The omens were not good for the first round yesterday. Everything I tried to do yesterday seemed to go wrong, culminating in losing a warm-up chess game to Eoghan in the pub before the game last night.
The pissup went quite well on Thursday night; it was good to see several of the old Dublin crowd again. Came back here to Eoghan's flat and fell asleep in front of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Yesterday, we didn't do much. Went for a stroll in Phoenix Park and had a traditional cottage pie dinner in the Collins Barracks art museum. Got to the venue early to register, only to find that the tournament had been moved from the normal venue - the main hall of Gonzaga College - to a school gym located near the tennis courts. This was another bad omen - you know how sensitive I am to locations - I always play better in nice venues - and having to play in a decrepid old school gym surrounded by pummel horses and netball hoops was never going to be good.
We went to the pub - got lost on the way - where I lost the warm-up. Then we went back to the venue, where I discovered yet another bad omen: I had been drawn against Phillip Maguire, a strong player and also friend - he is one of the "Wicklow Boys" who turn up to all the Irish tournaments. I'd played him once before, a draw in the City of Dublin championships in 2006. I knew things were going to be tough.
The game got under weigh. Eoghan sat down and worked on his CV. Phillip played the Albin Counter-gambit against. I hadn't seen this opening for years and now its come up three times in a month - the other two games being correspondence. It must be coming back into fashion. Anyway, things soon went awry. I got greedy and took a 2nd pawn on about move 10, only to discover that it dropped a Knight after he checked. Down a Knight for two pawns, with the Queens off - by no means losing but certainly not good.
I did my best to struggle on and make him work for it, trying to make something of my extra pawns, but there were too many weaknesses to defend and eventually he ground out the win in 50 moves.
Yet again the round 1 hoodoo strikes - I can't remember the last time I won in round 1: at least a year. I always get off to a bad start in tournaments and have to come back from behind.
Same today.
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Greg,
ReplyDeleteThe report on the congress at the ICU site included the following:
"One departure from previous years was the move to the new sports hall at the back of the building which has hosted the tournament in the school for so many years. It proved to be an ideal venue for chess, warm and spacious and, most of all, inspiring many great chess games (and no errant mobile phones!)."
I guess one person's new sports hall is another's decrepit old school gym?
Brendan