The Story inside a Story (II)

The most awaited Open of the year! Why so? The Gibraltar Festival is a place where professionals meet amateurs, where ‘Elite’ meets ‘the ordinary’. Where else would you see GMs like Hikaru Nakamura or Veselin Topalov hanging around in the lobby’s bar, taking on blitz challenges? There are tournaments for any level there, as well as lectures from Top players, quizzes, parties- and all for the ones who love chess and in such a unique location like the Rock of Gibraltar! It’s nothing less than 11 days of chess paradise!

This year was the 2^nd time I participated and I was looking forward to it from the minute the previous edition ended! It was definitely no disappointment- I was playing interesting games vs strong players, I was sharing the room with my best friend, finally got time to see the famous monkeys, as well as the old town… The highlight of it all had to be my first participation in the already traditional “Battle of Sexes” – an event where a team of Top Grandmasters played vs a team of Top Woman Grandmasters, in a relaxed & fun atmosphere, after a fancy dinner. I remember that day as it was yesterday!

I was having a so-so performance until that point, winning against the lower rated opponents and losing against the higher rated ones. My problem was that I felt tired after what had been a very busy Autumn and Winter… I was forcing myself to prepare for the games, even though I had no will for it whatsoever… To describe the extent of my state- in the first day, over dinner, after I won my game vs a lower rated opponent, I told my roommate “I think I am either going crazy or finally having a break through!”, “What do you mean?”, she asked suspiciously. “Well, just don’t laugh-but today I became one with the pieces on the board, I was seeing everything and I think that if to check the game with engines, they will show my calculation to have been perfect!”. “Come on, Irina, don’t make me worry about you!”. “No, you don’t understand, it was like a new Wolrd opened to me and I got such a pleasure from playing, which I can’t compare to anything!”, I proudly added. “And how was it to become one with the pieces, anything in particular I should know about?”, my roommate sarcastically replied.

Back to the “Battle of Sexes” day, somewhere in the middle of the tournament. We went off the bus that was taking us to the round day by day. Had to walk for about 3 more minutes to the venue. There was a round to be played before the so much awaited ‘party’. I started my usual (for that days) talk “I have no wish to play today at all, I am mentally tired, I would rather stay on the terrace and watch the seagulls with…” Twitch! In shock, I realize that I’m lagging, as my face has some kind of involuntary 2 sec. movement… “You see, I start having twitches- even my body is protesting!”. In that moment, I noticed that Vasyl Ivanchuk turned his head back, as he was apparently walking ahead of us and gave what looked to me like an understanding smile…

I came to the round late with what must have been a totally bored

look, placed my 3 cotton bags under the table (yes, one with the heels for the party, one as a ‘minibar’-juice, water, nuts, chocolate, and the other with usual women nonsense stuff) and played 1.e4. My opponent was a young 2650+ GM. He played a very dubious line in the Sicilian, one which I had recently scolded one of my friends about, because “How can you, as a GM, not know that there’s an easy way to get a significant advantage here!”. Having these words in my head, I was taking my time in making the so well-known to me moves “What does my opponent want? Does he think I’m a total patzer?”. When time came for me to make the last important move of the variation, which I knew very well and could blitz it out at any time of day or night, I thought “Well, I’ll play it, then he will suffer for the whole game to make a draw and probably will and that will be it…”, sounded like a convenient scenario for me. Only that I started to feel ‘one with the pieces’ again and a ‘forgotten memory’ came back to me.

“Hm, I think I recently analyzed a very interesting idea here- I play a dubious move, but at the most ‘human like’ reactions, black is totally busted, although the position looks like strategically lost for white at first glance…”. It was like someone on my shoulder was whispering to me “Play it, it’s your chance-take it…”. How could I resist that? For a second or two, I imagined the face of that friend whom I scolded when he’d see my move, but it wasn’t a reason good enough, the temptation was too high… So I played it.

My opponent replied with one of the ‘human like’ moves. I was very happy as I remembered one by one every move I had to make… Only that the thinking process was taking a bit too long and when I finally got to a winning position I had no time at all and blundered some mate in 2.

I was very upset about the outcome and uncertain, was I winning, was I not, did I remember correctly my analyzes, or did I confuse it with another line? Why didn’t I just play the safe move? Uncertainty is the worst a chess player can face after a game, that’s why we usually rush to our rooms the moment the game is over, to check it quickly with the computer. But, I had to stick around the venue for the party… I sat at some table in the lobby, fetching myself a beer and trying to figure out where I missed the win…

I imagine I wasn’t ‘wearing’ my most friendly look when a friend of a friend approached, obviously in very high spirits. “Well, maybe she can cheer me up a bit”, I thought. “Heeey, how are you darling, I saw you lost a bad game…”. “Well, I don’t think…”. “But let’s better not talk about it, tell me your news, are you still with that boyfriend of yours, and by the way, how are things with the federation going on?”, she said, hitting one by one all the sore spots… Our discussion continued in the same manner and at some point, when I felt I could not take it anymore, I asked the question that a 200 points higher rated player usually avoids to ask, so one won’t think he’s arrogant- “And how is the tournament going for you, how many points do you have?”. “Oh, 4,5/6-  I was so winning today vs a GM, but finally missed a perpetual, so I drew…”. Not expecting this answer at all and remembering my own 3/6, I said “Oh, congrats, you’re doing very well!”, “Indeed, considering that I quitted professional chess some years ago…”. That talk could not have gone any worse…

(To be continued...)