Today it was too cold in the playing-hall, which normally is being used to play basketball. Most players made their moves with their jackets on.
My friendly opponent played a dubious Closed Sicilian, and I had nice play straight out of the opening. When I sacrificed a pawn for the pair of bishops, I was counting the point already. But my opponent created counterplay out of nothing it seemed (need Houdini for this), and after a big mistake I lost a pawn and I was at least less, maybe close to loosing (need Houdini again).
But now my opponent limped on two legs, and in the end he traded his nice rook for my weak rook. This left us with an queen+bishop ending, with opposite coloured bishops. Remember, he still was two pawns ahead, but my black-squared bishop was strong as a rook. I refused the draw-offer.
In mutual time-trouble I created practical chances, by putting my king safe and threatening mate every other move. While he tried to replace his bishop and pushed a pawn too quickly, his position was already collapsing. He made it easy for me, by missing a mate in two.
Won with the black pieces in a 5-hour game, against rating 1817. I should've won, and I did. Now let's play easy chess!
Pieter played much better than yesterday, and he had a beautiful win against a higher-rated player. Ruud made a draw in a favorable endgame, also against a much higher rated player.
Next!