Lithuanian chess championship. Day 3

Hi, guys! I will continue covering my play at the current Lithuanian chess championship. So, after a lucky escape in the previous game I was awarded with a white color against another lower-ranked player. My opponent is math teacher at the Vilnius University and quite dangerous amateur player. I managed to beat him in the team competition a month ago, but was really lucky escaping from an almost lost position in the middlegame.

My opponent usually goes for Benko Gambit (more known as Volga Gambit in Lithuania), and, to be honest, I still do not know how to equalize with White in this opening) In the second round, my opponent scored a victory against my former coach IM Kestutis Kaunas with Black using Benko, so I decided to avoid that opening.

So, another bad game from me, but now I have a very decent 3.5/4. This score is very surprising for me. The tournament has two leaders with a perfect score- Andrius Brazdzionis, who continues his incredible streak ( 9 from 9 in classical games this year) and WIM Salomeja Zaksaite. They will play each other in the next round and I am paired against FM Dmitrijus Chocenka. We played quite a lot in our young days in various Lithuanian youth championships. The last time we met was in 2016 Lithuania rapid team ch, and he beat me quite easily. So, time for a revenge I hope

Talking about fourth round just want to mention Kipras Eigminas winning a very complicated game against Valantiejus and another good game from Karolis Juksta, who just narrowly missed a win against IM Sakalauskas.  Just to remember: you can find all the latest pairings at http://www.chess-results.com/tnr262140.aspx?lan=1 and live broadcast of games at http://live.chessfed.lt/lcc2017/r1/tfd.htm

That all for now, see you later