Just a quick one before bedtime. We won today 3-1 against Algeria, convincingly, but not easily! On board 1 we lost while we won on all the other boards.

I won with black on 2 in a Closed Sicilian. I obtained a good position after the opening and then chose to transpose to an endgame with a slight plus (18…Qd2) instead of allowing him free play (even though the comp likes the latter).

18…Qd2 is safer but probably weaker than 18…Rb1 followed by Ne3 and Nd8 (which is what I didn’t like)

I played the endgame rather well and slowly outplayed him by posing constant problems. The end was a typical theme of a bishop dominating a knight.

with 45…Kb4-c3 and a2 to follow

After the game I went to a party organised by Team Kasparov. The magician Sac Vasanth, who performed there (and also on the boat trip) was simply unbelievable, I’ll probably have to re-think my beliefs about voodoo!

Tomorrow we’re paired against Ireland, with black on 1. It’s an opponent we have every chance to beat, so hoping for the positive trend to continue!