Challenge 2500 | 8. Mixed Bag

The tournament

The tournament website: https://www.chessorg.de/bad_woerishofen.php?lang=en
Facts first, as always: I scored 6.5/9 points, which amounts to a rating performance of 2461 and a rating change of +4.6. This meant shared 3rd place in the tournament.
Not an outstanding performance, but not a bad one either. Let's go through the games one by one.

Rounds 1-3: perfect start

In the first round, I won against a 1974-rated opponent (who, by the way, outperformed his rating by a lot in this tournament). The game was far from smooth, but at least it finished in a nice combination:

White to move and mate in 3!

In the second game, I had Black against a 2125. In the following position, I was better, but White is threatening to play Ne5, causing some practical problems difficulties to deal with. I'm happy that I found the strong countermeasure ...g5, which started an eventually decisive attack against White's king.

In round three, I played a talented young WIM from India.
This was the crucial position of the game:

I had just played the fancy 19.Nb5, after which both Nxa7+ and Nc7 are dangerous threats.
Black has just one move to hold the balance: 19. ...Ne6!
This not only prevents any invasion on c7, but it also takes the sting out of 20.Nxa7+, since after 20. ...Kd7 21.Nb5 (in an attempt to extract the knight from the claws of Black's position), 21. ...cxb5 22.Bxb5+ Kc8 23.Qc3+ Nc7 is possible! White has just enough compensation for the sacrificed piece, but not more than that.
Instead, my opponent panicked with 19. ...Qb6, after which White wins the queen and the game with 20.Bc7! Qa6 21.Nd6+.

Rounds 4-7: mediocre midsection

In round 4, I had a really tough pairing: Black against GM Visakh N R.
These are exactly the pairings I want though, after all, nothing better than a real test!
This time though, sadly, I failed that test. We reached a queenless middle-game, where, in this position, I even had a chance of gaining a small advantage:

Here, I pretty much automatically played 16. ...Nxc3. I didn't seriously consider any alternatives, as I assumed that not trading now would leave the knight stranded on a2. However, with some calculation I should have been able to spot that Black has time for 16. ...Bd7! threatening ...Ba4!, after which White has to make some strategic concessions.
In the game continuation, Black was fine, but I made some inaccuracies which let my opponent reach a pleasant rook endgame which he pressed for the win really well.
In the end, I had to throw in the towel.
This is certainly one of the games where I feel like more should be possible (for example, missing (or not really considering) Bd7 is a typical case of not being alert enough). Hopefully I can do better next time.

In round 5, I played an IM with a rating of 2298. The course of the game, in short: I was surprised in the opening (by move 3!), somehow managed to get a pleasant position, which by move 40 had turned into an objectively winning one, then made some mistakes and offered a draw just when the trend of the game was going against me.
I'm happy that I had the awareness that the game was drifting from my control and that the best I could do was a well-timed draw offer. This can be difficult as even with a draw, one can feel like something has gone terribly wrong. And while that is sort of true: a draw is still much better than a loss, obviously.

For this game, I want to show the following position early in the game as it is an interesting case of misevaluation on my part.

How would you evaluate this position?

I thought I was clearly better here. If I had been asked during the game to give an estimate of the Stockfish eval, I would have probably gone for something like +0.5. White has a clear strategic trump: the pawn structure on the queenside makes it so that I have a beautiful knight outpost on c4 as well as a pawn weakness on c5 (and potentially b7) to attack.
I was quite surprised when I briefly checked the game afterwards and saw that Stockfish just showed 0.00 in pretty much in every line!
Apparently, there is just nothing going on here. I still think though that in a practical game, it is surely White who is pressing here and Black who is trying to hold things together. I wouldn't be shocked if older, less powerful engines show an advantage for White here.

In round 6, I played a 2125 with Black. My opponent played well and the game was unclear for a long time, but at some point, he made some less than optimal decisions I was able to capitalise on and I eventually won the game.
This position did not happen in the game, but it could have, had my opponent played the move Rg5. The question is: can Black play ...Qd3?

One might first think, 'why not?', as Ne2+ is a massive threat.
During the game I thought it wasn't quite possible because of the vicious 2.Rxg7+, which looks like a classic discovered attack tactic!
2. ...Kxg7 fails to 3.Bh6+, while 2. ...Kf8 gets met with 3.Bb4+.
However, the cold-blooded 2. ...Kh8!! is winning for Black! I saw this idea only when we analysed the game afterwards, so I am not certain I would have seen it. Somehow, I didn't manage to consider 2. ...Kh8 while calculating during the game, which is weird, since it's one of only three legal moves after 2.Rxg7+. However, after the game, I spotted this move almost instantly, which makes me think I have to become much more level-headed and relaxed in time-troubled critical phases of classical games in order to be more thorough and precise calculating.

In round 7, I played a 2263-rated player with White. My opponent tried to surprise me in the opening, but this time, I knew more or less how to handle the line he played and got a promising endgame right out of the opening (readers with extensive and up-to-date opening knowledge might recognise the modern side-line the following position arose from). I didn't play this endgame well enough to put serious pressure and the game was drawn.
The key takeaway from this game for me personally is to be careful with pawn moves and to better take into account weaknesses you create when making them.

In this position, I made a subtle strategic mistake. White is very slightly better due to the better pawn structure and the strong knight outpost on c5. However, Black's pieces are active, so White should try to play Rf2, offering a rook trade. For now though, White needs to create some luft, as Rf2 Rd1+ repeats moves. So, which pawn should one move?
The h-pawn. Intuitively, I wanted to play h4, but after a long think I convinced myself that g4 was justified as it takes away ideas of Bc2-f5-e6, and in general restricts the bishop more. I should have realised that g4 does the opposite in the long term, as now, the pawn on f3 and the g2-square are weakened!
In the game, the bishop reached d5 and I even had to be careful not to lose control. The pawns should have stayed on g2 and f3, at least for some time while I try to consolidate and neutralise the activity of Black's rook.
Again, it's a subtle mistake, a difference between +0.3 and +0.0, but an important one nonetheless.
It's not the only mistake I made in this game, but perhaps the most instructive one.

Rounds 8-9: strong finish

At this point, the tournament was going so-so. If I wanted to finish the tournament winning a couple of rating points, I had to win this penultimate game. I was black against a 2260 and I decided to mix it up a bit in the opening. It worked like a charm and I got this position:

It's Black to move and gain a huge advantage.
The move is ...c5!! exploding the center! If you've seen similar motives before, it's not very difficult to find, but there is some beauty to it in any case, right? The point is that no matter which pawn White takes (there are four possible pawn captures in the center!), Black will get a pawn to d4, hitting the Be3, and achieve dominant control of the central squares.
This is certainly my favourite move of the tournament from my own games. The game as a whole certainly had the potential to be fantastic as well, but I did manage to mess up at some point: my opponent fought valiantly and eventually had one chance to equalise the game. Thankfully, he didn't see it in mutual time trouble and I won in the end. An important victory going into the final round...

...in which I had the white pieces against Vignesh N R (2513) Funnily enough, I played him earlier this year in the NordWest-Cup (see https://lichess.org/@/iakov98/blog/challenge-2500--6-on-the-podium/ta1qrGWr). Vignesh is Visakh's brother and both are 2500+ (and super friendly as well).
This game was short and a bit strange. The moves themselves were nothing out of the ordinary, but this is what happened:
I offered a draw on move 19, as I wasn't happy with how I had handled a position that was supposed to be clearly better out of the opening.
He declined, but then offered a draw on move 20, just one move later!
He hadn't played the move I was worried about when I offered a draw though! Now I thought I should be better again, but at this point I made an insane practical choice, which is to think until I had almost no time left, and then decline the draw offer.
Obviously, thinking for a while is fine when presented with a draw offer, but playing on after burning most of one's time? Not sure what happened there, but that was awful.
Three moves later, with a slightly better position but no time on the clock, I offered a draw, which he accepted.
There is not much else to say about the game, it was alright, the evaluation ranged from 0.0 to 0.75 roughly. Here is the final position:

White is slightly to be preferred here, and I should have played on under normal circumstances, but I am happy with the draw considering that I had around 7 minutes left at this point. What I am less happy with is declining the earlier draw offer after considering it for an eternity.
In any case, a decent result, both for this individual game, as well as for the tournament as a whole.

Outlook

I'll be playing a very strong (for my standards at least) tournament at the end of March: a GM tournament in the beautiful Budapest (http://chess-results.com/tnr727427.aspx?lan=1).
I'll prepare for this one very seriously, as it's a rare opportunity: playing 9 rounds against a rating average of around 2400 is something special for me.
After that, I want to play one more open tournament early April, not sure yet which one.

But then, there is going to be an extended break of (almost) no classical chess.
In that time, I'll be focusing on other things and there will not be much time for tournaments.
That doesn't mean I won't train though: my aim will be to consistently work on becoming a better chess player. I've realised during this early phase of this project that I am simply not a 2500-player yet, which means that a prolonged period of just training, even if it's just 1 or 2 hours a day, should help me get closer.
In particular, I intend to come out on the other side of those couple of months a considerably better calculator. I won't do any openings (in part because, as a result of playing a lot of chess during the last couple of months, I've improved a lot on that front already): just calculation and a some additional training games to stay in shape. During that time, I'll continue this blog, where I'll be writing about the training side of chess again, of course.
The plan is to come back in the summer and try to make a big step towards the goal this challenge is centered around, having spent all that time consistently training.

For now though, two more tournaments. Thanks for reading and have a great week!
I'll be back with a review of the tournament in Budapest. Cheers!