Review of the Year

2009 was something of a mixed year when it comes to chess but at least it ended better than it began.

I played in 14 tournaments during the year, 12 in the UK and two in Ireland. Overall I played 54 tournament games, of which I won 18 lost 22 and drew 14, which is almost respectable.

Here are some quick thoughts about each tournament -

January
Coulsdon -
My bad form from the Hull tournament in November continued. I played at Couldson, near my parents' house in South London, and it was fairly disastrous. I resigned game 1 after blundering badly and losing a pawn on about move 7 (although Dave Stephenson thinks I should have played on, I hate carrying on after I've blundered like that because it spoils the game for me). Game 2 I lost too, though I don't remember anything about it. On the Sunday morning I lost another game I had been ahead in, against Alan Crawford, an old bloke who plays in a thousand tournaments a year. After that I withdrew in disgust.
Played 3, lost 3

Gonzaga -
I went to Gonzaga in Dublin full of high hopes, though I always seem to have a disappointing result there. It's played at a sound boys' school in the Dublin suburbs. Eoghan Maguire was playing too - his first chess tournament. Game 1 I lost after turning down a draw after my opponent had made an unsound sacrifice. His attack turned out to be good and he won. Game 2 I stupidly got a Bishop trapped, and game 3 I also lost though I don't recall anything about it apart from spilling Guinness on the carpet afterwards. After that I withdrew in disgust. My run of defeats was now 9 games out of the last 10. Eoghan lost all his games as well.
Played 3, lost 3

February
Doncaster -
I lost my first game but finally broke the bad run by winning both afternoon games, both times after having lunchtime beers (this becomes something of a theme as the year goes on!). The win in round 5 was quite good against a strong junior in a Grunfeld. Had to take two byes to take Michelle to East Midlands airport.
Played 3 won 2 lost 1

March
Blackpool -
Fairly dreary tournament where I drew a lot of games, though it was nice to stop losing games. Played Jim Johnston who taught me a lot about reading opponents' body language and other psychological matters after our game. I don't remember much about the other games. My main recollection of the tournament was what a hole Blackpool was. The tournament was held in the football stadium which we couldn't find, making us late - Russell Goodfellow wasn't happy. Nights out in Blackpool were not much fun, though I did have quite a nice curry with Dave Stephenson.
Played 4 drew 3 lost 1

Huddersfield -
Another disaster. I had quite a good game in round 1, lost a tight battle. I turned up on Saturday morning to find I had a bye, so went out for a walk. Discovered an absolutely superb pub, The Grove, with a huge selection of real ales and bottled beers from around the world - and even a big selection of malt whiskies and bar snacks. It's a completely wonderful pub but unfortunately indulging there at lunchtime did nothing for my remaining games. At one point I took a juggling break in the garden, much to the disgust of Brendan O'Gorman who felt it displayed a certain lack of grit and determination! In the last round I lost after being a piece up.
Played 4 lost 4

April
Nottingham -
I was staying in Beeston with my friend John. The tournament was staged in the Boys' High School, a good venue. To try and stem the dreadful run of games, I decided to make some precepts to follow, and start writing a 'blog to record my impressions and force myself to keep to them. Thus Nottingham is the first event recorded here. Things didn't look up immediately - at Nottingham I managed to lose my worst game of the year, an astounding blunder against a little girl when I was clearly winning - I missed the fact, astoundingly, that she could simply push a pawn to the 7th rank. My only win was against someone rated 14. I was somewhat distracted by the fact that my Sister was running the London marathon the same day.
Played 4 won 1 lost 2 drew 1

June
Grange-over-Sands
So far in my chess year I had won 3 and lost 14 games out of 21. Fortunately things turned better from this point, and over the remainder of the year I won 15 and lost 11. Grange-over-Sands was the turning point despite the fact that I was doing lots of driving. I stayed the first night in Lancaster and the second with Geoff in Cumbria. Grange-over-Sands is an attractive Victorian town and the tournament was played in a splendid venue - a huge, ramshackle old hotel in rambling grounds. I must stay somewhere nearer the venue next year. I lost my first round game on the Friday night - don't remember anything about it - but then won an unprecedented 4 on the trot. On Saturday morning I played my first game against a blind player. Won again on Saturday afternoon. Took a bye Saturday evening to drive up to Geoff's, 70 miles north. On Sunday morning I drove back and managed to win both my games. The morning game was satisfying because I won against 1 c4 for the first time in my career, and it was the bloke who'd beaten me from a piece down in the last round at Huddersfield. I won my last round game too, and 4.5/6 was enough for a share of 2nd place and a winners cheque which made a nice change. Had a nice walk round the grounds afterwards with Dave.
Played 5 won 4 lost 1

Haywood
I remember very little about this event in a dull suburb of Manchester. It was a very rainy weekend. Russell was playing in it as well. I commuted from home. I lost 2 and also drew 2, both the draws coming from winning positions. The details are all on the 'blog assuming I remembered to write it up.
[Note added later - I see I never even wrote about this event here which shows how nondescript it was].
Played 4 won 2 lost 2

August
Hereford
The highlight of the year was my performance in a u135 event at Hereford. I went with Colin, who made a welcome return to chess. I took a bye in round 1 on the Saturday morning because of having to drive down from Liverpool. The venue was a very nice school. Colin and I stayed in a very sound old town-centre inn, the Green Dragon. We had a couple of nice evenings out without overdoing the beer. The chess went very well - just one of those events when everything went right. I won two games against quite high-rated players (120+) mostly through seeing sharp tactics. I felt that all my work with doing tactics practice and writing the 'blog had finally paid off. I did get one draw, against an old chap who, after the game, told me how to do karate moves and all about his past as a motorcycle daredevil. He won the tournament, after having been trying to win a chess tournament for 50 years apparently. I won £65 for joint 2nd place, a very pleasing result.. Overall it was the perfect chess weekend.
Played 5 won 4 drew 1

September
Bradford
Back to earth with a bump when I did very badly in a dreary tournament in Bradford. Lost another dreadful game to a little girl who scared me into submission with a flawed Kingside attack, much to the disgust of Dave. I also lost a game I should have won against a Russian ex-pat. The only game I won all weekend was against her dad in the final round. The only good thing about the event was that I battled on and didn't quit early as I often did in the past.
Played 4 won 1 lost 3 [I didnt bother writing about this one on the 'blog either it seems].

October
The busiest chess month ever for me, with three important tournaments in 4 weeks.

Galway
Flew to Galway for one of my favourite events of the year, staged in a big hotel overlooking Galway Bay. Morgan Daniels came over for it and Eoghan played again as well. Had a very sound and entertaining weekend with lots of Guinness. The only slight disappointment was the chess. Eoghan, Morgan and I played 15 games between us and only Morgan managed one win out of all those games. Eoghan got his first positive result, with a draw in one game. I drew almost all of mine - 4 draws and 1 loss. None of them stick in the mind very much. In round 1 I played John McKenna who I have played several times before in Ireland and the game petered out into a level draw. The game I lost was to a junior who launched an attack which panicked me but proved on subsequent analysis to be unsound.
Played 5 drew 4 lost 1

Scarborough
I was playing in a very low section so had high hopes of winning some money. As ever, the bottome section isn't as easy as it seems and I lost a very long drawn out battle in round 1 against an unrated player, new to the game. It was a good game, lasted 60 moves and 4 hours and we were among the last to finish. On Saturday morning, I faced my bete noire, a little girl. Went a piece up on move 6, and blundered the piece back on about move 12. Russell was appalled at me! However, she blundered again soon and I went on to win. My most flawed game of the year. Won easily in the afternoon. In the evening I had quite a nice take-away risotto and a few beers with Russell and his friend in a rock pub on the seafront. Drew on Sunday morning against a taciturn Scot - the game was dominated by me worrying about the fact my car had to be moved before noon. I had a couple of pints with Russell at lunchtime and then came back and had a crushing victory in the afternoon, when there was nothing to play for. To my surprise, a week later, I received a cheque for £15 - for a 1/7th share of 4th place!
Played 5 won 3 drew 1 lost 1

Bury St Edmunds
My favourite tournament of the year, Morgan Daniels' home event in the charming town of Bury - played in a wonderful venue, the Corn Exchange in the middle of the town, right next to the Nutshell, the smallest pub in Britain. I was staying a B&B with a rather overbearing landlady but it was a nice place. There were several other chess players there including the Cutmore twins and we all had to share a table at breakfast. Alan Crawford, who beat me up at Coulsdon in January was there too. In the chess I drew in round 1 against a bloke who looked like Lovejoy, then lost a very odd game in round 2, when I launched an uncharacteristically suicidal King-side pawnstorm. Took a bye and had a long analysis session with Morgan in the pub in the evening. Sunday I did much better. Two wins - first against a bloke in a blue race-walking blazer who played 1. g4 agaisnt me, and the second after a pint of beer and a tequila that someone insisted on buying me in the nutshell - I took apart an up and coming junior from Bury. Once again a last round game after a lunchtime drink had gone very well! Morgan had a superb tournament - all his opponents seemed to fold in dramatic style and he came joint top of the Major tournament. After he'd won, we went to the Nutshell for a celebratory drink and had to comfort a first time player who was sitting with his head in his hands talking about how painful it all was. We told him to expect plenty more of the same and that chess brings infinitely more misery than happiness. I'm not sure whether that cheered him up. I stuck around for the prize-giving and then much to my surprise found I'd won a £10 grading prize! My fourth prize of the year.
Played 4 won 2 drew 1 lost 1

November
Preston
Stayed at Chris Welch's place in Preston. This event was never going to be one I was going to take seriously owing to having to go to Birmingham and back in the middle of it for a reunion. Lost in bad style to a tactic in round 1. Won equally quickly in round 2. Took a bye for the Birmingham trip. On Sunday morning I won a flukey game I should have lost, against an Indian student, and on Sunday afternoon I lost a game I was going OK in, when my phone threatened to go off. Chris was so impressed with it all that he's decided to start playing in chess tournaments himself! Welcome to a world of pain.
Played 4 won 2 lost 2

So that's my tournament year - distinctly mixed with some high and low points.

Over the weekend I will post my chess resolutions and goals for 2010 along with my chess awards for 2009. Make sure you read it - you might have won one of the prestigious awards!

Happy New Year to all my readers.

Well that's Christmas over for another year

How was it for you? I had a nice quiet Christmas at my place with Michelle. Chess didn't rear its ugly head which is one of the bonuses of Christmas, though I did get a most unexpected Christmas present from Dave Stephenson - a book on the Nimzo-Larsen "attack" 1. b3. I'm not about to rush out and start playing that, but the book does appear to be amusingly eccentric, with strange chapter headings and commentary. In chapter 1, after several pages on the Daniels-like move 6. Nh3, the author then says "so is this a good move? No. In fact its a bad move"...

I wanted to do a review of the year and talk about my chess goals and resolutions for 2010 but first I realise I still didn't finish the story of the Preston tournament. (Resolution no. 1 = write up chess 'blog within 24 hours of playing!). Its a bit pointless now, since the whole aim of writing here is to capture immediate impressions, but for the sake of completeness, I will do a quick survey of the remainder of the tournament.

You may recall that I crashed spectacularly in game 1 on the Friday night to an annoying tactic, and then Chris Welch and I went to the pub and had a game of chess and several beers.

On the Saturday morning, after updating the 'blog and eating a very good fritatta courtesy of Chris, I went back to the tournament hall for round 2. The game was a fairly dour Sicilian Rossolimo. Presently, Dave Stephenson arrived. He wasn't playing but had dropped by to spectate for a while. He opined to Chris that my game would go on for ages , when all of a sudden I was in their midst, telling them that I'd won! My opponent dropped a couple of pieces all of a sudden in a level position, which is more or less what I'd done the night before.

We sat in the canteen and did a little analysis and Dave showed me how I should have played on a piece down the previous evening. He has an annoying habit of taking my resigned position and then reversing the board and making me play my opponent's position and win against him, which of course, since he's a very strong player, I always fail to do, which then to his way of thinking "proves" that I should not have resigned.

Chris and I went back to his parents' place for a bite to eat (nice home-made fish pate) and then I headed off to drive to Birmingham where I was going for a reunion/drinks evening/Christmas market. I was taking a bye for the afternoon game for that reason. The drive down was fine and I checked into the Hilton where I was staying with no difficulties. The evening was enjoyable; I managed a couple of pints of weissbier and a sausage before the rain rather spoilt the German market and we just went to the pub.

Sunday morning I rose early and drove all the way back up to Preston again. Not the ideal preparation for two tournament games. The rain was torrential in the Birmingham area, but I still managed to get back only a few minutes late.

My round 4 game was against an earnest-looking unrated Indian student. I knew he was going to be good, and the game was a right struggle as he kept me penned in. I was behind in development throughout and struggling to keep going, but I managed to just about hang in there and eventually turn the tables a bit. He turned down a draw offer at a point when he was probably ahead, and then less sensibly, another one when he was 1-2 pawns down. Shortly after that he blundered in a strange way. He made a move and then immediately cursed himself volubaly. I couldn't see what was bothering him. I could put him in check, but his King had an escape square. I played the check and he immediately gave up his Rook for the Pawn. He must simply have missed the escape square. Later on, Fritz confirmed that I had been right and that he had no reason to give up the Rook.

So I was a Rook up in a K+P ending, pretty simple, but in all the stress I managed to forget for a while how to mate with K+R which would have been a bit embarrassing. With only 2 minutes on the clock I pulled myself together and maanged to get the mate. It was a long slog, 70 moves or so, and a game I shouldn't have won - but I've lost enough games I should never have lost, so I suppose there was a degree of things evening out.

I had some lunch in a pub. Game 5 started out pretty well for me. Recently (Scarborough and Bury St Edmunds) I've done well in round 5 games when there's been nothing to play for and today I was going well and comfortable out of the opening as well. All of a sudden I felt my 'phone vibrate in my pocket - I was panicking that it would make a noise and I'd be ignominiously drummed out of the tournament, so I made any old move and rushed from the hall. Of course, that move led to my entire position falling apart and I lost pretty fast!

So Preston ended as a distinctly par 2/4 peformance, but it was never a tournament I was taking all that seriously - given the 100 mile dash to Birmingham and back I was never going to be able to give it my full attention.

And so ended the 2009 tournament season. Sometime in the next couple of days I will write my Review of the Year.

A good result at the club

That's chess over for another year, and now I'm spending all my time writing cards, wrapping gifts and cleaning the house.

My year of chess has often been mixed and a bit of a struggle many times. I will write a proper summary of the year soon - and I know I need to finish the story of the Preston tournament as well.

Today, however, I will talk about my game at the club on Wednesday which was probably my best game of the year. Ending on a high note, you might say. It was a Huddersfield league game, Netherton A v Netherton B. Needless to say I was in Netherton B, with all the other bottom-of-the-pile dravers, up against the club's strongest players. On board 1 we had Jonathan, a sound gardener with a big bushy orange beard, up against Peter Shore graded 190. On board 2 we had Kareem, a young Asian boy who plays too fast, up against Nick Edwards, another very strong player. On board 3 we had me, an in-and-out performer to say the least, up against Richard Desmedt, arguable the most experienced player in the entire country. Richard plays tournaments more or less every weekend - 39 last year - and is always high up on the British Chess Federation "most games played" list. He played I think about 200 rated games last year. His grade is 151, compared with my 99.

We were utterly outclassed on the other three boards as well. It was a serious mismatch. As I sat down I reflected that we were heading for a 6-0 whitewash, though this was avoided by the fact that their board 5 player never showed up.

Richard Desmedt is a really nice chap, always very friendly and chatty. I have seen him at a lot of the tournaments I've been to this year. Playing him, however, was not going to be an easy proposition. I just decided I was going to make it as hard for him to win as possible. I was determined not to be the first person to lose, and also to try and last out to the time control. Make him work for it.

He played 1. e4 and I replied with my usual Sicilian. He plays the Morra Gambit, so I was able to direct the game into a position I well know, by declining the gambit with 3 .. d5. That was the first bit of good news, because I'm much happier in openings I know fairly well. It was a strange game, maybe lucky for me, because, as he said afterwards, he was in a strong position - positionally better, as the computer later confirmed, but he couldn't make anything of it and soon found himself a bit tangled up.

He missed a trick - I think he should have sacrificed Rook for Bishop and a passed pawn, but he didn't see that, retreated, and soon enough I had won material - Rook for Bishop and pawn on my terms, and I had a nice position. Things were looking fine. I was running a bit short of time and I well know my propensity to balls up good positions against even rubbish players, never mind 150s - so I decided to offer him a draw. After consulting his captain, and discovering that Netherton A had won all the other games, he gracefully accepted.

I was the only person on our team not to lose and got a lot of very nice comments from the other players on both teams. It was a big feather in my cap to get a half against such strong opposition. Sure, it wasn't the most serious game of the year, and as I said Richard is a nice bloke and in a more serious game would probably have fought on material down and won, but the fact remains that people like him don't just give draws away for nothing. It must go down as my best result of the year, and provides encouragement for the future.

Here is the game for anyone who is interested

Desmedt-Bailey
Netherton, 9 Dec 09

1 e4 c5
2 d4 cxd4
3 c3 d5
4 exd5 Qxd5
5 cxd4 Nc6
6 Nf3 e5
7 Nc3 Bb4
8 Bd2 Bxc3
9 Bxd2 e4
10 Ne5 Nxe5
11 dxe5 Ne7
12 Be2 o-o
13 o-o Be6
14 Qa4 Bd7
15 Qc2 Bc6
16 Rfd1 Qe6
17 Rd6 Qc8
18 Rad1 Qc7
19 h3? Nf5
20 R6d2? e3!
21 Qxf5 exd2
22 Bb4 Re8
23 Bd6 Qd7
24 Qf4 Qe6
25 Rxd2 Qg6? (Qxb2)

draw agreed.