Chess in the High Tatras (2/2)

Continued from part one...

By Adam Jarmula

The lush greenery of the mountain area

The top five boards in round six ended in draws, though they were hardly uneventful. The most significant was probably board five where FM Veleski sacrificed the central d-pawn in the Ruy Lopez and was building a king-side attack, yet IM Krnan's defense was well coordinated and after several trades the game simplified to an equal material rook-plus-minor-piece endgame. The players continued for another 50 moves, with the game ending in a perpetual check from white's queen, which stopped the advance of black's g-pawn supported by a rook.

Strbske Pleso in a more cloudy weather...

...and it was a cloudy day indeed.

The seventh round turned out to be unlucky for Lukasz, who lost his only game in the tournament, a „Black” encounter with FM Vojta. After a poor opening against FM Vojta, he found himself defending a drawish endgame a pawn down, but his opponent's insistence bore fruit and he succumbed. This was a hard blow as he was seeking his third IM norm, thus complicating his ambitions considerably.

Under pressure in round seven against FM Tomas Vojta

Generation gap on board five: IM Sergej Berezjuk against Szymon Gumularz. In the end,
White prevailed... Gens una sumus!

Round eight, the penultimate round, saw untitled Martin Pagerka become the sole leader of the tournament with 6.5/8 after defeating FM Zoltan Zambo in an Old Indian Defense on board one as White.

Round eight also proved a moment of redemption for Lukasz as he played white against IM Richard Biolek.

White obtained a promising position in the Exchange Slav [see analysis]. The win against IM Biolek was particularly important for Lukasz, as besides improving his standing in the tournament, it also raised his rating performance to the point where a draw in the final round would most likely satisfy the rating requirement for the International Master norm.

Tournament top-seed IM Richard Biolek (left) had a tough time during the tournament. Though,
in this encounter with Jan Brhel in round seven he won comfortably.

Monument to the Slovak National Uprising during World War II

The final round began with a quick draw on board one between IM Czech and Pagerka, which satisfied the leader Pagerka who finished the tournament with 7.0/9 and favorable tie-breaks. On board two IM Krnan completed his hat trick by winning his third game in a row, joining the leaderboard with 7.0/9, and relegating to thirteenth place FM Zambor, who had led throughout most of the competition.

The round is underway

On board four Lukasz played black against IM Petran in the game which, if at least drawn, could gain him the third and final IM norm. However, being only half a point behind the leader and having good tie-breaks it was tempting to try to win the game and "earn" the podium in the final standings. As a result, Lukasz tried to take initiative in his hands and build an attack, which was skillfully refuted by his opponent, who after simplifications got a better rook plus same-colored bishops endgame. Thanks to Lukasz's stubborn defense and with some help from the opponent, the game finally reached an equal position in which the draw was agreed. This gave him a final rating performance of 2481 and earned him the third IM norm, along with the fifth place in the final tournament standings and a gain of 40 Elo points. Mission accomplished!

High Tatras are amazingly beautiful, aren't they?

Final standings

The full results can be found on the tournament website: www.slovan-bratislava.com

Apart from FM Lukasz Jarmula (center), both the tournament winner Martin Pagerka (left) and the long-standing
leader FM Norbert Zambor (right) earned IM norms

The azure sky, granitic rocks, green grasses, bushes and trees

The author Adam Jarmula (right) and his son Lukasz Jarmula enjoying an excursion