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Sachseneinzelmeisterschaft 2012 17.V.12 — 20.V.12
Another year, another Schacheinzelmeisterschaft von Sachsen! This year it was again held in Leipzig, this time in the Sporthalle.
As usual in the first round of a Swiss, I was paired against a much higher-rated player, and got Black to boot. Playing my usual Tarrasch Defence, I made a bad move in the opening, inflicting doubled isolated pawns on my own kingside. However, a couple of moves afterwards, my opponent returned the favour by hanging a piece! He tried to get a bit of an attack going, but in doing so only weakened his position. Once Black's counterattack got going, it was all over.
Another outing for the allegedly-harmless Centre Game, and this, my eighth game with the opening, was my first loss with it — every other one brought in a full point (albeit one of those was in Schnellschach, 30 minutes per player). So much for harmless! I made a weak move early on and could find nothing better than to repeat moves and offer a draw; my opponent, in declining the draw, made a poor move in turn that weakened his Kingside. Nevertheless, he came forward strongly in the centre with his pieces; but then decided to go after material rather than strengthening is position. This gave me a decisive attack, which I proceeded somewhat hesitantly to convert to "only" a decisive material advantage — rook (him) against two minor pieces (me), with an extra pawn for the side with the rook. We were both short of time, and right on the fortieth move, the time control, I blundered away a piece and therewith not only the win but the half-point as well.
On the Black side of a Spanish, I chose the Steinitz Defence, which White handled rather quietly, releasing the central tension too early with d4-d5. I made a positional blunder by playing ...f5 when not able to recapture on f5 with a pawn. White was clearly better after that, but he traded Knights rather than keeping his on the board so as to exploit his e4 strong-point. The rook ending was an easy draw, and trading off rooks didn't change things. Agreed drawn on move 39.
An unrated player who turned out to be quite weak — another case of being handed a piece in the opening. I later won another piece, and then another, and went on to deliver checkmate.
Playing the black side of the Spanish again, I went for a Steinitz Defence via the Berlin (3...Nf6), and was surprised when White answered with 4.Qe2. It didn't look right, and sure enough I had soon equalised. The resultant middlegame wasn't as simple as it looked, and clearly I went wrong somewhere. Analysis shows that the rook endgame was always lost for me, although I struggled on as best I could. I feel this was the only game in which I was simply outplayed. Even then, I succeeded in equalising in the opening, which is something.
My opponent weakened his position very early on, but instead of settling down to exploit my advantage sensibly, I over-pressed and the weakness disappeared, leaving me simply a pawn down, albeit with plenty of open lines. I kept trying to work up complications, and eventually succeeded. I went on to get a decent position, only to ruin it with an incautious pawn move. I decided on a sacrifice of the exchange to at least keep some sort of initiative; my opponent obliged by returning the material a few moves later (he didn't have to). Eventually, a draw was the result.
The last round, and another draw. I have faced Englemann's Vienna Game before, winning the exchange and nevertheless failing to do more than draw. This time round, after getting a rotten position in the opening, I equalised, then got the initiative, and eventually picked up a pawn. But then a badly-calculated "simplifying combination" turned out to lose me the Exchange, leaving White with a winning advantage in a Rook v Knight ending. However, my opponent proceeded to exchange off two of his three remaining pawns — it seems he has happy to draw! And so a draw it was.
Losing only two games isn't such a bad result for me, although two draws against lower-rated players is clearly not a great performance. Two games were decided by gross blunders, giving me a point in the first round, losing me a point in the second. I was clearly and definitely outplayed in only one game, against Fuchs, and even then at least I managed to equalise in the opening. So, not a bad tournament. Things to do: keep winning or drawing against higher-rated opponents; don't throw away won games against same; and start beating rather than drawing with lower-rated players!
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Last changed: Sun Mar 3 11:49:38 CET 2019