Friday, November 28, 2008

Rounds 3 & 4 GM

Rounds 1 and 2 saw very exciting games, some time trouble issues and a lot of action! Let's start with the GM tournament:


1 IM Marko Zivanic 1:0 IM John Bartholomew

2 IM Puchen Wang 1/2:1/2 IM Sal Bercys

3 IM Jacek Stopa 0:1 GM Becerra

4 IM Davorin Kuljasevic 1:0 IM Drasko Boskovic

5 GM Alejandro Ramirez 1/2:1/2 Sergey Kudrin

The third round saw some very surprising games. ZIVANIC was able to tear down the almost impenetrable barrier that is John BARTHOLOMEW. After a very complex struggle, ZIVANIC was able to grind down Johnny-B and took the full point. KULJASEVIC out maneouvered BOSKOVIC in a very typical Kul-J grind, in the classical variation of the Nimzo-Indian. STOPA held a silght advantage against BECERRA after using the four knights defense, something that is not seen in GM games very often anymore. Despite his persistent advantage, STOPAs concentration faltered him, and allowed BECERRA to bounce back in to the game with decisive effect, indeed after a couple of mistakes STOPA was not able to prevent checkmate and had to resign.

My own game against Kudrin was very interesting. In a strange variation of the Gruenfeld Defence, I quickly sacrificed a piece for a long lasting initiative that turned into two strong passed pawns. After several mistakes from both sides and four and a half hours and 92 moves of game play the game was drawn. WANG and BERCYS quickly drew a game which many claim was still favorable to the New Zealand player.

1 IM John Bartholomew 1/2:1/2 GM Alejandro Ramirez

2 GM Julio Becerra 1:0 IM Sal Bercys

3 IM Puchen Wang 1/2:1/2 IM Davorin Kuljasevic

4 GM Sergey Kudrin 0:1 IM Jacek Stopa

5 IM Marko Zivanic 1/2:1/2 IM Drasko Boskovic

The highlight of this round, which was marked with three quick draws between friends, was definitely Stopa's spectacular victory against Kudrin. Kudrin, exhausted after our long game, chose an extremely agressive line against Stopa's Scandinavian set-up. This badly misfired, and after some cool maneouvering from Jacek he was not only able to halt white's attack, but expose the weaknesses left by the hasty advance of white's pawns. Black was later able to crash through on the queenside, and scored a very impressive victory. The other decisive game, BECERRA vs BERCYS, saw the GM grind down our IM from the very early start.

Round 5 starts today at 11 am! Check them live at monroi.com or in the ICC

Your blogger,

Alejandro Ramirez



Blog Archive:

UTD vs Belgrade: UTD retains the title! (November, 2008)

1 comment:

Jairo Núñez said...

Buena maestro!
Siga dejando el nombre de nuestro país en alto, soy un gran admirador suyo, y puedo darme el lujo de decir que gane un torneo en que usted participo (un terceras como de hace 12 años jejeje...)

Un saludazo y que Dios le bendiga,

Jairo Nuñez