My favorite GM draw: FIDE Invitational Round 9

[Editor's Note: In this blog, Not Master Joseph Truelson presents a very amazing game. He may not have the strength of a GM, but he sure can draw like one! Learn from his notes the best drawing techinques. This extremely instructive game is so interesting that I suggest that if there is one game that you commit to memory, it is this one. Writes Joseph Truelson:]

Thanks Editor! I like writing in italics so much that I think I'll write another paragraph in italics.

All Photos taken by Joseph Truelson. None of them were used with the permission of the people inside them. And that includes the ice cream! I didn't ask Fred Kleist if I could take pictures of the Seattle Chess Club, I didn't ask Alden's Organic if I could taken pictures of the ice cream, or did I ask anybody anything before snapping a photo of them. And as usual, I don't apologize.

I heard somewhere that if I want to become a top blogger on chess.com that I better change the format of my blogs. That most likely means that I'm being too funny, which I have heard is detrimental to the human race. So let me redo this entire blog and try to be like a "normal" writer.

Hello chess.com! Welcome to the last round of a tournament that ended around 1 month ago. I forgot of course when it actually ended (HAHA, such good high class humor!) It was the critical moment. My opponent, Eric Zhang, had been victimizing everybody so far, with 7 wins in 8 rounds! Now it was our turn to play. How would it go? Was he even playing to win our game, or was he also hoping for a GM draw. I'll never know. What I did know was that I don't like taking risks. So I figured that I should play it safe, and hope that he would have nothing. 

Let's get more into the moment. The day had come. The minute had come. But the second hadn't come. Do I have to tell you that a second time? I do love repeating myself you know...

I think that the best way to write a normal blog that chess.com will approve of is to pretend that I am a writer. So far in the literature that I read, the first few pages start off with the writer thanking everyone for all the things that the people didn't do for them. So I better go do the same.

Before that, I'd like to say that I spent 1 hour making this blog. If it pleases you, the reader, and you have an enjoyable time reading it, then my time spent writing this will be worthwhile, at least for a while.

I'd like to thank...

The TD: TD Fred Kliest was an amazing TD! All the rounds were up on time, he became a FIDE Arbiter (When I become one chess will become corrupt again, as I"ll allow cheating if bribed and also will cheat myself) so that he could make the event FIDE rated, and he always is funny and friendly (sort of like me). The only thing that he did wrong was not give me the full point in my round two game. How dare he follow the rules! I don't want to follow the rules, except if it benefits me.

My attorney: I must thank my attorney so much. He works 20/6, and has to spend so much time on all of the lawsuits that I get. Yesterday I was sued by 10 people. 11 of them were mad about me taking pictures of them, 5 of them were mad at me for RARing them, and -2 of them were mad at me for not talking enough.

You, the reader: This blog could not be made if it weren't for viewers like you. Thank you. (PBS) Why? Because I'm a real politician, and take money from both sides! I'd like to thank my biggest sponsors. I'm endorsing both of them, so vote for both of them 

Poor candiates. You might think that they are corrupt, but in reality I'm the one taking all of their profits, and using 90% of it to defend myself in all of the lawsuits. Oh well, I'm still getting millions. So don't worry about how much Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton has, if Donald Trump isn't payin taxes, its because he isn't making any income and is giving it all to me! Anyways, now that I've mentioned my sponsors I think that I will move on.

As I have mentioned a lot, I play a lot of openings. I wanted Eric to play a boring drawish opening against me. Chess.com Game Explorer does a good job of showing peoples openings (If you're playing me, PLEASE use it! I want you to be fooled!) And since he was playing the symmetrical English, I mean, how more symmetrical can you get? Not too much more. So guess how much of a heart attack I got when I saw his first move (Not at all).

Well, that was the game. Sorry for overdramatizing it, it really wasn't interesting I have to admit. So what happenned after my game? I'll tell you. I had to wait 3 short hours for all of the games could finish, so we could have our ice cream party. In the meantime (time sure is mean!), I talked to various players. Finally the time came. And the ice cream came. No one else seemed to have take a picture of it, so here it is:

And who was that kid staring at the ice cream? I'll give you a clearer version of his face. When I first saw him I was really scared.

His brother is the other kid in the photo. It was announced that we were going to have an awards ceremony, followed by an ice cream party and a lot of blitz and bughouse. Sounds like an amazing evening, right? A few people decided that they wanted to get sick, so they decided to drink the free Cough-ee that was offered there. The rest of us decided to watch the awards ceremony. At one point, since the winners were being paid in case, a WCF person said he needed to break a 10. "Oh yeah!" I exclaimed. "Give me a ten, and I'll rip that thing to shreds pretty fast!", which was met with confusion, and then with sudden laugher. (Takes a while for people to get my JOE-ks sometimes.) 
Here are some of the winners: (if you are one of these players and don't want your picture here, contact my attorney or tell me to take my picture down)

By the way, all of the wierd photos were used with the Photo Booth on my iPad. Anyways, towards the end of the event, the WCF organizers talked about a potential 4th Kings vs. Princes. Master Ignacio Perez suggested that the next one start tomorrow! Unfortunately, the WCF wouldn't do that, it probably costed too much to get organic ice cream... 

After this was all over, everyone went over to the other room to play blitz and bughouse. I took some pictures and photos of the participants as usual.

A He brother plays himself in an intersting variation of chess while the other looks on. Taken with the mirror effect.

Casual players having fun while I take photos of them

And that concludes one of my favorite chess events that I've ever been to. The only bad part of it was the chess! But like all good things, it had to come to an end. My dad picked me up after I had enough fun. But giving one last look at the now noisy Seattle Chess Club, I knew that there would be memories that I wouldn't forget for another 70 years or so. After seeing the same players for 5 days in a row, I kind of even got adjusted to it! Having to have it end was discouraging. And as usual, it ended right when I was finally playing well... 

But of course, I never stopped playing chess for that long. In addition to my crazy playing of bughouse with a master that actually likes playing with me, I got to go to the Seattle Chess Club just 2 weeks later, 3 weeks later, and 4 weeks later! I'm playing a lot of chess! Is that good for me? I don't know. My rating after that crazy streak of chess tournaments went up around 10 points after all of those 3 events. But that adventure will have to wait for another time. 

Was the purpose of this to teach you how to do a GM draw? I'm not sure. But I am sure that this game was for certain a GM draw, and by reviewing GM draws, you will get better at making them. As for good books for achieving this, I would highly recommend "my 60 memorable draws" by Anish Giri and soon to come out by me, "My 60 memorable RARs". So, good luck in your next super tournament (I'm talking to the 2750+ players who read this blog) and have ALL draws (It shouldn't be that hard for you guys)! Then finally, people will realize that top level chess is boring, and they will finally pay attention to my games!