Unive Chess Tournament

From 19 till 27 October 2012 I played the Unive chess tournament. It is a strong 9 round tournament. There was The Crown Group with Nakamura, Giri, Tiviakov and Hou. The Open group for players above the 2000 and 2 amateur groups for players under the 2100. I played in the open group.

In the first round i played against Anna-Maja Kazarian rated 1864. She traded queens to win a pawn but Igot a big initiative because all my pieces were active and she needed to give up 2 pawns to save her knight. Then I quickly won another pawn but she still had some chances because she had a strong bishop and some activity and I could't create quickly a passed pawn. So I decided to sacrifice the pawn back to get active myself. After that all my pieces were on the best places and I won quickly.

In the second round I was paired against my old trainer IM Thomas Willemze rated 2377. I prepared well and I got a good position after the opening. Then I missed a chance to get an advantage. Thomas took his chance and sacrificed his rook. I had then to choose between perpetual check and walk away with my king what was really dangerous. I choose the safe option and it became a draw.

In the third round I played against IM Manuel Bosboom rated 2402. There came a sharp struggle on the board. I was objectively better but my opponent had 2 really annoying knights and after some inaccuracy's of me the game ended eventually in a draw.

In the fourth round I played against IM Henk Vedder rated 2378. I really wanted to win this game because I had white. I got a slight advantage after the opening and gradually I overplayed him and became to stand winning. Then in time trouble I made a really bad mistake and the game was even again. I think that then my opponent was satisfied and tried to win but in his will to win I created a dangerous passed pawn in the endgame. I then even managed to win the game!

In the fifth round I played against Kasparov: unfortunately it wasn't Garry Kasparov but Sergey Kasparov. My opponent was rated 2476 and was a GM so a challenge. After the opening I was slightly worse but i defended not bad and then we got in an endgame with a slight advantage for him but I managed to make a draw.

In the sixth round I played against IM Willy Hendriks rated 2437. He got an initiative after the opening and it was pretty difficult to defend for me. When I finally thought that I was OK he sacrificed a rook for an overwhelming attack! It was also really good I couldn't find a defence and I lost.

In the next round I played against Arno Bezemer rated 2329. There came a sharp struggle on the board where I won a pawn and my opponent got a kingside attack. After a mistake on my part I was losing but my opponent did not find the win and the game ended in perpetual check.
In the eight round I was paired against Pieter Hopman rated 2344. I was black but my opponent played weakly and I gained quickly equal play. Then I started to make some slight mistakes and my opponent got a little bit better endgame but it was easy to defend. After some trying we got equal but then I started to force things because I really wanted to win. This was not a good decision because my position got worse and my opponent got winning chances because he had 2 free pawns. Luckily in time trouble my opponent made some mistakes and missed several winning oportunities so the game became equal again. Because the time trouble of my opponent I managed to win an equal endgame.

I thought that I now had chances to get the IM norm but then it seemed that I had not played against enough foreigners. I was really disapointed and tired. Therefore I could not concentrate well the last game and lost quickly against IM Merijn van Delft. The last day I played some nice bughouse games with Grandelius, Nakamura and Johannson. Altogether i really enjoyed this tournament and I will surely participate next year too ,