Click here for USCF results
More pictures here
Sadorra vs GM Ramirez (Round 7) 1/2-1/2
GM Ramirez vs GM Ioan (Rnd 6) 1-0 
Langer vs Ortiz (Rnd 4) 1/2-1/2 
Ramirez vs Cornejo (Rnd 4) 1/2 - 1/2
Sadorra vs Ioan (Rnd 4) 0-1
WIM Ortiz vs Zivanic after White played Nd7 (Rnd 1.) 0-1 
View from the playing hall on the 11th floor.
- Win Black vs Henry Velasquez (1500)
- Win White vs Christian Leos (1718)
- Win Black vs Alok Kumar (1930)
- Win White vs James Ukoli (1940)
- Loss Black vs Clement Rendon (1916)
- Win White vs Alexander Jiang (1886)
- Draw White vs vs Rizal Abarientos (1884)
Nerves got the better of me in the last round. A win would have given me clear first($500) and a rating of over 1900. My last round opponent had only played in 2 previous events. The first in 1995 and the second this year. I also noticed that he had a Master level correspondence rating. I decided to stay away from main line openings, but he still played the best moves! But I had a chance to get an advantage in the following position.
Here I should have played Qd4, when black is forced to exchange queens, I should then be able to win the c pawn and have a very comfortable game. I played f3 instead which is also good, but later lost my way.
Maybe I should only play in Southwest Opens! My record for the last two events is 8-1=4.
The SWO returned to Corpus Christi. It was last held here in 1945! For a history of past winners click here
Top seeds this year:
GM Ramirez, Alejandro 2645 (Costa Rica)
IM Zivanic, Marko 2571 (Serbia)
GM Ioan, Cristian 2561 (Romania)
IM Wang, Puchen 2533 (New Zealand)
IM Sadorra, Julio 2471 (Philippines)
IM Bercys, Salvijus 2467 (USA)
Report on the 2009 event here
2010 Corpus Christi 35+51+25 = 109 (Open+Reserve+Novice)
Open: ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ, MAX CORNEJO
Reserve: RIZAL ABARIENTOS
2009 Ft. Worth 49+82+29 = 160 (Open+Reserve+Novice)
Open: G ANTAL
Reserve: P NGUYEN
2008 Houston 62+94 = 156 (Open+Reserve)
Open: A RAMIREZ, J STOPA, P WANG, S BERCYS
Reserve: E LU
2007 Brownsville 43+33 = 76
Open: A BACHMANN, S BERCYS, A ALMEIDA, D FERNANDEZ, T VEDRICKAS
Reserve: V FLORES
2006 Ft. Worth 42+105 = 126
Open: D BOSKOVIC
Reserve : T GWAZE
2005 Dallas 55+101 = 156
Open: M ZIVANIC, J BRADFORD
Reserve : J CRAWFORD, F BRACK, K WANG
I won the Class D section of this tournament in 1975 all by myself. Robin
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I will not be making it.
ReplyDeleteSo how did it go? 4 points going into the last round, any nice prize-money?
ReplyDeleteIts a 7 rounder.
ReplyDeleteI am 5.0/6.0 In clear 2nd.
If I beat the guy on 5.5 I win it all!!
I hope you find your chance in this game. :-)
ReplyDeleteThat would be nice, make 1950 or so, once and for all. ;-)
Only managed a draw :(
ReplyDeleteThank you for providing more tournament coverage during the tournament than either the organizer or the Texas Chess Association.
ReplyDeleteStill, an excellent result. If this type of performance becomes a habit, it doesn't seem like it would take vary many tournaments to reach 2000.
ReplyDeleteYou've already proven that if you can stay in upper sections or upper quad, that you should reach Expert. My take on your biggest ratings disappoint in the recent past has been getting draws against C level players, that sort of thing.
Unfortunately, it seems like a given that it's hard for anyone to make ratings progress unless they are playing in upper sections for where they are at.
Nice job! Thanks for keeping us posted. :-)
Nice tournament!! Robin
ReplyDeleteGood job, Ivan!
ReplyDeleteFWIW, I finally broke 80 last week playing golf and with summer at an end, I think it might be time to turn my attention back to chess!
W in Michigan.
I think your tactical abilities merit the 1880 rating. Your next tournament will be important because you could potentially get out of the 1800-1900 range.
ReplyDeleteI looked at the Rb1 blunder position, but also looked at a bad move, Kg3, but calculated that it still draws as the rook can get to the 8th rank, sack itself and then the White king is not getting back in time to stop Black's pawn, so it's still a draw.
Even if you draw a blank sometimes with endgames, it still counts toward the rating. Probably not a bad thing for you to study/focus on. My feeling on endgames is that it leads to more ratings stability. Tactical players ratings seem to jump around a lot, from what I've noticed (if there endgames aren't strong).
Second diagram, my initial reaction is also to play f3, but it doesn't seem necessary to kick the knight out that way. What about c3, then the c4 pawn is threatened. If ..Nd6, Na3 Qc5, Nd2 Bg7, then I guess Nf3 and Be2. Obviously Qd4 is the move, but you shouldn't push d5 like that unless you had a strong idea like Qd4 or really liked f3 to begin with (without having seen how you arrived at this d5 position.
You are right, looked at it again, Kg3 loses as well, by a tempo.
ReplyDeleteBRUZ,
ReplyDeleteThanks for you previous post. (About being more serious, watching Magnus Carlsen, playing with wooden pieces etc)
I took your advice and although I still made one very bad mistake did very well.
Ivan
Interesting Rook and Pawn ending! Do you mind if I include that position in a post for my blog?
ReplyDeleteGo ahead. Where are you blogging from? I live in Corpus Chrsti, TX
ReplyDeleteI don't understand. Your pawn won't queen in time but it should reach the second last square. In that case the game should still be a draw since his king is at the other side of the board. It has to be a draw.
ReplyDeleteOnly a Bishops's pawn or rooks pawn would draw.
ReplyDeleteYou can go to the following link and check it out
http://www.k4it.de/index.php?topic=egtb&lang=en