Today I was up against Alexandr Fier, a GM from Brazil. He used to be over 2650 and I knew this would be a tough game. I decided to return to my beloved Dragon for this one and the opening worked out pretty well. He offered me a draw after 17 moves but I decided to try and press. We reached an unclear middlegame where I had a knight against his bishop but hoped his bishop would be rather misplaced. Towards the endgame I had taken a pleasant advantage and netted an extra pawn but missed his 59.Bd7! when the position seems to be draw. My best winning chances were probably with 51…dxc5 which would have caused him a lot of problems.
Tomorrow I’ve got David Berczes in the last round of the tournament. Wish me luck!
###pgn###[Event “Barclays Open A”] [Site “Sheffield ENG”] [Date “2011.09.10”] [Round “8”] [White “Fier, A.”] [Black “Jones, G.”] [Result “1/2-1/2”] [ECO “B77”] [WhiteElo “2583”] [BlackElo “2624”] [PlyCount “129”] [EventDate “2011.07.25”] [EventType “swiss”] [EventRounds “11”] [EventCountry “ENG”] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Bc4 O-O 8. Bb3 d6 9. f3 Bd7 10. Qd2 Nxd4 11. Bxd4 b5 12. a3 a5 13. O-O Bc6 14. Rae1 Rb8 15. f4 b4 16. Nd5 Bxd5 17. exd5 Nd7 18. Bxg7 Kxg7 19. Qd4+ Kg8 20. Ba4 Nc5 21. Bc6 f5 22. a4 Rf7 23. h3 Qb6 24. Qe3 Ne4 25. Qxb6 Rxb6 26. g4 Nf6 27. gxf5 gxf5 28. Kh2 Rg7 29. Re6 Rb8 30. Re2 Rc8 31. Rfe1 Rc7 32. c3 bxc3 33. bxc3 Kf7 34. c4 Rg8 35. Rb2 Nd7 36. Reb1 Nc5 37. Rb8 Rcc8 38. R8b5 Rg6 39. Rb8 Rcg8 40. Rxg8 Rxg8 41. Rb5 Nxa4 42. Rxa5 Nc5 43. Ra3 Ne4 44. Ra2 Kf6 45. Rg2 Rb8 46. Bb5 Ra8 47. Bc6 Ra3 48. Rg8 Kf7 49. Rh8 Nf6 50. Rb8 Rf3 51. c5 Rf2+ 52. Kg1 Rxf4 53. cxd6 exd6 54. Rd8 Ke7 55. Ra8 Kf7 56. Rd8 Ke7 57. Ra8 Rf3 58. Ra7+ Kf8 59. Bd7 Nxd5 60. Bc6 Rd3 61. Bxd5 Rxd5 62. Rxh7 Re5 63. Kf2 Re7 64. Rh6 d5 65. Rf6+ 1/2-1/2%%%pgn%%%