Hello everyone.
Friday Tournament did not disappoint this time. In Round 8 of 21st Season I did pretty good finishing 7th overall.
Winner was @maestroask with better tie breaks as @southgamer finished second with same points. Congrats to both players. Interesting that Saturday tournament had these same players finishing in same position as day before.
Congratulations again.
Time mode was 5 + 3 and I choose berserk in all games. I think 2 minutes and 30 seconds is good enough. Also if both players dont berserk their game can last longer and you may not play that much games.
Average opponent rating was 1826 which is good if you take into account number of strong players above 2000 elo in our chess team.
I want to show this game against @rosmarly (rosmarly). It was our 3rd game in the tournament and I had lost previous two.
And this was lost as well in terms of play. This was the position.
Instead of resigning I saw that I dont have that much space to move my king and I went for a pawn push to a3 and to see if it will be a chance to go for a Stalemate.
After pawn move @rosmarly moved knight to a g6. After that move I notice that my King is in no move position. And only piece that can move is my Rook. Of course all of @rosmalry pieces have to stay on attacking positions and cover my King escape space. There is checkmate for my opponent as well. My move is Rook to c7. If rook on c7 is taken by Rook on b7 it is Stalemate.
As you can see my King is in the box.
And there it is. Last try to save lost game.
@rosmaly ended taking up the rook and it was Stalemate in the end. Good to manage to somehow save lost game or to have my opponent miss the move and blunder. One last trick worked this time. So sometimes you should try to play it out until the end. It may be annoying for your opponent but blunders can happen and you can save one point.
Good that @rosmarly allowed me to get Stalemate. In all of three games I was lost. Your game play is always good.
Game link
https://lichess.org/l5gaCUfb/black#0
Game against @odic3o1 (odic3o) was about clock and flagging. Since both of used berserk option there was no time increment.
I was losing some time but after we exchanged pieces I went for move rook to f6. I had 40 seconds more and it seemed that I am at safe position. It was minute and 6 seconds versus 26 seconds. A bit tricky since there are checkmate threats on the back rank. My opponent went on series of checks but it did not change much the position. We did not trade any pieces. After 10 moves more he ran out of time. Clock was on my side this time.
Flagging is good when you are not on losing side.
Game link
https://lichess.org/3y5YjL94/black#0
There were couple more matches but these ones were more exciting than other games. Seventh place in Friday tournament is quite good. 4 rounds to go and standings are wilding.
On a different note Bosnia and Herzegovina will play football match against Austria on Tuesday. Last game of the qualifications and winner goes directly to the 2026 Fifa World Cup. Game is played in Ernst Happel Stadion in Vienna. @stayoutoftherz any thoughts about the match? Maybe you will be in the stands.
15% of payout goes to @chesspricepool