After the tense battle the multifold French Champion Etienne Bacrot managed to defeat his young opponent Ray Robson from America. Both Grandmasters came to the press conference.
— Etienne, did you expect today’s games to be that difficult?
Bacrot: I consider any match to be tense and especially tie-breaks. Both of us playing White got comfortable positions. So I could win the first game, I lost the second game playing Black and in the third my opponent was not lucky in the endgame.
— Ray, you managed to retrieve your defeat in the second game, however, you might have lacked some experience in order to overcome such a giant as Etienne Bacrot?
Robson: Most probably, I play in the tournament of such a format for the second time. Till the very end of the 3rd game I had very good chances to hold the position. I should have played 87…Kg2 instead of 87…h2 to make a draw.
— Etienne, who is your next opponent?
Bacrot: Anton Filippov from Uzbekistan.
— Ray, since when do you apply King’s Gambit and how often do you implement it?
Robson: Usually I do not play King’s Gambit even in rapid chess. However, today I had to win and I am sure that I managed to surprise my opponent. This is a rather sharp opening. I studied this variation before the game because I wanted to get a complicated game; in Spanish I think I would have had fewer chances to win. In the last game I chose King’s Gambit once again since I managed to play off during the first time. I wanted to repeat my success but failed.
Official website: http://chess.ugrasport.com
Robson is the future of chess in America. Too bad the USCF doesn’t support him at all.