“I drew again against a 2100 player, this time with White in the 1st round of Kilkenny tournament (Ireland), no opponent from 1st round fights like that with so much energy and without any fear against an experienced grandmaster.”
“GM Baburin told me that he (the 2100 player) recently beat GM Arakhamia with Black. A young and underrated player. I was 2 pawns for exchange and he was in time scramble, but he kept on playing without fear and finding the best computer defences, I tried to flag him down by playing fast but at the end I blundered my key-f-pawn, anyway, it was drawn at that stage.”
“I do not understand, I should stop to play in UK and Ireland because here is an army of 2100 youngster whould would be in Croatia at least 2300, it is just becoming pathetic.”
“Terrible, my opponent was born in 1999 so he is not even 14 and defends like a very experienced player ( he defended at the end a slightly worse endgame like if I had played with Black ), how is this possible, and he is only 2112 and he was even in time scramble???”
Slav Defense
His 13…Rd8?! is a novelty of dubious value, normally Black plays here 13…Nfd7, I should have played 15 d5! and he is in trouble after 15…Nbd7 16 Nc4! In the game after 15.Bf2?! my advantage is microscopic. I did not know perfectly the line, I looked at that line half a year ago but I forgot everything, but 1st round opponent cannot challenge your knowledge like that or can he? Maybe chess had changed 100%.
Nimzo-Indian Defense
I won in the 2nd round of Kilkenny tournament. I was lucky in a sense that yesterday before the match I played a blitz match with talented Irish Junior ( 3 games, 2 wins and 1 draw ) so I got to know his style and in today’s game I put it into great effect.
Lost to Tarrasch Defense
(After 4.cxd5, Black may offer the Hennig-Schara Gambit with 4…cxd4.)
“I lost today against IM Sam Collins. He played incredibly well, I was crushed because of doing just one mistake ( b4 ), he played like computer using my smallest mistake. I have never seen in my life this line in Schara-Hennig Gambit when Black castles kingside ( not queenside ) but it had been played in some postal games.
I completely missed his bishop to c7. His Nxe5 was very strong after Qxe5 I play Rc1 and I am fine. I offered him a draw after Qxh5, but he refused. Slightly better was Ke1 instead of Kf1 which loses, after Rd6 computer gives plus 5 for him.
This is not chess any more, these are just computers. This is my first defeat on the Irish soil ( 11 tournaments ), I could do nothing. Chess is just shit and should be stopped to play. I do not know why so many youngsters GMs, IMs etc. live in UK ( Ireland ), when Baburin came to live there was nobody, but now so many computer players. I think Kortschnoj made a similar remark after he was crushed by IM Sam Collins in San Sebastian a couple of years ago. This is not chess any more.”
“I have never seen that line in Schara-Hennig Gambit, Black usually castles queenside, I did a book on QGD Bg5 lines, but I only covered there when Black castles queenside not kingside. Supposedly I should play a3 and Bg5 what is in the book of Larry Kaufman, this is better according to him.
But imagine that, I played this gambit last time in 2002 with White, forgot everything about it, did not read Kaufman’s book, did just one mistake and because of that, lost, because he played super accurately. What is that? – For me this is not chess, this is shit and chess should be forbidden, full stop.”
Schara-Hennig Gambit (again)
“The same line when White pushed b2-b4 and still lost, typical computer variation for computer players, here Black young computer player destroys his opponent.”
1.d4 2.g4?! Draw
“Last round game in Kilkenny. The nightmare tournament is over, first time no prize in Ireland and my worst ever tournament here. Luckily this did not go for international elo otherwise I would have lost 8,2 elo points. My last round opponent played cheeky 1 d4 Nf6 2 g4?! – it became very messy position and I did some calculation mistake, at the end with an extra piece for 2 pawns I was in trouble not him. The problem is here in UK and Ireland everyone plays so cheeky, without respect, offbeat opening, sacrifices for initiative, computer chess, it is some kind of other chess to which I am not used to. But my opponent must be very talented and underated, anyway here is the game.”
“1 d4 Nf6 2 g4!? ( or ?! ) – The player who played this gambit against me in Kilkenny is Irish blitz champion for this year, he is 2120 elo fide but a very dangerous attacker, this move suits his aggressive style, I was on the ropes from the very start. This opening is quite dangerous although at first sight is not 100% correct for white, so called Jerk Gambit.”
“Incredible, this tournament obviously was put some bad curse upon me, I could have even lost the last game if he had played Rd3!! instead of authomatic exd6, computer gives plus 2,75 for him then.
I did not know that the opening 1 d4 Nf6 2 g4!? is so popular in Ireland, this makes me study more 1 d4 d5 for Black to avoid that dangerous gambit.
2013 Kilkenny tournament I finished with ridiculous 3,5 out of 6 like the worst amateur. In my life I had only seen once one grandmaster finishing so miserably, it was during Haarlem open tournament when the late GM Alex Wojtkiewicz finished with 3 out of 6 but he was drank during the games so this explains his result. In that Haarlem tournament I finished 1-4 with Ehlvest and 2 more GMs but it was impossible to get only 3 points in that field.
But here I did not play so badly, I did not drink and I was preparing well for the games so not unresponsible behaviour from my side but the result is one of the worst ever in my chess carreer so I think this is because of the combination of two things:
1) Very bad pairings for me ( bad luck already started in the 1st round then in the 4th round I should have not played with GM Jones but as the best elo I should never go down in the group )
2) opponents playing some either best games in the life or this is just computer chess ( very accurate game Jones-Lalic,B which is good quality by both sides, then the incredible game played by IM Collins and fantastic play although not 100% safe by the last round opponent Delaney ).
In short with my play I should have scored at least 4 points but with such bad luck I could have even lost the last game and finished on 3 points as the worst GM ( like GM Wojtkiewicz in Haarlem ).
Better is to be born without anything than to be born without luck or to be cursed.”
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