It is my aim to play a couple of tournaments a year to try and improve my game. A couple of years back I started playing the 9 rounds at the Tata Steel tournament, but to be honest apart from the tournament itself there is nothing to do in Wijk aan Zee. So, before corona I went to play a tournament in Prague and this year, I gave it a go in Pilsen. All of these tournaments are part of the Czechtour series, which are well organized and have a large and diverse participant field.
As for me it was a holiday as well, I went to Pilsen together with my wife. But when we go on holiday our pets (1 dog + 2 cats) come with us as well. As I would be playing quite a bit of chess, my wife would also be alone, so we also took my father in a law with us. That meant that all in all we had a very full car and roof case :D.
Anyways.... Time to start the tournament. The location was in the Parkhotel in Pilsen, which looked very nice. There were 9 rounds to play with a time control of 1h30min + 30min after 40 moves and 30 sec increment from the 1st move.
Game 1
In my first game I played a 400 elo points lower rated player. I played my opening a bit too inaccurate to my liking. My 8th move should not have been Ne8, but I should have just taken exd4.
Luckily enough, my opponent was unable to make use of it and in the end, I was able to win in 18 moves, with the below end position. Link to game 1.
Game 2
After playing a 400 elo points lower rated player in the first round, now it was time for me to get slaughtered, as I was facing a 400 elo points higher rated IM Olaf Heinzel. I was able to look up a couple of his games and I was prepared for his Scandinavian opening. So played a reasonably sharp variation, which seemed to pay off with 7. f4. He answered with Bg4, which was actually starting to get him into trouble. It was already my intent to play Nf3, advance my g and h pawns, play Qe2, castle queen side, play Ne5, etc.
A couple of moves further I had been able to take advantage of his king being in the center still and had the opportunity to win a pawn, by simply taking Bxe6. I was a bit hesitant however, as somehow, I thought that after black castles queen side, I would not have an attack left. In that case with a pawn up but having the isolated pawn on a2 and the double pawns on the c-file, I was not convinced that would be enough. With the psychological effect kicking in that in case of a roughly equal position against an IM he would probably outplay me I wanted to keep the attack going. This meant that I went for Qe3.
After Qe3 came e5, Rhf1, where black still couldn't castle queen side. After Qa5 I thought I had a very nice threat with Qg5. Black was however able to save the position (and game), by playing Qa3+, followed by Qe7 and trading queens. I then doubled rooks on the f-file and still had a better position, but my + had shrunk significantly. After Rxf7, my opponent offered a draw and I decided to accept it, not willing to risk losing this one. Full game can be found here.
Game 3
In my 3rd match I was again facing a 2200+ player, this time a FM, but again with the white pieces, so I was at least a bit hopeful. I started with a Hillbilly attack against the Caro-Kann, but he played it differently than I was used to, so after 3 moves, I was out of book myself as well. In already a strange position I decided on move 7 to go for a pawn and sacrificing my future castling possibilities by playing Nc3. Followed by Qh4+ and Kf1 (g3 fails on Bxb3+), after which d5 can't be defended anymore.
After grabbing the d5 pawn and later even the e4 pawn, I was 2 paws up, but still struggling to get my pieces out, king save, etc. So when my opponent played Be6 below, I didn't dare to play d5 and go for the piece. I figured this would damage my kingside too much with the F file, dark bishop etc.
After trading the white bishop and starting to create a little bit of breathing room on the king side I made a mistake playing Ne4. Bg5 would have been fine, but this move gets me into trouble after Nxe4 followed by f5.
After this the game becomes even messier, from both sides. In the position below black should have played f4, as this would cost me a piece in the end. He played Bxe5 instead, after which I should have played Qf1, to force a trade back to an equal position. I played Nf4 however, which causes my white fields to become dramatically bad.
After a while I was finally getting an opportunity to get back into the game. Although the below position still looks terrible... it could/should have been worse. I can now save my dark squared bishop by playing h3 and even if my rook on h1 will be traded against the bishop I still have playing chances as the bishop on e5 will be quite strong.
In the below position I was able to get fully back into the game. Black had just played f4, but the bishop on e5 is both a great defender and attacker. So after taking gxf4, the black king is starting to get vulnerable as well. It will cost me my rook on h1, but I already have the black squares, so gaining some more grip on the white squares actually helps me.
After trading the bishop vs the rook it becomes even clearer how strong the dark squared bishop is. Qe3 looks perhaps as a silent move, but puts the pressure even more on the g pawn and kingside. Taking the f pawn is not a decent option (if gxf4, then Rg1).
In the end I even underestimated my bishop as I accepted a draw, while in the meantime being in a better position. After Qf8 (only move), Qxf8, Kxf8 the end game should be winning. Black at some point in time needs to trade a rook for the bishop, after which I am 2 pawns up.
Full game can be found here.
So far part 1... to be continued.
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