Taiwan Nationals 2013 -- part 9: finals day 1

The first six rounds of the finals were played this weekend.

The format is a 12 player round-robin, so roughly half of the games remain.

I did okayish, having 2 pts of 3 after day one. My first round was against Ausin, which I won after he blundered a rook in the late middle game. 

Second round I beat Jei, in a Benoni game where as white I managed to push my center pawns all the way.

My third game was against the tournament leader Albert, where I suffered one the most traumatic losses in my life. After a 5h game where I have been trying to pry up a minor weakness (slightly disconnected pawns on b2 and a4), I manage to force him into a knight endgame where I can and do win the pawns. With three pawns vs one on the queenside (and his king on h1), it should be an easy win? But in time trouble i drop my knight! That loss kept me awake that night.

The schedule is insane. Three 'long' time control games in one day, and no break between rounds. Go from being in time trouble for 2h (and still shaking with stress) from one game to another. It usually takes me over an hour to be cool enough to play proper chess.

My last game for day 1 ended around 22:30, and the games start 8:30 the day after. Be seated or lose, so you have to aim at being a little early. So I get home by midnight, in bed around 1, and have an alarm going off 6:30... at most 5h of sleep. And I could not really sleep for the loss against Albert. I maybe got 2-3h of sleep.