Millionaire Chess 2016 Part III


I lost round 6 with Black again and then won round 7 with White and then lost round 8 with Black.
All my 8 opponents were IMs or GMs. And in the last round, I had White vs Dmitri Shevelev (2314).

I had to win this game to get the IM norm. And he was the only non-IM I played. It was nerve-racking. I had scored 3.5/4 with White against IMs and GMs in that tournament prior to that game. I had WHITE for this game. I should have felt confident but I was very tense, I kept telling myself just play and focus and do your best. I just wanted to start the game immediately and focus. However, my opponent came about 40 minutes late and I was wondering what would happen to my norm if I won by default. I was pacing up and down. I was trying to calm my mind down during that 40 minutes. The game was super up and down. There were risky decisions, an unsound exchange sacrifice, and chess blindness. My opponent even had a perpetual in an objectively winning position. I had tears in my eyes when I realise he could force a draw and I had to recompose myself after he rejected it. Right after that, I went to the toilet, washed my face and came back with a renewed determination to pose as much problems as possible.

This see-saw game can be seen here

So I got my 2nd IM norm after a few months of hard work. I just want to let people know it is possible if you work hard. And I have documented the training methods and tools I used in this blog.

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