Day 2 went as expected for me ... a win in the morning against improving junior Jack Puccini & an afternoon loss against tournament 3rd seed Dusan Stojic. Round 4 sees me playing another MCC regular, Felix Wyss. There are now 6 players who are left on 3/3 in a field of 85 players.
My game against Jack Puccini was a Modern Defense that turned into something akin to an Accelerated Dragon with c3. Jack sacrificed a pawn in the opening & we reached a fairly unique position where there was a series of knight manoeuvres, with Jack trying to put pressure on my e6 pawn, while I was trying to defend it. Ultimately Jack managed to win back the pawn, but in doing so allowed my remaining pieces to become active and Jack resigned when I was about to win material by force.
My game against Dusan Stojic was a Paleface Attack that turned into a Modern Benoni position. Game 8 of the recent World Championship match between Anand & Gelfand was a similar opening & I used the idea Anand employed in the World Championship game, playing Ng1-e2-c3. I was very happy with my position midway through the opening, before I castled kingside. This allowed Dusan to play a Nxd5 tactic & I responded to it inaccurately. Fritz suggests that I can play 17.exd5 Nxd5 18.Nxd5 (which protects the key piece on e3) & then 19.Nb5 to guard the critical d4 square from a potential Bd4. Although this sequence is somewhat tricky to spot, I was disappointed to miss it during the game, as I would have had a decent chance to score a good result against a strong player.
Results are available on the Chess Victoria website.
Lets hope today is a good day for my chess!
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