Canadian Open - Day 2

The morning started with the simul against England's GM, Michael Adams (2699). I asked Jamin what he played just before the simul started and Jamin said Adams plays everything but mostly 1.e4. Sure enough as he went down the line making his first move it was mostly e4 with an occasional d4 of Nf3. I was hoping for e4 but got d4 instead. I thought about playing the same gambit I played yesterday against the IM but instead I decided to play something more reliable. Rybka says I was equal for the first 12 moves and then gradually he started to get an advantage. His advantage stayed within a pawn until I missed a good move on move 25. I thought I saw a good unexpected tactical reply where I would delay recapturing until after I played it and he immediately played the winning move which attacked my queen and won the piece. I played one more move and resigned on move 27. Overall he had 26 wins and 1 draw. Irina Krush played a simul at the same time and won all of her 12? games.

Round 2
My opponent was Howard Du from Nova Scotia. I couldn't prepare anything as I had no idea what he played so we visited some friends in the afternoon. When the round started he played 1...b6 and somehow we ended up in a Queens Indian Defense. I had to spend a lot of time in the opening but ended up winning a pawn and having a good attack down the open h file. Rybka says I had a 1.5 advantage but he had some counter play. With less than 15 min left I saw a way to force a trade of queens and I thought I could grind down a victory but it was a big mistake and suddenly I was losing. He won back his pawn and now his passed pawn was stronger than mine. We both had rooks but my bishop was bad vs. his good knight. I struggled for some time wondering if I could draw. He couldn't get too adventurous with his knight or my passed pawn would threaten to queen but I felt he was winning and he must have felt the same way as he refused my draw offer. He was trying to find a winning method when he allowed me to repeat the same position twice. I played another move hoping he would let me repeat again and sure enough he did. I claimed the draw but he was adamant that it was not repeated 3 times so we had to get the head arbitrator. Vlad came and replayed the game and stated it was a draw, but I still think Howard wasn't convinced. When I put it into Rybka it confirmed the 3 repetitions and it gave the position as equal 0.00 but it still looked dangerous to me. I have never had that experience before where I needed to have an arbitrator confirm a draw. It was a bit uncomfortable but I knew I was right.

Position after 54.g3

2009 Canadian Open 2.pgn