White must have been a little surprised by my cheeky 5th move and makes an attempt at an outright refutation. This move appears to be strong, since it discovers an attack on the f7-pawn. Some long analysis convinced me that Black will be the one to benefit from the opening of the e-file, but believe me it is very difficult to get oneself to play a move like this in a correspondence game. Now for the execution. I won this tourney to bring my rating over the 2200 mark.
Theoretical novelties are the stuff of chess dreams.
There you are opposite the tournament favorite in your favorite line, the opening you've been analyzing for the past months, and he allows you to unleash your potent new weapon. It came true for me one day. IECG Senior Master Floyd Halwick was seeded number one in my preliminary group with a high IECG rating of 2462. By winning this event I qualified to play in the semi-finals. Pressure of work forced me to drop out of the semis.