- Analysis by FM Ron Simpson and computer analysis by Charles Roberson
- PGN file created by Charles Roberson
The second round of the tournament would be posted only after the first round games on Saturday were completed. Old guys like me find it difficult to play three hard games in one day. The Grand Masters also played their first round games on Friday night. So it was difficult for me to do any late night preparation. In any case I wanted to play in the traditional speed chess tournament in the morning. To me this is one of the highlights of the Land of the Sky chess tournament. You get a chance to enjoy playing people in different sections, have various conversations, and play chess with abandonment. –Its speed chess, have fun–. I expected to see GM Ivanov and maybe another master or GM. But to my surprise Ivanov didn’t register when he saw that GM Timur Gareyev entered. Ken Baxter and his wife did a great job making the event very enjoyable. The speed tournament had enough sections so that there would be plenty of prize winners (100% returned to players). I played the youngest player to have ever played in the history of this speed tournament in round one, Sean Huynh. I really had to play hard. This youngster was playing to win! The tournament moved along nicely and I eventually I was matched with GM Timur. Don’t let the nice smile fool you this 2743 Grand Master is deadly accurate, he just cut through me. GM Timur went undefeated, a first time for this tournament.
The 2nd round was now posted and I was pared with GM Alexander Shabalov. We played once before and as luck would have it, I am again playing with the black pieces. Shabalov is really one of the nicest GMs you will ever meet. He is very approachable and he brought his own chess set, something that GMs seldom do. He sported a very nice wooden chess set with a wooden folding board, something you could find on Chess Central (http://www.chesscentral.com/).
Our game began with 1.c4 and I quickly played the first few moves. We entered the English Opening: Four Knights variation. Let us look at the game.
The accumulation of errors in the opening was just too much for me to overcome. I found myself trying to dig my way out of the misplaced pieces throughout the middle game. Against GMs you just can’t afford to allow them to get an opening advantage.