A Mighty Comeback!

Have you ever had one of those days, where things just don't go your way? Well, I recently had a chess game like that. I was playing against the legendary IM Emory Tate, known to many as the "The Most Dangerous Tactician in the World", at the recent North American Open.

I was actually excited to get paired with IM Tate because I knew that it would be an exciting and complicated game. But I truly did not expect that I would fall for an opening novelty by move 9 that would threaten to end the game almost before it started!

I have annotated the game below which went from quick certain loss for me to a surprising endgame draw after a grueling 5 hours of play.

Many people have asked me how I am often able to turn losses into draws or even wins. The best advice I can give them is to embrace what IM Greg Shahade always told me when I attended his U.S. Chess School camps, "The most important thing in chess is to have fighting spirit and never, ever give up if you have any chances at all."