21-03-2013, 08:37 PM
Andrew Muir is indeed correct in saying that I blundered against eventual 2013 European seniors champion, Mark Tseitlin ... the position was a forced draw by an immediate and trivial repetition of moves (which I had seen ... time trouble wasn't really an issue). I had a hallucination and moved my king to its only other available square and forced my opponent to win!
A pity, as the game had been well-contested by both players up to that point and a draw would have been the "appropriate" outcome. But in the end, chess is about winning the point, not the post mortem. Concentration must be maintained to the very end!
At the closing reception, Ex-Bulgarian no. 1 Ermenkov and I commiserated on our both having blundered our kings away in perfectly good positions against Tseitlin in rds 6 and 7 (Ermenkov overpressed a pawn ahead in an ending in an attempt to win and dropped a piece). These two (unexpected) "extra" half-points left Tseitlin a point ahead and able to coast to victory in the last two rounds with two draws to win.
But all credit to Tseitlin, who played to a very high level throughout and was a deserving winner! Bulgaria were pleased to see the home player, M Voiska, win the women's title!
A pity, as the game had been well-contested by both players up to that point and a draw would have been the "appropriate" outcome. But in the end, chess is about winning the point, not the post mortem. Concentration must be maintained to the very end!
At the closing reception, Ex-Bulgarian no. 1 Ermenkov and I commiserated on our both having blundered our kings away in perfectly good positions against Tseitlin in rds 6 and 7 (Ermenkov overpressed a pawn ahead in an ending in an attempt to win and dropped a piece). These two (unexpected) "extra" half-points left Tseitlin a point ahead and able to coast to victory in the last two rounds with two draws to win.
But all credit to Tseitlin, who played to a very high level throughout and was a deserving winner! Bulgaria were pleased to see the home player, M Voiska, win the women's title!