Decided to sleep in because this is a two round chess day, 9:30am and
3:30pm rounds (5 and 6). In the first round I played an unrated child
who is not as strong as my previous four opponents so I had a little
easier time and this resulted in my first win of the tournament.
Opponent opened with 1d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3, and i decided to go with
3...b6 for a Queen's Indian. In the 1953 Zurich book Bronstein mentions
that the Queen's Indian is a drawish opening but at the amateur level so
many things are missed that the draw tag does apply. I missed a pretty
tactic 18...Nxg3, I had been looking at that move before my opponent
moved the dubious 18 f3, and when he played f3 I was salivating but when
I saw the reply 18 f3 Nxg3 19 hxg3 BXN 20 Be1 I realized i would not be
able to recapture his stranded knight on h4, but had I looked deeper
the computer gives the quiet move 20....Nh5 as winning, and indeed it
is, that is the kind of tactic I can solve when practicing tactics
puzzles, but in a game situation I am a chess pessimist, believing I am
not lucky or good enough for artful tactics to be available to me.
Round 5 notation -
[Event "HD Bank International Chess Tournament"]
[Site "Saigon"]
[Date "March 10, 2019"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Dinh Tran Nhat Anh "]
[Black "JWW"]
[Result 0-1*"]
[ECO "E18"]
[Opening "Queen's Indian"]
[Variation "Old Main line, 7.Nc3"]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.O-O O-O 7.Nc3 d5 8.cxd5 exd5 9.
Qc2 Nbd7 10.Bd2 c5 11.e3 Rc8 12.Qd1 Re8 13.Rc1 Bd6 14.Nb5 Bb8 15.Nh4 Ne4 16.
Rc2 g6 17.Nc3 Ndf6 18.f3 Nxd2 19.Qxd2 Qd7 20.Rfc1 Kh8 21.Ne2 g5 22.dxc5 gxh4
23.gxh4 bxc5 24.Rxc5 Rxc5 25.Rxc5 Qd6 26.Qd4 Qxh2+ 27.Kf1 Qe5 28.Qxe5 Bxe5 29.
f4 Bd6 30.Rb5 Ba6 31.Rb3 Bxe2+ 32.Kxe2 Bxf4 33.Kf3 Be5 34.Rb7 Kg7 35.a4 a5 36.
b3 Bc3 37.Ra7 Bd2 38.Ke2 Bxe3 39.Kd3 Bxa7 40.Kd2 Rc8 41.Kd3 Rc1 42.Kd2 Rg1 43.
Bh3 Rh1 44.Bc8 Rxh4 45 resigns
After a short nap and a meal I returned to The Rex Hotel for round 6. I played a teenage girl from the Philippines, I opened with 1e4 and she played the Caro Kan 1...c6. I am not fluent in how to approach the Caro Kan and I made numerous opening mistakes which put me into a slight pit of disadvantage throughout the game and I was never able to mount any sustainable initiative, once the queen's came off the board my inferior position was too difficult to defend accurately for someone at my level. She played a great game, I am impressed with how strong the young players are in this tournament.
Round 6 notation -
[Event "HD Bank International Chess Tournament"]
[Site "Saigon"]
[Date "March 10, 2019"]
[Round "6"]
[White "JWW "]
[Black "Umayan Samantha Baboplhi"]
[Result 0-1*"]
[ECO "B18"]
[Opening "Caro-Kann"]
[Variation "Classical, 6.h4"]
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.h5 Bh7 8.Bd3 Bxd3 9.
Qxd3 Nf6 10.Be3 e6 11.O-O-O Be7 12.Nf3 Nbd7 13.Nh2 Qa5 14.Qb3 O-O 15.Bd2 Qc7
16.Qf3 b5 17.Ng4 Nxg4 18.Qxg4 Nf6 19.Qf3 a5 20.Bf4 Qd7 21.Ne4 Nxe4 22.Qxe4 Qd5
23.Qxd5 cxd5 24.a3 Rfc8 25.Kb1 Rc4 26.Rh3 Rac8 27.Rd2 Kh7 28.Rb3 b4 29.a4 Bf6
30.Be3 Rd8 31.f4 Bh4 32.Bg1 Rdc8 33.g3 Bf6 34.Kc1 g6 35.hxg6+ fxg6 36.Kd1 Kg7
37.Be3 g5 38.fxg5 hxg5 39.g4 Rh8 40.c3 Rh1+ 41.resigns
