This game is from the spring tournament I played in our chess club. I mention the tournament on the blog several times, but I still have something to share with you :)

I think I have never mentioned we have to play 40 moves in 100 minutes and then we have 30 minutes until the end of game. No time increment as you can see.

Personally I have no experience with time increment in serious tournaments. What I like on our system is that each player knows how many time has for the whole game and he has to keep it somewhere in his mind when he thinks about the moves and plans. It is needless to get won position but having 4 seconds on chess clock to win it.

On the other side – when you have time increment you can win those games. The dark side of having time increment is the fact that when you play under the time increment only you are in the permanent time pressure. And it must be hard to play under that pressure (as I wrote above, I have no experience in playing serious games with time increment). And another minus- you can not go to the toilet! :)

OK, back to the game which I want to show you. It is one of my won games. It was it the 11th round. My opponent was another friend of mine – after several years playing in one club you realize that all your opponents are also your friends :)

I wanted to win the game, so I chose Benkö gambit as black. I was able to place my knight on beautiful square d3 during the game and it was really dominating piece on the board. This knight took a lot of space of white pieces and I think it was the main factor why I realize my small advantage and pressure into the whole point later on.

Tonight I will play the last round of the tournament, which I participate this spring. Until now I have 6,5 point of 12 rounds. Nothing special if one takes into consideration I was supposed to be one of favorites of the tournament.

The average ELO was 1715 and my ELO is 1743. It was 2nd-3rd highest in the tournament!

My play, especially at the beginning and then in two rounds in the middle of the tournament, was bad. I lost 0,5 point in the first round. In the third round I happily gained 0,5 point in lost position – see “My last game – I was lucky“.

6th and 7th rounds were a disaster for me! At first I lost a game having 2 rooks (!) advantage and then I lost the game, which I am going to show below. It was shocking for me and at these two rounds I lost all chances to fight for a win in the whole tournament.

Which does not mean I did not want to win all remaining games! But I saw my chances realistically.

Next 5 games were quite good. I made 3,5 points without losing a game. I played quite good chess, if I may write it :) At least, I was satisfied.

As I wrote above, I am going to play the last round tonight. May I ask you for crossing fingers? ;) Thanks, my friends!

And now it is time to share the above mentioned game with you, guys! I played with black pieces. I wanted to surprise my opponent and I tried Dutch. White decided to sacrifice a pawn in his 8th move. I spent some time to think of it and then I grabbed the pawn.

I knew all the risks – white’s g-file will be open, he will be active and I will be convicted to defend my position and my king. But still – a pawn is a pawn, right? ;)

Unfortunately, I did not see 10.Bh6 move (it remained me to work more on my tactics skills) and after that the game has been decided, I would say…

BTW: If you would play white pieces – would you try the sacrifice in the 8th move? Or would you prefer calmer way?

What a fantastic show we saw in Sofia yesterday! Vishy Anand and Veselin Topalov played great and exciting match with a super-hyped finale!

The score was 5,5:5,5 after 11 games. Which meant that the winner of the last game would take everything – the match and the crown for chess king. I cannot imagine how big pressure both players had to experience.

Topalov had white pieces and he started as usual in this match 1.d4. Anand’s choice of opening system was a small surprise – he played Queen’s Gambit for the first time (and last time) in the match.

The game was balanced and safe for a long time.

Later on black played a bit active move 30…. f5. Unfortunately for Topalov, white’s two next moves were not good and he went under a pressure on the board. White’s position ruined quickly and it was only a matter of time when Topalov resignes. He did it in 56th move. It meant the only one thing – Vishy Anand defended the title of the Chess World Champion!

Congratulations on it!

And thanks both players for fantastic match!

Today we could watch 11th game of the World Chess Championship Match between two great chess players – Vishy Anand and Veselin Topalov.

Anand, who had white pieces, surprised with new first move – he played 1.c4 – for the first time in the match. Topalov answered 1…. e5 and the Dragon Sicilian with opposite colors appeared on the board.

Both players knew very well that one mistake could decide the whole match and that was the reason why they played very carefully.

Anand tried several active move before the time control, but nothing what would destroy his position inreparably.

Later during the game Anand risked a bit (49. Rd2) and attacked on the kingside. But Topalov was able to balance the position and the draw was signed at the end.

Tomorrow there is a rest day in Sofia, Bulgaria. The 12th game (maybe the last one) will be played on Tuesday.

The exciting match between the current world chess champion Viswanathan Anand and his challenger Veselin Topalov had two games on the program since the last mention here on the blog.

Both of them was draw. But especially the game #9 brought bug chance to one of players to score a win. The player was Vishy Anand. As the game is in its last stage any win brings a player very closer to the title of the World Chess Champion. So Anand can regret the missed opportunity now…

The Nimco was played in the game #9. Anand created weak black squares on the black’s king side and later on Anand got very promising position with advantage. We experienced ending with quite non-standard material – white had two rooks + knight against black’s queen + knight.

The advantage of white was so obvious and the only thing which Anand had to do was to find the right plan to realize it. He was so close, but he did not find it. The game ended with signing peace… It is really a pity – winning the game would give Anand realistic chances to safe his crown.

Yesterday the game #10 was played. Anand played the Grunfeld as black. Quite surprising in you recall the start of this match when he suffered in this opening. This time he managed it perfectly and “the Tiger from Mandras” was able to hold Topalov during the whole game.

Today there is the rest day in Sofia. The next game will be played on Saturday and there are only two games to go. I hope for great chess in them!