Road to the Grandmaster title - Priorities and the next tourney

When I was a kid my mother baked me a fruit cake for my birthdays and we only celebrated it with my mother and step father. I had no birthday parties. 

When I grew up, I never really cared about my birthdays, some friends or the close family members called me on the phone, but that was all.

A few times I was invited for birthday celebrations. 

This year was special, because I became 40 years old and I planned to invite a few close friends to celebrate.

MY birthday is on the 30th of December, people are busy with Christmas and new year celebrations that time, so I planned to have my  meetup in January, after the First tournament. 

I was not sure if I plan the year opening tourney or only the other tourney and when I told my wife I decided to play, she said She already organized a surprise party for me to the day of the 2nd round of the tourney.

I said I want only a lunch and then go to the tourney, but then she was very angry and she said, she calls everybody and cancels the birthday party.

Then after a long thinking and to show gratitude to her efforts, I decided to not play my 2nd game, stay at home and celebrate with our friends.

I did not like the idea and I knew, It was a sacrifice, but I was thinking family and friends are more important, than a game.

We had a nice time at lunch and then playing the game called Positivity, a new Hungarian game.

So this was my first birthday party in my life and I liked it a lot. I would like to have it also in the next day. It was a good reason to meet friends and play together. 

I will make sure, if I play in a  tourney, then the birthday party will be on other day. 

That you for your great comments about it! It helps me to focus and prioritize.

Today will be the first game on the 2nd tourney on my road to the Grandmaster title.

It will be a 10 players all play all tourney. Leányfalu International Ches Festival International Master Tourney.

Starting rank list of the players

One of the last training game was the following which I played on chess.com against one of my friends and student. He wanted to practice the King's indian defense, which transposed to the Ben-oni.

I started a king's side pawn storm and found my king in danger in the center, so I decided to castle long, but it gave him the better chance. He sacrificed a pawn to open up the position.

Then I realized I will be mated, if I not sacrifice a pieces then a exchange.

He got a winning position. When I had nothing to lose I started to sacrifice pawns to open up the king and after he gave up his strong defender and a wrong pawn capture, I got a winning attack on the king: 

You can watch the preparation for my games LIVE on twitch at https://twitch.tv/attilaturzo

Thank you for your support!

Have a great day! See you soon!