Playing Chess on a Taco

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This is a game from the World Open 2010 I played that I thought you may find fun.  Here is some background on the game.  It was the Third Round on the second day.  I had no sleep the night before and was beyond exhausted. I don’t remember ever being this tired in any endeavor in my life.   I was about 25minutes late for the round because my second round lasted 68 moves and I simply had to lie down in my hotel room for 20 minutes which was offsite. 

I was praying for both a quick game and not to play this one particular guy in this round.  A player next to me in the prior round moved instantly in his game and forcefully nailed the pieces down on the board.  I noticed he took 7 minutes for his entire last round game. 

His board was also so warped it reminded me of a taco because when each piece was moved from the back rank it became more and more folded inward.  Usually I don’t mind playing a gimmicky type player like this but today was not the day.  Anyway what are the odds we get paired out of 160 players in the section?

 Well sure enough I am paired with this player and the game ends up going 94 moves.  I offered him a draw twice in the game which he refused.  

Two thoughts helped me in the endgame.  I was familiar with a comment by a GM in a queen vs. queen ending where he said, not to panic, that sooner or later you will usually be able to get out of check.   …so I tried not to panic (It can be scary when your king is submitted to lots of checks).   I had also just played an ending on a chess.com turn based game where I had a queen and bishop vs. a queen and pawn which I knew was a book draw so I also knew that unless I did something stupid he could not mate me with his queen and bishop. 

Finally I did not take my opponents unusual style of moving fast and forcefully personally at all.  I also respected his attempt to try to win the game instead of taking a draw.  …Showed a lot of courage although it ended badly for him this time.