.
Round eight: I spend an hour before the game booking up for Bob Bowerman with some Benko preparation. Then he leaves my prepared lines on move four, and I’m stumped.
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 (White unexpectedly avoids taking the b) Nf3 d6 5 Bf4 bc (which he claimed afterward was awful for black… the only identical positions in chesslab at this point show clear wins for black. Go figure) 6 Nc3 g6 7 e4 Bg7 8 Bxc (and black deviates from those other examples of 5 …bc) o-o 9 h3 Rfe8 (where he figured I was showing that I had the wrong plan, working for the e-push. This, other than the other he mentioned, is I think my only very serious error. This, and the “natural” continuation of the plan, which just gets me worse and worse) 10 o-o e6 11 de Bxe 12 BxB RxB 13 Re1 Qe7 14 Ng5 Ne8 15 Qd5 Rf6 16 QxRa RxB 17 QxNb QxNg 18 QxN+ Bf8 19 Nd5 Rf3 20 Kf1 and black resigns.
Round nine: Saturday. A noon start. I go driving for the pairings early in the morning, but cross Jim Daniluk’s path; he tells me he’s already got them, and will give us a call. Turns out I’ve got another Albertan, Dave Ludwig. Knowing nothing about him, I go out for breakfast with Juraj, who is celebrating his birthday. We go off to our games, where he squeezes off a draw and goes up to 5/9. In a almost completely unrecognized opening, I don’t do nearly so well with my white pieces.
1 e4 Nf6 2 Nc3 d5 3 e5 Nfd7 4 d4 e6 (and now we’ve moved into a French… familiar territory for a few moments) 5 Nf3 c5 6 Be3 cd 7 Bxd Nc6 8 Bb5 NxB 9 QxN a6 10 Ba4 b5 11 Bb3 Nc5 12 o-o Be7 13 Qg4 o-o 14 Nd4 f5 15 ef(ep) Bxf 16 Rfe1 e5 17 Nf5 NxB 18 axN g6 19 Nh6+ Kg7 20 Qd1 KxN 21 Nxd Bb7 22 NxB QxN 23 Qd2+ Qf4 24 Re3 Rad8 25 Rh3+ Kg7 26 Qe1 Rd6 27 f3 Qd4+ 28 Kf1 Rf4 29 Qg3 Qxb2 30 Rae1 Qd4 31 Qg5 Rd7 32 Qh6+? (so much better was having my rook take the e-pawn, creating much more pressure) Kg8 33 Rg3 Rdf7 34 Qg5 Bxf 35 gxB Rxf+ 36 Kg2 Qf2+ 37 Kh3 QxRe 38 Qd8+ Kg7 39 Qh4 Qf1+ and white resigns.
Round ten: The money round for some, but being two points behind the lead means probably not for me. A few players in the same situation don’t show up at all for their games (the 10 am start probably contributes to that), and many others take quick draws, or play sloppily and get knocked off early. But I realize that there’s almost a one hundred point rating difference between winning and losing, so I fight for everything I’m worth.
Elroy Deimert is a fellow New Democrat from Grande Prairie. He’s already been in Edmonton near two weeks, first accompanying his son to the Canadian Youth Chess Championship tournament before the Canadian Open. He has a six hour drive facing him after the game. Naturally, neither of us even suggests a quick wimpy draw. Such is the character of an Alberta New Democrat: ready for an extended uphill battle. I have black, which you couldn’t have guessed from the Petroff.
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nxe d6 4 Nf3 Nxe 5 Qe2 Qe7 6 d3 Nf6 7 Bg5 Nbd7 8 Nc3 Qe6 (and I leave book in an ugly, ugly way) 9 QxQ fxQ 10 d4 c6 11 Bd3 (and here I take a 20 minute think, trying to spot ways to untangle the mess I’ve created --- I fail, but now I’ve tried) Be7 12 o-o Nb6 13 Rfe1 Nbd5 14 Ne4 Bd7 15 a3 o-o-o 16 c4 Nc7 17 b4 d5 18 Ng3 h6 19 Bf4 Nfe8 20 c5 Rf8 21 Nh5 Nb5 22 a4 Nbc7 23 Ne5 Bf6 24 Bg6 BxN 25 BxB b6 26 cb ab 27 a5 b5 28 a6 Na8 (I have ten minutes now to make my 40th move. I don’t often have to deal with time scrambles, and certainly never in this sort of shape) 29 a7 Kb7 30 Ra3 Nb6 31 Bb8 Na4 32 Rea1 Nc7 33 Bc4 RxB 34 axR=Q+ (in fairness, he hadn’t physically exchanged the pawn for a queen, so perhaps it was really axR=N, but I suspect not) RxQ 35 BxN axB 36 Rxa Ra8 37 RxR NxR 38 Nxg Nc7 39 f4 Nb5 40 Rd1 Nc3 (and I made time control with almost a minute and a half to spare, only down the exchange and a pawn. Which is pretty bad, but I think I faired better in the time scramble than Elroy) 41 Re1 Ne4 42 Nh5 Be8 43 Ng7 Bd7 44 h3 Kb6 45 g4 Kb5 46 h4 Kxb 47 Rb1 Kc4 48 Rb7 (And I sat, and started, and thought. I’m down an exchange (straight up, now… I have my pee-wee back), and if the bishop backs up to the safe square, I’m going to be down another pawn. Elroy is grinding me down. I have to try something spectacular. And so…) e5!? 49 RxB exd 50 Nf5 d3 51 Ne3+ Kd4 52 Nd1 d2 53 Ra7 Kd3 54 Ra1 d4 55 g5 hg 56 hg Ke2 57 g6 c5 58 g7 Nf6 59 f5 c4 60 Ra6 Ng8 61 f6 KxN 62 f7 Ke2 63 Ra1 c3 64 f8=Q c2 65 Qf2+ Kd3 66 Ra3+ and black finally resigns.
And the tournament ends with a long, grinding, and ultimately losing game. Rod and I drive home, me exclaiming occasionally that I could have found a win, or at least a draw in that endgame, we both talking about Juraj’s incredible performance, and discussing what we should do chess-wise over the summer. My performance rating this tournament: 1693! My rating went from a 1484 to a 1552… a pretty good gain, that’ll be looking better when the Canada Day Open is finally rated. After getting over my lousy final weekend, I’m pretty happy with this result.
