OTB Tournament Report 4

I recently played in an U2000 swiss tournament which was the strongest event I have played in up to now. I trained a lot in the months before the tournament, so I was looking forward to playing OTB again. However, I was ill the week before the tournament and didn’t feel 100% fit and ran out of energy towards the end.

Round 1

In the first round, I was paired against someone who played their first OTB tournament. I was happy with my play and especially with my decision in the following position.

Here I didn’t even worry about the b-pawn and played 17...e5. I know that it’s an obvious move, but it is often difficult for me to give up material without a concrete follow-up. I went on to win the game without much trouble.

Round 2

My second round game started well and we reached the following position:

Black just played 17...Bxd3 and at first I only saw the line 18.cxb7 Bxe2 19.bxc8=Q?! Bxd1 which should be roughly equal but then I found 19.bxc8=N!!
Playing this move was by far the most satisfying moment I had while playing chess. My opponent played on for quite a bit of time but I didn’t have any trouble converting my material advantage.

Round 3

I felt very good going into the third round and felt that I outplayed my opponent for most of the game. But then they found some strong moves which I missed and we reached the following position in which my opponent offered a draw (after I offered a draw a couple moves before)

Here I saw the following line: 35...Kf8 36.Nc8 Ke8 37.Nxa7 and decided to play on. However, I misplayed the position later on and lost the game.

Round 4

I wasn’t very upset after my loss in round 3 and was looking forward to the next round. The game felt like a typical white game for me in the beginning: I thought that my position was slightly better but I couldn’t find a way to utilize my advantage. But I managed to find a nice way to reach a better ending in the following Position:

Here I played 24.Bd3 Qxd5 25.Rxc8+ Rxc8 26.Bxa6 Qxd2 27.Rxd2 with a better endgame which I managed to convert into a victory.

Round 5

Before the fifth round, I started to feel pretty fatigued and it showed in my play. My opponent was a young kid and they had a great tournament (they eventually finished fifth). I felt good after the opening but couldn’t come up with a good plan and lost my way in the endgame. There wasn’t a position where I made an obvious mistake, I just got slowly outplayed.

Round 6

This was the penultimate round and by this point I felt very tired during the game. The opening went well for me and we reached the following position:

Here I played 13.Bxe6 fxe6 14.Nxe6 Qa5 15.Nxf8 and felt happy with my position. However, my opponent played actively and the game was level until we reached this position:

Here I intended to play 37.Rd7 to defend the bishop, but was then worried about 37...Qb4. I thought for around 10 minutes and then simply forgot that my bishop was hanging and played 37.Qb7?? and resigned.

Round 7

My last round opponent was unrated and I honestly just wanted to get the tournament over. I still felt very tired and hoped that I won’t make any big blunders. The game started alright for me but I felt totally lost in the following position:

Here I thought for 15 minutes because I couldn’t figure out what to do against 19.Ne4 and then I realized that I can answer this move with 19...Nd5 and I ended up playing 18...Rc7. Soon after we exchanged queens and reached a favorable endgame for me which I managed to convert due to some tactical mistakes from my opponent.

Conclusion

This was certainly my best OTB tournament until now. I felt confident while playing, played relatively quickly and outplayed higher rated opponents quite easily. My biggest problem in this tournament was fatigue, which wasn’t a problem for me in previous tournaments and probably due to my illness the week before.

I finished the tournament in 14th place and was seeded 23rd by rating. So I am very happy and I look forward to my next tournament which will be in the middle of September.