GM Jim Plaskett, courtesy of Sarah Hurst
By poetic justice, today I played GM I Kiramkulov in the last round of Dos Hermanas in Spain. Time control, 20 minutes each player with a three second increment per move. I had White and a draw would have sufficed for a certain second place.
HJ Plaskett-I Kiramkulov
Dos Hermanas, 2012
[Plaskett]
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Nc3 e6 4 Bb5 Nge7 5 0–0 a6 6 Bxc6 Nxc6 7 d4 cxd4 8 Nxd4 Be7 9 Nxc6 bxc6 10 Qg4 0–0 11 e5 f6 12 Bh6 Rf7 13 exf6 Bxf6 14 Ne4 d5 15 Rad1 e5 16 Qg3 Bh4 17 Bg5 Bxg3 18 Bxd8 Bg4 19 f3 dxe4 20 fxg4 Bxh2+ 21 Kxh2 Rxf1 22 Rxf1 Rxd8 23 Re1 [should be tenable, I thought] 23…Rd2 24 c3!? Rxb2 [24…Kf7 25 Rxe4 Ke6 26 Rb4] 25 Rxe4 Rxa2 26 Rxe5 Rb2 27 Ra5 Rb6 28 Kg3 [28 c4 Kf7 29 c5 Rb5 30 Rxa6 Rxc5 31 Ra7+ Kf6] 28…Kf7 29 Kf4 Ke6 30 c4 Rb4 31 Rxa6 Rxc4+ 32 Kg5 h6+ 33 Kh5 Rc5+ 34 Kh4 Kd6 [and he put his rook on g5 and won with consummate ease … ] 0–1
Last month in a Valencian League game I ground a guy out from this position, having earlier declined his draw offer -
Afterwards he hurled the pieces on the board and abuse at me, even grabbed me by the tracksuit (we had all to play sporting the same uniform of tracksuit tops, as had he and his seven other team members had to appear in their strip). And then he grabbed me again, five minutes later, in the gents! I pushed him away and said that a repetition would mean thumps.
Loco? Well, not quite so much as I had been thinking, for I learn today that a draw would have given him a GM Norm!! Oh no … Had I known that… but nobody told me.
