Weeee...(part II)

Three days ago was my city's open championship tournament being held. As a reigning champ I felt obligated to participate. This year tournament was pretty poor in every ways (only 4 participants and average rating well under 1800).

Well I won the tournament pretty easily (with "mind-blowing" 2.5/3 score lol). My games are not worth of detailed analysis, but here is an interesting position from my second round game against 1500-rated player:


I was black here and its my move. White just played g6. I have 52 minutes time left, white has about 9 minutes. Now you might ask; what is that special in this position? You are right, there is nothing special here. After black plays Rb1 (or Ke7 or Ke8 or Rb6 or even Rh3+) its over. Of course I knew they all win. And I knew I cant play anything else, like a4 or Rb2 because after g7 white promotes.

Yet I played a4 (explanation: I was not paying attention coz I was kibitzing other game at the same time + total mental blackout). The thing is that immediately after I touched a-pawn I knew its over. Huge deja vu feeling went through me; just seconds earlier I was thinking that I can't play a4, and seconds later I forgot it totally and played it.

Okay, after g7 its whites win. But amazingly he didnt win, because I defended well (=well enough to force position where 1500-player in time trouble couldn't find a way to finish me off).

Other results from past weeks: won round-4 and round-5 games in 1h+30sec-tournament.
Won May's open blitz tournament with 9/9 score. So I think right now I am in good upswing. I hope that next downswing does not start before autumn.

Weee...2004

My new national rating is 2004. So first time I have +2000 rating.

I also visited CTS and solved some puzzles. Due my high RD my rating sank under 1750. I dont even remember what it is now, and I dont care. I think that way too many 1600-1800 rated problems are not real "problems"; they are more like positions where there are no real tactical shot to be found but instead you just have to find a way make best defensive/offensive move or simply recapture a piece. I hate that, because I am there only to keep my tactical eye sharpened, not to think about positional factors and stuff. It really bugs when you are searching to find cool combination and the solution is something like simply recapturing opponents piece.