Sunday 18 April 2010

Post-norm letdown

One of the most interesting things about the Doeberl/SIO tournaments was the results of the players that earned norms at the Doeberl. All four of them (Xie, Ly, Rej and Teichmann) lost ratings points in the SIO. And in almost all cases the damage was done early in the tournament, although a couple of players managed to limit the damage with good finishes. As I've never been in the position of having do back up after scoring a title norm, I can only guess at the cause, but I assume that having your mind on what you've just done rather than what you are yet to do might have something to do with it.
One player who suffered a post-norm let down was Moulthun Ly, but at least he had the consolation of being featured in a recent edition of ChessToday with this sparkling finish in his game against Sam Grigg.

Grigg,S (1979) - Ly,Mo (2315) [A10]
Sydney Int Open Parramatta AUS (7), 10.04.2010

1.c4 g6 2.Nc3 Bg7 3.e4 c5 4.d3 Nc6 5.Be3 d6 6.f4 Nf6 7.h3 0-0 8.Nf3 Nh5 9.Kf2 e5 10.fxe5 Nxe5 11.Be2 f5 12.Bg5 (D) 12...Nxf3!! 13.Bxd8 Bd4+ 14.Kxf3 fxe4+ 15.Kxe4 Bf5+ 16.Kf3 Be6+ 17.Ke4 Ng3# 0-1

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