You sacrificed a piece to open up my kingside somewhere around move 26, and I distinctly remember the smugness of the voice in my head as I told myself that there was no way you had enough pieces to make that attack work.
Then I spent pretty much every single one of the next 20 moves wondering whether this was the move I was going to lose on.
I was grateful I managed to escape, even though it was clearly luck rather than skill.
Yup that was 27. Nxh5 which opened things up for me, and I tried pounding away on that side after that.
Unfortunately I just choked at the end, and completely missed the forced mate in 2 on move 44. I need to work on end games.
Still, I was pleased that the knight sacrifice worked and kept you on your toes. I sacrificed material for position. I don’t do that enough. Thanks for the game.
today starts the final between Worldchampion Magnus Carlsen and GM Wesley So (US). Wesley played impressive chess so far in the tournament. One of the best players in the world, no doubt about it. Carlsen had a rough tournament with too many blunders for a player of his position.
I can’t help it but I always root for the underdog. This would be So (or Carlsen??). I think it will be 60:40 for Wesley.
I love that they play rapid games (15 minutes per player ) 4 Games per set. 2 sets total. If tied, a 2 game 5 min blitz session.
In rapid the players make more errors, play more on instinct and surprises happen. And not a lot of draws.
I am playing a correspondence game with some guy, it is 3 day per move. And this guy uses always exactly 2 days and 23 hrs before making his move. It will take forever to finish this game, I am already bored. It is a rated game and I don’t want to gift him the points.
At one point I got challenged to a correspondence game by someone random on Lichess who set a 14 day deadline, played super slowly, then resigned 4 moves into the Sicilian.
I played a guy in rapid a little while ago who kept returning his minor pieces to the home rank after their first moves. I was like… ‘come out and play’.