Mikhail Tal memorial
The tournament was held on the first weekend of March in Jurmala Latvia. On Friday there was a blitz tournament followed with the rapid on next two days. The blitz tournament ended with a surprising victory by the tournament organizer Alexey Shirov. The rapid was won by rating favorite Vladimir Onischuk from Ukraine. There were a lot of interesting games in rapid. I started well winning against strong grandmasters Daniel Fridman and Loek Van Wely in the first day. In the second day I had winning advantage against Onischuk in round seven which was crucial for me. After that disappointment I could not win a single game and finished in tenth place.
Loek Van Wely outplayed Arturs Neiksans, but in time scramble lost control.
Igor Kovalenko one of the pretournament favorites was punished by veteran Evgeny Sveshnikov.
In rapid chess some very strange games may be found. Alexey Aleksandrov from Belorussia created very funny ending against Victor Laznicka.
My best game was against Daniel Fridman.
