Well, it seems to happen to me once in every tournament: a marathon battle of nerves that ends up being the last game in the round to finish. So last night it was no surprise when I played a 93-move epic battle against Damir Studen that ended up in a draw. In the immediate aftermath of the game, we were both a little bit pissed off. I was sure that I had blown a win somewhere (move 61, to be precise), and he was likewise sure that he had blown a win (move 31). Neither of us was happy with a draw!<\/p>\n
On the morning after, my emotions have cooled off a bit (and I hope his have, too). It was just an epic battle, chess at its most savage and complicated, and yes there were some mistakes, but there were also some great moves. In fact I’d say there were more great moves than mistakes.<\/p>\n
If I did a position-by-position analysis as I usually do here, this post would go on for pages and pages. So I’ll just paste the game in with fairly sketchy annotations in a PGN viewer and let you appreciate it for yourself. Prepare for 93 moves of mayhem and some spectacular defensive play. Well, more like 63 moves of mayhem followed by 30 moves of drawishness (but still with some chances for Black to go wrong). Enjoy!<\/p>\n
(Sorry that I don’t have any news about the rest of the tournament, including what happened in the matchup on board one between Shankland and Kovalyov. I was far too wrapped up in my game to watch any others.)<\/p>\n