By Hikaru on 2/26/2008 4:53 PM

My life lately has been fairly normal with not a whole lot to mention. Ever since the Amateur Team which I played a week ago, I've been reading and studying chess quite a bit. Yesterday, I got an invitation to play the rapid tournament in Cap D'Agde France. I was previously invited 2 years ago but was not able to participate due to scheduling conflicts. This year, however, I am going to play the event. I will update everyone when I have more details or something mildly interesting is happening in my life.

 

 

By Hikaru on 2/20/2008 11:15 AM

Hello everyone! It has been far too long since I last blogged, so I will add an entry today. This past weekend I decided to play in the Amateur Team East for the first time in 2 years. The tournament which has now been running for 35+ years is one of the very few tournaments which I still will always try to play. I have always found this tournament very enjoyable due to the fact that it is pretty much the only tournament where one can see friends who they haven't seen in many years. This did happen with me as I came across quite a few people whom I had not seen in several years. As far as the chess is concerned, I went 6-0 and only had to play 2 players above master (Kelleher and Mabe). I will probably add some more thoughts later, but this is all for now.

By Hikaru on 2/2/2008 10:07 PM

Hmm, where to start? I actually attempted to blog after my round 8 game, but it was all erased because the internet connection died when I was posting it. After this disaster, I did not even attempt to write a blog after my round 9 game. As such, I will attempt to recap each of the final 3 rounds.

Round 8

In this round, I was paired against GM Mark Hebden from England. Prior to this game, I had played him in Gibraltar in 2006 with the black pieces. In that game I was able to obtain a small advantage out of the opening and convert it into a win. This time around, I was white which gave me significantly more confidence as Hebden tends to be a more classical player. The opening was the Scotch Two Knights and was pretty standard unti ... Read More »

By Hikaru on 2/2/2008 7:41 PM

Very quickly, I will indeed post a wrapup report on Gibraltar, but it is just taking me quite some time to write it all up.

By Hikaru on 1/28/2008 12:18 PM

Yay! Today was, without a doubt, the best game I've played all tournament. After my fairly shaky last couple of rounds, today I was paired against WGM Harika. I've actually known her for quite some time, so I was fairly familiar with her style. For this reason, I chose to play into the Meran yet again. However, I chose to play the order with d5,c6,e6 in order to avoid the Moscow variations with Bg5. Harika slightly surprised me by playing the Shabalov variation with 7.g4. Ironically I have also had this position with white against Shabalov (Nakamura-Shabalov, Foxwoods 2006). As such, I'm fairly well versed in many of these lines; I chose the fairly quiet 7...h6 variation in order to avoid a huge theoretical discussion. Most of the moves were fairly standard until I deviated from Dreev-Petrosyan, Aeroflot 2006 by playing 17...0-0. Although 17...Qb4 was perfectly fine, I felt that in that game after 18.Qd2 Qb5 19.0-0-0 c5 20.Bxb7 Rxb7 21.dxc5 0-0 22.Qd3! was too drawish. I am not sure whether Harika ha ... Read More »

By Hikaru on 1/27/2008 5:37 PM

Greetings! So today I will blog because I am not actually on the verge of committing suicide. Yesterday I played a perfectly solid Alekhine and simply got careless trying too hard to win. Alas, this seems to happen too often to me here in Gibraltar (Efimenko 2005). Anyway onto today where things were slightly better, I guess? I actually did not really study any chess today before my round as I wanted to clear my mind after the disaster yesterday. The opening today against Caspi was a Center Counter/Scandinavian with 3...Qd6 and 4...c6. I had a solid advantage out of the opening, but somewhere around move 20 I started to misplay it and achieved a slightly worse position! Fortunately, I had a significant time advantage and my opponent started erring around move 28. 1 win down, 4 to go!

By Hikaru on 1/25/2008 3:18 PM

I had a tough game against GM Al-Modiahki.

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By Hikaru on 1/24/2008 3:18 PM

Rather unfortunately, I did not have time to blog yesterday due to being extremely busy. One of the many reasons why I come to Gibraltar is for the fun atmosphere which abounds in the evenings.

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By Hikaru on 1/22/2008 2:47 PM

Greetings everyone! Today was the beginning of the tournament and, as usual, there was plenty of drama in the round. There were many intriguing games and matchups.

I was paired against the Dutch IM Edwin Van Haastest whom I beat in the Dominican Republic several years ago. I prepared a rather quiet subline within the English Attack of the Najdorf and was about equal until my opponent misunderstood the position and played the move 15.Nce2?! after the game we analyzed the highly interesting 15.g4 which would have led to a much more complicated game. However, after this slight blunder I was able to take control of the game and win without too many worries.

On the other top boards there was a lot more drama. On board one Wang-Dzagnidze saw a complicated middle game arise, but despite obtaining a solid positional edge, Wang was unable to convert and the game ended in a repitition. On board two in the game Paehtz-Bu, led t ... Read More »

By Hikaru on 1/21/2008 3:52 PM

 

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