New stuff

The reason why I wasn’t updating the blog for a very long time is because I started writing my 6th book! The book is a guide to Scotch Game and should be published sometime next year by Everyman Chess! Naturally, in order to gather the material for both sides I have to go through practically everything I can find on the Scotch! Which is really a lot!

The other interesting matter is that the book that my parents write about my upbringing and education (as well as about their students, etc) is slowly moving forward! And although it is in Russian now, I consider translating it into English in the future as it will be very interesting both for parents and for parents-to-be!

And now back to my book :))

Final rounds, Men’s European championship

In round 9 I lost to Erdos (2583 elo), then to Ruck (2558 elo) both from Hungary. These two games were quite long and difficult, mainly positional 🙂 And in the last round I drew GM Sedlak (2592 elo). So I finished with 5.5 out of 11 and am really satisfied with this result! I won rating, gained experience and won against a strong GM (Minasian – 2557 elo in 29 moves)!

Budva, round seven

Today I won a strange game vs Veleski Robert of MKD (2269 elo). We got to a slightly better position for me around move 15 and then he blundered a Q in one move… What a pity! The game was going to be very interesting. His main problem was the lack of good moves and the development was terrible. But still… 🙂

Tomorrow we have a rest day, hopefully walk around, do some sightseeing if the weather is good. And then I will play GM A. Minasian of Armenia with 2557 elo.

Budva, round six – part two

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.