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| Photo by Maria Emelianova, my edit |
The 2nd day culminated with me trying to
break through the ‘Chinese Wall’, Lei and Tan, against both with the black
pieces. The game against Lei was one which I’ll probably have nightmares about
for a long time... I played some aggressive line, thought I had a good
position, but my opponent was actually the one playing very well. Lost a pawn
and went for an endgame with some drawing chances. My opponent couldn’t find a
plan to convert her advantage but neither did she want to settle for a draw...
It was her time to blunder a pawn, but a very important one this time. I won
another pawn a few moves later. Liquidated to a totally winning N vs B endgame,
my pawn could just become a queen had I realized my king was to make a sprint
to the 2nd rank rather than trying to win all the pawns... Draw.
The Norwegian TV was there, they were probably
expecting me to win- to be the sensation of the day... They asked for an
interview anyway. Smiling to the camera while planting my nails deep into my
palms was not the worst preparation for the next game against yet another
Chinese.
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| Lei - Bulmaga |
The game vs Tan was the last one for the day. I was
hoping to somehow survive it and just go for dinner. After some 15 moves, I
totally disliked my position, it was the result of my making the 2nd
move of my calculation instead of the 1st one... I was tired,
emotionally and physically. Made quite an effort and outplayed my opponent
despite everything. Saw that I could win a pawn and there would be no real
threats she could make vs my king, but noticed that I can take the same pawn in
a different way and force a draw, she’d have nothing better than to go for a
perpetual. Didn’t think about it twice and a draw it was. Unfortunately, I did
not realize how big my advantage would be in the other variation...
I was still sharing the lead with Lei, though wasn’t
sure how to feel. From one point of view, I was really disappointed I couldn’t
bring to the logical end so many games, especially the one vs Lei. From another
point, I never played so well in my life anyway...
“The 3rd day will be the decisive one!”.
(To be continued)
Bravo Irina !
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