I drew GM Macieja (2607 elo) of Poland today. He had a very promising position after the opening but then got into strong time-pressure and I gained a strong initiative by sacrificing a pawn. around move 30-40 he found some very good moves and neutralised my activity by exchanging some pieces and pawns.
So far the average rating of my opponents with Black pieces is 2660 🙂 Tomorrow I am playing White vs Veleski Robert (2269 elo) of MKD.
Yesterday I drew GM Savchenko (2654 elo) in another fighting game. In early middlegame he sacrificed an exchange, I sacrificed a pawn in return on the next move and we got an unclear endgame. Later on I thought I was slightly better, he thought the same about his position 🙂 After the game we analysed and concluded that nobody could achieve more than a draw as the position was closed and I had a terrible pawn structure.
Today I play GM Macieja (2607 elo) who was European champion some years ago.
I lost the 3rd game to Russian GM Grachev with 2655 elo. We played 109 moves! 🙂 The game was very interesting although not without mutual mistakes (Which game has no mistakes?! :-)). And today I won a crazy game against Romanian FM Bonte, Andrei (2355 elo). The first part was pretty good, then we spoiled the game a bit due to very light time pressure – both had to calculate loads of lines and he sacrificed an exchange.
Lets see what tomorrow brings!:-)
I won the second round against Serbian FM Igor Spiric, 2254 elo. The game again was very interesting, with mutual sacrifices. Hopefully, I will play a strong GM tomorrow!
If you wish to know the news on the championship, log on to http://www.eurobudva2009.com/eng.htm . Enjoy!
