Road to the first IM norm: Part 2

The 2013 European Team Chess Championship was held in Novotel Centrum hotel in Warsaw, Poland, in November 7th-18th. I was blessed with an opportunity to represent the Lithuanian national team in this competition and everything turned out much better than expected :) But we will get to that in due time! 


You can find the first part here: http://www.chess.com/blog/TVEDAS/road-to-the-first-im-norm-part-1

 

When I finally woke up the next day, I went and got myself a really nice buffet-breakfast and my dissapointment with letting the win slip away in yesterday's game was all but gone. I realized that OK, we lost that match, but we fought like lions against a very strong Greek team (which stayed near the top of the leaderboard for the entire tournament) and we really made them sweat to get that victory. There were definitely a lot of positives, and we as a team decided to focus on that. I think one of the reasons for our good performance in this tournament was our team spirit - even if someone would lose a game, no one would be mad about it, there were no secret agenda's going on or anything like that. It felt like playing for a family, and that gave us all really strong motivation. 

 

In round 2 we were paired against a very solid Polish 3rd team. Their entire team consisted of GMs so of course we were the underdogs again, but we felt that if we can play as well as we did versus Greece, we might have a chance. 

 

I had to play white versus GM Jacek Gdanski (ELO 2518 at the time) and against it was a very tense game. This is how it went: 


And again I did not manage to salvage the match - we lost 1.5-2.5. Unlike yesterday though, I got outplayed in this game for the most part and I never really had a chance for a win, so objectively speaking surviving and getting away with a draw was a really really nice result for me personally. But team wise, of course it felt horrible to lose two matches in a row by a smallest possible margin.

All the anger was taken out in the late-night gym session with my teammates, after which we went back to our rooms and had some well-deserved sleep. FYR Macedonia was waiting tomorrow - an absolute must win match if we wanted to achieve anything in this tournament! 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry for such a long delay after part 1 - exams and other stuff got in the way. Part 3 will come in shortly! 

Feel free to check out my youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/Tvedas and especially the last video where I am trying to comment on the play of my wife: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tJ5id-JIAs

If you like this format, let us know and we will continue making similar videos! Hope you enjoyed it and till the next time :) 

Comments

  • 3 years ago

    SummerStorm

    10. Bf4, intending Nc3-b5xd6 or Qd2, Bh6 to force Black's key bishop at g7 off the board and to not waste time on Bf1 since Black intends to force the LSB trade anyway.

     

    I must say, I'm not a big fan of the White opening, but it can be used to win if you look for offensive plans. In this case square b5 is weaker than usual for a Benoni Defense. You should consider using it.

     

    20. e5 dxe5 21. d6 Q?? 22. Bxe5 looks appealing, but might be met by ...Nfe4. So far the game seems pretty good except, as you pointed out, it doesn't offer White much offensive play.

     

    27...Bxc3 seems wrong. Maybe .... Nope, it really is a tough position for Black, regardless of his clock situation. Losing coordination can lead to loss of 1/2 pt or more. Maybe 25...b5 was just bad. The alternative is to stop worrying about pawn c4 and play 25...fxe4 and hit White quickly.

     

    29...exf3, taking more aim at Kh1, seems more to the point. The only alternative is 29...b4, to squash White's play against b5 & d6 in exchange for getting a passed pawn c4. But, that also gives White cxb4 creating his own passer.

     

    Move 33 must have been very difficult. There's no big direct threat to defend and no offense to create. I don't like g3 as it weakens Kh1 and invites 33...Rxd4 34. cxd4 Nd3 when Black's pieces work together very well.

     

    38...Rxf4 or 38...g5 might actually work. White's Rc4 is not helping Kg1, so shifting all force to the attack should be good for Black. White would have been safer without g2-g3 and Black, if he had more time, might have found more courage to play offense instead of gobbling pawn d5.

     

    Congratulations on the nifty game and draw with a GM. It must have been nerve-wracking during the time pressure.

  • 3 years ago

    mobidi

    puiki,sudėtinga partija.Benoni struktūra dažnai veda prie netIkėtumų baltiesiems- strategiškai ne visai korektiškas ,bet taktiškai efektyvus juodėjų ginklas- ne be reikalo ir pats Bobis tai mėgo.e4 ar d4 -štai klausimas koksai.Dabar d4 išties atrodo praktiškiau- atvira kova darosi pernelyg rizikinga- geriau jau pozicinė improvizacija su taktiniais prieskoniais, nors man ,kaip senosios kartos atstovui ,visgi mielesnis Bobio 1.e2-e4 ( o toliau ,kaip Dievas duosWink).SĖKMĖS !

  • 3 years ago

    chessmaster102

    stay strong you guys

  • 3 years ago

    FM TVEDAS

    The game is fixed now - for some reason my commentary was not visible beforehand. 

Back to Top

Post your reply:

Log In
Join
^ Ads keep Chess.com free. Upgrade to remove ads! ^
^ Ads keep Chess.com free. Upgrade to remove ads! ^