Tuesday 26 February 2013

27th Cannes Chess Festival

A view from the playing hall
The first third part of the Cannes tournament ended today.
The first round was played yesterday, and today was double round, which is never easy.

I am on two out of three points right now, and should not be dissatisfied.
However, there were some points where I could do better, especially in the second round (at the morning) when I outplayed Russian GM Vladimir Dobrov, just to find my self in drawish endgame.
It was also interesting in round one and three....


The first thing first.
Everything here met my expectations, and I have to admit that I had very high expectations from the place as French riviera.
The two days ago I landed in Nice, which is very near to Cannes.
It is so near that you can take local Nice bus and there is one detail which I will share with readers who wants to spare some money if travelling here.
Right on the Nice airport there is a small bus station with some lines to Cannes, but a ticket costs 17 euro.
Don´t buy that ticket!
Outside of airport, there is a bus stop, for local bus (number 200) and ticket cost 1 euro!
It will bring you to Cannes for slightly more than one hour (Transfer from the airport is 30 minutes on highway, but I prefer local bus which drives near to coast so you can see more).
An accommodation is very good, and a food, a coffee or a drink in Cannes are not at all so expensive as pointed out by many peoples on Internet sites for tourists.
The first day was very rainy, and I didn´t went out, but I had plenty of time to enjoy Cannes yesterday, as the first round started at 16:00 P.M.
Some of the pictures you can see on my facebook profile.
The playing hall is extremely good, as it is in a glass so you can see Cannes and Mediterranean sea while playing.
There is so much space in it so more than 300 chessplayers (in A,B and C group) and tournament in Checkers does not have a feeling that there is so many people in it.

Here is official page of the tournament: Official page Cannes Chess Festival
On following link you can find results, standings and pairings: Results, standings and pairings

What I like about the tournament is that there is a rating floor in A group so already in the first round I met respectable opponent with 2190 in Elo.

IM Bejtovic Jasmin 2382 - Sardo Gabriele 2190

After some unorthodox play in the opening, We reached this position which is according to me, slightly better for me (White).
he will play a4 and I will loose my d-pawn, but it is my move and I have to find a way to either win a pawn back, or to get a compensation.

17. Re1, a4
18. Nc5

This was my choice.
I could start with Ne5 or with Rc1, but I had something in mind.

18...Nxd4
19. Bxd4, Bxd4
20. Qxd4, Qxd4
21. Nxd4, Rxd4

After all this exchanges we reached following position:

He probably expected me to take on e6.
I had something else on my mind.

22. Rad1!

This was my idea when considering my 17th move.
Instead of taking on e6 I went for exchange of his only active piece.
My rook will reach eight rank and paralyse him.

22...Rxd1
23. Rxd1, Rb6

24. Rd8+

In this position his only move is 24...Kg7.
White has more than compensation for the pawn but Black is still in the game.
I would probably play 25. Kf2 centralising my king.

24...Kf7?

He just collapsed.

25. Nd3!, e5

What else?

26. Nxe5+, Ke6
27. Nxg6!

Even this!

27...Bb7
28. Nf8+, Kf7
29. Nd7, Nc6
30. Bxc6

...and Black resigned.

In the second round I played against Russian GM Dobrov Vladimir

GM Dobrov Vladimir 2537 - IM Bejtovic Jasmin 2382  draw

In the third round I was White against Italian GM Godena Michele.

IM Bejtovic Jasmin 2382 - GM Godena Michele 2516   draw

I will probably show some details from these games too, but after the tournament.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for sharing valuable information. Nice post. I enjoyed reading this post. The whole blog is very nice found some good stuff and good information here Thanks..Also visit my page chess tips On this website we will show you how to win your chess games. Depending on your current knowledge we have several tips how you can improve your game.

    ReplyDelete