OTB blitz against my childhood hero, Baadur Jobava.
I have the absolute honor of having the legend himself, Baadur Jobava, as my teammate in the Hungarian Team Championship.
After the championship, we had our season-closing team event. Baadur was incredibly generous with his time, playing blitz games with the teammates, especially the youths. But I had a very specific reason to challenge him.
Earlier that day, I managed to force a 2350 FM to resign in just 21 moves using the opening named after him, the Jobava London System.
You can check out that game here: https://lichess.org/study/VjwFgJIl/vMa0Mb5q
During lunch, I brought up this game and jokingly told him that after a win like that, I definitely earned the right to play a game against the creator of the opening himself!
I figured since I was getting this rare opportunity, I wasn't going to let it go to waste. I didn't want to disappoint him with a dry, boring game, I wanted pure fireworks.
Here is how the game wen: 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d6 (At this point, he smiled, looked at me and laughed: "That's the Anti-Jobava London!") 3. e4 e5 4. Nf3 Nbd7 5. Bc4 Be7 6. dxe5 dxe5 7. Bxf7+?!
Obviously not entirely sound of course. But in a blitz game, it is highly practical and forces critical decisions immediately.
After 7... Kxf7 8. Ng5+, Black has a choice. The risky, but promising route is 8... Kg6, while 8... Kg8 leads to a roughly equal position. Baadur pragmatically chose the safe 8... Kg8, and after a tense fight, I actually managed to hold the draw!
Beyond the game itself, I just have to mention what a genuinely amazing guy Baadur is. He is incredibly down-to-earth and literally became friends with everyone on the team within five minutes. He would just randomly pull out a chessboard on his own and start showing us stuff without anyone even asking.
Playing a crazy, tactical brawl against my childhood hero -and actually surviving it- was a surreal experience.
