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I have some funny stories from the World Open. Here is one of them.
During World Open we had few side events. Two major side events were Rapid Championship (game/10 + 2 sec delay) and Blitz (game/5). Mark played in both tournaments. In Rapid he shared 1-st place with GM M.Dlugy with 4.5/5. The tournament wasn't extremely strong and Mark needed to play with 2 stronger opponents only. He beat IM Norowitz in round 3 and drew with Dlugy in round 5. I saw his last 2 games. In round 5, he got a very comfortable position with black and a big time advantage (like 8 min to 5 min). Dlugy offered a draw, which was accepted after some hesitation.
So far nothing special. Mark sometimes plays well in blitz or rapid tournaments. The most interesting thing happened in round 3 against Norowitz. Before the game, Norowitz asked Mark about his rating and ICC nick. Mark did not tell he is "littleplotkin" and mentioned some random nick. After the round, somebody else told Norowitz about Mark. He became angry. "I did not play seriously. I would have crushed you had I knew your real strength". After some interesting conversation, they decided to solve the conflict over the board. They agreed to play 6-games match after the tournament. The price was 10 USD per game. Mark got 1.5 min - 5 min time odds.
Mark asked my opinion about the deal. "OK, very few players can beat you 1.5 - 5. Norowitz is not one of them". Norowitz indeed strong in blitz and considers himself second best in States after Nakamura. Probably, he slightly overestimates himself. He used to be very active on ICC (nick YaacovN) and played more than 150.000 games total. I remember, we played a lot about 10 years ago. He was around 3100 in blitz and 2500 in bullet that time. Sure, he won majority of games, but I was able to score about 20-25%. In slow chess, he is a regular 2430 IM.
The match started around 1 at night in the lobby. 20-25 players come to see the show. Norowitz is really popular in USA, Mark also had his own fan-club. T.Sohal from BS was among the spectators. After 5 games, the score was 5-0. Reminds me a famous Russian song "What the pain, what the pain, Argentina - Jamaica 5-0". Only once Norowitz got absolutely winning position, but blundered a queen and lost. In other games he never had a real chance to score a point. In game 6, in slightly worse position he started the dialog again "It's just unfair. What do you think would be a fair deal? - I don't know. - Is it 3 on 5? - I don't know". After third or forth iteration, Norowitz smashed the board: "It's enough". He paid 50 USD immediately. Mark believes that Norowitz has to pay 10 USD more.
During World Open we had few side events. Two major side events were Rapid Championship (game/10 + 2 sec delay) and Blitz (game/5). Mark played in both tournaments. In Rapid he shared 1-st place with GM M.Dlugy with 4.5/5. The tournament wasn't extremely strong and Mark needed to play with 2 stronger opponents only. He beat IM Norowitz in round 3 and drew with Dlugy in round 5. I saw his last 2 games. In round 5, he got a very comfortable position with black and a big time advantage (like 8 min to 5 min). Dlugy offered a draw, which was accepted after some hesitation.
So far nothing special. Mark sometimes plays well in blitz or rapid tournaments. The most interesting thing happened in round 3 against Norowitz. Before the game, Norowitz asked Mark about his rating and ICC nick. Mark did not tell he is "littleplotkin" and mentioned some random nick. After the round, somebody else told Norowitz about Mark. He became angry. "I did not play seriously. I would have crushed you had I knew your real strength". After some interesting conversation, they decided to solve the conflict over the board. They agreed to play 6-games match after the tournament. The price was 10 USD per game. Mark got 1.5 min - 5 min time odds.
Mark asked my opinion about the deal. "OK, very few players can beat you 1.5 - 5. Norowitz is not one of them". Norowitz indeed strong in blitz and considers himself second best in States after Nakamura. Probably, he slightly overestimates himself. He used to be very active on ICC (nick YaacovN) and played more than 150.000 games total. I remember, we played a lot about 10 years ago. He was around 3100 in blitz and 2500 in bullet that time. Sure, he won majority of games, but I was able to score about 20-25%. In slow chess, he is a regular 2430 IM.
The match started around 1 at night in the lobby. 20-25 players come to see the show. Norowitz is really popular in USA, Mark also had his own fan-club. T.Sohal from BS was among the spectators. After 5 games, the score was 5-0. Reminds me a famous Russian song "What the pain, what the pain, Argentina - Jamaica 5-0". Only once Norowitz got absolutely winning position, but blundered a queen and lost. In other games he never had a real chance to score a point. In game 6, in slightly worse position he started the dialog again "It's just unfair. What do you think would be a fair deal? - I don't know. - Is it 3 on 5? - I don't know". After third or forth iteration, Norowitz smashed the board: "It's enough". He paid 50 USD immediately. Mark believes that Norowitz has to pay 10 USD more.
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