What a finish to the Western States Open! In the last round, I almost…
- Beat my first grandmaster (a bucket list item)
- Tied for first in an open tournament, for the first time in 20 years
- Scored another historic victory with the Bryntse Gambit
- Got my rating back over 2200.
But I didn’t. Instead, I agreed to a draw with grandmaster Sergey Kudrin. Hint: If a grandmaster offers a draw to a player rated below 2200, it’s pretty certain that the grandmaster has a lost game. Especially when a draw will give him no prize money.
But you can judge for yourself. Here is the final position, where we agreed to a draw. I’m White, Kudrin is Black.
FEN: 8/2r3p1/5q1p/1kp4P/5P2/1P1P1BP1/2P1R1K1/4B3 w – – 0 48
Position after 47. … Qf6. White to move.
I’ve listed above all the reasons why I shouldn’t have agreed to a draw. Now let me tell you why I did.
- Although I knew I stood better here, I was under the impression that it would be a long, tedious endgame. In a sudden-death time control (where we both had about 34 minutes left), there might be some possibility of a screw-up, and I didn’t under any circumstances want that.
- The prize money would most likely be about the same for me, win or draw.
- Although it would have been cool to get my first win ever against a GM, let’s not forget that getting my third draw ever against a GM is pretty cool too. (My previous draws were against Walter Browne and Gregory Serper. My losses have been too numerous to count.)
- And the main thing is, as my wife told me afterwards, “I went with my gut.” When he offered me the draw, I had such a strong sense of relief that I would not have to go through another long, drawn-out endgame that I honestly did not do any serious analysis.
However, if I had done some serious analysis, I would have realized that 48. c4+! (a move I had actually been setting up) is a killer. 48. … Kb6 is forced, and now the followup is 49. b4! If 49. … cb White doesn’t take the pawn back, instead I play 50. Bf2+! Rc5 (forced, because of 50. … Ka6 or 50. … Ka5 51. Ra2 mate) 51. Re5! Although the passed b-pawn might cause some momentary concern, it’s easy to see the White can stop it. The rook and two bishops should easily overwhelm the queen.
Alternatively, after 49. b4+ if 49. … Re7, then White simply plays 50. Rxe7 Qxe7 51. Bf2, winning the c-pawn. There’s no question that with two bishops plus four pawns (!) against the queen, plus the fact that my king is totally secure, plus the fact that three of the pawns are connected and passed, this would not be a long, drawn-out endgame. It would be easy.
So that’s what might have been. But what’s done is done. Next time, if there is a next time, I will try to control my emotions better. I have had an unfortunate tendency lately to accept draws when I could have had wins (see my game with Ladia Jirasek a couple months ago, and even my round one game with Samir Alazawi in this tournament). I need to work on that.
But regrets? No. Not this time. Every game against a grandmaster is like a free lesson, and this time I’m glad that I did some of the teaching!
In other games, there was a six-way tie for first place between IM Andrey Gorovets, GM Alexander Ivanov, GM Enrico Sevillano, GM Alex Yermolinsky, GM Melikset Khachiyan, and GM Walter Browne. The first four all went into the last round with 4 points and drew their games on the top two boards. The last two went into the round with 3½ points and won to join the crowd at 4½.
I am in a crowd with 4 points, and we’ll have to see how the prize money gets sorted out, but I think I am tied for top under 2200. I have to give a shout out to Mike Zaloznyy, because he’s a reader of this blog and he had a great tournament too. In fact, our round-by-round scores were exactly the same: draw in round 1, loss in round 2, wins in rounds 3-5, and draw in round 6. He probably won’t get as big a prize, though, because he’s not under 2200.
P.S. Yes, of course I will do a ChessLecture on my game with Kudrin. If you want to see the whole game, you’ll have to watch it at www.chesslecture.com!
