Finally, A Champion!

9/9 would have been great but 8.5/9 is not bad. Finishing as the clear champion at the 4th Buddhi Open is a nice feeling.  I dont deny that I was the favourite to win. But still it feels nice. And I gained 50000 SL rupees n a beauty trophy and 8 elo! Very successful trip.

Final round

Today I meet Srilankan player TSS Peiris(2020). He is a good player. But I must not think of the championship. A chess players true possessions are his games not his accomplishments. No one is interested in which tournament you won or lost but if your games have instructional value then everyone would like to see them and learn from them. This I have learnt from Mark Dvoretsky. So lets forget about 1st place, prize money, 9/9 etc and play good game.

Top seed

The tournament begins in 30 minutes n I am tensed. I dont know why but being the top seed in a tournament is kind of a new feeling and that too in a foreign country! And that too by 200 points. Phew! I m all d time reminding myself that coming here is not a mistake but my games will have to prove that!

Anuruddha Srilankan champion

Today after a hard fought win against Nishant, I will now play a good player from Sri Lanka Anuruddha(2156) in rd 8. He is quite a resourceful player so I must be careful. According to Niklesh he might offer a draw before the game but I intend to play. Its one thing to win the tournament but quite another to play good chess and I must play in order to show that I am capable of playing strong games.
(Before 8 rd)

Nimzo or Benko

My 7th round opponent is Nishant Malhotra(2073). He always play d4. I was confused between Benko n Nimzo but finallt decided Nimzo as its the most solid.

Patience, perseverance & trickery!

My 6th round opponent was Yogesh Gautam (2047).A tricky player and quite strong in trappy play. I played Catalan with white and he played the open catalan. He played Nc6 move to Bg5 which is not theory. I played safely and secured a small edge. The entire game revolved around whether he could play c5 or not. He defended nicely and at one point I felt as if there is no way but to accept a draw. I had a 28 min advantage but slowly not only the time but also my energy drained out. I did something interesting at that point. Unlike Dubai where I would blunder in such situations, I ran to a nearby shop and drank milk. Immediately I felt better and starred seeing better. Funny thing is seeing me drinking milk, he too ran to the shop but the one I drank was the last. Thats what he told me after the game. Soon he played c5 but turned out be a mistake as I set a small trap in which he fell. As I always say sometimes its not wirth achieving something that u were trying for a long time!

Room mate mated

My game against my room mate Niklesh Jain (1893) didnt really cause too many difficulties as first of all I got the position I prepared previous night and he kept making passive moves due to which he never really got any chances. Overall there wasnt much scope for me to go wrong but I think I played a game without any mistakes. Now I might get some strong opponent for which I should be mentally prepared.