I Became Runner Up in Tuesday Night Marathon, Fall 2013 at Mechanics Institute of Chess, San Francisco

In the 9th and final round of tuesday night marathon, fall 2013 I won against Oleg Shakhnazarov (USCF rating 2187) who was solely leading the board with 7 out of 8.

Natalya won a seemingly lost middle game against Brendan La Counte and hence thanks to my victory against Oleg, became champion with 7.5 points out 9. Oleg and I are runners up with 7 out of 9. In 3rd board IM Eliott Winslow defeated Ivanov and hence he is one of the several in joint 4th position with 6.5 out of 9. 

I have been playing tuesday night marathon for more than a year now in Mechanics Chess Institute, San Francisco which just walking distance from my office. I never could be part of top 10 earlier. And now this time runners up! I am very happy with my performance although I believe I was very lucky last 3 rounds. For example, in this final round Oleg started a wild aggressive attack in the king side, being black and all his pieces undeveloped which was the result of a poor unorthodox opening. So as I defended coolly, he didn't have much chance the entire game except at the very end when I made a mistake and lost a piece that I was up, giving him practical drawing chances. However, due to time pressure, he couldn't afford the calculations needed and simply went to a same color bihsop end game to win back the piece he was down. That end game was a dead win for me and so I had no difficulty to win both by position and time. But last week in 8th round Russell Wong (USCF rating 2200) had a winning position being exchange up against me. However, he couldn't find the correct defence for the counter attack I got as a compensation, and hence he lost. In the seventh round Alex Steger (USCF rating 2041) gave me the break by blundering a piece in an equal position. Being a FIDE rated event, I believe now my FIDE rating will also increase. My USCF rating before this tournament was 1882 and after this is going to be 1990, a hoping 108 points added! The final standings can be found here.

IM John Donaldson mentioned me in the 652nd newsletter of Mechanics Chess Institute while reporting on the final round - http://chessclub.org/news.php?n=652 . From this newsletter I came to know I have won $250 also from this tournament!

Now looking forward to the North American Open next week in Las Vegas where my son will also play along with a few other Bangladeshi chess players one of whom are coming from Dhaka.