What: 2017 International Chess Festival St-Denis
When: July 22 – 30, 2017
Where: Chess and Maths; Montreal
It is the last chess tournament that I played during this summer. My highlight of this tournament is that I drew against GM MIKHALEVSKI Victor (Israel). The excitement ruled that day.
During the game, our table got a lot spectators, who were staring at the game all whispering to each other. It did not really mess with my head. But I admit that it was quite distracting.
I knew I would play against him the evening before and decided to give it my best shot. As what Mandela said: “I can never lose, I either win or learn.”
When the game started, I did not have illusions about playing at my best. Strangely, I just hope I don’t embarrass myself. It is not difficult to picture the result if one player has that mindset for that particular round. Luckily, I managed the game towards the end with not bad position. GM MIKHALEVSKI was down on time in the end. Due to time pressure, he proposed a draw which I happily accepted. Tons of people came to congratulate me after the game.
One thing that I learnt from the preparation against a GM: GMs usually can switch between different openings and know how to handle almost all sidelines in an opening, or can see a way to exploit it over the board. The best way is to play variations that you have studied before.
A few other things happened during this tournament:
I also officially became NM. A title that weights heavily and cannot be easily earned. Proud that I made it happen! Sylvain handed me the certificate of NM. And luckily, anther spotlight in order for me: the organizer: Larry awarded me the prize that I won at Laval open 2017.
Received my NM title from Sylvain
Then I was taken a photo in front of the post of a movie: Searching for Bobby Fisher. It is a nice photo, but you should know there is no connection between us, except we both play chess.
Ever since May, I have been doing very well in chess. I would just enjoy the flow before I hit the plateau.
