Training Log
Classical Game - 3 hours, 30 minutes
Blitz - 90 minutes
After spoiling a brilliancy yesterday, I was in a pretty good mood going into today’s round. Writing about games post-mortem definitely gives me some nice closure and perspective on things.
In Round 7 I faced an Italian junior of Moldovan descent, Alexandro Beliman (2144), who had drawn my roommate Zach (thechessnerd) earlier in the tournament.
I was feeling inspired and decided to play the Sicilian Najdorf for the first time OTB. I was a bit nervous since I lack experience, but as a coach told me recently — how else can you gain experience without playing the opening? So I took up the challenge, and I’m glad I did, because it ended up being a very clean game. I was quite happy with a lot of my decisions, some more obvious than others, but ultimately I never gave my opponent a chance, playing a model Najdorf if I may say so myself.
Black is already doing well, with a classic good knight vs. bad bishop. But with White threatening to play b2-b4, I knew I had to act quickly. 22…f5! Breaking through on the kingside. In the game White chose 23.f3, avoiding the nice line I calculated — 23.b4 Ne4! 24.Bxe4 (otherwise Ng5 and fxg4) 24…fxe4 25.Ra3 Rf3! 26.Rxf3 exf3 27.Kh2 Rxb4! (D)
The rook is immune due to Qxf2+ and Qg2#. And if 28.Rxa6 then 28…Rxg4! wins: 29.Ra8+ Kg7 30.Ra7+ Kf6-+ with Rg2+ and mate to follow.
Unfortunately the game didn’t go down this path, but I was happy to see the full variation from afar. Nine moves! The actual finish was nice as well:
Beliman - Kavutskiy, Montesilvano 2024
In the evening I played the blitz event, which wasn’t too stacked but did feature a strong Italian FM (who incidentally is my opponent for tomorrow!). After both winning our first four games we were paired and drew in Round 5. I then dropped a game, losing to my classical opponent from today, but as fortune would have it my main rival also lost.
We ended up tied for first place with 7.5/9, with me winning by a slim tiebreak. I’ll take it! 🏆 I won a copy of GM Victor Bologan’s recent book Making My Move, which I then traded to my Round 7 opponent Beliman after finding out he’s Moldovan! I got GM Miron Sher’s Dream Moves instead, which looks quite interesting.
Back to classical tomorrow, where I’m on 5.5/7. After today I’m actually leading the tournament by a full point (!) . Stop the count!
Great game Kostya! Any point in the opening for the najdrof you felt was an instructive position?
Congrats! Looking forward to you bringing home 1st.