2024 Maia Open - Round 1
Training Log
Classical Game — 3 hours
Post-mortem — 20 minutes
Round 1 of the Maia Chess Open. Time control is 90+30, with 30 minutes added after move 40.
Spent the day prepping to stream the game live, figuring out the camera, layout, and other tech stuff. This tournament I am teaming up with Zachary Saine, aka TheChessNerd, to dual-stream our games on both of our channels. It’s fun, but also a lot of work. That said, I’m sure folks appreciate being able to see footage of the players live. Ultimately I hope the content is worth the effort!
My first round opponent was a fairly young player from Spain, rated 2037. I managed to win an exchange in the early middlegame, but gave my opponent too much counterplay in return. In fact I definitely overestimated my position for some time. I ended up worse, likely lost, and had to play quite boldly to turn things around. Fortunately I managed to activate my rooks, and won the game after a blunder. Not a perfect start, but definitely an interesting one, with lots of key decisions.
1…c4! gives Black a huge edge, since 2.bxc4 Bc5+ 3.Kg2 dxe2 4.Rxd7 Bxe4+ 5.Kh3 Bf5+!-+ wins the rook. Instead I was forced to play 2.b4, where the game continues but Black’s advantage is close to winning.
Kavutskiy - Rey Chimera, Maia 2024
Round 2 tomorrow.