1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 However, he surprised me by playing the Catalan, an opening that I hadn't prepared for in ages. I played the Open Catalan with  4...dxc4 5.Nf3 and  5...c5 but as it turns out my lack of knowledge and positional understanding in the opening killed me extremely quickly.  6.Qa4+ is a sideline that I have never looked at before  6...Nc6 7.Ne5 almost instantly I make a blunder with  7...Qa5+?? 8.Qxa5 Nxa5

and my knight is trapped on the side of the board  9.Bd2 cxd4 I tried to complicate the game a little bit  10.Bxa5 Bd7 11.Nxd7 Nxd7 12.Bxb7 Rb8 13.Ba6 Rxb2 14.Bxc4 Ne5 15.Bb3 d3 16.Nd2 but Felix quickly stabilised and seized a completely winning position and I was forced to resign after just 16 moves. Not a terrific start to the tournament, but certainly a lesson in preparation and a hole in my Black repertoire 1-0

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4 h6?! Vaclav surprised me with this, the idea is to prevent Ng5, but is unnecessary as I would've met  (4...Nf6 with  5.e5! seizing the initiative and bringing the game into very familiar territory for me ) 5.O-O Nf6 6.e5 Ng4??

A blunder that loses a piece after the simple  7.h3 Ngxe5 8.Nxe5 Nxe5 9.Re1 d6 10.f4 f6? A final mistake allowing  11.Qh5+ followed by a king hunt  11...g6 12.Qxg6+ Kd7 13.fxe5 dxe5 14.Rxe5 Bd6 15.Qf7+ Kc6 16.Qd5+ Kd7 17.Re2 c5 18.Bf4 Kc7 19.Qxc5+ Kd7 20.Bb5# 1-0

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 dxe4 4.fxe4 e5 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.Bc4 Nd7 7.O-O Ngf6 8.c3 Bd6 9.Qb3 O-O 10.Bg5 Qc7 11.Bxf6 Nxf6 12.Nbd2 b5 13.Bd3 a6! This was a move I had seen in a model fantasy Caro-Kann game which I had looked at just before the game   14.a4 Rfd8?! 15.Rae1

I had originally intended on keeping my a8 rook on the a-file, but after this, my a8 rook was practically useless, as Edward was never going to open up the a-file with axb5  15...Re8 The changed circumstances seemed to justify changing my mind  16.Kh1 Rad8 17.c4?! This surprised me, it seems to weaken the d-pawn  17...bxa4! 18.Qxa4 exd4 19.c5! I missed this follow up, sacrificing a pawn to open up the position and start an attack  19...Bxc5? A misjudgement (19...Bf4! instead kills basically all of Edward's counterplay, and stops any future attacking prospects ) 20.e5! Opening the light squared bishop and preparing for a Greek gift, which was extremely scary to face over the board ( I had expected 20.Rc1 trying to win back the material but  20...Bf8 21.Rxc6 Qf4! and e4 is falling ) 20...Nd7

21.Bxh7+?! Very practical, as Black only has one defence, and it is very hard to spot under time pressure.  21...Kxh7 22.Ng5+ Kg8 23.Qc2 d3!! Luckily I did spot the winning idea!   24.Qxd3 Nf8! sacrificing a pawn to attack the queen with tempo, which halts White's attack entirely.   25.Qg3 Bh5 26.Qh4 Bg6 27.Nc4 Rd4 28.Rf4 Rxf4 29.Qxf4 Ne6 30.Nxe6 Rxe6 The position has settled down and I'm a full piece up  31.Rd1 Re8 32.h4 Rd8 33.Nd6 Bxd6 34.exd6 Qd7 35.g4 Qe6 36.Rd4 Qf6 37.Qd2 Qxh4+ 38.Kg2 Qf6 39.d7 Qe6 40.Qf4 Qe2+ 41.Kg3 f6 42.Rd6 Be4 43.Rd2 Qe1+ 44.Kh2 g5 45.Qd6 Qh1+ 46.Kg3 Qh4# A satisfying criss-cross mate finishes the game in a good fashion 0-1

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Nd5 Be7 10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.c4 b4 12.Nc2 a5 13.g3 Be6 14.h4 The point of my setup is to completely restrict Black's dark squared bishop  14...O-O 15.Bg2 Rc8 16.b3 Rb8 17.O-O Be7 18.Qd3 Qd7 19.Rad1 Rbd8 20.Kh2 g6 21.Qe3! Black's wasted rook moves have gifted me time to exploit Black's dark-square weaknesses with this move, intending 22. Qh6 and h5-h6 with an attack to follow.  21...Kh8 22.Qh6 f5 23.h5 Rf7 24.hxg6 Rg7 25.Rh1?? My attack had been very quickly gaining initiative, but this move gives Black an opportunity to counterattack and terminate quite a lot of my activity (25.exf5! Opening up my light squared bishop this way was stronger  ) 25...Rxg6 26.Qh5 Bg5? Missing the opportunity (26...f4! Stephen pointed out this move in the post-mortem, it locks in my light squared bishop and puts pressure on g3  ) 27.Kg1 Rdg8 28.exf5 Black has given White a second chance to get this in, and the Bg2 comes to life.  28...Bxf5 29.Nce3

29...Rh6?? This doesn't work out  30.Qf3 Rxh1+ 31.Bxh1 White is winning a piece due to the dual threats of Nxf5 and Nb6 hitting the queen and uncovering a double attack on the Nc6  31...Rf8 32.Nb6 Qd8! A great attempt from Stephen   33.Qxc6 Bxe3 34.fxe3 Qg5 hitting two weaknesses and posing a puzzle I failed to solve in time. Despite me being a piece up, I handled the counterattack quite poorly and my position became a shambles.  35.Qf3 Rf7

36.Nd5? was a step in the wrong direction, requiring me to tread a very narrow path to keep my advantage ( I missed the much simpler 36.Rf1! with the idea of meeting  36...Be6 with  37.Qa8+! and White is completely winning with no issues at all. ) 36...Be6 37.Qe2?? A blunder losing material (37.Qg2 Was sufficient to keep equality  ) (37.Nf4!! Giving back the piece to obtain a technically winning endgame, is now the only winning continuation  ) 37...Bg4! and Black has a completely winning position, which he converted with ease. Certainly a tough and tilting game, and the aftermath of my anger is shown in my next few disastrous games.  38.Qe1 Bxd1 39.Qxd1 Qxg3+ 40.Bg2 Rf2 41.Nf4 Qxe3 42.Nd5 Qg3 0-1

1.c4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 a6 5.a4 Bg7 6.e4 e6 7.Nge2 Nge7 8.O-O O-O 9.d3 d6 10.Rb1 Rb8 11.Be3 h6?! Intending to meet 12.Qd2 with 12...Kh7, overlooking David's whole idea   12.d4! The thematic Botvinnik Engilsh move shouldn't have been a suprise. David achieves quite a favourable Maroczy bind, which I had no idea how to handle.  12...cxd4 13.Nxd4 Nxd4 14.Bxd4 Nc6 15.Bxg7 Kxg7 16.Qd2 Qe7 With the idea of meeting 17.Rfd1 with 17...Rd8,   17.Rfd1

17...b6?? Preventing 18.c5, which wasn't even a threat anyways  ( When Rfd1 appeared on the board I suddenly worried that David could meet  17...Rd8 with  18.c5? as I thought my d-pawn was pinned to my d8-rook. Actually of course my rook was guarded by my c6-knight, so there was no reason to panic with the pointless 17...b6?? which just surrenders d6 pointlessly ) 18.Qxd6 Qxd6 19.Rxd6 Bb7 20.b3 Rfd8 21.Rbd1 Rxd6 22.Rxd6 Rd8 23.Rxd8 Nxd8 24.f4 The game simplifies into a pretty sad endgame for me, a pawn down and a huge lack of space. It didn't take too much effort for David to convert the position, and win a game where I put up absolutely no resistance at all. An appalling effort from me, but one to learn from and to not make the same mistakes again  24...Kf8 25.Kf2 Ke7 26.b4 f5 27.Ke3 Nc6 28.exf5 gxf5 29.b5 axb5 30.axb5 Na5 31.Bxb7 Nxb7 32.Na4 Kd6 33.Kd4 Kc7 34.c5 bxc5+ 35.Nxc5 Nd8 36.Ke5 1-0

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nh3!? The point of this move is to transfer the knight to f4, where it can exert pressure on e6 and potentially reroute to h5, pressurising g7. Scott has had huge success with this line, and I hope to follow in his footsteps.  7...Nf6 8.Nf4 Bh7 9.Bc4 Nbd7 10.O-O g5?!

A surprise to me, with the clear intention of opening up the h-file. The drawback is that it delays her development, removes the option of castling short and keeps her king stuck in the middle for a bit too long, but that was something I wasn't able to punish.  11.hxg5 hxg5 12.Nh3 g4 13.Ng5 Bg8 14.Re1 Qc7 15.Qe2 Qd6 16.N5e4 Nxe4 17.Qxe4 Nf6 18.Qf4 With this move I gave up on trying to punish Vyanla's poor opening decisions and went into an endgame that I thought favoured me , since I had pressure along the e-file and harmonious piece placement. To my surprise, the engine only evaluates it as +0.3 for me, which in retrospect is understandable since she was able to regroup her pieces and apply pressure to my position.  18...Qxf4 19.Bxf4 Bh7! I really like this move, preventing Nf5 and attacking putting pressure on c2   20.Bg5 Nd5 21.Re2 e6 22.Rae1 Be7 23.Bxe7 Kxe7 24.Ne4 Rad8 25.c3 b6 26.Bb3 Bg6 27.Bxd5 cxd5 28.Ng3 Rd6 29.Re5 f6 30.R5e2 Rh6 31.f3 gxf3 32.gxf3 Kf7 33.Nf1 Bd3 34.Re3 Rg6+ 35.Kf2 Bxf1 36.Kxf1

Eventually we liquefy the position into an endgame with double rooks and five pawns each side, where Vyanla has a glaring weakness on e6, but my rooks are misplaced. She handles the pressure on e6 perfectly, switching out her rooks and moving one to a more active position where it exerts pressure on f3  36...f5 37.R1e2 Rd8 38.Ke1 Rdg8 39.Kd2 Rh8 40.Kc2 Rh3 41.Kd2 f4! After this well-timed push, I realise that I can't keep putting pressure on e6, and I am forced into defending a tough position where her rooks infiltrate my camp   42.Rd3 Rg1 43.Rf2 a5 44.Kc2 Kf6 45.b3 Rhh1 46.Rdd2 Kf5 47.Rde2 Rc1+ 48.Kd3 Rhe1 49.c4 Kf6 50.Rxe1 Rxe1 51.c5?? I played this with just one second on my clock, and I instantly regretted it, now I can't defend both my loose c5-pawn and my loose f3-pawn ( Instead 51.cxd5 would've kept some drawing chances ) 51...Re3+ Vyanla soon cleans up my pawns and then her central pawns roll down the board. I was extremely impressed by Vyanla's endgame technique. This was a game that I learned a lot from, it exposed a big hole in my own endgame skills.   52.Kd2 bxc5 53.dxc5 d4 54.Rf1 Ke7 55.Rc1 Rxf3 56.Rc4 e5 57.Ra4 Rc3 58.Rxa5 e4 59.Ra7+ Ke6 60.b4 e3+ 61.Ke1 f3 0-1

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Nxf6+ Nxf6 7.Bd3 c5 8.dxc5 Bxc5 9.O-O O-O 10.a3!? This was an idea I improvised at the board, but I had seen it being implemented against the Botvinnik-Carls Caro-Kann. The idea was to misplace Tim's dark squared bishop, take space on the queenside, put my dark squared bishop on the long diagonal and eventually further push my queenside majority to create a passed pawn. It turns out that this idea has been used against this opening in the Lichess master's database 79 times, so it was a decent improvisation on my part   10...b6 11.b4 Be7 12.c4 Bb7 13.Qe2 Bd6 14.Bb2 Nh5 15.Be4 Bxe4 16.Qxe4 Nf6 17.Qh4 Qe7 18.Rfd1 Rfd8 19.Ne5 Bxe5 20.Bxe5 h6 21.Qf4 Rxd1+ 22.Rxd1 Rd8 23.Rxd8+ Qxd8 We've quickly liquefied to a Q + B vs Q + N endgame  24.Qd4 Qc8? Avoiding the B vs K endgame this way was a poor decision from Tim, as the control of the d-file + my eventual passed pawn should be enough to get a decisive advantage  25.c5 bxc5 26.bxc5 Ne8

27.h3 An unnecesssary preparatory move ( I saw an opportunity with 27.Qa4! but discarded it as I thought Black could play  27...Qxc5? ( actually Tim would've been forced to play 27...a6 to which I could reply  28.c6! and my passed pawn should be decisive  ) 28.Qxe8+ Kh7 29.Bf4 Qd4 winning back the piece. However, I completely missed  30.g3! which protects my bishop and avoids back-rank mate  30...Qd1+ 31.Kg2 Qd5+ 32.f3 and there's no perpetual ) 27...f6 28.Bg3 a6 29.Qc4 (29.Qa4 instead was better, preventing the blockading ...Qc6 ) 29...Qc6 The position is now a lot harder to win, and Tim does a great job of killing my play.  30.Kf1 Kf7 31.f3 Qb5 32.Qxb5 axb5 33.Bb8? Tim has managed to trade into a B vs K endgame, I have an opportunity to push my c-pawn, but instead I waste time with 33.Bb8, and let my c-pawn be blockaded on c5, and it is soon won (33.c6! Instead would've fought for an advantage  33...Ke7 34.Ke2 Although Black can blockade the pawn, he can't win it  ) 33...Ke7 34.Ke2 Kd7 35.Bg3 Kc6 36.Bf2 Nc7 37.Kd3 Na6 Now my c-pawn falls   38.Ke4 My position is now lost and Tim uses some nice endgame technique to convert his pawn advantage. Appalling endgame technique from me again, but I learnt from this game how to use a passed pawn to my advantage, and that I should try to avoid getting it blockaded if possible  38...Nxc5+ 39.Ke3 Kd5 40.Be1 g6 41.g4 f5 42.Bb4 f4+ 43.Ke2 e5 44.Bd2 Ne6 45.h4 Nd4+ 46.Kf2 g5 47.hxg5 hxg5 48.Bb4 e4 49.fxe4+ Kxe4 50.Bd2 Nf3 51.Bb4 Ne5 52.Be7 Nxg4+ 0-1

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 c5 3.e3 Qb6 4.Nc3 Qxb2

5.Nb5 Nd5 6.Rb1 Qxa2 7.Ra1 Qb2 8.Rb1 Qa2 9.Ra1 Qb2 1/2-1/2

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 Bc5 5.Nxe5 Aaron errs with this slightly unexpected move, which is a common idea in the English   5...Bxf2+! Since Aaron has already committed to playing 4.g3, this plan is less effective due to 5...Bxf2+!, which I had prepared and was glad to play over the board. (5...Nxe5 6.d4 ) 6.Kxf2 Nxe5 7.e3? Aaron quickly makes a mistake allowing me to break in the centre ( Instead  7.e4 would've held his position, preventing d5 in a Maroczy bind fashion, and preparing to follow up with 8.d4  ) 7...d5! ( apparently  7...b5 is even stronger, but this move has never been played before in any database as far as I can tell  ) 8.d4? Allowing me to trade off his strong light squared bishop which protects his kingside light-square weaknesses, which gives me a completely dominating position.  8...Nxc4 9.Bxc4 dxc4

Without a bishop to control White's light-square complex, White's position becomes very hard to play   10.Qa4+ Bd7 11.Qxc4 Bc6 12.Rd1 Ne4+ 13.Kg1 Nxc3 14.bxc3 Qd5 15.Qxd5 Bxd5

Soon I traded into an endgame which I judged correctly to be completely winning for me. Basically all of Aaron's pawns were on the same colour as his dark-square bishop and the opposite colour of mine, so my bishop completely dominated his position while his bishop could barely even move. As long as I kept my bishop on d5 preventing any c4 or e4 breaks, I should be able to convert this, as Aaron can do basically nothing to improve his position; all he can do is sit around and wait for me to make a mistake.  16.Re1 f5 17.Ba3 Kf7 18.Rf1 g6 19.Rab1 b6 20.Rf2 Rhe8 21.Re1 Re4 22.Bc1 Rc8 With the nice plan of ...c5!, to weaken the d4-pawn  23.a3 c5! 24.Bb2 cxd4 25.cxd4 Rce8 26.Bc1 Rxd4 Exploiting the pin on the e-file to cololect the weak d-pawn. Now a pawn up, this is simply a matter of conversion technique.  27.exd4 Rxe1+ 28.Rf1 Re4 I knew that I had to avoid trading off rooks, since although I am a pawn up, the resulting position would be an opposite-colour bishop endgame, an endgame which is near impossible to convert. Instead, I opted for the slow grind, where I can push my queenside majority, keep the rooks on the board and slowly but surely squeeze out the full-point.   29.Bb2 Bc4 30.Rc1 b5 31.Rc2 Ke6 32.Kf2 Kd5 33.Bc3 g5 34.Kg2?

This makes my conversion easier as I can seize more territory with  34...Re3! controlling the 3rd rank,  35.Kf2 Ke4 and my pieces begin to surround Aaron's camp   36.Bb4 f4 37.Bc5 Rf3+ 38.Kg2 a6 39.Rf2 Rb3 40.gxf4 gxf4 41.Bd6?

A final mistake allowing  41...f3+! 42.Kg3 Be2! Trapping the rook. The only problem now was that I was situated on board 11, where at around 5pm the sun would beam through the back window and onto my board, creating shadows and making it tougher to visualise and calculate lines from the position. Luckily for me, the game was basically over, and since I'd reached move 40 at this point, a few careful moves were enough to force a resignation.   43.Bc5 Rc3 44.h4 h5 45.Rh2 Ke3 46.Rh3 Rc1 47.Bb6 Rg1+ 48.Kh2 Rg2+ 49.Kh1 Rg6 50.Bc5 Bf1 51.Rh2 Bg2+ 52.Rxg2 Rxg2 53.Bb6 Ke2 0-1