Day six at TATA Steel chess - I had to fight REALLY hard to draw this!
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 one: https://www.chess.com/blog/Bikfoot/day-one-at-tata-steel-chess-not-off-to-a-great-start
- 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 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
Day six! One more day untill the rest day. At this moment, I'm 3/5 and I would love to go into the rest day being 4/6. My opponent of today was Jan Veerman with a rating of 1844, definitely someone I should be able to combat, especially because I have the white pieces!
I love Wijk aan Zee, I truly do. It doesn't matter where you go in the evening in this small city, titled players and GrandMasters are dining, exploring and drinking everywhere. I was especially excited since my good friend GM Roeland Pruijssers would visit later that day to grab a bite and a drink. So I better show something nice for it, hopefully a win!
The Game
I sat down, shook my opponents hand and the game started. I choose to play the Closed Catalan, where I play b3 and Bb2 to double fianchetto. A few moves in we reached the following position:
Position after 10... Qe7
Nothing to crazy going on just yet! My idea was definitely to play Nd2 and push e4 at some point, but I definitely didn't want black to control the e5 square. A few moves later we reached the following position where I'll analyze my though process a bit:
Now we come to an interesting position. Black's knight is incredibly strong on e4 and applies pressure on g3 together with the Queen on g6. This is incredibly annoying, since I can't play f3 now to chase the knight away! The other important point that I have to make is that I really don't want the bishop op c8 to get into the game. Can you find a way to improve white's position?
That looks great! I wish that I actually played this. I did play the pawn move c5 but I got greedy and I followed with a4 right after, trying to isolate the pawn on b4! This looks good on paper... but it did give black an incredibly potent bishop on a6 which gave me a lot of trouble... yikes
Thankfully my opponent traded queens on g2. This way, I might be able to hold the draw since the bishops are of opposite colours. A few moves later the rooks WERE traded on b4 and we got the position that I desired. All I had to do was:
- Put my pawns on dark squares
- Build a fortress where the black king couldn't enter my side of the board
- Block the d pawn with my bishop
- Follow black's king where it goes with my king
Not to hard right? Let's do it!
Position after 38... Kg6. A theoretical draw
The game went on for another 20 moves, but I was able to hold it a draw. Since it's a bunch of accurate shuffling I won't show go in to it in much detail, I'll do that when I'll stream on my twitch channel since there is more room on there for conversation! I will show you the final position though
The final position after 59. Bc1. An impenetrable fortress has been achieved. Whenever the Black king goes to h5, I will cover with g3. If black moves his bishop, I move my bishop. And if black runs to a6 with the King, I'll run to b4 with mine
Was it difficult to keep it a draw? It was! Since it's only white that can make the mistakes. I did however manage a draw. Funny enough, when I was analyzing my game with GM Roeland Pruijssers, GM Fabiano Caruana and GM Alireza Firouzja decided to analyze there game next to us!
Overall I had a great evening, with drinks and dinner, which included - but was not limited to GM Anish Giri, GM Robin van Kampen, GM Jan Smeets, IM Nico Zweers and many, many more.
As always, the full game can be found below, enjoy!
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