Old Fort Bay Invitational 2018 part 1

2017 saw the first edition of a new invitational chess tournament in The Bahamas. It was an honor to be invited, and an even nicer honor to win that inaugural event. They changed the name for the second edition this year, now calling it the Old Fort Bay Invitational, Old Fort Bay being the nice neighborhood community that is hosting the event. Last year the event was a double round-robin with the best six players in The Bahamas, and I won with seven wins and three losses. This year it was changed to a single round-robin with eleven players, so still ten rounds, but only facing each player once. It's nerve-wracking to try to repeat a victory, since it's never something that is going to be easy. Ironically, my first round opponent this year was my final round opponent last year.

Cross,Ted (1991) - Karelina,Polina (1809) [B07]
Old Fort Bay Invitational Nassau (1), 03.03.2018

1.e4 d6 
No surprise, she has played the Pirc with black each time I have played her.
2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 c6 4.f4
I changed my opening from my previous three games against her, having played f3 in those games and going for f4 this time.
4... Qa5 5.Bd3 e5 6.Nf3 exd4 7.Nxd4 g6 8.Be3 Bg7 9.h3 Nbd7 10.a3 Qc7 11.Qf3 Nc5 12.0-0-0 b5?? 
She overlooked a tactic that I'm very familiar with in similar Sicilian positions.
13.Bxb5
My move is fine, though apparent it's even stronger to play [13.Ndxb5 cxb5 14.Nxb5 Qa5 15.Bxc5 dxc5 16.e5+-]
13...Bd7
She tried to decline the tactic, but she failed to notice that this move did nothing to prevent it. I was just as surprised as she was that I could go ahead and capture the second pawn.
 14.Bxc6 
I like my move better, but the computer prefers [14.e5 dxe5 15.fxe5 Nd5 16.Nxc6 Nxc3 17.bxc3+-]
14...Bxc6 15.Ndb5 Bxb5 16.Nxb5 Qc6 17.Nxd6+ Ke7 18.e5 
While the computer likes another line better, it isn't an easy for for a human to understand, while my line is simple. [18.Bxc5 Qxc5 19.Qb3 Rhf8 20.Qb7+ Ke6 21.f5+ Ke5 22.Rhf1+-]
18...Qxf3 19.exf6+ Bxf6 20.gxf3 Ne6 21.f5 Ng5 22.f4 Nf3 23.Bc5 Bg7 24.Rhf1 Nh4 25.Rfe1+ 1-0


Polina is a talented young player and never easy to play against, so it was a relief to get this early win to start off the event. The second round wasn't going to get any easier, though. I had to play against Valentine Cox, who took second place last year. To win against him is always a long grind, and I had to have the black pieces against him.

Cox,Valentine (1856) - Cross,Ted (1991) [B45]
Old Fort Bay Invitational Nassau (2), 03.03.2018

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6
I don't play the e6 Sicilian, but I was concerned about his preparation and decided to take the game into unprepared waters early.
 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Be3 a6 8.Nd4 Qc7 9.Nb3 b5 10.a3 Be7 11.Be2 0-0 12.0-0 Bb7 
I don't know this opening variation very well, so I was making it up as I went along and hoping that my opponent was in the same boat. [12...Ne5=/+] 
13.f4 Rfd8 14.Bf3 Bf8 15.Qd2 d5 16.Qf2? 
How lucky I was that he faltered first...and that I saw it! Because I nearly didn't see it. I kept looking at all the lines where his bishop comes to b6 and I thought I was in trouble. Then I finally noticed the tactics that made d4 work for me. [16.e5 d4 17.exf6 dxe3 18.Qxe3 gxf6=] 

16...d4! 17.Nxd4 Nxd4 18.Kh1 
And the move worked due to the skewer available against white's king and queen. [18.Bxd4 Rxd4 19.Qxd4 Bc5] 
18...Nxf3 19.gxf3 
[19.Bb6?! Qxf4 20.g3 Nxe4 21.gxf4 Nxf2+ 22.Rxf2 Rd7-+] 
19...Rd7 20.Rg1 Rc8 21.Qh4 Ne8 22.Rg3 Qd8 23.Qh5 Rxc3!? 
Okay, so there was no need to make it harder by giving back the exchange, but I was getting nervous and thought this would make my life easier. [23...g6-+] 
24.bxc3 Rd1+ 25.Rg1 Rxa1 26.Rxa1 g6?!
All right, I didn't see the line that the computer likes here, and frankly I'm not sure how many humans would have seen it all. [26...f5! 27.exf5 Nf6 28.Qh3 Qc7 29.Bd2 exf5 30.Qg3 Bxa3-+] 
27.Qg4 Bg7 28.Qg1 Bxc3 
All these f5 lines that the computer likes didn't appeal to me at the time, since they felt weakening. [>=28...f5 29.Bb6 Qc8 30.Rd1 fxe4-+] 
29.Rd1 Qa8?! 
The computer's preferred line here is, well, very computerish. [29...Qc7 30.Bb6 Qc6 31.Rd8 Bf6 32.Rb8 Be7-+] 
30.Rd3 Ba5 
And again the computer suggests a line that I can't imagine a human playing. [>=30...Bf6 31.Bb6 Qb8 32.Qe3 h6-+] 
31.Qd1? 
The fact that the computer suggestions are all fairly incomprehensible to me shows just how hard this position was to judge by human players. [31.Qg5 Bc6 32.Qc5-/+] 
31...Nf6 
The computer just loves the f5 moves. [>=31...f5 32.Kg1 fxe4 33.Rd7 exf3 34.Re7 Nf6-+] 
32.f5? exf5 33.Rd6 Bxe4 34.Kg2 Ng4 35.Bg1 Bc6 
[>=35...Bc7 36.Rd2 Bb7-+] 
36.Kg3 Bc7 37.fxg4 Bh1 
I wish I had seen the Bd5 idea. It is so elegant. [37...Bd5!] 

38.Kh4 Bf3? 
My move isn't really that bad. It's just that the h6 move traps the white king nicely. [38...h6 39.Be3 Qg2 40.Rd2 g5+ 41.Bxg5 hxg5+ 42.Kxg5 Qe4-+] 
39.Qd4 Bxd6? 
Again, my move doesn't throw anything away, but there is a stronger move in [39...Qf8] 
40.Qxd6 Bxg4?! 
[40...h6-+] 
41.Be3 
[41.Bd4 h6 42.Qf6 g5+ 43.Kg3 Qf3#] 
41...Qe8 42.Bf2 Be2?! 
[42...h6 43.Kg3 Qe2 44.Qd3 f4+ 45.Kg2 Qe6-+] 
43.Kg5 Qf8 44.Qf6 h6+ 45.Kh4 g5+ 46.Kh3 Bg4+ 
I overlooked the shorter forced mate, but my move was easily winning as well. [46...Bf1+ 47.Kg3 Qb8+ 48.Kf3 Qf4#] 
47.Kg2 Qa8+ 0-1

I was so happy. Having started the event against two of my strongest competitors, I went 2-0. Successfully putting such powerful opponents in the rearview mirror is a huge relief. Now I just had to keep up the pressure against the rest of the field.