2^nd of April

Ok, so a few things happened last evening, and I was too annoyed to record them at the time.

First, I’m probably lost against iFan, as in my optimism to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, I’m snatching defeat instead of a draw. On one hand, it does not matter much, as I need to win against pruett one way or another. Yet, I spent so much energy in holding the endgame, that I was more than annoyed at tripping at the last hurdle.

White played c3 here, which I totally didn’t see. It put me in a zugzwang, and essentially loses the d6 pawn and the game.

The other game livened up:

I’ll wait for black’s move before covering the variations, but there’s at least some double-edged options to pursue.

As far the group goes, mine are the only games left:

</exit diary mode>

This is where my in-tournament notes end, simply because I lost the iFanRJ game later that day, and saw the writing on the wall in the last game (it ended in a draw two days later). While this saga does not have a happy ending, I'd like to analyze the two main games in more detail here, and then do another episode with a retrospective of the entire tournament.

Starting with the lost game:

This was a rollercoaster of a game, and the cold assessment above does not do it justice. I obviously played it below the usual level, but the problem was the middlegame. Let's see the actual moves:

Even now, several months later, I have very mixed feelings towards this game. It had basic mistakes, and very difficult decisions that I'm proud of. It also ended my tournament. There were three distinct mistakes of increasing severity:

• Forsaking development of the kingside in moves 9-11
• Blundering the exchange with 28...Bxf2?
• Losing the endgame with 63...Ke1??

In between each of those troughs, there were recoveries which brought black to a positive eval, or a complete draw - none of those trivial. The endgame (up to the Ke1 move) I'm particularly proud of. My opponent played well, and used each of these opportunities without committing any major mistakes. It was a radically different game to our other one, which ended in a couple of days. The fair result was still a draw, but I kept pushing for a win due to the tournament situation; it was unreasonable, and I got punished accordingly. One of the hardest losses for sure.

At this point, there was just the white game against pruett left in the entire group. As mentioned, it ended in a draw two days later. As I stopped with the diary on the 2nd of April, I'll go directly to the analysis of that last disappointment.

This is as even as it comes, and played at a high level. Complete contrast to the rollercoaster that was just analyzed.

I documented the game extensively in my diary section, so not much to add here, apart from the fact that black played awesome defense in the ending. White could have presented more problems, but I don't think the eval went above +0.6 at any point. I get the sense that my opponent actual rating is closer to 2100-2200 than what chess.com shows, and to win against people at that level, some risk-taking and unorthodox thinking is required, and I had neither.

Last chapter is here: https://www.chess.com/blog/romank66/chess-com-2023-2nd-round-s01e13-a-recap