
Lithuanian chess championship. Days 6 and 7
Hi, everyone, so it is time to review the last two rounds of Lithuanian chess championship that just recently ended in Vilnius. So, I had a pretty solid 5.5/7 and was facing GM Vidmantas Malisauskas with Black. It was obvious he will go for a win and a hard game waits for me.
Ok, I took it as a deserved loss and started to wait for my last round pairings. Somehow, I was sure that I will receive White and my intention was to push for win as hard as I can. However, the pairings were a little bit surprise for me- I should play WIM Salomeja Zaksaite with Black. Ok, that do not change my intentions – I will play for a win in any case. I had a very good tie break after 8 rounds, my Buchholz was the third highest in the whole tournament, so I had a good possibility to enter the top-5 and receive a ticket to Baltic Zonal Tournament with a win. Sorry, decided to take some more hours of sleep and not to write my blog post about previous game in the morning. A very selfish approach, but I cannot change my nature
Ok, so 6/9 and I was waiting for final results. However, to my horror, almost all my opponents successfully lost their last round games and I was down to twelfth in the final standings. There were 12 prizes in this tournament, so I was awarded 50 euros as some consolationJ
What are my thoughts after the championship?
- I cannot handle pressure as I did in my youth days anymore. My hands were starting to shake almost in every game even playing against low-rated opponents.
- I use my time very unreasonably. Sometimes, I think about 30 minutes in comparatively simple spots and sometimes I move too quickly in critical moments of the game ( which costed me a win in the last round).
- I still have passion for chess ( maybe I should talk about refound passion). So, I am already considering where I should paly nextJ
Talking about the tournament results, you can find the final standing at http://www.chess-results.com/tnr262140.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=9&turdet=YES&wi=984. The strongest always remain on top, so big congratulations for GM Vidmantas Malisauskas with his 8th national title (and of course I can say that only a winner managed to beat me). Congratulations to other medalists and top-5 finishers. The tendency that young players are coming is unavoidable, and all the titled and experienced players were facing many difficulties playing the young generation.
So, that’s all for a moment. I will surely come back with some other materials about my tournaments of tournaments that are interesting to me. Stay tuned and thank you everyone who was reading these posts. GL!