 Okay, Eric, you won your game today. Must be feeling good. You beat Nino Batziashvili. Tell us something about the game. Yeah, I mean the adrenaline is still kind of wearing off, finished not too long ago. Yeah, chess is emotionally exhausting. It's my first event in several months and I've been been trying to keep my energy levels up. The game was interesting. I was a bit surprised out of the opening, like she was clearly more prepared, but I still got a position that I was somewhat comfortable with and knew some ideas and at some point things just turned in my favor and found a lot of kind of nice strategic positional moves, put on a lot of pressure and then eventually she blundered and I got some material advantage. Of course, you're a very well-known streamer and now here you are again playing over the board classical chess. Does that feel like a shock to the system after all your streaming activities? Yeah, it's definitely a little bit of a shock to rather than just playing Blitz online and interacting with Twitch chat to play a long classical game. I mean all my games so far have been over three and a half hours so it's tough, but it's also refreshing. It's nice to just put your whole energy into playing, hopefully, a good quality game. I've definitely missed playing over the board chess in recent months over the last couple of years so it's great to be back. Did you feel rusty when you sat down the other day for your first game? Do you think you're getting rid of some of that ring rust now? Yeah, a little bit. It is weird moving three-dimensional pieces and I think there's some confidence issues where just because I'm rusty and a bit lower confidence than I would be if I was playing more it causes me to think more and second-guess myself and that can lead to time trouble. So trying to overcome it and first several games have been a good warm-up and hopefully I can get in my peak form. Okay, how did you enjoy coming to Gibraltar? Is it your first visit here? It is, yeah. It's a tournament that's been on my bucket list for years and unfortunately, I'd never made it until this year and it's been great. I arrived a few days early still recovering from jet lag a little bit, but had a chance to hike up the rocks. You know monkeys went to wildlife preserve and saw more interesting animals. So it's been great so far. Okay. Okay, let's have a look at your game. Sure. Okay, Eric, let's have a look at your game which looks like a Nimzo Indian. You've just played rookie 8. Yeah To be honest, I was terrified here just because White has a typical stonewall attack she pretty much blitzed out her moves up until this point and it's very clear White has ideas of just destroying me on the Queen side with G4, G5 possibilities and Queen H3 and the move she played was Queen H3 which not only targets H7 obviously, but also D7. So there's already tactical threats here like Knight takes D7, Queen D7, Bishop H7. So I had to be really really careful and the move I played was Knight to F8 just trying to hold things together Overprotection of H7 or what really cool? Yeah, overprotection. I know it's like it's one of the reasons to play with the 8 is to get the knight in there And then she surprised me with the move Bishop to B5. Oh, wow change of direction Which yeah, and when she played this I thought maybe I blundered something with allowing the Bishop or Knight coming into C6 But it turns out after rookie 7 The the threats for White don't really add up to much. Yeah, exactly so What happened Bishop D2 and then I was able to just gain time on the Queen side if we just go ahead a few moves Okay, should I just push it down to yeah, because she lost time moving lights for Bishop a bunch Okay, so she played Bishop E1 there Bishop E1. Yeah, I suppose of the stone wall that Bishop's never gonna be a good piece Is it it's one of white's worst pieces, right? Okay, but it has idea of becoming a dangerous piece with Bishop to H4 It makes sense and I took a lot of time in this position Just because there's so many different options like I want to play Queen B6 I also want to activate my Knight with Knight E6. I can throw in taking I can take on C3 and play B4 So I really didn't know how to approach just the thought process and The move I played was Bishop takes E3 Okay, which is maybe of the counterintuitive because usually you want to wait until a3 But the point is it's very concrete. Yeah Black or white can't take back with the Bishop because after it takes there's issues on the C file For example takes takes takes and B4. I believe just wins material. Okay, so it does. Yeah, so She had to if we just go back to the main line, she had to take back with the pawn another pawn on the dark square exactly, yeah, and Not only that, but I'm able to just get a preferable structure. Yeah after it takes Takes and 94 Yeah And you can start seeing how the position is beginning to kind of turn in my favor really nice Knight f6 is coming and Really ugly backward C pawn for white. I can't see the board very well for them. It's angry. It's Bishop h4 move here so Bishop h4 can be met with f6 and then nothing and I mean to me it looks slightly awkward having a pawn on f6 But I guess right no no refutation. There's no reason not to not to play Yeah, six. It's a move. I want to play anyway. Just a kick away the night Of course, right and then have the e file. So you're going to 10 points as well So it's not a great plan. So she very quickly played rook d1 and Next few moves. I think we're quite natural Knight g4 I had to move into the Queen King h8 and King h8 was it was a move that Looks a bit strange But the point is I want to take on c3 possibly and I don't want to allow Bishop h7 with check In the cases where there's tactics in the C file Okay, and I want to have time for take some c3 and 92 so it might be a sort of intimate some Intimate so move after a check on h7, right? Also, the King is generally better on a dark square in this position given the lights for Bishop Also, the Knight no longer has any Possible checks So if we go forward a few more moves Yeah, so I start making progress on the queen side queen sides moving 93 Rook d8. Okay, we're defending the pawn also preparing Bishop c8 in some cases Queen f3 Queen f3 and Before so the minority attack. Yeah, isn't here, but yeah Yeah, it feels like a minority attack, but I'm very there wasn't a ball on b2 and I looked across the yeah Very simply attacking in the backwards pawn Which is pinned to the rook because the rook's not defended. Yeah, and I think the issue for why it was just a piece harmony it wasn't it wasn't great given that the rook's aren't connected and The the pieces targeting d5 they they don't really accomplish much So here she played Knight f5 Which is very logical it hits a rook it defends upon with the Queen But after Rook y8 Yeah, it's still not easy to find a good move for white Just still with a C file pressure and this is where she made kind of a blunt I think that game losing blunder, but I think it's already difficult is Rook to c2 Yes, I saw this and it's this this is where if you're watching on YouTube pause the video And find the winning move for black Yeah, I already know because I've seen the position right. Yeah. Yeah, it's maybe not so obvious is it? It's so yeah uses kind of the board geometry Yeah, I had seen this move from I think like three or four moves back So I was aware of the the tactical idea if the Rook ever goes to c2 then the bishop is a bit stuck And the move is Queen to d7. Yes going back. I mean is was Bishop a for a move instead of the blunder I was just looking yeah, so I was more expecting Bishop a for a for Ideas to just annoy my rock and I was gonna play Rook to e6 most likely also 97 but Yeah, after rookie six there's still the issue with the c-pawn and Well, I forgot to mention that when I play b4, of course, I'm threatening c3 But I also have a secret threat of Bishop a6 to chop the Rook Ah, nice. So I still under a ton of pressure here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, okay, so after the dreaded Queen d7 So probably she found something here didn't she? Yeah, so I thought it was just a very clean winning of material But after Queen g4 I Realized okay, I can't play a4 immediately because then my Queen is overworked. It's tied down to g7. Yeah, so After yeah after Queen g4. Yes, you played 96. I played 96. The move I want to play is g6 Yes, which just seems like it wins on the spot What what do you think quite does that the product thing I couldn't figure out is Knight h6 F5 offering the Queen's rate. Yeah f5 So I'm still threatening the Queen still threatening a4, but then Queen h4 And it gets a little bit messy because now if I play a4 there's takes With a nice little takes and knight at 7. Isn't it? I thought it was mate, isn't it? Not quite mate. Sorry, it's the knight that goes. Yeah King g7 I spent a long time calculating this line. Knight takes d8. Yeah, Queen takes c2, Knight b7 I just I black's still probably better here, but I couldn't come to a definitive conclusion. There's a whole bunch of tactical exercises in this game Yeah, and I think one of the lessons is you can't get too relaxed Like I thought I was winning when I played Queen d7 and then all of a sudden I have to start thinking again Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it's not as easy as it looks is it? So you played this 96 and here Yeah, I'm just exploiting the pin And then she surprised me. I was expecting What was I expecting? Bishop a4 Where I got a basic two minor pieces for the rook after Queen a5 takes and Bishop e8 Which should be a winning endgame for black but instead She played after 96 She just took captured. Knight takes e6 and for a moment I thought I'd just overlook something Because usually when the grandmaster gives you their queen, you have to think twice before taking it But Yeah, the point was to just get two minor pieces for the Queen, which I was completely fine with and then after takes I think the rest of the game was pretty smooth conversion So there is one moment at the end. I'll just show you okay three more three moves before the end three moves like before Okay, so we got to this position actually one more move back. Oh, sorry the other way. Yeah Oh down here. We always have a problem. Oh, yeah There we go, okay, so got to this position. This is move. This is my 40th move coming up her 40th move and Okay, if we look I'm very close to winning But I had just played rook takes a2 and I missed knight b4 Attacks both rooks and it's one of these just time trouble oversights. Wow Thankfully, okay, there's probably multiple ways to win But thankfully the cleanest way to win is to take on f2 Rook f2 and Rook b8. Okay. I win the piece Yeah, it's nice thing about being up material is you have more more pieces to generate tactics. Yeah, absolutely Oh, thank you very much. Thank you