Fool me five times, shame on me ⎸Road to GM, Game 10

June 5, 2018 NHaselton Uncategorized

Hanging PawnsTue, June 5, 2018 8:18amURL:
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Tomic (1844 ELO) vs Gujic (2054 ELO), Caro-Kann, Classical
2018 Zagreb Championship, Round 1, 06/04/18

*my rating is 1844, not 1884 as it says in the video, I made a typo

The Zagreb Championship had started and round 1 was played yesterday. I played a very bad game. I was white against the Caro-Kann, my favorite opening and my main weapon against e4. I played a line in the classical which I know is ok for white, more than slightly better. I got better piece development and more activity.

Then it started. I played five losing moves this game (one of them was a winning move I myself could’ve played) which were inexcusably bad. The first one was right out of the opening. I played a move which lost the three extra tempi I had accumulated and gave my opponent enough time to crush me. He returned a favor soon afterwards though and gave me a chance to win a piece. I missed it. Horrible. After that it was just a long struggle to hold on. I eventually lost a pawn and got a losing rook endgame which I couldn’t hold.

Congratulations to my opponent for crushing me in the Caro-Kann. Learn from these mistakes because each was so critical that it turned (or could’ve) the game around.

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