Its my birthday today and Im celebrating with pils and walnuss torte in the internet cafe in St Oberholtz.
Last night I was looking at some Petrosian games from the 1960s. He was the Armenian world champion from that era - much respected as one of the best players of all-time, famous for his strategic vision and mastery of prophylactic play.
Colin and I have often mused on whether master players know some "chess secrets" locked to us lesser mortals, and I have recently come to the conclusion that they play far less "safely" than us novices. Amateurs like neat, tidy positions. King safely castled, pawns nice and neat. Don't take any risks. All very good and it makes it harder to lose - but it also makes it harder to win.
When you think about it, people are far more likely to make mistakes under pressure, and so in chess it's when you unbalance the position and attack them that you are more likely to force a blunder. I have a cautious, risk-averse sort of personality and that is often reflected in how I play chess, so I have to force myself to be more attacking and take more risks. It comes more naturally to the likes of Colin.
Back to Petrosian. For a player renowned for being cautious and defensive, he could certainly mix it up when he wanted to. Have a look at this game, which I was looking at yesterday, from the 1966 World Championship Final against Boris Spassky -
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1106720
There's nothing safe and boring about the way these chaps played. Not like us dravers in the u120 section!
By chance I've been talking to Dave Stephenson about the same topic today; I hope he won't mind if I quote his wise thoughts on this -
"I know there's a lot to be said for prophalaxis, but try and strike a balance , don't limit your moves to just preventing your oppent fromplaying. In the words of Corporal Jones, nobody likes it up 'em and having opposition forces moving beyond the halfway line and invading isn't goodfor your opponents morale."
Or in the words of Friedrich Engels -
"An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory".
I'm going to have plenty of chances to put all this to the test - the Doncaster tournament is coming up next month and then I've got no fewer than four chess tournaments in five weekends during April, at Huddersfield, Coulsdon, St Albans and Hereford.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Monday, 22 February 2010
A couple of club games
February 22, Berlin
I have come to Berlin for a few days to celebrate my birthday, if that's the word. I am sitting in a cafe as I write this. Its full of people working on laptops.
Since the Kidlington tournament, I've had a couple of interesting league nights, both at Huddersfield.
Two weeks ago there was an Rapid League evening, where you play 2 games in the evening, 25 mins each. I lost in my first game, playing the White side of a Benko. My second game saw my fastest-ever victory, in any form of chess including casual drunk games against Colin and 5-minute internet blitz. The game went like this:
1 d4 f5
2 Bg5 h6
3 Bh4 b6
4 e3 Bb7??
5 Qh5+
1-0
Even more amazingly this was against a strong club player, rated 139. It's a trap line in the Hopton Dutch which I have known for a while, but quite a surprise that he over-looked it. Just one of those things I suppose. He was a bit embarrassed about it, not suprising really. Still, he was a nice bloke and greeted me in a friendly manner the following week.
Last week I was back at Huddersfield again for a long-play league match against Huddersfield. As always, my team Netherton 'B' was heavily outgraded on every board. I was playing a young bloke rated 128. He said it was only his second season of serious chess. That certainly put my rating into perspective - still only 99 in my 8th season of club chess!
He didn't play all that well, and made a bit of a tangle of the opening. It was a Benko-type opening, until he did strange things like a3 and Ra2. His King got opened up after he took a Bishop on f3 with his g-pawn for some reason. All my pieces were on the Q-side as normal in a Benko so it was hard to capitalise on that. I think I got too hung up looking for a way to exploit his open King position, and stopped pressing on the Q-side which should have been my plan. The game got to the rather stiff time-control (35 moves in 70 mins) still level, and we both made mistakes in time trouble. I made more than he did and got into trouble, but I managed to find a good exchange sacrifice to hold the draw.
A final bit of chess news is that I went to spend an evening at Morgan Daniels' place in Bow, East London. His house is a bit of a tip - typical student house I suppose - but he made a superb curry (Daniels' famous Saturday night curry that he does every week), and then beat me and his friend Abdul at "knock-down blitz" - he even managed to beat me when it got down to him having 1 minute against my 5. Ive played a lot of players of around his rating lately at Kidlington and other places, but he's clearly much stronger than they are. Indeed his performance this season is apparently more like 170 than his current 139.
I met him again on Saturday when I was in LOndon getting ready for my Berlin trip. He was playing in a county game for Surrey v Essex U-140, and by chance I was in Coulsdon, where the game was being played, because it's very close to my parents' house. The match is played in a rather strange methodist Church which is used for a lot of chess events and has more chess gubbins in it than religious paraphenalia. Sadly, Morgan lost his game - rather over-pressed, I felt.
I will be seeing him, Dave Stephenson and Russell Goodfellow for the Doncaster congress next weekend which will be my next post.
I have come to Berlin for a few days to celebrate my birthday, if that's the word. I am sitting in a cafe as I write this. Its full of people working on laptops.
Since the Kidlington tournament, I've had a couple of interesting league nights, both at Huddersfield.
Two weeks ago there was an Rapid League evening, where you play 2 games in the evening, 25 mins each. I lost in my first game, playing the White side of a Benko. My second game saw my fastest-ever victory, in any form of chess including casual drunk games against Colin and 5-minute internet blitz. The game went like this:
1 d4 f5
2 Bg5 h6
3 Bh4 b6
4 e3 Bb7??
5 Qh5+
1-0
Even more amazingly this was against a strong club player, rated 139. It's a trap line in the Hopton Dutch which I have known for a while, but quite a surprise that he over-looked it. Just one of those things I suppose. He was a bit embarrassed about it, not suprising really. Still, he was a nice bloke and greeted me in a friendly manner the following week.
Last week I was back at Huddersfield again for a long-play league match against Huddersfield. As always, my team Netherton 'B' was heavily outgraded on every board. I was playing a young bloke rated 128. He said it was only his second season of serious chess. That certainly put my rating into perspective - still only 99 in my 8th season of club chess!
He didn't play all that well, and made a bit of a tangle of the opening. It was a Benko-type opening, until he did strange things like a3 and Ra2. His King got opened up after he took a Bishop on f3 with his g-pawn for some reason. All my pieces were on the Q-side as normal in a Benko so it was hard to capitalise on that. I think I got too hung up looking for a way to exploit his open King position, and stopped pressing on the Q-side which should have been my plan. The game got to the rather stiff time-control (35 moves in 70 mins) still level, and we both made mistakes in time trouble. I made more than he did and got into trouble, but I managed to find a good exchange sacrifice to hold the draw.
A final bit of chess news is that I went to spend an evening at Morgan Daniels' place in Bow, East London. His house is a bit of a tip - typical student house I suppose - but he made a superb curry (Daniels' famous Saturday night curry that he does every week), and then beat me and his friend Abdul at "knock-down blitz" - he even managed to beat me when it got down to him having 1 minute against my 5. Ive played a lot of players of around his rating lately at Kidlington and other places, but he's clearly much stronger than they are. Indeed his performance this season is apparently more like 170 than his current 139.
I met him again on Saturday when I was in LOndon getting ready for my Berlin trip. He was playing in a county game for Surrey v Essex U-140, and by chance I was in Coulsdon, where the game was being played, because it's very close to my parents' house. The match is played in a rather strange methodist Church which is used for a lot of chess events and has more chess gubbins in it than religious paraphenalia. Sadly, Morgan lost his game - rather over-pressed, I felt.
I will be seeing him, Dave Stephenson and Russell Goodfellow for the Doncaster congress next weekend which will be my next post.
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Kidlington
Saturday Feb 6th
In the end I didn't do too badly at Kidlington. The bottom section was a very tough one, Under 145, and as it turned out, every one of my games was against much stronger players than myself. I lost 1 and drew 3, which under the circumstances was not too bad, considering the strength of the opposition - aguably I was winning two of the drawn games when I offered my opponents draws too.
I managed to get to the venue, quite a pleasant civic centre in the nondescript Oxfordshire suburb, just about on time, after dropping Michelle at East Midlands airport. I wasn't too tired despite the 6am start and 160-mile drive. Colin and Russell were already there when I got there. I had to tell my opponent I'd be delayed owing to having to shift my car to a parking space where I wouldn't get a ticket, then the game got started.
Game 1 - "Criminal"
I was playing Black against a friendly older chap rated 132. He played d4 and steered clear of the Benko, so we were soon in unfamiliar territory. After a quiet start there were a few tactics, and I lost a Rook for a Bishop and two pawns. I had a marginally inferior position when he missed a simple tactic and gave back the exchange, so I was just two pawns up in an endgame. At that point, since I was clearly ahead and it would have been difficult to win, I offered him a draw, which, after some thought, he accepted. Not a bad result for me against a strong player.
Dave Stephenson has subsequently looked at the game and told me that offering a draw in that position was "criminal".
Colin and Russell had both lost their games. Colin and I went to the pub and had lunch and a few games of pool
Game 2 - "Lamentable"
One of my betes noires is playing young girls, and this was against a girl who looked about 18 but was rated a strong 129. The game didn't last very long - I opened with d4 and she played the Tarrasch defence. I made some very poor decisions, apparently abandoning long-standard principles of good chess. It was one of those situations where you look at it afterwards and think "why ever did I play like that?". I resigned on about move 14. When I got home and looked on the computer I discovered that even after thinking I'd lost a piece I had ways of saving the situation. That always seems to happen! There's a psychological factor which makes you give up internally to some extent when you think you've blundered, I think, which is very hard to combat.
Dave Stephenson described the game as "lamentable".
Colin and Russell both lost too, so between us we'd managed 0.5/6 in the first two rounds. At least it meant Colin and I could head off to his place nice and early. We were taking a bye in round 3 that evening, to allow some quality drinking time.
Colin lives in Reading. I left my car at the venue and Colin drove us both back. We had a pleasant evening - watched a documentary about Chess that had been on, dined cheaply in Weatherspoons, played some chess and had a few drinks. Beceause we'd started so early, it was even possible to get a relatively early night.
Sunday Feb 7th
Game 3 - missed opportunity
I was drawn against another strong player - a boy of student age, who was rated 130 I think. I was White and he played a line I've not seen against the Queens Gambit. It was one of those situations where you know its a rare move and wonder why its not played, because it seemed fine. It looked as though he was winning a pawn. I got a cup of tea and studied the position for fully 20 minutes but I couldn't see a way out, or work out why this wasn't a standard line. Since I was resigned to losing the pawn, I decided to try and get some compensation by messing up his pawn structure and opening lines.
This worked out really well for me, and it soon became apparent why this line is not played - he had won a pawn but his King was stuck in the middle of the board, his pieces were undeveloped and I had all the play. More than sufficient compensation for the "sacrificed" pawn. In the end I was clearly winning and had a lot of winning moves, but in the heat of the moment I missed my chances and the winning chances fizzled out, so I offered a draw which he rather gratefully accepted.
Another draw against a much higher-rated opponent, but I had missed winning chances.
Dave said "What did he do to merit a draw apart from turn up?"
Colin and I had lunch in the pub and played pool again. Russell had gone home by this point, after losing all three of his games on day 1. Colin had drawn his game as well.
Game 4 - solid draw
I'd been hoping for an easier game to finish up with, but got my toughest opponent yet, a genial older bloke rated 137. I certainly hadn't had an easy draw in this tournament.
I was black and it was a c3 Sicilian. I played the line that had got me the draw against Richard Desmedt before Christmas, which isn't necessarily that highly thought of , but has given me some good results. Its solid enough, I suppose, and so it transpired again today. The game ended up in an opposite-coloured Bishops ending, and he offered me a draw, which I was pretty happy with.
Colin was winning his game, though his opponent played on in a completely lost position for a fair while and made Colin wait. Colin and I had had a better day today with 2.5 points out of 4 between us.
Overall, I thought I had a solid-enough result in such a tough section - 1.5/4, though Dave said he thought it should have been 2.5 since I was winning two of the drawn positions.
Then I had a long, dreary drive home to negotiate.
In the end I didn't do too badly at Kidlington. The bottom section was a very tough one, Under 145, and as it turned out, every one of my games was against much stronger players than myself. I lost 1 and drew 3, which under the circumstances was not too bad, considering the strength of the opposition - aguably I was winning two of the drawn games when I offered my opponents draws too.
I managed to get to the venue, quite a pleasant civic centre in the nondescript Oxfordshire suburb, just about on time, after dropping Michelle at East Midlands airport. I wasn't too tired despite the 6am start and 160-mile drive. Colin and Russell were already there when I got there. I had to tell my opponent I'd be delayed owing to having to shift my car to a parking space where I wouldn't get a ticket, then the game got started.
Game 1 - "Criminal"
I was playing Black against a friendly older chap rated 132. He played d4 and steered clear of the Benko, so we were soon in unfamiliar territory. After a quiet start there were a few tactics, and I lost a Rook for a Bishop and two pawns. I had a marginally inferior position when he missed a simple tactic and gave back the exchange, so I was just two pawns up in an endgame. At that point, since I was clearly ahead and it would have been difficult to win, I offered him a draw, which, after some thought, he accepted. Not a bad result for me against a strong player.
Dave Stephenson has subsequently looked at the game and told me that offering a draw in that position was "criminal".
Colin and Russell had both lost their games. Colin and I went to the pub and had lunch and a few games of pool
Game 2 - "Lamentable"
One of my betes noires is playing young girls, and this was against a girl who looked about 18 but was rated a strong 129. The game didn't last very long - I opened with d4 and she played the Tarrasch defence. I made some very poor decisions, apparently abandoning long-standard principles of good chess. It was one of those situations where you look at it afterwards and think "why ever did I play like that?". I resigned on about move 14. When I got home and looked on the computer I discovered that even after thinking I'd lost a piece I had ways of saving the situation. That always seems to happen! There's a psychological factor which makes you give up internally to some extent when you think you've blundered, I think, which is very hard to combat.
Dave Stephenson described the game as "lamentable".
Colin and Russell both lost too, so between us we'd managed 0.5/6 in the first two rounds. At least it meant Colin and I could head off to his place nice and early. We were taking a bye in round 3 that evening, to allow some quality drinking time.
Colin lives in Reading. I left my car at the venue and Colin drove us both back. We had a pleasant evening - watched a documentary about Chess that had been on, dined cheaply in Weatherspoons, played some chess and had a few drinks. Beceause we'd started so early, it was even possible to get a relatively early night.
Sunday Feb 7th
Game 3 - missed opportunity
I was drawn against another strong player - a boy of student age, who was rated 130 I think. I was White and he played a line I've not seen against the Queens Gambit. It was one of those situations where you know its a rare move and wonder why its not played, because it seemed fine. It looked as though he was winning a pawn. I got a cup of tea and studied the position for fully 20 minutes but I couldn't see a way out, or work out why this wasn't a standard line. Since I was resigned to losing the pawn, I decided to try and get some compensation by messing up his pawn structure and opening lines.
This worked out really well for me, and it soon became apparent why this line is not played - he had won a pawn but his King was stuck in the middle of the board, his pieces were undeveloped and I had all the play. More than sufficient compensation for the "sacrificed" pawn. In the end I was clearly winning and had a lot of winning moves, but in the heat of the moment I missed my chances and the winning chances fizzled out, so I offered a draw which he rather gratefully accepted.
Another draw against a much higher-rated opponent, but I had missed winning chances.
Dave said "What did he do to merit a draw apart from turn up?"
Colin and I had lunch in the pub and played pool again. Russell had gone home by this point, after losing all three of his games on day 1. Colin had drawn his game as well.
Game 4 - solid draw
I'd been hoping for an easier game to finish up with, but got my toughest opponent yet, a genial older bloke rated 137. I certainly hadn't had an easy draw in this tournament.
I was black and it was a c3 Sicilian. I played the line that had got me the draw against Richard Desmedt before Christmas, which isn't necessarily that highly thought of , but has given me some good results. Its solid enough, I suppose, and so it transpired again today. The game ended up in an opposite-coloured Bishops ending, and he offered me a draw, which I was pretty happy with.
Colin was winning his game, though his opponent played on in a completely lost position for a fair while and made Colin wait. Colin and I had had a better day today with 2.5 points out of 4 between us.
Overall, I thought I had a solid-enough result in such a tough section - 1.5/4, though Dave said he thought it should have been 2.5 since I was winning two of the drawn positions.
Then I had a long, dreary drive home to negotiate.
Friday, 5 February 2010
Early morning start
5 o'clock, Saturday morning and I'm about to set off on the 160 mile drive to Kidlington in Oxfordshire for another chess tournament. Not the ideal preparation for the dreaded round 1, so its hard to see my round 1 hoodoo ending today.
I am dropping Michelle off at East Midlands airport en route, since she is flying back to Berlin at the end of her extended Christmas visit, so its a sad start to the day for a couple of reasons.
On the plus side, Russell Goodfellow will be playing at Kidlington, and Colin Fell will be there too, making one of his rare comeback appearances. I will be staying at his flat in Reading. It will be good to catch back up with them.
Actually, I don't have high hopes for this tournament - it's a very tough one because the bottom section is for under-145 rated players which makes it about as hard as it gets for players of my lowly stamp. Under the circumstances 50% would be a superb achievement. It's a 5-round event and I'm taking a bye tonight so I can catch up with Colin - plus after a 5am start, three games in a day is not going to be possible. Two is going to be a push.
At least I had a reasonable result this week - played in a local league rapid event at Holme Valley and managed to win 1, lose 1. I was the only person who managed any points at all for Netherton. My win was quite good, and I had a good attack in the game I lost, against a much higher-rated player, so it wasn't a bad result, especially considering that rapid chess is not my forte.
I am dropping Michelle off at East Midlands airport en route, since she is flying back to Berlin at the end of her extended Christmas visit, so its a sad start to the day for a couple of reasons.
On the plus side, Russell Goodfellow will be playing at Kidlington, and Colin Fell will be there too, making one of his rare comeback appearances. I will be staying at his flat in Reading. It will be good to catch back up with them.
Actually, I don't have high hopes for this tournament - it's a very tough one because the bottom section is for under-145 rated players which makes it about as hard as it gets for players of my lowly stamp. Under the circumstances 50% would be a superb achievement. It's a 5-round event and I'm taking a bye tonight so I can catch up with Colin - plus after a 5am start, three games in a day is not going to be possible. Two is going to be a push.
At least I had a reasonable result this week - played in a local league rapid event at Holme Valley and managed to win 1, lose 1. I was the only person who managed any points at all for Netherton. My win was quite good, and I had a good attack in the game I lost, against a much higher-rated player, so it wasn't a bad result, especially considering that rapid chess is not my forte.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Disappointment at Gonzaga
Saturday 30 January
Game 2 - walk-over
Eoghan gave me a lift back to the venue on Saturday morning. After the session and late night on Friday, I was feeling very delicate. We got to the venue 15 minutes late, so I was resigned to being behind on the clock, but luckily my opponent had not shown up either, so I was fine. I didn’t really feel up to playing though, so was very grateful a bit later on when the controller came and told me that my opponent had defaulted the game and so I got a walk-over and a full point without having to lift up a pawn.
I watched a few of the other games for a bit and then Eoghan and I got the LUAS (tram system) into town. We went and had a look at the collection of 17th century books in Archbishop Marsh’s library at St Patricks Cathedral, met our friend Alice at her jewellery stall and then went for lunch at a vegetarian restaurant on Wicklow St, which does very good meals – I had a Thai green curry.
Game 3 – settling for a draw
I was feeling a bit better than I had been in the morning, though still tired. I was drawn as Black against the no. 2 seed in the section, a young chap of around 20, rated 1560. Under the circumstances, I didn’t much fancy my chances, though I cheered up a bit when the game followed the Benko Opening main line, since that is one of my favourite Black openings. For one thing, the system has a ready-made plan and you don’t have to give any thought to how to pursue the middle-game. Also, I’ve played and read a lot about it and am quite comfortable in the positions arising.
The game went quite well and soon I was a pawn up. However, I started feeling very tired and found myself missing things – one time, my opponent uncovered a Queen attack on my unprotected Bishop, and it was only after a good minute or two of thinking that I even saw it. I realised that sooner or later, I was going to blunder, and so thought I would take the opportunity of a superior position to offer a draw. He thought about it for a moment, and then accepted – he was behind, after all.
We went and had a bit of analysis of the game. I don’t mind doing that after drawn games, even though normally I don’t do post mortems since too many opponents see them as an opportunity to show you how clever they are. He was a nice bloke though and we had a good chat.
Amazing game on another board
I went and watched the other games. Phillip Maguire, the bloke from Wicklow who beat me in round 1, was involved in one of the most amazing games I’ve ever seen. He was playing another bloke I know, a self-taught bloke who doesn’t believe in using books, and is regularly outside the tournament hall smoking roll-ups. Maguire blundered a Bishop shortly after the opening, and so decided to throw more material in, in a desperate last bid to win by flushing out the enemy King. He sacrificed another Rook and so now was a Bishop and Rook behind.
His opponent was evidently quite affronted that Phillip wouldn’t resign in this situation. There did seem to be some counter-chances for Phillip, but not perhaps enough to justify the loss of material. Phillip told me he was considering resigning, but then the opponent started getting visibly annoyed, huffing and puffing and rolling his eyes and this made Phillip decide he was going to play on to the death and make him work for victory.
Because the other bloke was annoyed and rattled, he started making mistakes in what was a sharp tactical position, with both players short of time – and soon Phillip found a tactical way to win the other bloke’s Queen by combining a fork and a pin. Now, Phillip was ahead on material with a Queen, Rook and several passed pawns against two Rooks, a Knight and rather fewer pawns. Both players were short of time, Phillip more seriously. Phillip kept checking him, and eventually found a way to Queen a pawn. He could have at one point ensured a draw by sacrificing his Queen for the other bloke’s last rook, leaving him without sufficient mating material. In the end Phillip lost on time. The other bloke only had 2 minutes left. The large crowd by now watching the game broke into a spontaneous round of applause.
Well, that deserves a much fuller description than I usually give my own games, because it was considerably more interesting than any of my own games!
Eoghan came and picked me up. We went back to his flat, where he laid on a nice dish of stir-fried prawns, and we watched Big Lebowski and some episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm – as we always do.
There was a Saturday night game but I took a bye. I don’t like playing chess on Saturday nights. There are more important things to be getting on with, like drinking red wine!
Sunday 31 January
Game 5 – depressing loss
I felt a lot better than I had the day before, and turned up at the venue (on time) in rather better fettle. I was still reasonably well-placed thanks to that walk-over, on 2/4 and I thought if I could manage two wins then it would still be a respectable result.
I was drawn as White against Dennis Dempsey, an older gentleman who I drew against three years ago despite having some winning chances. I knew that he was not an attacking player and that it would be a dour battle. We were soon in a fairly dreary variation of the Queens Gambit Declined. He made no blunders but also no particularly threatening moves, retreating Knights to the back rank and the like.
I started to get a bit restless and wanted to try and drum up some activity and force the pace. I centralised a Knight, defended by a pawn advanced to f4. He took the Knight and I retook with the d-pawn. I had hoped that this would give me attacking chances but it had the opposite effect – I was left with weak pawns and as soon as he saw the chance, he sprang into action and had soon won a pawn.
His pieces were still unco-ordinated and in some cases unprotected, so I tried to exploit this to get the material back. Unfortunately I rejected the plan that would win a pawn back with something that I thought was stronger – but didn’t analyse properly , probably because I was annoyed with myself – and was soon worse off than ever .He had connected passed a and b pawns, still a pawn up, and with most of the pieces swapped off. He forced his pawn all the way up to my 2nd rank, but he also made some inaccurate moves and I was able to get the pawn eventually. As is often the case in such situations, I had had to make compromises elsewhere to get that pawn, and was comfortably losing. By now we both had less than five minutes on the clock, and he now blundered the exchange by allowing me to attack his Rook and Knight with my King.
I was back in it – the computer later assessed the game as even – but he had four Kingside pawns and I had less than 2 minutes on the clock, so it was soon over.
An annoying game to lose. It can be very hard to combat these players who “stodge it up” in the words of Dave Stephenson, though it must be noted how he sprang into life when I gave him a sniff of a chance. Afterwards I talked to another local friend, John Maher, who said that Dennis has been around for years, always playing at a reasonable standard, and is known for playing passively until the opponent blunders and then playing well to win games.
I went to the pub and had a Guinness and an Irish toastie and soup (tomato).
Game 6 – battling draw
In the old days I would probably have withdrawn at this stage, but I fought on – recently (Bury, Scarborough) I’ve had some of my best wins in “dead” games at the end of tournaments.
I was playing a young boy with a fairly low rating, but I saw that he’d already had some good results and was obviously one of these fast-improving juniors. I was Black and played a Sveshnikov. He didn’t know the opening, and misplayed it, allowing me to isolate and double two pawns on his c-file.
The centre got closed up, though, and I couldn’t take advantage of this weakness. The board was full of pawns and it turned into a dour, manoeuvring game. He advanced his Kingside pawns, but I had plenty of defence. It felt pretty even throughout, and eventually he offered me a draw which I accepted.
I watched the last few games and then headed back to town to meet Eoghan. We went to a new beer keller and went though the games, and then back to his flat where we got a Chinese take-away and watched Sideways, for the umpteenth time.
Conclusion
Overall, a disappointing tournament. Won 0, drew 2, lost 2, bye 1, walkover 1 – overall score 2.5/6
My target was 4, so it was a below-par tournament. I didn’t even play all that badly. I only had 4 games, played OK in 3 of them, the Dempsey game being the exception. I never recovered from a miscalculation in the opening of round 1. Once again, I lost in round 1 – something that regularly plagues me. My record in the first round over my last 15 tournaments is something like 25%, and I didn’t win a single one of them. This can only be psychological and I need to find a way to address it, because losing in round 1 gets you off on the wrong footing from the word go.
This is the 6th time I’ve taken part in this tournament – my longest record at any chess event – and I’ve always performed disappointingly. Some tournaments just never seem to give you any breaks. In the Under 1600 section, in 4 times of competing, I’ve scored 2/6, 2.5/6, 0/3 and now 2.5/6 again. In antother depressing statistic, that makes three Irish tournaments on the trot (Gonzaga 2009 and 2010 and Galway 2009) without a single won game. My last win on Irish soil came at Galway 2008.
On the positive side, it was an improvement on the truly abysmal showing last year (lost 3, two of them inside 20 moves) and withdrew. I did play pretty well most of the time, managed a draw in a favourable position against a much higher-rated player, and didn’t resign early after my blunders in games 1 and 5.
It was, outside the chess, as ever, a good weekend in Dublin. Plenty of sound drinking, eating and DVD evenings with Eoghan and my other Irish friends.
The next tournament is coming up straight away, at Kidlington, near Oxford, next weekend. I hope it will be a chance to make amends, though the section I have to play in is a tough one. Colin Fell will be playing as well, which will be sound.
Game 2 - walk-over
Eoghan gave me a lift back to the venue on Saturday morning. After the session and late night on Friday, I was feeling very delicate. We got to the venue 15 minutes late, so I was resigned to being behind on the clock, but luckily my opponent had not shown up either, so I was fine. I didn’t really feel up to playing though, so was very grateful a bit later on when the controller came and told me that my opponent had defaulted the game and so I got a walk-over and a full point without having to lift up a pawn.
I watched a few of the other games for a bit and then Eoghan and I got the LUAS (tram system) into town. We went and had a look at the collection of 17th century books in Archbishop Marsh’s library at St Patricks Cathedral, met our friend Alice at her jewellery stall and then went for lunch at a vegetarian restaurant on Wicklow St, which does very good meals – I had a Thai green curry.
Game 3 – settling for a draw
I was feeling a bit better than I had been in the morning, though still tired. I was drawn as Black against the no. 2 seed in the section, a young chap of around 20, rated 1560. Under the circumstances, I didn’t much fancy my chances, though I cheered up a bit when the game followed the Benko Opening main line, since that is one of my favourite Black openings. For one thing, the system has a ready-made plan and you don’t have to give any thought to how to pursue the middle-game. Also, I’ve played and read a lot about it and am quite comfortable in the positions arising.
The game went quite well and soon I was a pawn up. However, I started feeling very tired and found myself missing things – one time, my opponent uncovered a Queen attack on my unprotected Bishop, and it was only after a good minute or two of thinking that I even saw it. I realised that sooner or later, I was going to blunder, and so thought I would take the opportunity of a superior position to offer a draw. He thought about it for a moment, and then accepted – he was behind, after all.
We went and had a bit of analysis of the game. I don’t mind doing that after drawn games, even though normally I don’t do post mortems since too many opponents see them as an opportunity to show you how clever they are. He was a nice bloke though and we had a good chat.
Amazing game on another board
I went and watched the other games. Phillip Maguire, the bloke from Wicklow who beat me in round 1, was involved in one of the most amazing games I’ve ever seen. He was playing another bloke I know, a self-taught bloke who doesn’t believe in using books, and is regularly outside the tournament hall smoking roll-ups. Maguire blundered a Bishop shortly after the opening, and so decided to throw more material in, in a desperate last bid to win by flushing out the enemy King. He sacrificed another Rook and so now was a Bishop and Rook behind.
His opponent was evidently quite affronted that Phillip wouldn’t resign in this situation. There did seem to be some counter-chances for Phillip, but not perhaps enough to justify the loss of material. Phillip told me he was considering resigning, but then the opponent started getting visibly annoyed, huffing and puffing and rolling his eyes and this made Phillip decide he was going to play on to the death and make him work for victory.
Because the other bloke was annoyed and rattled, he started making mistakes in what was a sharp tactical position, with both players short of time – and soon Phillip found a tactical way to win the other bloke’s Queen by combining a fork and a pin. Now, Phillip was ahead on material with a Queen, Rook and several passed pawns against two Rooks, a Knight and rather fewer pawns. Both players were short of time, Phillip more seriously. Phillip kept checking him, and eventually found a way to Queen a pawn. He could have at one point ensured a draw by sacrificing his Queen for the other bloke’s last rook, leaving him without sufficient mating material. In the end Phillip lost on time. The other bloke only had 2 minutes left. The large crowd by now watching the game broke into a spontaneous round of applause.
Well, that deserves a much fuller description than I usually give my own games, because it was considerably more interesting than any of my own games!
Eoghan came and picked me up. We went back to his flat, where he laid on a nice dish of stir-fried prawns, and we watched Big Lebowski and some episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm – as we always do.
There was a Saturday night game but I took a bye. I don’t like playing chess on Saturday nights. There are more important things to be getting on with, like drinking red wine!
Sunday 31 January
Game 5 – depressing loss
I felt a lot better than I had the day before, and turned up at the venue (on time) in rather better fettle. I was still reasonably well-placed thanks to that walk-over, on 2/4 and I thought if I could manage two wins then it would still be a respectable result.
I was drawn as White against Dennis Dempsey, an older gentleman who I drew against three years ago despite having some winning chances. I knew that he was not an attacking player and that it would be a dour battle. We were soon in a fairly dreary variation of the Queens Gambit Declined. He made no blunders but also no particularly threatening moves, retreating Knights to the back rank and the like.
I started to get a bit restless and wanted to try and drum up some activity and force the pace. I centralised a Knight, defended by a pawn advanced to f4. He took the Knight and I retook with the d-pawn. I had hoped that this would give me attacking chances but it had the opposite effect – I was left with weak pawns and as soon as he saw the chance, he sprang into action and had soon won a pawn.
His pieces were still unco-ordinated and in some cases unprotected, so I tried to exploit this to get the material back. Unfortunately I rejected the plan that would win a pawn back with something that I thought was stronger – but didn’t analyse properly , probably because I was annoyed with myself – and was soon worse off than ever .He had connected passed a and b pawns, still a pawn up, and with most of the pieces swapped off. He forced his pawn all the way up to my 2nd rank, but he also made some inaccurate moves and I was able to get the pawn eventually. As is often the case in such situations, I had had to make compromises elsewhere to get that pawn, and was comfortably losing. By now we both had less than five minutes on the clock, and he now blundered the exchange by allowing me to attack his Rook and Knight with my King.
I was back in it – the computer later assessed the game as even – but he had four Kingside pawns and I had less than 2 minutes on the clock, so it was soon over.
An annoying game to lose. It can be very hard to combat these players who “stodge it up” in the words of Dave Stephenson, though it must be noted how he sprang into life when I gave him a sniff of a chance. Afterwards I talked to another local friend, John Maher, who said that Dennis has been around for years, always playing at a reasonable standard, and is known for playing passively until the opponent blunders and then playing well to win games.
I went to the pub and had a Guinness and an Irish toastie and soup (tomato).
Game 6 – battling draw
In the old days I would probably have withdrawn at this stage, but I fought on – recently (Bury, Scarborough) I’ve had some of my best wins in “dead” games at the end of tournaments.
I was playing a young boy with a fairly low rating, but I saw that he’d already had some good results and was obviously one of these fast-improving juniors. I was Black and played a Sveshnikov. He didn’t know the opening, and misplayed it, allowing me to isolate and double two pawns on his c-file.
The centre got closed up, though, and I couldn’t take advantage of this weakness. The board was full of pawns and it turned into a dour, manoeuvring game. He advanced his Kingside pawns, but I had plenty of defence. It felt pretty even throughout, and eventually he offered me a draw which I accepted.
I watched the last few games and then headed back to town to meet Eoghan. We went to a new beer keller and went though the games, and then back to his flat where we got a Chinese take-away and watched Sideways, for the umpteenth time.
Conclusion
Overall, a disappointing tournament. Won 0, drew 2, lost 2, bye 1, walkover 1 – overall score 2.5/6
My target was 4, so it was a below-par tournament. I didn’t even play all that badly. I only had 4 games, played OK in 3 of them, the Dempsey game being the exception. I never recovered from a miscalculation in the opening of round 1. Once again, I lost in round 1 – something that regularly plagues me. My record in the first round over my last 15 tournaments is something like 25%, and I didn’t win a single one of them. This can only be psychological and I need to find a way to address it, because losing in round 1 gets you off on the wrong footing from the word go.
This is the 6th time I’ve taken part in this tournament – my longest record at any chess event – and I’ve always performed disappointingly. Some tournaments just never seem to give you any breaks. In the Under 1600 section, in 4 times of competing, I’ve scored 2/6, 2.5/6, 0/3 and now 2.5/6 again. In antother depressing statistic, that makes three Irish tournaments on the trot (Gonzaga 2009 and 2010 and Galway 2009) without a single won game. My last win on Irish soil came at Galway 2008.
On the positive side, it was an improvement on the truly abysmal showing last year (lost 3, two of them inside 20 moves) and withdrew. I did play pretty well most of the time, managed a draw in a favourable position against a much higher-rated player, and didn’t resign early after my blunders in games 1 and 5.
It was, outside the chess, as ever, a good weekend in Dublin. Plenty of sound drinking, eating and DVD evenings with Eoghan and my other Irish friends.
The next tournament is coming up straight away, at Kidlington, near Oxford, next weekend. I hope it will be a chance to make amends, though the section I have to play in is a tough one. Colin Fell will be playing as well, which will be sound.
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