Grenke Open, part 2

Hi there,

My goal was to bring in regular updates on how things are going at the Grenke Open for me and analyse some interesting games, however, what I have realized is that with double rounds each day and bad internet connection, it is fairly difficult to be consistent with this.

Nevertheless, here comes the status update as of after Round 7!

I made a little video *see below) after Round 4 describing more in detail what happened in the first half of the tournament, and the tournament start was indeed good for me, I scored 3 point out of first 4 games, only losing a long battle with Black pieces against Moldavian GM Svetushkin, who is rated 2574.

In round 5 I made a really quick draw with White pieces against IM Yankelevich (2421 elo). It took me by surprise that he offered me draw so early in the game and it got me a bit confused - on one hand, obviously it makes sense to play on with White pieces, but on the other, he is a strong player and with such tough tournament schedule it makes sense to take a quick draw and rest before the remaining games. So after 5 rounds I had 3,5 points.

In round 6 I managed pretty quickly win IM Kevlishvilli (2414 elo) with Black pieces in a super-sharp Sicilian game. Obviously I was really happy about this result! 

Round 7 I was paired with White pieces against IM Studer (2486 elo) from Switzerland. This was the first game in the tournament, where nothing really worked out for me. My opponent played really well (or so I think ) and I never really found a plan how to coordinate my pieces, so I suffered my second loss in the tournament. Really looking forward to analyse this game and find out what went wrong!

So far tournament situation seems to be ok for me - I've got 4,5 points out of 7, while having played 3 IMs and 1 GM. 

Today we are having the last 2 round of the tournament and just in 1,5 hour I'm playing against GM Andreev Eduard from Ukraine (2438 elo). I am going to play solid chess and see where the game takes us.  

As some of you may know, besides the open tournament, there is also Grenke Classic closed tournament held in the same playing hall. I find it really motivating to see players like Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian and MVL fighting in their games just a couple of tables above. So really can recommend to people considering playing the Grenke Open next year!

All the game analysis are coming in a couple of days, so stay tuned!

Cheers,

Ritvars