It was like in Borislav Ivkov's games. Relatively good start, than mistake, long struggling, than glimpse of hope, even a chance for win, and then disaster in zeitnot.
I lost. It hurts. There is no help. It hurts.
I was in bad position, but eventually I could win, but didn't see bad news coming.
Here's how it was.
On this tournament, I always spend first half an hour to calm myself down, waiting that running kids (if they had let fighting dogs on the players, it would have been better), for chatting spectators to finish their meaningless waffling and blu-blubling. I wait that players get their seats and stop pushing my chair.
Today I got an impression that I was only player who wasn’t crackling with my or others empty chair, who wasn’t coughing or sneezing, who wasn’t chatting with someone, who didn’t make noise of what so ever kind. I was only one healthy today on Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain. Ha? Physically at least.
VII round, me white
Irkovic de Eserbia vs. Caron, Demian d’France
1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 e6 3. Nge2 Nf6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 d6 6. Bb5+ {I chose move after once upon a time my favourite chisofrenic, Alvis Vitolinsh. He was called “surovi bocman” (brutal butcher) by his fellow countrymen and he was crazy attacker. Committed suicide by jumping into frozen lake or something like that. Like Michael Strunge, Danish poet of punk generation, whom I translated into Serbian, and who jumped of the window, coz he believed he could fly. Well, the variation is brutal all right.} Nbd7 7. O-O a6 8. Be2 Be7 9.Rb1 {?! I prepared before the game, and my Zambian non-aligned countries’ Rybakoff said …Nbd7 is weaker and …Bd7, and that in that case I should await 8. …Nc5 9. f3 and then Bb1 and b4. Anticipating this, I played Rb1 copying computer like an idiot, but Qd3 was better. Said again computer but after longer period of “thinking”.} Qc7 10. f4 {I knew it would be judged weak but I didn’t know what to play. I was spending to much time and after 20 moves I had less than 5 minutes. Noise already mentioned and my neighbour who was nervously kicking the table all the time by his legs irritated me immensely. The water in my bottle was making circles as in Jurassic Park movie.} b5 11. Bf3 Bb7 12. Re1 O-O 13. e5 {?; I calculated in vain 13. e5 dxe5 14. Bxb7 Qxb7 15. fxe5 Nd5 16. Nxd5 Qxd5 and desperately tried to imagine position after those moves, to see if i can play 17. Nf5. No I can’t, and instead of 16. Nxd5 I should play 16. Qg4 with hopes for equalization. Instead of suicidal e5, I had to wait with 13. a3, holding almost equal position. My preparation went to the toilet again.} Bxf3 {!} 14. Nxf3 dxe5 15. Nxe5 Nb6 {?; He had Rfd8 and Nxe5 as better moves with huge advantage.} 16. Qe2 Rac8 17. Be3 b4 18. Qxa6 Bc5 {As you can see, Black made series of somewhat weaker moves, but he still has advantage.} 19. Nd1 {!; for once I picked the best move in very difficult situation.} Nbd5 20. Bxc5 Qxc5+ 21. Nf2 Nxf4 22. Qf1 {Here I had 4 minutes 44 seconds left on the clock. I touched my neigbbour’s sholder and asked him if he could stop kicking the table. He answered me something and stopped… for 5 minutes. His was fat, wearing socks on sandals, and was playing against little French boy. Their game was prettier than hours and kid gave Pawn for initiative and won after 5 hours after he promoted 2 Queens. The kicker got what he deserved.} Qxc2 23. g3 N4d5 24. Qe2 Qxe2 {?!; He shouldn’t have exchanged Queens. But still he has Pawn extra.} 25. Rxe2 Ra8 26. Ra1 Rfc8 27. Nfd3 Rc7 28. a4 {!} bxa3 29. Rxa3 Rxa3 30. bxa3 Ra7 31. Rb2 g6 {Of course, …Rxa3 would be a blunder.} 32. Rb3 Ne4 33. Nc6 Ra8 34. Nde5 Nc5 35. Rb5 {When he played …Nc5, I thought it was mistake that makes me closer to a draw. He also sighed, as he believed he ruined something. But Rybka stil shows -1.04 for Black. After 35. …Ne4 36. Rb7 f6} Na6 {Well, it was weaker than …Ne4. Now I had 36. Ra5! to bind his Rook.} 36. Rb7 Nac7 37. Rb3 {?; I should play Ne7+ and exchange my a-Pawn for his f-Pawn. So I would have had good chances for normal draw.} f6 38. Nd7 {I had 2 minutes 18 seconds left before time control.} Ra6 39. Ncb8 Rd6 {?!} 40. Nc5 {A player with sneezing attack passed by our table at the exact moment, one (right next to me), two, three, four at the entrance... "Oh drop dead!@, I thought.} Rb6 {?} 41. Rxb6 Nxb6 42. a4 {Now it is =! He told me after the game that if I offered a draw he would have accepted it. I was too embarrassed to do so.} Kf7 43. a5 Nba8 44. Nc6 {!} e5 45. Kf2 Ne6 46. Nd7 h5 47. Ke3 g5 {? Black should have played with Knights.} 48. h3 h4 49. gxh4 gxh4 50. Kf3 Nf4 {??? Black should play for example 50 …Nac7 and then according to Rybka--> 51.Kg4 Nd4 52.Ncxe5+ fxe5 53.Nxe5+ Ke6 54.Ng6 Nc6 55.Nxh4 Nxa5 56.Ng6 Ne8 57.Nf4+ =} 51. Kg4 {??? I had a win here: 51. Nxce5+} Ng2 52. Nb6 {I saw only promotion – I was blind and I still had a draw with Nxc5+.} Nc7 53. Nb4 {Still I had Kf5 and draw.} e4 54. a6 {??? I still had small advantage with 54. N6d5 - that’s why Black should have played Ke6! instead of e4?! – but I didn’t see what is coming. Beatuful problem-like checkmate.} Kg6 {The end. It hurts. Really. How much do ear plugs cost?}
