My chess holidays 2016

I haven’t written anything about my last three tournaments on this blog so I’m putting it altogether in one post 🙂

I have been quite active on my fanpage but I know some of you don’t use facebook so I’m writing here though you can see the content there even without an account and I posted some nice puzzles there!

My first holiday tournament was in Budejovice (that was my 11th time in Czech Republic playing chess!) and it was a GM round-robin tournament with average around 2430 so it was a good training tournament. I started poorly with 1/4 but later I won some games and finished on 50% at the end which was a decent result and all my games were very instructive.

Samson fountain at Ottokar II Square in Budejovice

The second tournament was in Warsaw, the city where I live in so I didn’t have to travel anywhere and it turned out to be the strongest tournament I have ever participated in! I had to face five GrandMasters rated above 2600 and that was a great experience for me. This time I started very well and I had good chances for GM norm but later I lost three games in a row and again finished with 4.5/9 but with average around 2480 the result is certainly positive.

during tough game where my problems started in this tournament

The last tournament I played in Fano (Italy); the city is located at the Adriatic Sea so I had a very good rest there. I traveled there with three International Masters from Poland and we were enjoying this nice event together. We didn’t prepare a lot before the games and we all scored 6/9 and we all gained few rating points!

Arch of Augustus just nearby our playing hall

…now I’m back to my usual work and my next tournament will be next month, the Polish Team Championship, 2nd division which will be held in Jastrzebia Góra by the Polish Sea so I’m looking forward to yet another good rest 😛

My impressions after 4th Polish-Hungarian Friendship Chess Tournament

A week ago (7-8th of May) I had a chance to participate in a very well organized event held in Katowice, 4th Polish-Hungarian Friendship Chess Tournament. I have played in Katowice previously only once and it was more than 4 years ago in Polish Academic Chess Championship and I wrote about it on my blog. As far as I remember that was the first time the organizer from Katowice tried to push chess tournaments in Poland to the next level that time and he did manage doing so. After 4 years I can only confirm the direction was very good and we have real chess festival in Poland now 🙂

There were around 600 participants(!) in one huge playing hall the International Conference Centre. There were many kids, I think more than 50% of the players were kids and organizers provided lots of activities for them. Top games were transmitted online and there was even live commentary which is still the domain of only high level tournaments around the world. On the first day I was even invited to the studio and  I was talking with IM Daniel Sadzikowski about my game and my future project which is coming very soon.

 

You can watch it here, it’s 10 minutes long (starts at 6h26m24s): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wWoYkIpSmk&feature=youtu.be&t=6h26m24s

After the first day I scored 3,5/5 unfortunately loosing 5th game to strong GM. I didn’t recover on the next day and finished with 6/9 which wasn’t that bad but certainly I tried for more. The tournament was won by my old good friend GM Kacper Piorun who made huge progress recently and is currently in top 100 players in the world.

Detailed results: http://chessarbiter.com/turnieje/2016/ti_1947/results.html?l=en&tb=10_

 

My impressions after Graz 2016

This should have been posted almost a month ago 😀 as usual I was busy with some other stuff but finally here it is.

Graz 2016 was very strong tournament, I had 24th number on the starting list and there were 15 Grandmasters (3 of them are in top 100 in the world)! The winner with 8/9 was GM Li Chao from China whose rating exceeds 2750. I scored 6/9 (4 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss with average of my opponents above 2350) which is very decent and I gained 6 ELO points 🙂 I played very interesting chess, sometimes I was choosing extremely risky options but it paid off at the end.

Detailed results: http://chess-results.com/tnr181947.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=9&flag=30&wi=821

The atmosphere was great, there were many chess sets to analyse the game afterwards which is very important for chess culture in my view. Around the playing hall one could also find very nice chess related painting worth 28000 Euros. This is the position from the game played by Frank Marshall in 1912 and the solution is considered to be one of the most brilliant combination ever played!

Black to move. What did F.Marshall play?

I also found some time for sightseeing as the City of Graz is quite nice.

With quite big group of players from Poland.

…At the moment I have some rest and I also enjoy watching FIDE Candidates Tournament but I think I should play some tournaments soon. I don’t have any clear plans yet but if you know about any strong tournaments (best with the possibility to make a GM norm) please let me know 🙂

Overdue tournament reports

Again, I didn’t write here for some time even though I played two tournaments! Somehow I was unable to find time for blogging… In August I played in Prague and you can find some short summary on my twitter. By the way I encourage you to follow me there 😛

5,5/9 in Summer Prague Open. The last 3 rounds didn't go well for me but overall the score is OK 😉

— Piotr An Nguyen (@PiotrNguyen) August 14, 2015

me playing Hippo Opening in the 1st round of Summer Prague Open

(more photos from that tournament on my friend’s site)

On Sunday I finished my second tournament, 2nd Polish League. I was playing on the 1st board for my team Gostmat Gostynin and I had quite strong opponents. This time I had rather bad start (although I must admit my opponents played very well in those games) but later I recovered a bit winning two nice miniatures(!) and all in all my result wasn’t bad 🙂

Link to detailed results: http://chessarbiter.com/turnieje/2015/tdr_4099/results.html?l=pl&tb=202_ My team was 9th but we were very unlucky to play against best team in the last round which we lost terribly… Had we won the last round we would have been promoted to the 1st League.

I’m pretty sure you would like to see some more comments strictly related to my games on this blog so…

…I promise to give 1 highlight from my latest games soon!

You can leave some suggestions in the comments 😉

 

 

 

I play better chess when I write about it!

I’ve been neglecting this blog for more than 2 years (since July 2012 when I’ve started my job as a software developer) and I lost my ELO points in every tournament I played. I haven’t played a lot since then but I still managed to lose more than 100 points what is really frustrating.

Playing chess is not just about the results but clearly playing bad games is no fun at all. Now, when I’m under 2300 I decided I need to come back somehow that’s why I returned to this blog as “I play better chess when I write about it” 🙂

How does writing a blog can have anything in common with my playing strength? The answer is very simple. When I write about chess it means I have time for it. Time is a crucial factor when it comes to development of any skill. Also it shows that I’m much more attached to my play. It’s essential to have some goals etc.

I’ve chosen some nice books a few weeks ago and expect my big comeback this year 😀 I’m also looking for some strong tournaments. Unfortunately I can’t play too many tournaments because of my other obligations but I think I can afford playing much more than in the last 2 years.

I hope this year will be as good as 2005 when I gained nearly 200 ELO points and had my best results in my career as a junior. I was vice champion under 14 in Poland (classical chess) and played European Junior Championships in Herceg Novi where I came 22nd.  Also I won National Championship (U14) in rapid chess.

P.S. A little throwback from 2005 🙂 I wish I could be as much devoted to chess as I was back then…

Tricky Endgame

I promised to write about Najdorf Memorial but again somehow I didn’t have much time 😀 and basically there was not much to say… I lost 7th round to relatively weaker opponent and it was kind over for me. I made draw in 8th round and won 9 round finishing the event with only 4/9 again loosing some ELO points. But I think it was very good training for me, I learnt few new things and what’s maybe much more important – I reminded myself bunch of interesting things I knew some years ago. As usual now I feel like I would play much better chess if I play next tournament but next month I’m doing some other stuff so I can forget everything again just to recall it during the next tournament 😉 That’s how it works when you don’t play regularly… and it’s not only with chess, it’s with everything, it’s life.

In order not to leave you with just some sad comments I’ll share with you one interesting endgame from the tournament. In 4th round I played White against Woman International Master Yuliya Shvayger (rated 2287). I got winning position after the opening but I managed to spoilt later just getting slightly better endgame.

 

It’s Black to move and it looks that even though c4 pawns is falling Black can create some counterplay as White has so many pawn islands.

30…Rd8? with interesting idea in mind should White take on c4 but it just runs to nice grip for White by force.

Correct was 30… Ra8 31. a4 (immediate 31.Rxc4?! is not good in view of  31…Ra3) Ra5 32. Rxc4 Ke6 and even though White won a pawn things are not that easy 33. e4 +/=

31.Nd5+!

Black’s idea was that after 31. Rxc4? she could play 31…Ne5 32. Rc7+ Ke6 33. Kf2 (33. Rxh7?! Rd2 and Black will pick up some pawns while White’s king is very weak) 33… Rd2+ 34. Ne2 Kd6 35. Rc3 Rd1 and even though White is pawn up it’s hard to create any passed pawns, Black is very active so it would have ended most likely with a draw.

31… Ke8 32. Re6+ Kf7 33. Rd6 Ke8 34. a4! Fixing b6 pawn, Black is in kind of zugzwang 34…f5

Black couldn’t move the rook 34… Ra8?? 35. Rxd7; 34… Rc8?? 35. Rxd7; and if 34…Rb8? 35. Kf2 +- and Black is hopeless.

35. Kf2 Nc5 Black had to do this finally 36. Rxd8+ Kxd8 37.Nxb6 c3 (37…Kc7 38.a5!) 38. Ke2 h5

 

Now I went a bit wrong with 39. Kf3

The fastest way to finish the job was straightforward 39. a5 Kc7 40. Nd5+ Kb7 41. Nxc3 Ka6 42. Nd5 Kxa5 43. Ne7 picking up kingside pawns.

39… Nd3!? and things became very tricky but I managed to keep everything under control. 40. a5

It was  easy to spoil the position playing passive 40.Ke2 Nb4 and now still 41.a5 Kc7 42.Na4! wins but one could go 41.Kd1? Kc7 42.Nc4 h4 (42…Kc6 43.Na3!) 43.Na3! and probably White still wins but the mess was really unnecessary.

40…Nb4 (40… Kc7 41.Nd5+ Kb7 42. e4 +-) 41. e4! I worked out it well and the rest is very simple

41…f4 (41… Nxc2 42. a6 Nd4+ 43. Ke3 Nb5 44. exf5 +-) 42. Ke2 Nxc2 43. a6 Nd4+ 44. Kd3 Nb5 (44… c2 45. a7 c1=Q 46. a8=Q+ Ke7 47. Nd5+ Kf7 48. Kxd4+-) 45. Nd5 h4 (45… c2 46. Kxc2 Kd7 47. Nf6+ Kc8 48. Nxh5 Kc7 49. e5 $18) 46. Nxc3 Nxc3 47. a7 1-0

 

 

Wroclaw 2-10.07

Since my last tournament where I made IM norm I haven’t been training chess at all even though I wanted to do this. I had enormous amount of obligations at my university and probably this summer I won’t play much…

Currently playing in Wroclaw http://www.chessarbiter.com/turnieje/2012/ti_1466/. Things are not going very well for me but on the other hand it’s not that bad. After 7 rounds I have 4,5/7 and 2 rounds still to be played. You can follow my games online. I may write more about my tournament, maybe comment on some of my games etc. when I’ll get back home (as usual I don’t have comfortable way to access Internet during the tournament).

my impressions after Ostravsky Konik 2012

As I promised I’m writing more about my last tournament…

I have already played in Ostrava in 2008 (my first tournament in Czech Republic) and scored very well, 8th place and performance close to 2400. In next years I wanted to play there again but somehow I was unable mainly due to school obligations. This year I have lots of things to do at my university but just few days before start of the tournament I decided I can get away with it.

I was 6th on the starting list and first and second round were quite easy for me, sometimes this is a key for me to score well in the tournament – just not to loose any points against weaker opponents. In 3rd and 4th round I didn’t play great but well enough to score 1,5/2 against players 2300+.

5th round was very important to me, I was playing Black versus IM Pavel Simacek who defeated me recently in Novy Bor. I had good score in the tournament (3,5/4) so I treated this encounter very seriously and was preparing whole day as I was doing some years ago. Both players were playing the opening very quickly being confident own variations but it was me who got won opening battle. I got great position with Black:

P.Simacek (2447) – P.Nguyen (2374), Ostrava 2012 – position after 25 moves, White to move

Black is exchange down but bishop pair together with pawn on d3, total control over c-file and lack of coordination between White’s rooks gives Black practically winning position. White tried 26.Nc1 and I could choose between two winning ideas:

• 26…Rc2 27.Nxd3 Bb5 28.Ke1 preparing Rd2 but there’s 28…Be3 and White is in kind of zugzwang!
• 26…d2 27.Nd3 Be3 and White can’t give up exchange by means of 28.Ke2 because of …Re8 and if 29Rxd2 then …Bf4+ 30.Kd1 Ba4+ winning and in case of let’s say 28.b3 Black can play 28…d4 followed by …Rc3, …Bb5 etc. White is busted.

In the game however I went completely wrong, I played 26…Ba4? 27.b3 and I could still keep something with 27…Bb5 but I played 27…Rxc1?? and after 28.Rxc1 Bxb3 29.Rb1! White is winning… I totally missed move like Rb1… now after 29…Bxc4 came 30.Rxb6 axb6 31.Ke1 and Black couldn’t survive.

It’s really bad I didn’t win this position… I should win position like this even against Kasparov because if I don’t win having so big advantage how big should it be? One can say “it happens to everyone” and it’s true but I should find the reason of my bad decisions anyway.

Rounds 6th and 7th were quite strange for me. In 6th round there were many mistakes from both sides, game was very messy and eventually drawn and in 7th round I equalized with Black and just kept pressure for some time and my opponent blundered so I won easily.

On the other hand 8th round was very interesting, I recommend you to find this game in database (Pacher Milan – Nguyen Piotr, Ostrava 2012). I played Black against young IM 2400+ and it was extremely sharp and after difficult battle it was me who scored one point!

And to my surprise I had great result in the tournament and draw in last round was enough for me to get International Master norm. Those who are reading my blog regularly understand how much I tried to get this… So the last round was agreed for a draw without any hessitations from both sides. I was White and win would give me 1st place in the tournament so I could try but norm is a norm, I can play next tournament but now I achieved this what I was trying to achieve for almost 3 last years… (my first norm was during holidays 2009 in Olomouc).

To Summarize: I played just normal chess, nothing special and in the only game where I had really professional opening preparation I lost. What was the key I made this IM norm so easily? I don’t really know… 😛 Maybe all I needed was more experience and good tournament (average of my opponents was 2300+) so I could show sth instead of constantly fighting with much weaker opponents.

Tournament website: http://ostravskykonik.cz/ and final results http://www.chess-results.com/tnr71611.aspx?art=1&rd=9&lan=5&turdet=YES&flag=30

6,5/9 in Novy Bor 2012

Unfortunately I lost the 8th round to IM P.Simacek. My opening was kind of crap… Later I had to defend just worse position and it turned out to be not so easy especially I got into time trouble. It’s not good to play such game with White pieces…

But today I recovered quickly winning against International Master Viktor Volodin and now I’m waiting for results of other players. The final results will be maybe in two hours.

To summarize my play: it wasn’t my best tournament, I lost few ELO points. My opening preparation was also poor quality, this time I preferred relax over long chess preparation before the game. But all in all I can’t grumble, taking into account I was so busy with my studies recently my play wasn’t that horrible as sometimes is 😉

My next tournament will be probably during summer holidays…

Novy Bor 2012: two rounds left

Yesterday we had double round and I was very exhausted… I played two rather bad and boring games, both of them were drawn with weaker players. But today I had to play my friend, Paweł Flak who was doing pretty well in the tournament (and also won today’s blitz tournament scoring 14/14!) and after very tough, full of tactical tricks battle eventually I won this game…

Now I’m 3rd and tomorrow I’m playing the leader and also number one from the starting list – International Master Pavel Simacek.

Results after 7 rounds: http://chess-results.com/tnr65600.aspx?art=1&rd=7&lan=5&fed=POL&turdet=YES&flag=NO

There’re games online http://www.online.nss.cz/index.php?modul=prenos&akce=53 so you can follow this encounter move by move 🙂 I hope to present good chess finally.