Report: Kavala Open 2021, Group B

After a long year of lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic, me and my chess study group were yearning for a proper, classical time-control, over-the-board chess tournament. We decided to go for one of the Greek summer chess scene staples: the long-standing Open International Chess Tournament of Kavala, on the first week of August. My accompanying friends were all high-rated and would play in the first group of the tournament, featuring players from 1900 ELO all the way up to several GMs and IMs.

With my dusty 1714 ELO, I entered Group B, featuring players from 1100 to 1900 ELO. Being one of the tournament favorites, the 10th seed among about 150 participants, is usually very risky for one's rating, as it proved to be this time around as well. However, I thought having to win every game would make this experience much more exciting and educational. Another hurdle we had to overcome were the necessary pandemic-related measures, like wearing masks during the games and keeping a distance from other players.

My choice of group was rewarded already before the start of the games: while groups A and C would play in a generic event hall, Group B would compete in the Great Club of Kavala, a beautiful baroque building (pictured above) which looked like an art gallery from the inside. After a 7-hour road trip, on the hottest and most humid day of the year, we arrived only about 15 minutes before the start of the games, tired and disheveled, vowing to always make the inbound trip on the day before in future tournaments!

Here are some interesting positions from each round, with my comments. I thought the puzzle format would be the most engaging, but I also included a couple game snippets and a couple full games which I found more interesting. After all, my main goal in this first blog is to test the platform's capabilities!

Round 1

Under the aforementioned circumstances, I was lucky to start the tournament with a win. On the black side of a Torre-London hybrid, I played aggressively for the full point and I was rewarded with the following picturesque piece trap:

Round 2

Ah, the dreaded morning round, and with little resting time to boot... Playing white in a Semi-Slav mainline, I was initially outplayed by my opponent after we trotted out a few moves of theory, landing in the following miserable position after the opening:

Round 3

Still lacking rest, and further exhausted by the 85-move morning effort, I played the following wild game. It ended up haunting me for the rest of the tournament:

Round 4

I finally had a chance to rest my body, but my soul still hurt from the previous defeat. On the White side of a Catalan, my opponent completely misplayed the opening and gave me a strategically winning position. Instead of cruising to an easy point, I got tempted by some beautiful variations and almost gave away my advantage. Fortunately, my opponent didn't find the way to defuse my initiative. Check if you could have done it:

Round 5

This game ended up being another bitter disappointment, and crushed my hope for a top-ten finish. Playing black in an off-beat Scotch, I initially outplayed white, only to overthink in almost every position, and unnecessarily land in severe time pressure. To make things even worse, in the following position I missed my best chance to at least salvage half a point, and even lost the game. See if you can do better:

Round 6

After another disappointing loss, I was glad to finally enjoy an "easy" win out of the opening, my only one in this tournament. My opponent surprised me with the King's Indian (I expected her usual QGD, as per her games on the database), but her inexperience in a new opening showed when she fell for an early strategic trap, which I will demonstrate here. Despite some mildly scary moments, I drove the point home convincingly:

Round 7

The seventh round game was a hard-fought battle on every stage, from the opening to the endgame. Playing black in a topical line of the Makogonov King's Indian Defense, my (VERY young) opponent gradually outplayed me with sensible, solid play. Faced with the grim prospect of losing for the third time as a tournament favorite, I went into the tank and found some imaginative ways to prolong the game. We ended up discussing a complicated endgame, where, despite an extra pawn, white was tied up to my outside passer. After mutual errors, my opponent made the last one, and I turned the tables to even win! Here is an interesting moment:

Round 8

In the penultimate round I played one of my worst openings in recent memory. White in a Bogo-Indian, I was already strategically lost after 11 moves! How is that possible? I am too embarrassed to tell! Let's just say that I made three atrocious moves in a row, with the obscure purpose of "clearing the third rank for a rook lift", giving up every dark square on the board to my opponent in the process. Unexpectedly, fortune smiled on me, and my opponent fell into a little "bluff", allowing me to escape with the draw. The critical moment was this:

Round 9

The final round was another morning one. Disgusted by my previous game, and already worn out by playing classical chess for 7 days straight, my only wish was to finish on a high note. Thankfully, I managed to play an uncharacteristically solid and sensible game, at least for my standards:

Closing Thoughts

With 6/9 I finished in the 24th place after tie-breaks, tied with the 13th place. I lost 30 ELO points in the process, which was to be expected as I out-rated all my opponents. It was surely a disappointing result, as I expected to score at least 7/9 considering my starting rank, but 6/9 was not disastrous either, and outside chess I had a great time with my friends in Kavala! Incidentally, the top three finishers ended up with 7.5/9. Group B was a brutal tournament for the top seeds anyway: apart from the winner, who was the 7th seed, no other top-ten seed finished in the first 19 places! The main take-aways from my performance should be the following:

• Try to travel to the venue a day before the tournament starts!
• Don't go crazy! Your opponent is just as likely to blunder as you are. Playing solid moves puts the pressure on him.
• Don't try to calculate everything! No-one can. It only brings you closer to time pressure. Prioritize natural moves and work from there.
• When in trouble, play actively and create annoying threats. Don't give your opponent free rein.
• If you have a strategically sound position, don't be tempted by tactical trickery. The pressure to prove something is on your opponent, not on you. Always remember the wise (if a bit cheeky) words of Greek GM Ioannis Papaioannou: "If you want to play a strong tactic that would ruin your position strategically, you should be 1000% sure it works, and it is winning. And even then, don't play it still!"

Hopefully this whole mess works. I doubt many people will read this, but if you reached down to this point I thank you, and I hope you learned something along with me. If I have the time, I'll try to update this blog at least once a month. Till the next time, good luck in your games!