Final tournament game: I was overplayed, but won a trophy

Hi again,

here is my last game at XXVII Internacional Vila de Sant Boi. This last round I played Qijun Jin, from El Prat. Before the game he was second in the tournament with 6 points, and I was tied at third position with 5.5; if he got a win or a draw he would finish in second position, while I could get that if I was the winner of the game.

The game was, again, a Sicilian defense, a Najdorf sicilian. I was happy at the beginning becuase last week I was studying this opening from Easy Guide to the Najdorf, by Tony Kosten, but quickly entered a path I could not remember :(, and I now know why... it is skipped by Tony, this is the problem with studying from a book thought for the black player.

I soon did my traditional blunder of a pawn, and fight to the end thinking that I could get a draw. What more surprises me in this game is how much I misvalorated my own position, as Stockfish insists in telling me that I was a lot worse than I thought in the game.

So, here is the game.

The opening

As I wrote above, we played a Sicilian Najdorf. First we had a draw position by repetition (5th, 7th and 9th move) but I thought... anyway, I'm here to play, not? After black 12th move (Be7) I was blind of theory... however I used the guide of some thematic strategic goals to force the exchange at d5, and then move my knight to c6 via a5.

Black, on his hand, took advantage to the fact that d file was closed to move his dark bishop to a more active diagonal (Bf6) and game was more or less equal until I blunder the pawn at b2.

The most important thing in the phase is that I overestimated the value of my knight at c6, which lead me to commit some mistakes and to oversee some good moves.

Middle game

In the middle game black player soon managed to exchange queens and to stop my initiative at queenside. He overplayed me, activated his bishop pair and with them and his passed e pawn put me in a desesperate situation.

However as the position was very closed I had the hope that I could exchange my knight by his clear bishop, activate my king and try to force a draw. 

Endgame

The endgame started with a movement that shocked me. It was not the best move, as the tempos gained while black moves his king and frees his clear bishop were not enough to set up a good defensive position.

But it showed to me two things:

• for the first time in the game how desesperate was my situation, and
• was, again, a move I was completely overlooked

The tournament

Finally my oponent got the 2nd place in the tournament, while I felt to the 9th position. However I kept the first position in the U1800 clasification because the second player only got a draw. So I got a trophy and +75 ELO points in this tournament. Not bad for my first OTB tournament.

Here is the final clasification.

And that's all. Cheers!