An instructive rapid game

Hi everyone!

It has been a while since my last post, my apologies for that! I hope that with this new blogpost I find more motivation keep you posted on a more regular base! In my summer holidays I didn't spend too much time on my chess and instead enjoyed an amazing two week holidays in Rio for the World Cup!

Watching the match Chile-Holland in Sao Paulo!

Obviously I have been following the elite tournaments in the mean time and after a long break from competitive chess I played my only summer tournament in Riga, Latvia (15-25 August). After a modest start I managed to defeat two experienced GMs Miezis and Golod with the black pieces and finished with 6/9 on a 2500+ performance and a gain of 15 rating points. Evidently the summer break has worked out well for me! :)

Now it's mid september my chess classes are starting again which I'm rather busy with. But moreover I'm intending to play at least three more 9-round tournaments till the end of the year. 

Last saturday I played a strong and well organized rapid tournament in Gouda, The Netherlands where I managed to get another 25+ performance which I was rather satisfied about. With 5.5 out of 7 I finally shared first place with 5 other players.

Shared first! Photo: Ab Scheel

My favorite game of the day was my victory against the talented Dutch youngster Robin Lecomte (15 years old, rated around 2256). I think he didn't know the opening so well which led to big problems for him in the middlegame. I quite like the way I gradually developed my advantage by improving my own pieces and restricting the mobility of his forces. I think the ensuing attack was quite nice to execute, proving once again that strategy and tactics go well hand in hand.

I hope you enjoyed this game as much as I did! Tomorrow I will be playing another rapid event in Delft. Hopefully I will be able sharing some interesting moments of that tournament with you as well! Keep you posted!