Day one at TATA steel chess - Not off to a great start

Hi all! Time to post a blog on the adventures that I'll have at TATA steel chess. I'll be playing the amateur ten camp - ten days and 9 rounds of intense chess right next to the pro players. This will be day one of my blog and I will stream the analysis of my games every day. So sit back, relax and enjoy the content!

Make sure to follow me on my twitch channel where I will live stream the analysis of my games and tell you all the on site chess gossips! https://www.twitch.tv/bikfoot

• Part two: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/day-two-at-tata-steel-chess-the-best-defense-is-good-offense 
• Part three: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/day-three-at-tata-steel-chess-bishops-rule
• Part four: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/day-four-at-tata-steel-chess-why-didnt-i-just-take-the-draw-offer
• Part five: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/day-five-at-tata-steel-chess-my-opponent-played-what
• Part six: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/day-six-at-tata-steel-chess-i-had-to-fight-really-hard-to-draw-this
• Part seven: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/day-seven-at-tata-steel-chess-twenty-minutes-too-late
• Part eight: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/day-eight-at-tata-steel-chess-facing-the-the-undefeated-tournament-leader
• Final part: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/final-day-at-tata-steel-chess-i-won-my-tournament

Arrival

Registration is, as always, quite the experience. You can register between 09:30 and 11:30 am and there games start at 13:00. So naturally, every single players arrives at 11:00 which forms quite the line. Tedious, sure, but also part of the experience. and it's a nice way to catch up with old friends (and new ones!)

After I registered I picked up my press pass and made my way to the supermarket to grab some breakfast and drinks, before heading to the commentator booth to meet up with Fiona and Robert Hess. Incredibly nice people and amazing commentators. After a few hugs and handshakes, I proceeded towards the playing hall to meet my opponent and start my game. Let the games begin!


Game number one

Most of you know that I like to keep my blogs fresh and entertaining. Therefor, I'll only post the most interesting parts of my game here. A few scenarios with analysis and a puzzle here and there. Now... let's dive into it!

After white's move 13.Ref1

After 13 moves (I'm playing with the black pieces by the way, I may or may not have forgot to mention that) this position arose. I'm actually very happy with my position at the moment. I'm developed, my king is safe and I definitely have some room on the queenside. However, it's hard for me to find a way as in where I can actually press. Do I pressurize the queenside, kingside or will I burst through the middle? I decided to play 13... Qc7 and check what the opponent does. After a few moves, we had the following position:

Position after 20. f4

Again, I'm very happy with my position and I feel like I'm slowly creating some weaknesses withing white's structure. White did just make a vital move though, 20. f4 was a very important move. What could black do if white played something else, like 20.b3?

So we're definitely feeling comfortable right here, though we can't quite pack the punch just yet. it appears we need a few more move to reach a position where I could personally say, alright, black has an advantage here. A few more move this position occurred:

Position after 24.Kh1

This position drove me absolutely nuts. There were so many variants and intricacies that I really didn't know how to handle the position. I don't think I could show all of them, but I would encourage you to look at this position yourself and see if you can spot all the dangers. Let's talk first about why 24. Bxe4? looks like a great move, but is actually not a line I wanted to commit to:

Position after 24...Bxe4

Instead of taking on e4, I took on f5 to open up my bishop towards the white king and continue the attack, A few moves later white made a horrible blunder where I could just grab a free piece, but I completely missed it. Can you find a way to win a piece and stop white from mating?

I know right? How could I miss that! Probably because I only had a few minutes left on the clock. Instead of going into this line I played 26.f6+ Qxf6 27.Nh4 Qc3! to force a queen trade and to develop into an interesting endgame:

Many moves later I missed an opportunity to make it a draw. I got greedy and took a pawn when I should have just exchanged the rooks in to following position:

Either Rhf2 or Raf2 is fine to exchange rooks. Instead I took the pawn and I payed for it with a loss!

The game went on towards a really interesting endgame with 4 pawns against a rook, but I made one more blunder to seal the deal, which white took advantage of:

After the game I felt a bit Ill (physically, I only slept an hour and I didn't each much that entire day) so I checked into the hotel, took a shower and went straight to bed. I'm all refreshed now and ready for round two, I'll let you know what the results were in the next blog!

The entire game for the lovers

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