2009 Foxwoods Open: Games; Rounds 4 and 5
Submitted by
on Fri, 04/10/2009 at 9:58pm.
Greetings all,
I just finished a six hour long game, so this will be only a brief update to report my games and results. I will catch everyone up on the other Michigan player results in tomorrow's blog.
In round 4, I went up against experienced FIDE Master (FM) Andrew Karklins (2250). For those who have been paying attention, he is the same FM that fellow Michigan player, Atulya Shetty, drew against in an earlier round. Naturally, I had to show that Atulya was not the only Michigander who could match wits with Mr. Karklins. However, I also have a bit of a history with the strong FM. Back in the 2007 King's Island Open, which remains today the best tournament performance of my career, FM Karklins was the one and only player in the event to defeat me. Add onto that the fact that I was playing with the same color as in our last encounter, namely the White pieces, and it was clear I had to seek my opportunity to avenge my previous result. Revenge was indeed found this day, and I am cherishing it as sweet. I feel that this was my best game thus far in the tournament. The game is given below. Annotations will be added at a later time.
Yes, I see there was a faster way to mate by way of 41.Qg7+ Ke6 42.Qf7# I was fresh out of an intense time scramble for the 40-move mark, at which point we were given additional time on the clock, and was experiencing effects of the adrenaline. The game move, which results in mate in 3, rather than 2, had to suffice.
This put my score up to 2.5 / 4, and guaranteed me a strong pairing for the next round.
That strong pairing came in the form of FIDE Master (FM) Alex Betaneli (2325). He played an Open Ruy Lopez with a quick d2-d4 thrust, which I had not been familiar with. Insanity ensued and we found ourselves in a fantastic looking position after move 14, complete with my king sitting wide out in the open after waltzing to the g7-square. My opponent had nothing developed, meanwhile I was fully developed and possessed the bishop pair. I decided that despite my exposed king, there was no way I should lose the game. Any attack would be defensible. I still stand by that evaluation, and despite my opponent's best efforts I did not lose to any attack. Instead, I maintained a steady hold in a clearly drawn rook and pawn ending, only to spoil my efforts through gross miscalculation. I ultimately lost in extremely disheartening fashion.
This leaves me with a score of 2.5 / 5, with four rounds left to play. This was an extremely disappointing result for me, particularly because of how hard I worked through the middlegame.
With Easter so quickly approaching, let's see if we can't resurrect my endgame play and get back on track with positive results.