A defeat to remember (and to learn from) ⎸Road to GM, 2018 Croatian Cup Finals

May 17, 2018 NHaselton Uncategorized

Hanging PawnsThu, May 17, 2018 11:05pmURL:
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S. Tomic vs K. Kovacevic, B23 Sicilian, Closed
2018 Croatian Cup Finals, Round 3, HAŠK Mladost vs Stjepan Bosak URIHO, Mali Lošinj, 05/17/18

Round 3 of the Cup didn’t go as planned for my team. We lost 1.5:2.5. I played against a 300 points higher rated opponent and lost the game, despite having a winning position at one point and a draw in the end, when I missed the drawing move in horrible time trouble. We played a strange Closed Sicilian in which I managed to somehow outplay my opponent in the opening and get a chance to win. I missed the winning idea, though, and the game was once again equal.

I won the bishop pair and thought it would be a big enough advantage to win so I decided to trade queens (which was a bad idea). We entered an endgame in which my opponents knight was superior to my bishop and I got a losing position. He failed to convert and gave me about 20 chances to draw, but we both missed what had to be done in the position.

Games are 90’ + 30’’ per move and additional 30’ after move 40, but I still got into zeitnot and had about 2 minutes for the last 10 moves. In the final position, right before I resigned, I had a chance to lock the position and draw, but I had 6 seconds on the clock, blundered and resigned.

Learn from my mistakes! The game was very instructive and, despite being frustrated now, I’m sure I will be able to learn a lot from it!

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