A near disaster at the "Pristina Open" 2025

Table of Contents

The Tournament Venue
The Games, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
Final Thoughts

The Tournament Venue

The tournament was held in the Capital Gate Conference Center of Pristina, Kosovo.(The British and Japanese embassy) It was well furnished, and there was a great Italian restaurant right below the playing venue. The venue itself had live DGT boards, and it was well air conditioned.

The Building(Quite Fancy!)

The Playing Venue(Before the boards were set)
The Venue was not a hotel, so i had to drive back and forth from Macedonian every day, which eventually took its toll during the tournament. Despite the lethargy, i was able to score a nice 5/9, and with shared 25th place. As usual, I always have higher expectations! Without too much blabbing about the conditions, lets get to my games.

The Games

Unfortunately, i did not write my first game properly, since I flagged.

Round 1: Bodur, Asil Yanki-Michael Burns 1-0

The biggest upset of the tournament. I had a winning position most of the game, while he did not see a way to win an exchange. But after getting to a up a bishop position, I Wasnt able to play my moves fast enough, and in a terrible tragedy, instead of hitting my clock, i hit the table, and flagged. And that's a -32 rating.
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Round 2: Michael Burns-AIM Shita, Bujar Dr. 1-0

After I lost the first round, I was able to finish this game quick vs a 1800. He surprised me with the Archangel of the Ruy lopez, as I was expecting a scandi. I accumulated a large advantage, but was not sure on how to chose the move orders, i chose the wrong one, and got a drawn position when he surprisingly dropped a piece. A quick day at the office.
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Round 3: Buzhala, Jakob-Michael Burns 0-1

Somehow i got a 1500 this round, with black which is helpful. I missed a critical moment in the opening, but I was confident that i'd win the game anyway, after finding the typical Sicilian Rc3 sacrifice it was all over from there.
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So far recovering well, 2/3, bound to get a hard game the next day.

Round 4: Michael Burns-GM Okhotnik, Vladimir 1/2-1/2

Make no mistake this GM was not at his peak, with a rating of 2272. I was winning the entire game, but squandered it with the wrong combination.
With 2.5/4 I am making up for the first round disaster pretty well!
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Overall, I need to change my bad mindset vs playing higher rated players!

Round 5: IM Janzelj, Tim-Michael Burns 1-0

Before the tournament started, we both had a funny incident, now knowing we'd play eachother. On the regulations of the event, they provided us with the wrong address! So we met at some deserted place, both looking for the building :). But thankfully just in time before the first round started we were able to get to the venue.
He played some Alapin line, which I botched up my prep badly. Probably not going to try this lines again.
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At this point, my main goal of the tournament was to just recover the lost rating points, and to study harder for my age group nationals. Since 2.5/5 is nothing special for a good recovery anymore.

Round 6: Michael Burns-Uruci, Valentin 1/2-1/2

This was a really bad opening choice by me, and not understanding the Caro. This was a draw against a 1900, and struck another blow to my rating. I tried to keep playing on in the worse position but it wasn't safe, so i settled for a draw.
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Round 7: Kastrati, Labinot-Michael Burns 0-1

Finally, A win. Noting that it was a terrible game for a 2036 standard. But after messing up the middlegame I outplayed him in the ending. This win re-sparked my hopes of getting a good tournament. 4/7 And i was hoping for 6/9, which would be stellar.
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Round 8: Michael Burns-CM Asllani, Muhamet 0-1

We have some beef, as he beat me previously on the board one Match to decide which team goes to second league, but since someone droped out, we were able to go through.
Obviously not nice to lose with white, but he plays tricky moves, which got my confused and i did not make it out of the complications, and lost bitterly, shattering my hopes for a good tournament. 4/8.
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Round 9 Redemption: Topalli, Ismet-Michael Burns 0-1

Finally, a nice game! I destroyed his stonewall setup, and did not allow the usual attack, and I strategically outplayed him. With this win, i score 5/9 and recover the lost rating points! From down 32 to up 4, not bad.
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Final Thoughts

From this tournament i see that i clearly don't understand dynamic chess.
I have to be more attentive, and to notice to critical moments when they arrive.
As always, time management should be better, and not to be scared of higher rated guys.
Thanks for reading! And see you in the next post, My national age group championships!
Michael Burns