The was the first time I was playing in the ‘major open’ event, as I had entered the junior sections every time before this. I came with the aim to finish top ten, as this would qualify me for the main championships next year.
However, my tournament got off to a pretty atrocious start. Even if you ignore that I missed a free piece on move 13, I played poorly and lost quickly to the 4th seed.
Round 2 didn’t start much better though, and I had to suffer in a cramped position against a lower-seeded opponent. I got lucky that he played a couple of inaccurate moves and after equalising I was able to fork their king and rook to win the game.
My third-round game went a lot smoother, as I won an exchange early on, and then set up a winning attack on the kingside.
The games would get a lot tougher from round 4. Despite winning a pawn early on, my opponent put up good resistance, and I missed a critical chance to exchange to a rook endgame a pawn up.
In round 5 I was in the opposite position, trying to grovel a draw after my opponent secured the bishop pair. I just about managed to find a drawn endgame when my opponent traded the last set of rooks.
Round 6 was pretty boring. I had a nice opening, but after a couple of inaccurate moves in the middlegame my opponent equalised. I then played a silly move that allowed them to trade everything into a drawn endgame.
In round 7 I had a slight positional advantage from the opening, which grew into lots of play in the centre. I won a pawn, and my opponent’s position fell apart completely.
My opponent made a mistake in the opening in round 8. I got a nice position with an outside passed pawn, but he put up strong resistance, and targeted my weak d pawn. In the end I managed to make some favourable trades and won a queen + rook endgame.
This left me in a situation where I only needed a draw from my final game to secure qualification. I managed to secure this, which left me on 6/9, and in =6th position
Toby Cox, 23rd August 2022