Grasse Echecs is still waiting for the first team victory. Yesterday we were close, but it was not meant to be, while today we lost 1-0 with 7 draws.

My games are interesting as usual , but my results a little bit less so. Two days ago I was baited by some very provocative opening play by my opponent GM Bauer, who carefully prepared this with black:

I succumbed to the temptation and went for 6 e4, but in the end it was me suffering from bad development.

Yesterday I played a nice game, outplaying IM Dourerassou and reaching a winning queen endgame after almost 6 hours of play. Alas, instead of winning in 1 move, I allowed a stalemate combination:

Here 92…Qe3 wins the pawn on e4, but wanting to repeat first (we were playing on increment time for quite some time now) I played 92…Qg3?? allowing the nice 93 Qh5! A heartbreaker!

The title will be decided in today’s derby between Bischwiller and Clichy, the match is still ongoing with the result being 1-1 (with 2 draws) and 4 games remaining.

Here’s an example of what happens when an elite player plays a solid grandmaster and they are both well prepared:

The moral of the story – when the preparation ends, you still have to follow up with good moves and the best players are best for a reason – the moves they play are of higher quality than those of the other players.

Tomorrow we play against the weakest team in the field, so let’s finally hope for a win!