The end of a big day has found its way to the competitors of Foxwoods as the second and third rounds were completed. For the players of Michigan, the results were mixed.

Prashantha Amarasinghe (1994) after ultimately losing his game last night (seethis blog), lost both of his matchups today. In round two he faced Sergey Vertkin (2236), and round three went up against Allen J. Weiss (2204). Prashantha is a tough spirit and resilient fighter, though, and we can expect him to make his appearance on the scoreboard with a bang in the coming rounds.
Current score: 0 / 3

Ian Edgerle (1911) had some tough matchups today. He lost his second round game to master Libardo Rueda (2206), a resourceful and challenging opponent whom I clashed bishops with in the 2008 World Open. In round three, Ian settled into the White side of a Petroff Defense and one a convincing battle against Andres Santalla (2190). He was kind enough to provide us with a copy of his game, displayed below.
Current score: 1 / 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Atulya Shetty (2078) was up against an especially tough set of pairings for day two. In the second round he achieved a draw with highly experienced FIDE Master (FM) Andrew Karklins (2250) after a complex game in one of Karklins' pet lines, the Latvian Gambit. Karklins defeated me with the line at the 2007 King's Island Open, so I am sneakily claiming Atulya's result in his game as a form of revenge. Thank you, Atulya.

The third round against another strong titled player, FIDE Master (FM) Ali Morshedi (2284), was running beyond the midnight hour, and was still going when I last checked in on the tournament hall. The player's had arrived at an interesting endgame which I believe should be winning for Atulya.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Atulya played ...Rh3-h2 in this position, keeping the pressure on White.

Score after two games: 0.5 / 2
Current score: 1.5 / 3 ?

As for my results, the second round saw me paired against FIDE Master (FM) Marcon A Shibut (2269). He played a variation of the King's Indian Defense which I have never faced before. Ultimately I still managed to develop a slight edge playing White, though ultimately made a critical mistake in not being aggressive enough in the tactical situations which arose. This led to my becoming bound and gagged positionally, and I was left with nothing to do but struggle at my chains as the executioner made approach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Round three saw another exciting upturn as I defeated fringe-master Vadim Kudryavtsev (2196). He played the same opening line against me as WIM Iryna Zenyuk in round one, though he selected a very different strategic course within that line, choosing to trade his d-pawn rather than his c-pawn. I improved on my piece coordination a bit compared to the Zenyuk game, and ultimately managed to break through the center with tactics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Annotations to these games coming to a future near you!

When I have more time to sit down with these games, and am not keeping myself up until 2:00am to provide these blog entries for everyone, I will add some detailed annotations to help clarify and explain my thinking processes, as well as the general insanity happening in the games.

My current score now resides at: 1.5 / 3

I anticipate being paired up against upper level masters again tomorrow morning. So far I am meeting my goals for the event. I am playing against strong competition, putting up good games with my opponents which will provide a great amount of study material and learning tools, and I am gaining in rating points. My goal for the tournament was to advance my FIDE rating beyond the 2000 point barrier. If I continue on in this event as I have so far, I will be well on my way past that threshold.

Thanks everyone for your time, patience, and interest. I am always interested in feedback, so please feel free to let me know your thoughts, comments, ideas, and quarrels with anything that you read here.

I am now off for some much needed rest. Rounds tomorrow are scheduled for 11:00am and 6:00pm.