In the year 2016 I payed exclusively in one classical chess tournament – a team competition – Polish 1st League. Being occupied with different projects at that time I dropped first three rounds but then played the rest 6 consecutive rounds on board no.2. Our team Akademia Szachowa Gliwice finished the competition at 4th place.
In the meantime I took part in VI F.Dziedzic Memorial in Trzcianka and although my play was rather quality, loses after great fight to grandmasters Krasenkow and Heberla crossed all chances for a good performance out. That year I also took part in exhibitory and unofficial bullet Polish chess championship. There were around 20 top Polish players, among them many grandmasters like Bartel, Socko, Gajewski, Schmidt, Tazbir or Kanarek, to name just a few. My final result was in the middle of the stake. Below are some photos:
The year 2015 was quite successful for me. It turned out that I was the only Pole who had played in Polish, European and World Championships that year. And before that, thanks to good performances, I reached my rating peak of 2518 which gave me the right to play in these prestigious events. European Rapid and Blitz Championships were held in Minsk (Belarus):
Without any doubts, the most exciting tournament I have ever played (so far) took place in autumn 2015 in Berlin (Germany). I managed to qualify to the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships. It was extremely cool to play in the same event together with Magnus Carlsen, Vishy Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov, Boris Gelfand and other elite players. Poland was represented by Klaudia Kulon, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Mateusz Bartel, Grzegorz Gajewski, Bartosz Socko, Kacper Piorun, Dariusz Swiercz and Jan-Krzysztof Duda and me:
The 10th World Chess Champion, Boris Spassky was the honorary guest of the event. I was so lucky to watch the premiere of the hollywood biografical movie “Pawn Sacrifice” with the presence of the main hero Borys Spassky, film director Edward Zwick and main actors Tobey Maguire (playing Fischer), Liev Schreiber (playing Spassky) and all chess elite in the cinema . The movie describes a true story of the match of the century (for the chess crown 1972) between Borys Spassky and Robert J. Fischer – a must seen for all chess lovers and not only.
Before World Championships I needed to warm myself up and so I went to Wroclaw to play in the Polish Team Championship, called “Extra League”. The tournament consists of 3 weekend sessions in a year, played in 3 different cities. I had a chance to try out in practice some prepared lines and scored ordinary 1 point out of 3 games.
In the summertime I played rarely and only in few minor chess competitions.
One of the most important tournaments for me that year was Polish Chess Championship, which was held in Poznan in April. This prestigious event with classical time control was new for me and in order to participate in it, I’d had to qualify by rating which I did. The battle against very top players was serious and in the end I finished 21st out of 22 participants.
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In march 2015 I played 2 strong preparatory tournaments before Polish Chess Championship. That was rapid event Gniezno (II OTS Pamieci Zolnierzy Wykletych) where I was leading alone after 8 rounds but spoiled all in the last one and somewhat spontaneously Vladimir Petrov Memorial in Jurmala (Latvia) – rapid and blitz where I managed to overplay top world class players Alexey Shirov, Loek van Wely and others. All this was very elevating and good sign before starting next month Polish Chess Championship.
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With ups and downs I played in 2014. In December I took part in European Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships which were held Centennial Hall in Wroclaw. Both in rapid and blitz events I gained a lot of rating points. In rapid I scored a win against grandmaster A.Mista, drew against grandmasters I.Salgado Lopez, K.Kulaots and V.Kosyrev but lost to A.Jussupov. I pleasantly finished this tournament with 7,5 points out of 11. In the end I was 71st out of 749 players. Blitz was played in 11 double rounds. My opponents were extremely strong. I lost to GM R.Kempinski, gained points against GM A.Riazantsev, GM S.Fedorchuk and GM W.Moranda, drew 1-1 with GM D.Swiercz and outplayed 2-0 GM G.Gajewski. I finished the blitz event at 68th place out of 616 players. It should be noticed that in Rapid Champ. the title was won by the young Pole J-K.Duda and in Blitz Champ. he was perfectly second.
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Also in December, with 7,5 points out of 9, I won Mikolajkowy Otwarty Turniej Szachowy in Poznan. In this tournament participated a lot of grandmasters and international masters. I won against GM. P.Jaracz, IM. K.Urban, IM T.Warakomski, IM M.Kanarek, IM M.Luch, FM R.Kula and so gained 77 rating points.
Before that, in November I took part in “Turniej Niepodleglosci – W holdzie zalozycielom II RP, tworcom jej potegi szachowej” but with no success. This strong event was won by GM Mateusz Bartel.
In September my team Akademia Szachowa Gliwice was a clear favourite in the Polish Team Championship “1-st League” and managed to win this event. The team consisted of: GM T.Markowski, GM J.Tomczak, GM M.Tazbir, IM T.Warakomski, IM K.Urban, me, GM W.Schmidt and WFM K.Zakoscielna. I scored 6,5 points out of 8 games.
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