Month: April 2021

Flawless game in the Petrov – 0-1, 2018

This was one of my first triple 0 games – that is, 0 inaccuracies, 0 mistakes, and 0 blunders as evaluated on lichess. This was played in a tournament in which I didn’t do so well, finishing 49th out of 387. 3 wins, 3 losses. This was the highlight, though, and a quick beatdown / miniature in my then favorite open – the Petrov, also known as the Russian Defense.

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My best tournament – shared 1st out of 355 players, PR 2033, 7-0

9 months ago I joined a Lichess rapid tournament for players rated under 1700 in rapid, which I was at the time. Game 1 was over rather quickly, and I had the momentum from the start:

Convincing win in the Petrov, with an extra sacrifice for good measure! 0-1.

Game 2 saw me playing with the black pieces for the second game in a row, so I decided to play the Sicialian defense this time, as it was something I had recently started preparing.

Convincing win in game 2! 0-2, preparing for game 3.

First game with white, got the advantage early on and never let it go. 3-0 start and at the moment was in 44th place.

Game 4 – another with the white pieces, literally ended in 10 moves and I move up to 15th place:

You have to be more careful than that! 4-0 to start the tournament – performance rating is at 2249.

Game 5 and I’m starting to get nervous, but the adrenaline is going and I barely survive the following game:

barely survived that one! Move up to 4th place, 5-0.

Game 6 is a change of pace, as the game is flawless: 0 inaccuracies, 0 mistakes, 0 blunders. A model of clean, efficient play. I’m in 1st place but being chased by another player.

Still in 1st place, this makes 6 wins in a row: performance rating is down to 2100. 1 game to go …

The last game would have me playing with white pieces, and again I play a nearly flawless game: 2 inaccuracies, 0 mistakes, 0 blunders. But in the meantime, the formerly 2nd place player has a marginally higher performance rating than myself, so despite having the same amount of wins, he takes the podium at first, leaving me as the tied- runner-up.
So the tournament ends after 7 straight wins and a performance rating of 2033.

I really hope you’ve enjoyed looking at this series of games, someday I will share the first rapid tournament I won and the first blitz tournament I would finish in a 3-way tie for 1st.

A link to the tournament @ lichess: https://lichess.org/tournament/Y2DhFZaQ I(

Screenshot of the final podium:

First Draw Against a Titled Player – CM Pavao Jazevic

A perfect game - excepting of course the blunder, the knight sacrifice for what I thought would be enough pawns worth of compensation. Thankfully was able to get the draw! I would not beat a titled player, an FM, until months later. 

<iframe src="https://lichess.org/embed/GdH292AX"
width=600 height=397 frameborder=0></iframe>

https://lichess.org/embed/GdH292AX

Brutal tactic finishes off strong opponent, (vs 1885)

In case you’d like to see the entire game, you’re welcome to check it out here: https://lichess.org/UG3aBaPD/black An even fight leads to a rook and and minor piece endgame, where I am able to make steady progress before my opponent blunders. Then a move that looks ridiculous at first sight puts the game away.

This position looks like a number of moves would win – eventually, but here there is a move that means death on the spot. Can you find it?
Ra8! Cutting the king and rook off from the last rank to promote the pawn, and if the rook is taken – as it was in the game – pawn c8=Q, checkmate!