[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: Round 8 of the 11th North American FIDE Invitational

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
Round 8 of the 11th North American FIDE Invitational
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1211515240.shtml


   Sorry sports fans, no norm this time around either, but I gave it a
   good run. Bartell decided at a certain point to dry up the game, and
   while that allowed me to go from a very slightly worse to a very
   slightly better position, winning would have been just about
   impossible. (Or at least that's how it felt at the time.) As that put
   me out of contention for a norm, Angelo Young and I played our ninth
   round game immediately afterwards - also a draw.
   So I again wound up with 5.5/9, but it wasn't such a bad event, given
   the lousy start. It's a step back in the right direction, and I
   achieved reasonable form as the event went on. My preparation was
   pretty good but not perfect, and overall I think my opening play was
   decent even on those occasions when I was caught by surprise.
   Tactically there were some gaffes, so that's something I'll be
   spending more time on in my pre-event training. Likewise with my
   physical preparation: I could have used more reserve in the tank by
   the end of the tournament.
   But enough about my event (for now!); let's address the other norm
   aspirants. Pasalic entered the round +3, but with White against
   Loncarevic he seemed in great shape for the coveted +4. Remarkably,
   Loncarevic held a difficult position and achieved a draw, so Pasalic
   will have to defeat Stamnov with Black tomorrow. I expect he'll find a
   way to do so, but that's definitely doing it the hard way. Bartell's
   draw against me means he's still at +3 as well, so he too will have to
   win his final game - also with Black - against Inumerable to get the
   norm. I wish them both the best.