Interview with Bacrot and Robson

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.

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