D. M. Klisanin vs S. Tomic, Slav Defense, Quiet Variation, D11
2018 Croatian Cup Finals, Round 1 (HAŠK Mladost vs ŠK Šibenik), Mali Lošinj, 05/16/18
Follow the results here: http://chess-results.com/tnr348940.aspx?lan=13
I’m playing the Croatian Cup Finals as a reserve player, but I got to play board 4 today. One of our teammates couldn’t make it to the finals and I got in. The first round was played today, and we won 4:0! This was our team (our board 4 was sitting round one out because the opponents were weaker and we were expected to win on the first 3 boards):
Board 1: IM Livaić, Leon 2497 ELO
Board 2: IM Vujaković, Branko 2335 ELO
Board 3: FM Blažeka, Matej 2312 ELO
Board 4: Tomić, Stjepan 1790 ELO
We were playing against a weaker team (except on my board, of course). My game was a Slav Defense by transposition from the English Opening. I played c6 (the Caro-Kann Defensive System) and we entered the Quiet Variation (d3). I managed to outplay my opponent in the opening, but I made a mistake playing c5 too early (he could’ve played e4 and got a better position) but my opponent failed to punish that. After that I entered a semi-slav I’m comfortable in and got a better middlegame. I weakened his a3 pawn and managed to win it. After that it took a while before I converted but I managed to do it without too much trouble.
Tomorrow we are playing a team that has Vassily Ivanchuk on board 1 (I will be sitting that one out, we are playing with the strongest setup)! Our young GM to be, Leon Livaić is going to have a tough game!