A game of which I’m very proud

Sorry, nothing to do with politics or anything like that, just wanted to share this, but if you don’t like shameless self-indulgence and navel-gazing just move on.

The game, brought in full length below, isn’t all that interesting in itself. What made it interesting enough for me to repeat it here is the fact that it was against an opponent with a chessbase server rating of 2709 – and I didn’t lose. The average server rating on playchess is 1665, the rating of beginners is appr. 1200 and a rating differential of 300 points corresponds roughly to an expected win/loss ratio of 7-8/1 (you need to win something like seven out of eight or eight out of nine games against a player rated that much below yourself to maintain this level of rating differential). Right now, looking at the player list in the main playing hall on playchess, my opponents rating is higher than three Grandmasters and nine IM’s. As another comparison, Nigel Short right now has a rating of 2879, only 170 points more than my opponent. And I got a draw against that guy, in a blitz game! It sure feels nice, even if it probably won’t help me pass my exams…

US (DEN) – Sebastian Korman (FIN), blitz 3+0:

1.e4 e5, 2.Nf3 d6, 3.h3 Nd7, 4.d4 Ngf6, 5.dxe5 dxe5, 6.Bd3 Be7, 7.Nc3 c6, 8.Be3 Qc7, 9.Qd2 Nc5, 10.0-0 0-0, 11.Rad1 b5, 12.a3 a5, 13.b4 axb4, 14.axb4 Nxd3, 15.cxd3 h6, 16.Bc5 Bxc5, 17.bxc5 Nd7, 18.d4 exd4, 19.Qxd4 Re8, 20.Nd2 Ne5, 21.f4 Ng6, 22.f5 Ne5, 23.f6 g6, 24.Qe3 Kh7, 25.Nf3 Nc4, 26.Qd3 Ra3, 27.Nd2 Ne5, 28.Qc2 Qa7, 29.Ncb1 Ra2, 30.Qc3 Ra4, 31.Rde1 Qa5, 32.Qxa5 Rxa5, 33.Nb3 Ra2, 34.N1d2 Rc2, 35.Rc1 Rxc1, 36.Rxc1 Be6, 37.Re1 Bc8, 38.Kf2 Rd8, 39.Ke3 Kg8, 40.Nd4 Kf8, 41.g4 g5, 42.h4 gxh4, 43.Kf4 Nxg4, 44.Rh1 Rxd4, 45.Nf3 Rc4, 46.Rxh4 Nxf6, 47.Rxh6 Ng8, 48.Rxc6 Bd7, 49.Rc7 Ke8, 50.Rb7 b4, 51.Rb5 b3, 52.c6 Rxc6, 53.Rxb3 Rf6+, (severe time trouble for both players now and for the rest of the game) 54.Ke3 Be6, 55.Rb8+ Ke7, 56.Rb7+ Kf8, 57.Rb8 Kg7, 58.Ne5 Rg6, 59.Rxg8+ Kxg8, 60.Nxf7 Kxf7, 61.Kd4 Rf6, 62.e5 Rf4+, 63.Kc5 Rf5, 64.Kd6 Rxe5, 65.Kxe5 – draw (both of us had appr. 1 sec left)