Monastir open 2018: memories
After 15 years of a break, I decided to resume playing in tournaments under the auspices of FIDE.
I had a choice of where to go: Crete or Tunisia. And, of course, I chose Crete, but you could only fly to Crete with transfers in Moscow, or book a tour from Novosibirsk.
So I flew to Tunisia. I wanted not only to play, but also to relax. My daughter and I chose a good hotel with an water park, a taxi ride to Tournament Hall took 20 minutes and was not so expensive.
Monastir Open 2018 had then finally started! The organizers have surpassed even the slowest of the Russian chess organizers. The first round started an hour and a half late! And also in the first round, my opponent did not show up and received a "+". Surprisingly, the same situation occurred in the last round.
In the second round, I won with white quite clearly. In the Scandinavian defense, I managed to win the opponent's pawn in the opening, and ended the game with an interesting tactical blow to the opponent's king.
But in the third round I lost to a young chess player from Algeria. He played fairly accurately and had an advantage in the Kan Sicilian version. However, by the 40th move I leveled the position, and the game should have ended in a draw, but already on the 45th move I lost a piece!
The game of the fourth round can be called a sample game against Philidor Defense. And, by the way, there I first used Ovstein Attack, although the order of moves was slightly different, and later the opponent even castled Queenside. However, I did not lose the advantage and also ended the game with a tactical strike, gaining the exchange & a few extra pawns.
In the game of the fifth round, I met the grandmaster. However, the grandmaster turned out to be not quite real. He plays online chess on the FIDE Arena platform and, having received a rating of more than 2000, was awarded the title of Arena GrandMaster. In practice, Arena GrandMaster is slightly weaker than FIDE Candidate Master.
In the sixth round, I played Maroczy Bind against Dragon Variation, but at that time I was not very experienced in such positions. In the end, I won, at the final stage using a tactical strike with opening lines, which I now show my students when we are engaged in Calculation Skills.
In the seventh round, I met the tournament leader – IM Nagy Gabor (FIDE 2496) from Hungary. If I had played white, I might have fought. But Nagy Gabor played white, and I had almost no chance.
In the eighth round, I had a draw with another young chess player. We played the Carlsbad System and I launched an attack on its king. However, I didn't see a win in time (checkmate in 3 moves), and I had to force a draw with a perpetual check.
So, the tournament ended. I scored 6.5 out of 9 and finished 10th. My daughter Alice scored 5 out of 9 and second place among girls under 10. By the way, we were the only Russians in this tournament!
Despite 6.5 out of 9, I still lowered my rating by as much as 17 points! How is this possible? Yes, it's just that the average rating of competitors is very low. In addition, I got two pluses. In the first and last rounds, my opponents did not come!
I liked the tournament, despite not the best result. The conditions are also good, but the organization of the tournament needs to be improved. So if you want to play in Africa – this is a very interesting experience! But if you have specific goals for the tournament, it is better to choose competitions in Europe!