Open dutch youth championships, played in august 2008. Alphastar (Jeroen Weggen) scored 6 points out of 9 games in this tournament, ending on a shared 8th spot with a TPR of around 2100 (his rating during the tournament was 1908).the round 1, 3 and 4 games are missing. Round 1 and 3 because my opponent (and myself) were too lowly rated so the games were rejected for this database. Round 4 because I lost my notation paper and can only reconstruct 40 of the total 120 moves.
a brief description of how the tournament went for me:
my first round pairing was lucky: white vs a 1400. At first I had a fun positional advantage, the win seemed a matter of time. But I panicked when I saw the line I was following ended in a drawn endgame. I mixed it up, got in a drawn position, my opponent blundered a pawn, then I blundered a piece but proceeded to win the endgame a piece down. 1/1
Second round I had black versus a 2150 german kid (I doubt he was older than 14). I equalized with my Chigorin opening, probably even got a slight advantage. after long maneouvring I opted for a drawn rook endgame. He refused a draw offer. I blundered badly and lost. 1/2
In the third round I had white vs a 1800. Quite a typical positional game. a Maroczy-bind like position arose, I kept improving my position. He exchanged too much, suddenly he couldn't prevent the loss of an exchange. I proceeded to win the endgame. 2/3
4th round: oh dear, black against 2180 opposition. I hate playing versus the english opening. I didn't quite equalize and opted for a pawn sacrifice instead of passive defense. I had quite good compensation, he played some bad moves. I regained the pawn with a huge attack, a winning position. Then I made 3 mistakes in a row; ended up with a queen versus a rook and knight and 2 pawns. He won this endgame after 121 moves. 2/4
30 minutes later the 5th round started, white vs 1600. Again got a positional advantage, improved it, won a pawn, exchanged down to a won endgame, won the endgame. 3/5
6th round: black vs a WFM, rated 2150 (starting to sound familiar?). Again I more than equalized from the opening. then I missed a zwischenzug, got into a slightly inferior endgame. I didn't want to defend passively and sacrificed a piece for 3 pawns. The sacrifice was correct, my follow up wasn't. Would I screw up again? I had to return 2 pawns, had a lost position for a while but in the end I managed to exchange all her pawns and draw the game. 3.5/6
This was a huge boost to my confidence, finally I scored with black and finally against high-rated opposition. in the 7th round I played a 2150 rated person again, this time with white! I hadn't prepared anything against the Dutch. I exchanged down to a slightly inferior position without minor pieces. from that moment on I pretty much played perfectly, he played nervously. He gave me a tripled pawn, but a pawn is a pawn. I managed to win the queen endgame. 4.5/7
8th round: black versus 2000 opposition. he misplayed the opening somewhat, I get a slight advantage. I decide to relax the rest of the day and accept his draw offer. After all, my goal was to score 5 points out of 9 games and now I'd already achieved that goal with a round to spare. Why take risks? 5/8
9th round I get the white pieces versus a 2300-rated kid. I finally get to play my preparation versus the kings indian. I provoke him to weaken his light squares; after a few inaccuracies I make a model breakthrough on the queenside and exploit said weakened light squares fatally. I play my game of the tournament, end up on a shared 8th spot. 6/9
As the lowest rated player in the top 10.
