Rest of the Nottingham tournament story

Thanks to all of you who have troubled to sign up - and apologies for the slowness in getting this going. I keep forgetting to do it - the problem is made worse by the fact that its the off-season for chess so its not at the forefront of my mind.

My next tournament will be Twyford, which I will be attending with Colin over the August Bank Holiday weekend, then I will probably play at Bradford in September. October will be a very busy month with tournaments in Galway, Bury St Edmonds and Scarborough.

Here's the rest of the Nottingham tournament, which was overshadowed by my Sister's great achievements in the London marathon.

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Sunday April 26th

My Sister is competing in the London Marathon today - running whilst I'm hunched over the chequered board, so I will be thinking of her as I'm calculating or miscalculating my variations.

Yesterday afternoon's game was a straightforward win against someone with the eye-catching rating of 14. In essence, he was a casual player who takes his son, a much stronger player, to tournaments, and just plays to fill in the time. About all you can say of the game is that it was an efficient win. Still, nice to get a win and end a run of 6 defeatsand 10 games since my last win back at Doncaster in February.

After the chess I had a nice walk through the Forest Recreation Ground and Arboretum. THe Arboretum is a nice Victorian Park. Despite all my time in Nottingham (I went to University and lived here for 4 years afterwards), I had never been to it before. It was a sunny afternoon with fluffy clouds and the park was full of students snogging, playing frizbee and wearing shortskirts. I think I was the oldest one in the park apart from a local tramp. Rather poignant, the passing of time andthe realisation that I was old enough to be most of the students' father. There was also a Chinese bell, pinched duringthe Opium Wars and 2 cannon captured at the Battle of Sevastopol. Good old Imperialism!

Off back to the venue now for 2 more games.

Tuesday April 28th

Things didn't go too well at the chess on the Sunday. I did have a nice walk into the venue. I parked at the entrance to Wollaton Park and walked across the park and up Ilkeston Rd - about 3.5 miles altogether. My Sister was running in the LondonMarathon and I was following her progress via mobile phone and laptop. I had to keep leaving the venue to check the phone for updates which could have been a bit problematic if my opponents had noticed. I have to tell you that she did rather betterat the Marathon than I did in the chess, finishing the 26.2 miles in 4 hours 49 minutes.

My opponent in the morning was an unrated ginger-haired girl of about 10. She was unsmiling at the start and emotionless throughout. She moved pretty muchinstanteously every time and only used 15 minutes for her 40 moves. Her opening play was abysmal - if I tell you that the opening moves were

1 e4 c5 2 a3?

you will see what I mean. WIthin five moves of the start I was a piece up with the Bishop pair, though annoyingly I missed a chance to win a piece onmove 6 which could have led to a different result.

What actually happened was I soon got bogged down in a cramped position and had to manoeuvre carefully to start to make my pawn advantage count. LIke a lot of children, she was very good at rustling up activity and sharp tactics. They seem to be things that come naturally to children, maybe because they know no fear and don't waste time defending pawns and worrying about threats. Forunatelythe Queens were off. In the end I got myself sorted out and won another pawn to go 2 pawns up in a R+B ending. We got to the time control at which point I'd used 75 minutes and she'd only used 15. I was still winning though, but that soon changed with an appalling blunder - I just didnt notice that she couldpush her h-pawn through to h6 whereafter it could not be stopped from Queening! It wasn't a good feeling.

I had a sandwhich and tea for lunch and a nice walk up Mansfield Rd, around the mysterious waterwork land called Corporation Oaks (with great views of the City) and back across the recreation ground.

At least I didn't withdraw and was still there to play in Round 5. So poor had been my performance that I hadn't even qualified out of the side roomwhere all the bottom boards in the Minor were playing. In the last round I had another unrated opponent, an older chap. Of my 4 games, three were againstungraded players and the fourth was graded 14, so this tournament won't have done much for my own grade.

I was White and the game was a Gruenfeld. It was relatively even throughout. I did my Dave Stephenson impression and didn't castle, put the K on g2 and launched an attack with the h-pawn. It does seem quite effective and I gradually wrested an advantage. There was a strange moment when I had been thinking I was a pawn up only to realise I actually wasn't! I had a passed d-pawn though and gradually got better and better. I was somewhat distractedhowever, both because of Eleanor running in the Marathon (she finished during this game) and because even though I hadn't withdrawn, its hard to take the final round all that seriously if there's nothing riding on it. In the ending I won a Knight , so had a won position with N+R+3 pawns vs R+3 pawns. I only had 5 minutes left on the clock though against his 25, and didn't fancy trying to win the ending with so little time left, so I offered a draw which he accepted.