Iowa vs Tex: 1,5-1,5

This weekend I played the chess match. It was an interesting and fun experience. Ames is a nice and small collegetown. My match ended tied. 

The first game was a decent victory from my side. We were out of book pretty fast. 1.Nf3 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.Bf4 Bf5 4.e3 e6 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.a3 Bxc3 7.bxc3 Na5 8.Nd2 Qd7 9.Qb1......

After a few more moves I won the exchange:

20.. Qf5 21.Bd6 Qg5 22.Bxf8

And the mating attack was rather easy:

32.. Qd5 33.Qxh6+ Kg8 34.Rg6+ fxg6 35.Rf8 mate.

The second game started of very well, I overplayed him in a Pirc Defense. Martijn, watch:

1.d4 d6 2.e4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Bd3 Na6 7.0-0 c5 8.d5 Bg4 9.Bxa6 bxa6 10.h3 Bxf3 11.Qxf3 Rb8 12.Nd1 e6 13.c4 exd5 14.cxd5... 

Then I won the pawn on d5 and had a better position:

21.. Qb5 22.Qc2 Nxd5. But after 5 bad moves he took over and mated me...

The third game was a boring Reti that I tried to make fun by sacrificing a knight. 

18.Nxf7 Kxf7 19.Ng5+ Kg8 20.Nxe6. The idea was for instance 20.. Rd7 21.e5! And if the knight moves I play 22.Nxg7. However, Pete found but a way to neutralize my attack and to reach a very pleasant position. I managed to hold it. 

Game four never happened. The weather was very bad in Iowa that weekend. There was so much snow, that he couldn't get his car out of his street. So we decided that 1,5-1,5 was a nice end result. The crazy thing about our games is that it felt like I was playing myself since our style is very similar. We agreed to play some practice games again when he comes to Iowa City soon.

Bye!

Tex