by Tunnet Taimla, 2004

It was my first game ever, in A-final. I was tentative black and my opponent was the strongest Swedish player (in my opinion) - Stefan Karlsson. I was pretty sure he would swap colours in D11 and play the upper 11th move. That's what he did.

I had many ideas as white there (later on games I did choose other developments).

The second round. My opponent was perhaps not so famous but surely not a weak player - Yoshihiro Iio. He had won the Qualification Tournament and before the game with me he was unbeatable in Vadstena :P. Last year in TWC I had a chance to play with him, so he is the only Japanese player I have ever played more than one game

with. He placed D8. I swapped. We played the main 5th move and Nakamura's variant. I thought it is almost black win as we had analysed it with Ando and Ants before (later on it became clear it is not so easy to win as black) so I was feeling pretty comfortable. After I had made my 33rd move he 'fell asleep', he thought maybe for one and a half hours and finally did 34-34. Sadly it wasn’t even a VCF. I saw it immediately but checked all variants many times and finally made my 35th. He resigned.

My next game was with a strong Swedish player - Joachim Gaulitz. This was the only game I lost.

I was very surprised when he qualified to A-final from Q-tournament and I was even more surprised when he won me =). I chose D11 again. He didn't swap. I was thinking he would play 12-12 but 14-14 was a surprise.. I saw him playing it twice himself in Q tournament as black, so I was wondering what his plan was.

I spent too much time on following two moves. As he said after the game his plan was involved with 19-A. Anyway 19-19 is much better and after 25th move it seems very strong for black. Here my bayomi had started and I still thought much on the 29th move. Finally I made four and was still thinking. I am not sure of the outcome of 31-37 when white plays 32-B but after the game we found strong developments for black there too.

In our game I chose 31-31 what was very strong too. I had about 7 minutes left and maybe 25 moves to make but dumb me did such a mistake on 33rd move. If I would have closed his three simply with my own three and then moved 35-33 black would have been very powerful at left side. I am not sure if black should lose in that corner but after my 37 white won easily. I resigned after 44-44.

It was the 4th round. My opponent was very famous Japanese young player - Hiroshi Okabe. He won the Japanese Qualification tournament to WC and showed the best game from Japanese players in this tournament. He is the player from 'new generation'. So it was an important game for me. I had to prove myself. He opened D8. I swapped again. He chose the 5th and played Nakamura's 14th. My 15th seemed to surprise him. He thought quite long and finally answered 16-16. And after my 17th he played 18-18. I had analysed this position and I had played games here. So I was thinking with which move I should start. When I was playing I thought I need point 25 for later to develop to point 21. But actually I needed 9_19 line opened only. So after I had made my 19 and he played his 20 I thought oh.. Now I can't have point 23 but actually 21-21 (key point) was enough I think. Now he tried some moves but with 9_19 connection it was too powerful. He resigned after the 39th move.

Next game I had to play against Tord Andersson. I opened D11. He swapped. Against Stefan he used 13-15 which I hoped he would play against me too but he played 13-13 and after the 15th move I started to think what to play. I wanted to surprise him and play something else than 16-29 which I had used against Stefan. Finally I decided to play a very risky move, 16-16. I thought I knew there were some diagrams in Japanese book about it and that I had seen some games with this move but actually there it was showed 13-15 and 14-16. So I did land up in a totally new position.

Later I started to think that A-final is not 'a testing tournament'. He used a lot of his thinking time with next three moves. 17-17 was a correct move (I think others lose). I am not sure about 19-19, maybe it is possible to play 19-22 too. After the 23rd move it seemed very similar with some known positions but still different. For example in RW 44 there was a game Karlsson-Taimla. The only difference between these games was that in our game with Stefan there were no stones at 17th and 18th point but it was a great difference. 18-18 helped me to make a cut to point A later. So after my 24 black had no win in this position, no timing. Tord's time was running out and seeing that after 32-32 there is no way to win he started to calm down the position, but it was already too late.. Position was bad and there was no time. Finally I managed to win.

Chingin was pointed out as one of the favourites to WC title. In Russian top tournaments he had been very stable lately. So I was expecting rather interesting game. Before the game with me he had opened I6 many times and played his 4th move, so before the game I analysed it with Ando but finally we didn't really find anything.. Still he decided to play D11. I didn't swap colours. After I made my 12 he quickly answered 13-13 and the following moves till 29th were played quickly. Here he took a little thinking time, still placed usual 29th and 31st. I knew white's best defence plan and there was nothing much to do to avoid draw. So after a few hours of playing we settled in a draw.

Martin Carlsson was the youngest Swedish player on the tournament. Some people thought that he would be one of the outsiders of the tournament but so far he had 4 points already. Unluckily he lost the rest of the games.. In our game he chose black in D11 and played as other Swedish players did. This time there was played 13-13, not 13-15. Maybe he thought he could surprise me but actually I was waiting for 13-13 because it seems 14..16 surprised him. Here he took a great thinking time and finally played 17-17 that I knew is black loss. 17-30 would be better defence, but black is not very good there either. So in this game I got a whole point because of my theory knowledge. He resigned after the 32nd move.

Before this game my opponents were 'beatable' but my last 4 opponents were all 'star players' =). So even though I had many points and was on the 3rd position, nobody really thought I could get 3.5 points out of those games I had left.

The 8th round. My opponent was Ando Meritee, the best player in the world. As he is my renjuclass teacher and also my country mate I knew very much about him. D3 wasn't a surprise but the variant he played, was. He had lost to Sushkov couple of rounds ago in the same variant. I wondered what was his plan and played all the moves very carefully..

Till the 29th move the position was as with Sushkov. Ando changed 29-A to 29-29. After the game he explained that it is not good to let white have point B. After the 32nd move he thought quite a long but still played 33-33 as in the game with Sushkov, later he told that he wanted to play 33-38 but he wasn’t very sure about it. In the 10th round he tried 33-38 against Stefan Karlsson, but the game was still drawn. In our game, when I had made my 40th move I felt black is losing its activity and white should get the control soon, but actually Ando was still leading the game. 44 was a risky move, 50-50 was the only one. After he had moved 53-53 I thought Ando has gone crazy, letting white have so many lines opened. But white didn't have sequence to win. So I just balanced the position and played 58-58 to lose possible connection with the right corner. Finally we settled in a draw.. It was an exhausting game.

It was the 7th of August, I had to play with Sushkov and with Sinyov in the same day, as Ando in last WC. I think it was a great surprise to everyone that Sushkov did such a comeback after not playing too often in last 2 years. The 12th move was not a surprise, but 14-14 was. I spent a lot of thinking time here, figuring out my plan. Finally I decided to play in a calm positional style. Till 26th move it was balancing, I guess. 27..29 was good development, I think.

I need to take 27-27 to keep up black's activity. 30-30 was a mistake (30-57 would have been better), I think. After I had made my 31 Ando lost to Sinyov and it was getting critical for Estonians.. In case of my loss or a draw Sushkov would have been the leader of the tournament. 34-34 was the only move. Here my bayomi had already started: Sushkov had maybe half an hour left. 39-39 was a clever move, trying to get line to downside (21_45), but his 40 was still keeping black under control.

I made my 41-41 quite quickly and he also answered 42 quickly. But 42-42 was a mistake, if white would have played 42-A, then black can't get 21_45 line working. In the game I quickly played from 43 to 47 and then started to think. After thinking maybe 15 minutes I finally decided to play 49-49, strong move.

I had less than 10 minutes left: he had his bayomi just started. I was thinking he would play 50-58 after which I would have answered 51-51. But he was still thinking and finally played 50-50, I answered 51-51 and now he already had less time than I did. At last black's position got strong enough to win. 62-65 would have been better but that also loses. After 65th move his time ran out but also there was nothing to do. I felt good, for the first time I was the leader of the tournament.

Igor Sinyov is a very strong Russian player- he was the 3rd last WC and 2nd one before. Last round he had won Ando in famous D8 Nakamura's variant as white, so I was expecting the same variant on the board this time too.

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