Today was a two game session for the HD Bank International Chess Tournament, round two was at 9:30am, and round three started at 3:30pm. Drew round two against a 1808 FIDE rated, which is close to expert level in the states. It was a hard fought game, I had the white pieces and opened with 1 e4 and my opponent trotted out the Pirc, which I allowed to transpose into a King's Indian Defense. At one point I was down 2 pawns but I had a strong position and I was able to equalize to a rook and pawn end game which drew after 62 moves.
Round three was a wake up call for my Sicilian Defense, I have played this defense as a class C player and below and it was fine because the players I faced could not figure out how to crack it but now that I am playing Class A players I need to shelve it until I give it more thought. Regardless of the opening it was a slugfest, as Kere's Attack games usually are. I held on by a thread in the middle game, feeling at times like a magician extricating himself from impossible places. At one point I actually equalized the game but I had gotten into severe time trouble in order to achieve this and I made a poor/losing move 28...Rh6 with little time left.
Game Notation :
[Event "HD Bank International Chess Tournament"]
[Site "Saigon"]
[Date "March 8, 2019"]
[Round "2"]
[White "JWW"]
[Black "N Quang Trung"]
[Result "1/2 - 1/2"]
[ECO "B00"]
[Opening "King's pawn Opening"]
1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.c4 Nc6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Bg5 f6 7.Be3 Bg4 8.Be2 Nh6 9.Qd2
Nf7 10.d5 Ne7 11.Nh4 Bxe2 12.Nxe2 f5 13.exf5 Nxf5 14.Nxf5 gxf5 15.g3 h5 16.h4
Bh6 17.O-O-O Qf6 18.Bxh6 Nxh6 19.f3 Rg8 20.Qa5 Qe7 21.Qb5+ Kf7 22.Rhg1 Rgb8
23.Qb3 a6 24.Qe3 Qf6 25.Rdf1 Rg8 26.Qb3 b6 27.Nc3 Rg7 28.Ne4 Qe7 29.Ng5+ Kg8
30.Qe3 Kh8 31.Rg2 Rag8 32.Rfg1 Qf6 33.Ne6 Re7 34.Ng5 b5 35.c5 f4 36.Qf2 fxg3
37.Qxg3 dxc5 38.Qf2 Qf4+ 39.Qd2 Qxd2+ 40.Kxd2 Rd8 41.Ne4 Rxd5+ 42.Kc1 Re6 43.
Rg5 Rd8 44.Rxh5 Rg8 45.Ng5 Reg6 46.Rxh6+ Rxh6 47.Nf7+ Kh7 48.Rxg8 Rf6 49.Rg5
Rxf7 50.Rxe5 c4 51.Rc5 Kg6 52.Kc2 Rxf3 53.Rxc7 Kh5 54.Rc6 Kxh4 55.Rxa6 Kg4 56.
Rb6 Rf5 57.Kc3 Rd5 58.Kb4 Rd2 59.Kc3 Rd3+ 60.Kb4 Rd2 61.Kc3 Rd3+ 62.Kb4 1/2 - 1/2
[Event "HD Bank International Chess Tournament"]
[Site "Saigon"]
[Date "March 8, 2019"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Le Hong Minh Ngoc"]
[Black "JWW"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B80"]
[Opening "Sicilian"]
[Variation "Scheveningen Variation "]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 d6 5.Nc3 Nf6 6.Be3 a6 7.g4 Nfd7 8.f4 b5 9.a3
Bb7 10.Bg2 Qc7 11.Qe2 Nc6 12.O-O-O Rc8 13.f5 Nxd4 14.Bxd4 e5 15.Be3 Nb6 16.
Bxb6 Qxb6 17.g5 Be7 18.h4 b4 19.axb4 Qxb4 20.g6 hxg6 21.fxg6 f6 22.Qg4 Rc7 23.
Qe6 Qc4 24.Qg4 Bc8 25.Qg3 f5 26.exf5 Bxf5 27.Rdf1 Be6 28.h5 Rh6 29.Bh3 Bxh3
30.Qxh3 Bg5+ 31.Kb1 Bf4 32.Qf5 Rh8 33.Rxf4 Qxf4 34.Qe6+ Kd8 35.Qxd6+ Kc8 36.
Nd5 resign
There is a holiday going on here in Saigon, I have seen spiritual music events in the streets to go along with women dressed in brightly colored garb.
Was well below budget this week.