Reportage from Sarajevo - Part two

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Today, I will continue with my games from Bosna 2012 tournament, and give some thoughts about tournament.
As I presented previously, I had some luck in round number five.
It was fourth day of the tournament and sixth round was later that day. I was white and I had some expectations.
However I played my worst game not just in this tournament, but in a whole year.



                                                    Round six: An easy target
                                    Bejtovic Jasmin (2391) - Pancevski Filip 2473

Position after 15...0-0-0

I was unhappy with a outcome of opening. My knight on e2 is horrible piece and I didn´t manage to create a real plan.
Still position is balanced as white also has some ideas with Nd5 or Nb5 (after some preparations). I am not convinced that black´s attack is so dangerous since he has not good pawn breaks on the kingside.
I played two horrible moves.
16.Bb6 ? and after preparatory move
16...Rdf8 I played even worse
17. Rfd1 ?  Now, everything is in right place for a sacrifice which I of course didn´t missed but completely underestimated. In practise the result is a same.
17...h4
18. g4, Bxg4  and Black has wining attack.

                                                   Round seven: Comedy of errors
                                         Kadric Denis (2403) - Bejtovic Jasmin (2391)

Position after 21.c4

I played against the most promising junior in the country. He played very aggressively after the opening and got this almost lost position. My solution here was very nice.
21...Rxf3
22. cxd5, Qg5+
23. Kh1 and now comes tactical stroke that decides a battle.
23...Bxe5! with a big problems on square f1. White played...
24. Qg1 ...and I thought that I calculated everything to the end.
24...Qxg1+
25. Kxg1 (if 25. Rxg1 than simple 25...Bd4)
25...Bd4+
26. Kg2, Rf2+
27. Kg3 And we got a position from next diagram. Something incredible happened. For some strange reason I thought that I can not take a knight on b6 because my rook is hanging. I know, it sounds crazy.
So when thinking about this position already before I exchanged queens I seen that I can just take on d5 with overwhelming advantage. I was not completely satisfied and I was looking for forced win. So I found a solution. I can simply take on a2.

Position after 27.Kg3

27...Rxa2?? ( Of course 27...Bxb6 and White can just resign)
I thought that besides Bxb6 I also have a threat Bf2+ and that white has to resign.
28. Rxe6  I just missed this! A knight on b6 is defended and I was extraordinary lucky that my position was still better.
I went to win it, but this was very unpleasant experience.
I have to say that I didn´t checked position when I played 27...Rxa2 , but played automation. This time without consequences but I lost one game in Plovdiv (European Championship) when I blundered badly in winning position. I never had problems with this earlier, but in 2012 in every single tournament I made a big fat blunder like this.

                                              Round eight: One more piece sacrifice
                                        Bejtovic Jasmin (2391) - Nestorovic Dejan 2390

Position after 22.Nf4-Nh5

This game could launch me in some kind of chance for a price if I manage to win in the last round. I was very determinate to win it and I played focused and tried to complicate matters from the beginning. What happened is that I was simply out of shape and I missed tactical possibility for my opponent. My last move 22.Nh5 was a blunder.
Black played excellently.
22...Nxd3!!
23. Qxd3, Bxe4
24. Bxe4, Nxh3+!
25. Kf1, Nxf2
26. Kxf2, Qxg4 and white is dead lost.

                                            Round nine: Eventually a good game
                                   Kharmunova Nadezhda 2227 - Bejtovic Jasmin (2391)

Position after 17. Qa6

After not so impressive opening (from both sides) my opponent went with a queen on a6 and gave me a possibility to take an initiative.
17...e4
18. Nd4 (if 18.Re1 I was ready to sacrifice a queen with 18...exf3. That leads to winning position for Black. If 18. Nh4 Black can win a piece by 18...Bc8 and 19...g5. The third possibility is 18.Ne1 but after 18...Ne5 Black is just better, same as 18.Nd2, e3)
18...Bxd4
19. cxd4, Ng5
20. Bxg5, Qxg5
21. Qxa7, e3
22. Qxc7, Bd3  and after some precise moves I won a game.

A few words about tournament

Hungarian GM Viktor Erdos won a tournament, and young Russian IM Antipov shared a first place with him. I already played against both of guys, drawing with Erdos in Bosna 2011, and winning against Antipov in Marienbad 2010. This time they were unreachable. The huge majority of players were players from former Yugoslavia and they played as always with some tactical draws and if they were really playing then you could see a lot of complicated games with sacrifices.
Tournament was pretty well covered in media, as always.
You could found a whole page about chess every day in two most popular daily newspapers in the country, and even on the news on national TV you could follow results.
Something unimaginable in Sweden.

 

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After the tournament I visited some of Sarajevo´s antiquarian shops and bought some chess books.
I have to mention my club Šahovski Klub Napredak Sarajevo who helped me to take participation in this tournament. In these days there are a not so many good chess clubs (there are a lot clubs who can´t make their promises and best thing they can do is frustrate one), but Napredak Sarajevo is easily one of the best  clubs I ever played for.
My next competition is actually for that club in Premier league of Bosnia and Herzegovina and I am looking forward to that.