Gibraltar Masters 2020, or how I became an IM! (Part 3)
Hi All,
Here comes the final part of blog series where I share my experience at this year's edition of Gibraltar Masters tournament (You can read part 1 here and part 2 here).
Off the board..
While I was quite seriously preparing for the games, I also managed to find the time to do the touristy stuff around Gibraltar. One of the days before the round I went to the most Southern point in Europe, also known as Spanish town Tarifa. The weather wasn't great, but the setting was quite something - Tarifa is the place where the Atlantic Ocean meets Mediterranean sea. Other than that it's a small and cozy town.
Straight after entering the town gates, we were met by charming little streets..
In my opinion there is nothing like playing a nice tournament in a place, where there are places to discover and explore. So in that sense Gibraltar Festival is placed just in the right neighborhood, as there is just so much around!
Back to the important stuff - the main event!
After a nice win against GM Fabien Libiszewski from France in round 6, everything seemed to be going according to plan in terms of scoring the final IM norm. That being said, I still needed to score around 1.5-2 points in the next 3 games, so there was still plenty of work to be done.
Round 7
I kind of knew that it was critical to not lose this round as I had the White pieces, because as you know, after White pieces usually you get Black in the next round.., and what we have learned so far here is that it's no joke to hold these GMs with Black! My opponent for this round was IM Bilguun Sumiya (2486) from Mongolia. After a bit of research I found out that he had already scored all his GM norms and was just waiting for his title to be confirmed. With that in mind, I was ready for a serious fight...
I played well most of the game, though in critical moments still didn't manage to convert my position into a full point. Luckily my opponent gave me a chance also in the end of the game, and so I scored 3rd win in a row, which put me in a very good spot in terms of the IM norm. All I needed was to score half a point in the next 2 games. Easy you say?
Round 8
Well, let me tell you something, round 8 was anything but easy. I was paired to play with Black pieces against another 2600+ GM from India. And so I knew it would be no easy fate, so let's see how that went down..
A very well played game by my opponent. I clearly messed up the opening, and then tried my best to throw my opponent off the track, with no success though. It was a fun game nevertheless as I got to play some funky moves.
Round 9
Going into round 9 I knew I needed to draw the game and the title would be in my pocket. On top of that, after round 7 I had also crossed 2400 in live rating, so draw in this game meant I would achieve the IM title. This time I was paired against famous Swedish GM Pia Cramling with the White pieces. I also knew that if I lost this game, not all would be over, as most likely a win in round 10 would still give me the norm, but that was not what I was thinking about when going into this game..
Opening preparation went really well, then I missed some chances to play for a win, but the goal was to get a draw, which I successfully also achieved. Happy days!
Round 10
It was a fantastic feeling to go into the final round of the tournament knowing that I had achieved everything I had planned to before coming here to Gibraltar, so I had a chance to play without any worries.
A nice end to a fantastic tournament. I managed to score 5.5 points out of 10 games, cross 2400 rating mark and score my final IM norm.
Off the board..
After the tournament I had an extra day to explore a bit more of Spain, and so we went to see the unique mountain town Ronda, which was an amazing experience.
Future plans
Next big tournament in my calendar will be Grenke Open (Karlsruhe, Germany) in April. Otherwise, I am actively working on improving my Black openings against e4. All in all life is good and it's time to set some new goals.
Hope you enjoyed the Gibraltar blog series and if you haven't participated in the festival yourself just yet - I can highly recommend. The tournament organizers have already announced the dates for 2021 Gibraltar Festival, so definitely check it out!
Cheers,
Ritvars
