The Fall in NewYork!
The third tournament in my summer chess trip was 7th New York International from June 18-22,2014 held at the Estonian House in New York. The 12,500$ unconditionally guaranteed prize fund attracted 9 GM, 14 IM, 2 WGM and few other titled players. GM Lazaro Bruzon Batista from Cuba with a FIDE rating of 2682 was the top seed in this prestigious event.
Getting deeper into the tournament, I was paired twice in round 1, as my original opponnent Peter Lessler didn't turn up, which would possibly ruin my GM norm chances as FIDE doesn't count walkovers for norms, so the organizers, setup an informal quick draw with GM Max Dlugy, who was there as a spectator. Starting as 0.5/1 against a GM doesn't sound bad, but what followed was even worse.
I was paired against a junior named Kadhir Pillai, who had a fide rating of 1976, and I was shockingly held to a draw
Round 3 was the most satisfying game for me in the whole tournament, as I did a very nice positional sacrifice against Nasyr Akylbekov
Having 2/3, I was expecting a pairing against a 2200 rated player, but to shatter my norm chances, I was paired against Zachary Tanenbaum, who had a FIDE rating of 1993. I would like to show you the middlegame part in this game, as I think it's quite instructive
In Round 5, I was paired against Filip Pancevski, a strong IM from Macedonia. There was not much action in this game, as it was a solid draw in the Italian Game, where I had the black pieces.
3.5/5 is not a bad score, but the average rating of my opposition was not that high, which made me not that happy. I was paired against GM Isan Reynaldo Ortiz Suarez(I always thought, I had a very long name, but not anymore :) ) from Cuba. When I did some background research on my opponent, I found that he is the current Cuban Champion, and he had eliminated Judit Polgar in round 1 of the FIDE World Cup!!
Desperation kicked in to me, after this loss, as I was only on 3.5/6 and I played a horrendous opening against Levy Rozman(FIDE rating: 2256) which my opponent didn't exploit giving me enough oppurtunities to equalize and even I was better a bit in the endgame, but I made a horrible blunder in the time trouble to lose another game.
At this point, I was psychologically completely down, and this was clearly seen in my next game against Christopher Wu.
In the final round, I was paired against Nitai Leve(FIDE rating:2142), who it seems was an avid soccer fan, and that was the day when USA was playing Portugal, and he was clearly distracted about the game, making him to play a lot of erraneous moves, resulting in a quick win for me.
I finished the tournament with a score of 5/9 and losing 11 FIDE rating points, which was mainly due to my loss against Rozman in round 7. I gave in to my emotions in this tournament, losing my track in the second half and to finish the event in a disappointment.
The title was shared between two GM's from Cuba, Lazaro Bruzon Batista and Yuniesky Quesada Perez, they scored 7/9 and picked up a cash prize of 3750$ each. Two IM norms were earned in this event by Kassa Korley and Alec Getz!!
I would like to share an important message with the readers here, never give in to your negative emotions during a tournament, it will end in disaster, like my rating fall in NY!!
Tournament reports from my summer trip Chicago Open , St.Louis Closed
Will meet you soon, with articles about DC International and World Open! till then bye :)
