Training Log
Blitz - 60 minutes
Second day in Portugal. After a slow morning/afternoon, I participated in a blitz tournament while touring on a boat on the Douro River. Six rounds, 3+2. Participating were a bunch of players from the upcoming Maia Open, as well as all of the streamers invited to the event. It was quite a star-studded field!
I had never played on a boat before, and was a bit nervous about getting seasick. But I took some Dramamine and tried not to stare at the board for too long at a time.
Going into the event I was the third seed, behind GMs Alexander Fier and Juan Manuel Bellon. I won the first game playing down, then got nicked for a draw in the second. From there I managed to win four straight games, beating some decent players but somehow avoiding the GMs.
In the end, I finished in first! 5.5/6. Definitely a nice warm-up and confidence boost for the Maia Chess Open, which begins tomorrow, August 23rd.
Still jet-lagged and recovering, so I just stuck to the blitz for today. Afterwards we all went out as a group to eat in Porto, which was absolutely lovely.