Last weekend I managed to win only the second chess tournament of my career, after Kilkenny in 2005, though it was a fairly minor achievement since there were only 7 players in the Minor section, and I managed to score 5/5 but only actually had two good wins.
Hereford is evidently a lucky chess town for me though since I have had my two best results of the season there - last August I managed a 4.5/6 in a fairly strong tournament.
This time the event was being staged in the Green Dragon hotel, an old inn right in the centre of town. It was one of the Castle Chess events organised by an enterprising individual called Tony Corfe.
Friday 23rd April
I took the Friday off work - my plan was to drive down first thing in the morning. There was a bit of a scare the night before when I couldn't get my fuel cap off, so couldn't fuel the car. Not having any internet access at the moment meant a quick call to Michelle who was able to look it up on google and save the day.
I didn't manage to get going as early as I wanted - in the end I left at about 08h30 and got to Great Malvern by 11h00. My plan was to fit in a walk for a few hours - in a couple of months I am going to attempt the "Malvern Marathon", a 26-mile walk along the hills, so its good to get a little training. I had a pint in the Malvern Hills Hotel and then walked for two hours - up to the top of the British Camp, an iron age hill fort, and then along the ridge through woods and past quarries to Midsummer Hill which is a bronze age fortification. The climbs were quite stiff and the views were good. It was a pleasant, sunny day so the walk was enjoyable.
I returned to the Hotel in time for a roast pork sandwich and then drove to Kington where I was staying in a bed and breakfast place I had stayed at a few weeks earlier when in the area walking bits of Offa's Dyke.
In the evening I drove to the nearby village of Eardisland to meet Peter who was an old RAF friend of my Father's, who used to be a museum curator in London but moved out to rural Herefordshire upon retirement. He is 80 now but still very energetic.
He is also an ex-club chess player - played for years in the civil service league, though he only plays casually now. He lives in a cottage by the river that runs through the pretty village. His place has no TV, an open fire, and there are piles of books everywhere - lots of books on chess, nature and history. He also has a very impressive wine cellar and collection of malt whiskies.
He laid on a splendid dinner of smoked salmon, lamb cutlets and vegetables, and raspberries with yoghurt. We talked about family history, and chess. Sadly, I wasn't able to sample more than a couple of glasses of wine from his cellar, but he did crack out a very good chateauneuf du pape.
Went back to the B&B and went to bed straight away.
Saturday 24th April
dawned bright and sunny although I wasn't around to witness it, since I didn't get up until gone 7am. I had a nice breakfast of cereals, fruit and toast with home-made marmalade, and a pleasant chat to the two ladies who run the place. Then I drove into Hereford. Eventually found somewhere to park without having to pay too much for the privelige, and walked to the venue. I got there just in time though there was no sign of Colin yet. My parents were also, coincidentally, in Hereford visiting a friend, and they were going to come along and say hello. This was to be their first-ever visit to a chess tournament, which made it rather unfortunate that it was about the smallest tournament I've ever played in, with only 40 players across all three sections.
Game 1 - rematch against Ashwin
There were only 7 players in our section, and I was less than overjoyed to see that in round 1, I had been drawn against the young Indian boy with whom I had drawn the Saturday night game in Nottingham the week before. I had had slightly the better of that game, but playing children is always hard work and so I didn't relish the prospect of a rematch.
The early part of what turned out to be another close battle was rather disturbed by the fact that I was trying to work out where Colin was, and then when he did turn up I was waiting for my parents' visit. They arrived when I was half-way through playing Ashwin, so I popped in and out to talk to them and their friend Jean. They seemed fairly interested in their first chess tournament anyway.
I should mention that the game was being played in a very nice function room in the pleasant Green Dragon hotel, a very nice and civilised venue.
My parents headed off. The game against Ashwin went on a very long time, but eventually in the endgame he made a mistake, getting his Rook boxed in with pawns, and I was able to exchange into a winning King and Pawn ending.
Colin won his game too, rather more easily, also against a junior.
I talked to the organiser and asked that Colin and I not be drawn against one another if possible. It is a bit difficult in such a small section, but I hate playing my friends and Colin feels the same.
Game 2 - drawn against Colin
We went out to the pub for a bite of lunch - and came back to find that we'd been drawn against each other!
Prior to the game there was a "players' review" where you could talk to the organiser about the format of the tournament and suggest ideas for future events. He said that he had made a loss on this event and would probably not be holding another of them.
After this, I went and told him that Colin and I had agreed a draw without playing, because we are friends and we never play each other. However, he wouldn't allow us to agree a draw without playing - he said there was a new chess rule which said that pre-arranged draws had to be marked as zero for both players, and that it was necessary to play 30 "meaningful" moves in all games. He came up to Colin's room to discuss it since Colin was up there.
Colin was even more reluctant to play than I was, but he controller, whilst being reasonable and understanding was adamant that we had to play one another. The problem wasn't helped by the fact that the section was so small - only 7 players - so it was always going to be hard for us to avoid playing one another.
Anyway, we reluctantly agreed to play. Neither of us was remotely up for it. We both know how chess games can destroy friendships and we both value our friendship far more than any chess game. The game began and it became evident that Colin wasn't remotely up for it. He made wild, sacrificial moves. I turned down his sacrifices, and we soon got into a wild and strange position with pieces hanging all over the board. It became hard not to giggle. I had to keep turning laughs into coughs, and at one point went and got a brandy. Colin seemed determined to give his pieces away, and eventually after a while he just knocked his King over. Clearly he hadn't been at all enthusiastic about playing and I could take absolutely no pleasure in this "win". But at least we hadn't fallen out over it as we would have if we had played a serious game.
Since that game didn't take very long, we had a good 3 hour break before the next game, so I took Colin up to Great Malvern where I am going to be walking the marathon in a few weeks. We took a rather circuitous route but got there all right, and parked near the top, then walked up to the Worcestershire Beacon which is the highest point of the hills. Colin claimed to be unfit but seemed to have no problems tackling quite a steep hill. The views from the top are spectacular. We made it back in time for round 3. We had been going to take a bye on the Saturday night, but since game 2 had been such a wash-out, Colin wanted to play the Saturday game.
Game 3 - another flukey undeserved victory
I was drawn against a chap rated 77, but he played much better than that. The game proceeded for some 20 moves into a very stodgy, locked position. I was trying to break things open, and, as I often do, made a mistake trying to drum up some activity. I went a pawn down and got into a fairly bad position to boot.
At least I carried on fighting and trying to make it hard for him. The game went on and on, into the ending. Colin drew his game and most of the games around us finished too - eventually we were the last board still playing, and my position was still rubbish despite the consumption of two beers. I gloomily confronted the prospect of defeat.
The only glimmer of hope was that he was moving very slowly and still taking a long time over his moves even though he was running critically short of time. I was low on time too, but I think I was more pragmatic in my use of the clock than he was.
Eventually he had about 1 minute left and I had about 2, and we had exchanged down to what was a completely won ending for him. The arbiter was watching the game - but he still moved too slolwy, and eventually his flag fell - I had won a totally unjustified victory on time.
The chap seemed a bit dazed, and he wasn't even sure of what the result was. I felt pretty bad. I was on 3/3 but since the last two won games were both totally undeserved it didn't feel like cause for celebration.
Colin was hungry but all the Indian restaurants had closed by this point. We ended up going to a rather dubious Chinese take-away with some eat-in plastic tables. I had a hot and sour soup and a vegetable curry - Colin blew his £5 a day budget by spending £15 on about twice as much food as he could cope with, which he felt bad about later, though I did point out that it was still only half what we'd normally have spent getting an Indian meal.
We were pretty tired, so went back to the hotel and turned in without further ado.
Sunday 25th April
Game 4 - a better result
Breakfast was included in the package, so we stocked up before the first round began.
In game 4, I finally played quite well again. I was playing the chap Colin had drawn with the previous night, a very friendly and pleasant man from Northern Ireland. He had complimented Colin profusely in his play in their game, and had even bought me and him beers!
He played his own system as White against the Shveshnikov, which to be honest I didn't particularly rate because it left him a pawn down and with a horrible pawn structure including isolated and doubled d-pawns. The system depended on me grabbing a second pawn, giving him lots of activity, but I could simply avoid that by declining to take the second pawn - I was happy being a pawn up and just concentrated on development.
Applying these simple principles (which admittedly I've often failed to do in the past) stood me in good stead and his weak pawns left me a nice target to aim at. I just kept things tight and eventually the game proved quite easy to win from there. Once again, he was very generous and magnanimous after the game.
Colin won his game as well. I now had won the tournament - I was on 4/4 and the next best score, including Colin's, was 2.5.
Since there were only 7 in the section, someone had to have a full point bye in each round and in the final round it had to be either me or Colin since everyone else had had a bye. Colin was keen to play his last round, and I was perfectly happy not to, since I had already won the event.
So I sat out the last round, and Colin played the bloke I'd struggled to beat on time the previous night - and he beat him also, after looking like he was losing. We concluded that that bloke is very good at getting into good positions, but lacked the pragmatic mindset just to finish games off.
Meantime I had a nice walk around the Cathedral and mooched around the tournament hall.
Eventually, it was all over and we attended the final prize-giving. It was nice to win a tournament after so long, but it has to be said that it was a fairly minor achievement since I'd only really played well in 2 games. A fairly low-key ending to the tournament. We said our goodbyes and I headed off on the long and weary drive home. First I went to my Sister's place in Oxfordshire to have dinner and say hello, then on to East Midlands airport to meet Michelle who was coming to visit, then finally on home at 1am.
Wednesday 28th April
Victory for Netherton B
Our B team, which I play for, had got to the final of the handicap knock-out, quite a good result even with the handicapping system, and we were to play mighty Huddersfield.
I had been tired all week after the exertions of Sunday, and on Wednesday morning had dropped Michelle back off at East Midlands after her flying visit (necessitated by my planned visit to Berlin the previous weekend being cancelled due to volcanic ash). I had to raise myself for the final, being played at Huddersfield.
With the handicap, we only needed 3/6 to win the match, and it started very well for us with good quick wins for Jonathan Morton on board 5 and Craig Thompson on board 2 against a much higher-rated player. Once we got another draw, I knew we only needed half a point to lift the trophy, so I promptly offered my opponent a draw.
My game had been fairly dreary and low-key on board 6, but I was at least slightly ahead - a pawn up in a Knight and Pawn ending. Given the match situation, maybe my opponent should have played on, but he took the draw and so we won the cup.
This weekend my final tournament of the season is taking place in Halifax. As I write on Friday afternoon, my participation is in doubt since I have a bit of a cold and am not really feeling up for it after so much chess. Russell Goodfellow is coming up to play in it, so I might just attend in the capacity of a spectator.
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Another disappointing tournament
Saturday, April 17th
With my weekend visiting Michelle in Berlin cancelled, I drove down the M1 to Nottingham to take part in the Nottingham Congress. It's the UK congress I've competed in the most often, having previously taken part in 2006, 2007 and last year.
I left early because I had not entered in advance, and wanted to be there in good time to get my entry in. It was a sunny spring morning when I parked my car in the free park and ride car park near the venue and walked across the daffodil-strewn Forest Recreation Ground to the venue at the Nottingham High School for boys. Its the same venue as last year, but a much nicer hall - last year us bottom-feeders were shunted into a small and dreary classroom, but this year everyone was fitted into an airy and pleasant hall which evidently had once been a courtyard and had recently been roofed over.
'Blog readers Peter Brace and Brendan O'Gorman were both playing and there were other familiar people to say good morning to including Richard Desmedt.
This year the grading sections had not been amended for the new grades, and so the bottom section was a relatively enticing-looking Under-110 where I thought I would have a good chance of winning some money and even, if things worked out well, winning my first tournament for five years.
The first day I played three uninspiring but solid games which don't merit much attention. I ended up with one win and two draws - yet again the bottom section proved a bit of a minefield with talented juniors and unpredictable ungraded players. These categories of players are even more unpredictable at this time of year, 10 months since the last grades were produced.
Game 1 -
I was playing a young bloke in his 20s, ungraded and playing in his first tournament, but who was clearly no mug. I knew that as soon as he confidently banged out the first 9 moves of the Sveschnikov Sicilian. I, as black, had slightly the better of the whole game, getting doubled rooks on the h-file and a pawn up just after the time control. I mistakenly swapped an active Bishop for his inactive one, thinking the ending was won, but it turned out he could repeat the position and a draw was agreed.
I had a nice luncheon sandwich (cheddar and home-made chutney) and a pint of local real ale in the Bell Inn, a sound old historic Inn in the city centre. The weather being nice, the park next to the venue was pretty with spring flowers - rather less attractive were the big groups of people showing rather too much flesh in most cases. By evening the park was completely covered in litter - people are disgusting sometimes.
Game 2-
My opponent didn't show, so I was re-paired against a junior, rated 73. I was very nervous, knowing how strong these juniors can be, but as it turned out, his heart was never in it. He blundered regularly and I won quickly.
Having over two hours to wait untill the evening game, I went back to the Bell, drank beer slowly and read my book. I had an enjoyable pork steak and walked back via Corporation Oaks, a hilltop reservoir surrounded by Victorian houses which is one of my favourite features in Nottingham.
Game 3 -
Another low-graded junior, this time an earnest bespectacled Indian boy of about 9 whose feet didn't reach the floor when he was sitting at the chessboard. It was a dreary Colle, and nothing much happened all game. He tried to win my Queen with a sneaky tactic but I spotted it and blocked the centre. Then he made a mistake and allowed me a tactic which won a pawn. I took the pawn and with the Queens off he started losing interest and offered me a draw several times. Eventually I accepted it since the position offered him a lot of counterplay.
I had a chat afterwards to him and his Mother, who was keen to know how well he had played.
So one easy win and two drawn games both of which I had been a pawn up in, not a bad day's work, though I should have worked harder to convert those two draws. At least I was finished at 8.15pm, which was a good thing since I had a 65 mile drive home.
Sunday, April 18th
Disaster strikes in round 4
Another bright sunny day, and as I arrived at the venue I was relatively confident since I thought I'd played solidly yesterday. Yet again I had been drawn against an ungraded junior, this time an Asian teenager in a stripey jumper.
He played a bit of an offbeat gambit, which I knew a good trap against, and he walked into it, but then I made colossal blunder and all my weekend's work was undone in an instant.
Here are the notes on the game that I have already written for some readers of this 'blog:
Up there with all my worst defeats of all time was yesterday's game vs Radhav Sudarshan, an ungraded 13 year old Indian (who was obviously quite a decent player because he ended up on 4/5). This defeat is so dreadful because the game lasted so few moves and I had been clearly winning (+3.5 on Fritz).
My opponent made 11 moves, moving only 5 pieces - his Queen 6 times, his King once, one pawn and one bishop and knight! There should be no way that I should lose against such a monumental failure to develop. Here's how I managed to -
Bailey-SudarshanNottingham 2010
1 d4 e5
the Chalick-Englund gambit, a one-trick pony of an opening in which Black neglects development in the hopes that White will stumble into one of the opening traps. I know the traps though and a good counter-trap.
2 dxe4 Nc6
3 Nf4 Qe7
4 Bf4 Qb4+
5 Nc3!? Qxf4?
played instantaneously, clearly thinking I'd blundered a Bishop
6 Nd5!
I banged that out and then headed off for a cup of tea, enjoying the discomforture on my opponent's face. 6 .. Qf5
7 Nxc7+ Kd8
8 Nxa8
I've had this position before, and whilst the computer considers White winning, there is an issue re getting the Knight out of the corner. Rapid development is crucial.
8 .. Nb4
9 Nd4 Qxe5
at about this point his friend came over and my opponent gave him a wry "I've messed this up" sort of a look.
10 c3 Qb8!?
a devious move on his part - he spotted that I couldnt take the b4 knight and wanted to tempt me into taking it, but didn't want to make me suspicious as I would have been if he'd simply left it there. The only problem is that if I didn't fall into his trap he is losing.
11 cxb4??
played without thinking. A moment's consideration of the move, a simple examination of all available checks would have shown me that this was disastrous. After my equally calamitous round 4 performance the week before at St Albans, I had chatted to Brendan about the importance of examining every check, and yet we both remarked upon the exceptional difficulty in doing that simple task. He told me he'd tried all sorts of things to make himself do it, and even then, he, a strong player, can't manage it. If I had checked for two seconds, this game was won and the tournament was on track. As it was, i was within minutes of withdrawing from the tournament.
One tiny oversight, in other words, ruined my entire weekend. The correct move for me, as I found immediately I looked at the positoin again, is 11 Qb3! preventing the check and threatening Qxf7, and now the computer has White +3.5, winning.
11 .. Bxb4+
White resigns, as the Queen is lost. There was a look of disbelief and relief on my opponents face. After shaking his things I just walked out of the hall without even picking up my bag. Shortly afterwards I came back to withdraw from the tournament and went to the cinema since I was in no shape for another game after that.
I went back to the tournament hall later on to watch the end of the last round. Sudarshan won again to go to 4/5, which was some consolation, and I watched Richard Desmedt draw in an excellent game which went to 92 moves.
Conclusion
So for the second week running, my weekend was ruined by totally messing up the Sunday morning game against, on paper, a weak opponent. I seem to have overcome my round 1 hoodoo only to have replaced it with a round 4 hoodoo which is even worse because after playing well for three games you start to have hope, before the familiar despair returns.
I have now played four tournaments in four weeks, and in every one of them there has been one disastrous, easily-avoidable defeat -
With my weekend visiting Michelle in Berlin cancelled, I drove down the M1 to Nottingham to take part in the Nottingham Congress. It's the UK congress I've competed in the most often, having previously taken part in 2006, 2007 and last year.
I left early because I had not entered in advance, and wanted to be there in good time to get my entry in. It was a sunny spring morning when I parked my car in the free park and ride car park near the venue and walked across the daffodil-strewn Forest Recreation Ground to the venue at the Nottingham High School for boys. Its the same venue as last year, but a much nicer hall - last year us bottom-feeders were shunted into a small and dreary classroom, but this year everyone was fitted into an airy and pleasant hall which evidently had once been a courtyard and had recently been roofed over.
'Blog readers Peter Brace and Brendan O'Gorman were both playing and there were other familiar people to say good morning to including Richard Desmedt.
This year the grading sections had not been amended for the new grades, and so the bottom section was a relatively enticing-looking Under-110 where I thought I would have a good chance of winning some money and even, if things worked out well, winning my first tournament for five years.
The first day I played three uninspiring but solid games which don't merit much attention. I ended up with one win and two draws - yet again the bottom section proved a bit of a minefield with talented juniors and unpredictable ungraded players. These categories of players are even more unpredictable at this time of year, 10 months since the last grades were produced.
Game 1 -
I was playing a young bloke in his 20s, ungraded and playing in his first tournament, but who was clearly no mug. I knew that as soon as he confidently banged out the first 9 moves of the Sveschnikov Sicilian. I, as black, had slightly the better of the whole game, getting doubled rooks on the h-file and a pawn up just after the time control. I mistakenly swapped an active Bishop for his inactive one, thinking the ending was won, but it turned out he could repeat the position and a draw was agreed.
I had a nice luncheon sandwich (cheddar and home-made chutney) and a pint of local real ale in the Bell Inn, a sound old historic Inn in the city centre. The weather being nice, the park next to the venue was pretty with spring flowers - rather less attractive were the big groups of people showing rather too much flesh in most cases. By evening the park was completely covered in litter - people are disgusting sometimes.
Game 2-
My opponent didn't show, so I was re-paired against a junior, rated 73. I was very nervous, knowing how strong these juniors can be, but as it turned out, his heart was never in it. He blundered regularly and I won quickly.
Having over two hours to wait untill the evening game, I went back to the Bell, drank beer slowly and read my book. I had an enjoyable pork steak and walked back via Corporation Oaks, a hilltop reservoir surrounded by Victorian houses which is one of my favourite features in Nottingham.
Game 3 -
Another low-graded junior, this time an earnest bespectacled Indian boy of about 9 whose feet didn't reach the floor when he was sitting at the chessboard. It was a dreary Colle, and nothing much happened all game. He tried to win my Queen with a sneaky tactic but I spotted it and blocked the centre. Then he made a mistake and allowed me a tactic which won a pawn. I took the pawn and with the Queens off he started losing interest and offered me a draw several times. Eventually I accepted it since the position offered him a lot of counterplay.
I had a chat afterwards to him and his Mother, who was keen to know how well he had played.
So one easy win and two drawn games both of which I had been a pawn up in, not a bad day's work, though I should have worked harder to convert those two draws. At least I was finished at 8.15pm, which was a good thing since I had a 65 mile drive home.
Sunday, April 18th
Disaster strikes in round 4
Another bright sunny day, and as I arrived at the venue I was relatively confident since I thought I'd played solidly yesterday. Yet again I had been drawn against an ungraded junior, this time an Asian teenager in a stripey jumper.
He played a bit of an offbeat gambit, which I knew a good trap against, and he walked into it, but then I made colossal blunder and all my weekend's work was undone in an instant.
Here are the notes on the game that I have already written for some readers of this 'blog:
Up there with all my worst defeats of all time was yesterday's game vs Radhav Sudarshan, an ungraded 13 year old Indian (who was obviously quite a decent player because he ended up on 4/5). This defeat is so dreadful because the game lasted so few moves and I had been clearly winning (+3.5 on Fritz).
My opponent made 11 moves, moving only 5 pieces - his Queen 6 times, his King once, one pawn and one bishop and knight! There should be no way that I should lose against such a monumental failure to develop. Here's how I managed to -
Bailey-SudarshanNottingham 2010
1 d4 e5
the Chalick-Englund gambit, a one-trick pony of an opening in which Black neglects development in the hopes that White will stumble into one of the opening traps. I know the traps though and a good counter-trap.
2 dxe4 Nc6
3 Nf4 Qe7
4 Bf4 Qb4+
5 Nc3!? Qxf4?
played instantaneously, clearly thinking I'd blundered a Bishop
6 Nd5!
I banged that out and then headed off for a cup of tea, enjoying the discomforture on my opponent's face. 6 .. Qf5
7 Nxc7+ Kd8
8 Nxa8
I've had this position before, and whilst the computer considers White winning, there is an issue re getting the Knight out of the corner. Rapid development is crucial.
8 .. Nb4
9 Nd4 Qxe5
at about this point his friend came over and my opponent gave him a wry "I've messed this up" sort of a look.
10 c3 Qb8!?
a devious move on his part - he spotted that I couldnt take the b4 knight and wanted to tempt me into taking it, but didn't want to make me suspicious as I would have been if he'd simply left it there. The only problem is that if I didn't fall into his trap he is losing.
11 cxb4??
played without thinking. A moment's consideration of the move, a simple examination of all available checks would have shown me that this was disastrous. After my equally calamitous round 4 performance the week before at St Albans, I had chatted to Brendan about the importance of examining every check, and yet we both remarked upon the exceptional difficulty in doing that simple task. He told me he'd tried all sorts of things to make himself do it, and even then, he, a strong player, can't manage it. If I had checked for two seconds, this game was won and the tournament was on track. As it was, i was within minutes of withdrawing from the tournament.
One tiny oversight, in other words, ruined my entire weekend. The correct move for me, as I found immediately I looked at the positoin again, is 11 Qb3! preventing the check and threatening Qxf7, and now the computer has White +3.5, winning.
11 .. Bxb4+
White resigns, as the Queen is lost. There was a look of disbelief and relief on my opponents face. After shaking his things I just walked out of the hall without even picking up my bag. Shortly afterwards I came back to withdraw from the tournament and went to the cinema since I was in no shape for another game after that.
I went back to the tournament hall later on to watch the end of the last round. Sudarshan won again to go to 4/5, which was some consolation, and I watched Richard Desmedt draw in an excellent game which went to 92 moves.
Conclusion
So for the second week running, my weekend was ruined by totally messing up the Sunday morning game against, on paper, a weak opponent. I seem to have overcome my round 1 hoodoo only to have replaced it with a round 4 hoodoo which is even worse because after playing well for three games you start to have hope, before the familiar despair returns.
I have now played four tournaments in four weeks, and in every one of them there has been one disastrous, easily-avoidable defeat -
- Huddersfield - missing a mate in 1 for me, and then losing against John Eddershaw, overpressing.
- Coulsdon - losing in 9 moves after neglecting development against c3 sicilian
- St Albans - missing a mate by a 59-rated opponent who thought he'd blundered a pawn
- Nottingham - missing a move which losdt the Queen, when I was winning.
There are similiarities between all of these games. In all of them I was winning, or ahead, and in all of them, the thing I missed should have been very easy to spot and then the game could have continued with me ahead. Its not as though I was really outplayed in any of them.
Blunder checking
Lots of advice has come in about the importance of blunder checking, which would, if applied successfully, have allowed me to avoid all these defeats. I know all about how important it is to check for captures and checks on every move, and I often remember to do it (when its a quiet position and it doesn't matter), but as soon as things get tense or exciting, I forget to do it.
Dave Stephenson made it sound as though its the easiest thing in the world to remember, but more encouragingly, as strong a player as Brendan O'Gorman told me he has problems remembering to check - he says that for a time he tried putting a dot on his scoresheet before moving, as a way to remind himself to check, until an opponent asked him to stop because it's technically against the rules to mark the scoresheet.
One idea I had after that discussion is to start carrying a small pebble and to transfer it from pocket to pocket - you're not allowed to move until you move the pebble and you don't move the pebble until you've done the check. I may start doing that at Hereford.
Withdrawing early
There has also been some comment about the fact that after the disasters at St Albans and Nottingham I withdrew before the final round. The general feeling seems to be that one should bounce back and play the last game.
My feeling on this is, firstly, if it was a tournament where I had hopes of winning, then I have no real enthusiasm for playing a "dead" game at the end which might get me to 3/5 if I win. There's nothing to play for and the games have a sterile feel to them. I have had some easy wins in final rounds, actually, because obviously my opponents can't be bothered either.
Secondly, after a really bad, humiliating defeat like those in round 4 at both St Albans and Nottingham, I just don't want to play chess. There are a lot better things to do on a Sunday afternoon than slogging over an irrelevant chess game, and of course being out of sorts after a bad defeat just makes another loss more likely.
The example of Russell Goodfellow is instructive - he always withdraws from tournaments once he can't win money. I wouldn't go that far, but in circumstances like these I can see little point in continuing to play.
Minor Sections
These experiences have shown again that bottom sections of tournaments are not necessarily easy, and can be full of dangerous pitfalls in the shape of juniors and ungraded players - especially at this time of the year when everyone's grade is almost a year out of date.
In many ways, I've played better this year when I've been in tough sections (the under-145 at Kidlington comes to mind). Then it's me that is the underdog and playing players rated 130+ have played badly against me because they are the ones thinking "this bloke has got a rubbish rating, this should be easy".
The burden of expectation can be hard. Maybe I should play in higher sections all the time. I'd have no chance of prize money but on the plus side I wouldn't lose to any more ungraded juniors or 59s. And I wouldn't have the distraction of expecting to get prize money or win a tournament. But on the other side of the coin, the tantalising prospect of the glory of a tournament victory is something I'd hate to give up forever. If I did play up in harder sections I'd be forever condemned to mid-table anonymity, at best. Tough decision.
A year of the 'blog
This 'blog is a year old now - I wrote my first entries for the Nottingham tournament twelve months ago. When I started out it was to be for one year only , and the intention was to force myself to improve by writing about my experiences. I also set out a number of "precepts" which I was going to follow to try and achieve that.
To some extent, both these goals have succeeded. I am getting (marginally) better results than I did a year ago, and my grade will be going up around 10 points. I have managed to stick to the precepts I set myself, and some of them are now probably out of date. Succeeding in solving one set of problems, instead of being the road to glory, has merely allowed me to see another set of issues I have to solve. I clearly need another set of precepts.
In my next entry, I will go through the precepts, and set myself a new set to follow for the next year ahead. But this entry is probably long enough already!
Friday, 16 April 2010
Things go awry at St Albans
Saturday April 10th
Last weekend was the St Albans tournament. This is the first time I've played in this particular event - 2 years I went along but didn't play and last year for some reason I was unavailable. The venue had changed from the boys' school next to the Cathedral to another boys' school on the other side of the Cathedral, a Catholic school I was pleased to note.
I drove down on the Saturday morning to save one night's bed and breakfast cost. This particular event is quite civilised in starting at 10am instead of the more usual 9.30 and I left home at about 6.00 and was there in good time. I managed to drive at a sedate pace and got about 70 miles per gallon which is good, in keeping with the money-saving tenor of our times.
I turned up early at the venue. It was a large hall in the school and quite airy. There was a terrace with a nice view over the Roman ruins of Verulamium to the Cathedral.
Russell Goodfellow was playing in this event too and he turned up just before play started.
Game 1 - good result against an old opponent
My first round opponent was Mark Silman whom I'd drawn with in round 1 at Bury St Edmunds. I probably should have won that game but I messed up several winning chances and he managed to force a draw. He was a good opponent though, and here at St Albans was one of the top seeds in my section. At Bury he had reminded me a bit of Lovejoy, the TV antiques dealer played by Ian McShane, with long curly hair and a leather jacket, but now his hair was cut shorter.
This turned out to be one of the best games of my career to date - I hardly put a foot wrong. I saw a nice tactic in the opening phase to win a Knight for a pawn, and then managed to force the Queens off and closed out the ending efficiently by opening lines at the right time. Overall I was very pleased with the result especially as it was against a good player. And a nice turnaround from my usual game 1 hoodoo.
Afterwards we had a chat and a cup of tea and then I went to the pub with Russell who had also won his round 1 game. The pub was just round the corner and proved to have nice real ales on offer.
Game 2 - in which I almost muck up another game against John Eddershaw
In game 2, battle was resumed against John Eddershaw. Attentive readers will recall that he is the man against whom I managed to lose a totally won game at Huddersfield two weeks ago. He is another person I played at Bury St Edmunds, where I'd beaten him fairly easily. So it was honours even between the two of us though I would say I'd outplayed him overall - I managed to miss a MATE IN ONE at Huddersfield!
This game started off as a very cagey, dreary opening - he was White and if White wants to keep things very tight ("stodgy" as Dave Stephenson would say) then it is usually possible. Things went on for about 25 moves with hardly any pieces off the board, until we both had our Rooks and Queens lined up on two different files. I managed to get a pawn up, then two pawns up, but his heavy pieces were menacing my King and suddenly it started to look as though I was getting into difficulties. I always seem to miscalculate when my King is under threat, and it was so here - I suddenly made a bad mistake and got completely tangled up. The next thing I knew, I'd lost a Queen for a Rook.
Things started to move rather fast. I think he was suffering from the problem that I often have, where you get into a winning position and then somehow lose focus. The very move after I lost my Queen, I saw that if he made a weak move I had a chance to hit his undefended King and at least win the Queen back again. In something of a daze, he made the exact move I wanted, and two moves later I had checkmated him. It was all very odd indeed.
He must have felt awful but he was pretty decent about it. Turned out he's ex-military. He said it was a fair result because he didn't really deserve to win the game at Huddersfield - which was nice of him, even though it was true!
Game 3 - evening bye
So I was on 2/2, it's been a long time since I managed that. I had decided, after the disaster at Coulsdon, when I lost in 9 moves on the Saturday evening, to take a Saturday night bye, so I watched the start of the games and then went to check into my B&B, which turned out to be about 2 miles from the venue , right across the town. I chatted to the landlady for a bit - nice lady and an impeccable house - I'd even got an upgrade to an en-suite as the other guests had cancelled.
I walked back to the chess via a pub where I stopped for a pint and dinner, an Tyrolean dish of potatoes , bacon and mushrooms. I got back to the venue and watched the end of the games. Russell got into his usual time-trouble, but his opponent got into even worse time-trouble and dropped material in the time scramble. Russell had won all his games and was sitting on top of the leader board on 3/3, so it was a good day for both of us. We celebrated with a couple of beers in the real ale place, before I got a cab back to the b&b - I believe he managed a few more pints though!
Sunday April 11th
Game 4 - disaster strikes
I had checked the draw the night before and seen that I'd been drawn against one of the lowest-rated players in the section. Obviously he was on 2/2 as well, so clearly playing well, but he was only rated 59 (I am 99 and decent players are 130+) so I thought it had to be , on paper, an easy game. I thought maybe that it would be a junior, since they are usual the only ones with such low grades.
I had a good breakfast at the B&B and set out in optimistic mood - always fatal! I got to the venue early and had a walk before the chess started. I walked across the Verulamium park, past the ruins of the Roman camp and round the lake. The sun was out, blossom on the trees, birds twittering, all very nice.
I got back to the venue to discover that I was playing an older man, so I thought that this should not be too hard a task and was already relishing being on board 1 playing for the title in the afternoon.
Fatal of course.
The game started with another dull, manoeuvring position - he was White and played a lineof the Colle. Then it seemed that he had dropped a pawn. He thought he'd dropped a pawn too (this is just like my 9-move defeat at Coulsdon). Since he thought he'd lost a pawn, he just decided to launch an attack and, just like at Coulsdon, it transpired that losing the pawn had helped him because it opened lines and freed his pieces. An unintentional gambit.
Whatever, within about 3 moves I was being checkmated and had to resign. It felt dreadful - a bad loss to a low-ranked player in a game I really thought I could win, with chances of prize money or even winning the tournament gone up in smoke. I was disgusted and appalled with myself - this really ranks with one of my worst, most humiliating defeats.
I felt so bad that I straight away withdrew from the event, not playing the last game. I know that goes against one of the 'blog Precepts, but i was in such a rubbish mood that I'd only have loused up the last game had I played it.
Goodfellow won his game and was on 4/4, guaranteed first place if he drew the last game, so he was very happy - a long-awaited return to form for him.
We had lunch in the pub.
Game 5 - walk in the park
During round 5 I took myself round the park again and also had a look at the Cathedral, which was well worth a visit. It felt a lot better being out on a nice afternoon than playing chess!
Goodfellow got a quick draw and won £250 which made his day, and then things got even better for him as Manchester Citr FC won 5-1.
I said goodbye to him and headed off to stay overnight in Berkhampsted with my colleague Ian Imms who laid on a superb dinner of roast lamb. We went to the pub for a beer afterwards and then got an early night because we both had to leave at 6am to drive back North.
Conclusions
I've played three congresses in three weeks and it's not gone as well as I had hoped. Given that two of them (Huddersfield and St Albans) had easy grading limits, my showing of won 6 drawn 3 lost 4 is nothing special.
Of my six wins -
Huddersfield round 1 was against a very weak player and I still dropped a piece
Huddersfield rounds 3 and 4 were quite good wins
Coulsdon round 2 was against a very weak player
St Albans round 1 was good, round 2 was a total fluke from a lost position
so I can only be pleased with 3 of them.
Of the 4 defeats, three were truly abysmal
Huddersfield round 2 I missed a win by a mate in 1
Coulsdon round 2 I lost in 9 moves
St Albans round 4 was against someone rated 59.
So, overall, despite playing quite well in some games, it was a disappointing performance. On the plus side, I have managed to adhere to the Precepts with which I started this 'blog a year ago, which were mostly to do with the psychological side - not giving up early etc. I think I need to review the Precepts and maybe come up with some new ones to do with not overlooking totally obvious things over the board, which has been the main reason for my recent failures. I will write an entry on this topic shortly.
A volcano intervenes in my plans
On Wednesday, I played the final club game of the year for Netherton v Holmfirth, and I was paired against Normal Battye, against whom I had another of my more memorable defeats a year ago when I managed to lose despite being a Bishop and Rook ahead and with a pawn on the 7th rank poised to promote to a Queen.
I was determined to get my own back for that and atone for the disaster at St Albans and I managed to crush him fairly comprehensively with a display which never gave him a chance. It was nice to get a crushing win for a change!
I had been looking forward to a weekend off chess since I was going to Berlin to see Michelle - much needed rest and recuperation. Sadly the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano and the subsequent grounding of all UK flights has put paid to that plan, so, scouting around for something else to do instead I came up with the brilliant plan -
"I know, I'll play in a chess tournament!".
Makes a change.
So I will be heading to Nottingham tomorrow morning to start again at the chequered board. This was the event last year where I wrote my first 'blog entry, so my original intention of writing for a year has been achieved - time to take stock, which I will be doing in my next entry.
Last weekend was the St Albans tournament. This is the first time I've played in this particular event - 2 years I went along but didn't play and last year for some reason I was unavailable. The venue had changed from the boys' school next to the Cathedral to another boys' school on the other side of the Cathedral, a Catholic school I was pleased to note.
I drove down on the Saturday morning to save one night's bed and breakfast cost. This particular event is quite civilised in starting at 10am instead of the more usual 9.30 and I left home at about 6.00 and was there in good time. I managed to drive at a sedate pace and got about 70 miles per gallon which is good, in keeping with the money-saving tenor of our times.
I turned up early at the venue. It was a large hall in the school and quite airy. There was a terrace with a nice view over the Roman ruins of Verulamium to the Cathedral.
Russell Goodfellow was playing in this event too and he turned up just before play started.
Game 1 - good result against an old opponent
My first round opponent was Mark Silman whom I'd drawn with in round 1 at Bury St Edmunds. I probably should have won that game but I messed up several winning chances and he managed to force a draw. He was a good opponent though, and here at St Albans was one of the top seeds in my section. At Bury he had reminded me a bit of Lovejoy, the TV antiques dealer played by Ian McShane, with long curly hair and a leather jacket, but now his hair was cut shorter.
This turned out to be one of the best games of my career to date - I hardly put a foot wrong. I saw a nice tactic in the opening phase to win a Knight for a pawn, and then managed to force the Queens off and closed out the ending efficiently by opening lines at the right time. Overall I was very pleased with the result especially as it was against a good player. And a nice turnaround from my usual game 1 hoodoo.
Afterwards we had a chat and a cup of tea and then I went to the pub with Russell who had also won his round 1 game. The pub was just round the corner and proved to have nice real ales on offer.
Game 2 - in which I almost muck up another game against John Eddershaw
In game 2, battle was resumed against John Eddershaw. Attentive readers will recall that he is the man against whom I managed to lose a totally won game at Huddersfield two weeks ago. He is another person I played at Bury St Edmunds, where I'd beaten him fairly easily. So it was honours even between the two of us though I would say I'd outplayed him overall - I managed to miss a MATE IN ONE at Huddersfield!
This game started off as a very cagey, dreary opening - he was White and if White wants to keep things very tight ("stodgy" as Dave Stephenson would say) then it is usually possible. Things went on for about 25 moves with hardly any pieces off the board, until we both had our Rooks and Queens lined up on two different files. I managed to get a pawn up, then two pawns up, but his heavy pieces were menacing my King and suddenly it started to look as though I was getting into difficulties. I always seem to miscalculate when my King is under threat, and it was so here - I suddenly made a bad mistake and got completely tangled up. The next thing I knew, I'd lost a Queen for a Rook.
Things started to move rather fast. I think he was suffering from the problem that I often have, where you get into a winning position and then somehow lose focus. The very move after I lost my Queen, I saw that if he made a weak move I had a chance to hit his undefended King and at least win the Queen back again. In something of a daze, he made the exact move I wanted, and two moves later I had checkmated him. It was all very odd indeed.
He must have felt awful but he was pretty decent about it. Turned out he's ex-military. He said it was a fair result because he didn't really deserve to win the game at Huddersfield - which was nice of him, even though it was true!
Game 3 - evening bye
So I was on 2/2, it's been a long time since I managed that. I had decided, after the disaster at Coulsdon, when I lost in 9 moves on the Saturday evening, to take a Saturday night bye, so I watched the start of the games and then went to check into my B&B, which turned out to be about 2 miles from the venue , right across the town. I chatted to the landlady for a bit - nice lady and an impeccable house - I'd even got an upgrade to an en-suite as the other guests had cancelled.
I walked back to the chess via a pub where I stopped for a pint and dinner, an Tyrolean dish of potatoes , bacon and mushrooms. I got back to the venue and watched the end of the games. Russell got into his usual time-trouble, but his opponent got into even worse time-trouble and dropped material in the time scramble. Russell had won all his games and was sitting on top of the leader board on 3/3, so it was a good day for both of us. We celebrated with a couple of beers in the real ale place, before I got a cab back to the b&b - I believe he managed a few more pints though!
Sunday April 11th
Game 4 - disaster strikes
I had checked the draw the night before and seen that I'd been drawn against one of the lowest-rated players in the section. Obviously he was on 2/2 as well, so clearly playing well, but he was only rated 59 (I am 99 and decent players are 130+) so I thought it had to be , on paper, an easy game. I thought maybe that it would be a junior, since they are usual the only ones with such low grades.
I had a good breakfast at the B&B and set out in optimistic mood - always fatal! I got to the venue early and had a walk before the chess started. I walked across the Verulamium park, past the ruins of the Roman camp and round the lake. The sun was out, blossom on the trees, birds twittering, all very nice.
I got back to the venue to discover that I was playing an older man, so I thought that this should not be too hard a task and was already relishing being on board 1 playing for the title in the afternoon.
Fatal of course.
The game started with another dull, manoeuvring position - he was White and played a lineof the Colle. Then it seemed that he had dropped a pawn. He thought he'd dropped a pawn too (this is just like my 9-move defeat at Coulsdon). Since he thought he'd lost a pawn, he just decided to launch an attack and, just like at Coulsdon, it transpired that losing the pawn had helped him because it opened lines and freed his pieces. An unintentional gambit.
Whatever, within about 3 moves I was being checkmated and had to resign. It felt dreadful - a bad loss to a low-ranked player in a game I really thought I could win, with chances of prize money or even winning the tournament gone up in smoke. I was disgusted and appalled with myself - this really ranks with one of my worst, most humiliating defeats.
I felt so bad that I straight away withdrew from the event, not playing the last game. I know that goes against one of the 'blog Precepts, but i was in such a rubbish mood that I'd only have loused up the last game had I played it.
Goodfellow won his game and was on 4/4, guaranteed first place if he drew the last game, so he was very happy - a long-awaited return to form for him.
We had lunch in the pub.
Game 5 - walk in the park
During round 5 I took myself round the park again and also had a look at the Cathedral, which was well worth a visit. It felt a lot better being out on a nice afternoon than playing chess!
Goodfellow got a quick draw and won £250 which made his day, and then things got even better for him as Manchester Citr FC won 5-1.
I said goodbye to him and headed off to stay overnight in Berkhampsted with my colleague Ian Imms who laid on a superb dinner of roast lamb. We went to the pub for a beer afterwards and then got an early night because we both had to leave at 6am to drive back North.
Conclusions
I've played three congresses in three weeks and it's not gone as well as I had hoped. Given that two of them (Huddersfield and St Albans) had easy grading limits, my showing of won 6 drawn 3 lost 4 is nothing special.
Of my six wins -
Huddersfield round 1 was against a very weak player and I still dropped a piece
Huddersfield rounds 3 and 4 were quite good wins
Coulsdon round 2 was against a very weak player
St Albans round 1 was good, round 2 was a total fluke from a lost position
so I can only be pleased with 3 of them.
Of the 4 defeats, three were truly abysmal
Huddersfield round 2 I missed a win by a mate in 1
Coulsdon round 2 I lost in 9 moves
St Albans round 4 was against someone rated 59.
So, overall, despite playing quite well in some games, it was a disappointing performance. On the plus side, I have managed to adhere to the Precepts with which I started this 'blog a year ago, which were mostly to do with the psychological side - not giving up early etc. I think I need to review the Precepts and maybe come up with some new ones to do with not overlooking totally obvious things over the board, which has been the main reason for my recent failures. I will write an entry on this topic shortly.
A volcano intervenes in my plans
On Wednesday, I played the final club game of the year for Netherton v Holmfirth, and I was paired against Normal Battye, against whom I had another of my more memorable defeats a year ago when I managed to lose despite being a Bishop and Rook ahead and with a pawn on the 7th rank poised to promote to a Queen.
I was determined to get my own back for that and atone for the disaster at St Albans and I managed to crush him fairly comprehensively with a display which never gave him a chance. It was nice to get a crushing win for a change!
I had been looking forward to a weekend off chess since I was going to Berlin to see Michelle - much needed rest and recuperation. Sadly the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano and the subsequent grounding of all UK flights has put paid to that plan, so, scouting around for something else to do instead I came up with the brilliant plan -
"I know, I'll play in a chess tournament!".
Makes a change.
So I will be heading to Nottingham tomorrow morning to start again at the chequered board. This was the event last year where I wrote my first 'blog entry, so my original intention of writing for a year has been achieved - time to take stock, which I will be doing in my next entry.
Friday, 9 April 2010
Coulsdon
Friday 2 April
Over Easter, I was in "action" at Coulsdon, a nonedescript suburb in the southern-most part of London. There is a strange venue there which has a lot of chess tournaments - its an evangelical Church hall where the pastor is a big chess fan, so its a strange combination of a chess venue and a Church. There is, for example, a bit tapestry saying "Jesus is the King" but which has a picture of a chess King.
It is not a venue where I have ever done very well, but it does have the one significant virtue of being near my parents' house where I lived as a teenager, so I can go and visit them and get a free place to stay during the tournament.
On this occasion I headed South on the Thursday morning, worked in our Dunstable office, and then drove round the M25 to my parents' house. Friday was also my Sister's 40th birthday. I had made a 40th birthday book and got lots of her friends and family members to write contributions. On the way to my parents' house, I stopped at a pub and wrote my own entry and then handed it over to them to take to her. They were going up to stay at her place in Oxforshire to look after the children so that she and her husband could go away to a spa hotel.
I had dinner at their house, and we got a fairly early night. They were leaving at 6am to drive up to Oxfordshire. I headed off to the chess venue at 9.30. Unusually, there were no friends playing as well. Also, it turned out to be a very tiny tournament - there were only 23 boards in all three sections put together. I decided to regard it just as a good opportunity to get some practice.
Game 1 - Perfect Storm
All the things I don't like came together in one game for me. As you know, I always seem to do worse in the first round - my round 1 hoodoo. I also always play badly against young girls, and I had been drawn against a girl of about 12, albeit with a strong rating (better than mine). When you add in the fact that I've never done well at Coulsdon, the omens were not good for this game. And then to make matters worse she launched off with an opening I don't like, the Grand Prix Sicilian 1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 Nc6 3 f4 which is an aggressive opening I find hard to play against and have been considering using myself as White.
I was pleased with how the game turned out - I managed to find good defensive moves to counter her attack which also offered counter-attacking possibilities and gave her problems to answer herself. When under attack it's not good to get too stuck in a defensive mode, and the best way to respond is usually to try to find a counter attack to take advantage of the fact that they might have overpressed or opened up the position by attacking hard. In the end, after some scary moments, I was in fact slightly better owing to the fact that she had opened up her Kingside and it was she who had to close the centre and offer a draw, which I accepted.
I found a totally empty Thai restaurant with a lunchtime deal , and limited myself to sparkling
water with my Thai red vegetable curry.
Game 2 - Easy Win
Not much needs to be said about this. I was drawn against someone who played for the local Coulsdon club, who was rated only 39, and I ended up with a very easy win. At least I finished it off efficiently. Afterwards he asked me for a couple of friendly games so he could practice.
My friend Grete was coming down to Coulsdon to meet up with me, and I met her at the station. We went to the pub and I had a couple of alcohol-free beers whilst she told me about her new magazine project. She accompanied me back to the venue. She was going to sit and wait for a bit but I did point out that she might be waiting over three hours for the game to finish.
Game 3 - A rapid reverse
When there are three games in a day, I normally take the evening game as a bye, arguing that I don't like to play three times in one day. On this occasion, however, I had decided to try playing three times. This proved to be a mistake as I lost very fast - in only 9 moves. In fact this was my worst defeat probably since Bradford last September. It was rather unfortunate. The opening was a c3 Sicilian and I played my usual line against it. This has had some good results - including my draw vs Richard Desmedt at the local club last December - but I know that you can get into problems because of the open lines you give White. Anyway, this opponent misplayed the opening, giving up a pawn. I wondered if he had sacrificed the pawn on purpose (played a gambit) to gain open lines, but he told me afterwards that he had not. I took the pawn but quickly found myself in all kinds of trouble - losing a Rook in fact, so I resigned on move 9.
Having told Grete the game could take three hours, it was all over in 20 minutes! It did at least mean that she and I could have a bit more of a chat and get something to eat.
I took her to East Croydon station and headed back to my parents' place for an early night.
Saturday 3 April
Game 4 - In which I find a good tactic to save the game
There was already not much to play for in this tournament since I was on 1.5/3 after the previous day's reverse. This morning's game was against an older guy who has apparently been around on the circuit for many years and still plays in a lot of tournaments. The opening was quite a quiet 1 d4 (I was White) and we ended up in a Queen's Gambit Declined. In an interesting sequel to last night's game, I lost a pawn by a blunder, but it turned out that this game me some open lines to attack along in compensation, so I had some opportunities. I managed to get my Rook up the board - I was convinced that there had to be a tactic that would be good for me, and eventually it proved that that instinct was right - after much searching I found a way to win back the pawn. After that the game was about equal; most of the pieces were gone and we were in a level endgame. After we agreed a draw, the bloke on the next board commented that I had been ahead because my Rook was strong and his Queenside Rook and Bishop were undeveloped, but I pointed out that to set against that I had a weak back rank, and the moves I would need to invest to sort that out would allow him to develop his Queenside.
We went through the game afterwards in an upstairs room with a friend of his. Then Russell Goodfellow turned up. He wasn't playing owing to the small size of the event and the hard section limits, but came along for a beer and to collect the duty-free tequila I'd got him. We had a couple of pints and a chat in the local pub.
Game 5 - I have to dig deep to survive
Possibly because of the beer, or possibly because it was a dead last-round game, I played the opening fairly loose and soon found myself in a bit of a pickle against a solid middle-ranking player. In fact I thought I had lost a piece on move 11 and was looking at another very early resignation, but I decided to mix things up and give him a few problems to solve, and as ever this helped to confuse things. At our level players can often get confused by complications, and I managed to escape from the mess losing only a pawn. When I later looked at the game in the computer it confirmed that he had indeed been winning a full piece, so I'm glad that I managed to fight my way out.
In fact I came back to a position where I was level or even ahead in the subsequent end-game - I was a pawn down but with a superior pawn structure. The game dragged on and on. Eventually I did make a mistake and exchanged the last pair of pawns into a lost ending, where my King was stuck on the edge and his King was closer to his remaining pawn, so eventually I lost on move 63, but it was a pretty good effort considering I was staring defeat in the face on move 11. At least I manage to keep fighting on more often these days in positions I used to resign. Make the buggers work for it.
I ended up with a very average 2/5, but I don't feel that I played all that badly - both draws were good hard efforts, one defeat was just a nasty opening and the other was a long hard-fought battle.
I headed back to my parents' place where we had dinner with my Aunt and Uncle. The next day, I headed to my Aunt and Uncle's house, met some of their family including cousins I've not seen in a long time, and then I drove to Reading to see Colin. He is in the throes of a "living on £5 a day campaign", a valiant effort at frugal living, so instead of going out for dinner he cooked us a nice meal, and we sat and went through all my Coulsdon games - as ever, he had plenty of insights to offer. Then we played some "knock-down" blitz games, at which he had a considerable advantage as the evening wore on, since I was drinking wine and he was on the water!
On the Monday I drove back to Leicester where I stayed with Mark Ward, whom I've not seen for ages. He gave me a round 2-0 thrashing at Risk and we had a curry. I stayed overnight at his house and returned home on Tuesday.
Tomorrow I will be heading back down south again for yet another tournament at St Albans. I've not played in this one before, though I did spectate two years ago. I'm hoping to get the fortune that eluded me at Coulsdon, and also to be able to learn the lessons of my recent defeats. Report to follow, as ever.
Over Easter, I was in "action" at Coulsdon, a nonedescript suburb in the southern-most part of London. There is a strange venue there which has a lot of chess tournaments - its an evangelical Church hall where the pastor is a big chess fan, so its a strange combination of a chess venue and a Church. There is, for example, a bit tapestry saying "Jesus is the King" but which has a picture of a chess King.
It is not a venue where I have ever done very well, but it does have the one significant virtue of being near my parents' house where I lived as a teenager, so I can go and visit them and get a free place to stay during the tournament.
On this occasion I headed South on the Thursday morning, worked in our Dunstable office, and then drove round the M25 to my parents' house. Friday was also my Sister's 40th birthday. I had made a 40th birthday book and got lots of her friends and family members to write contributions. On the way to my parents' house, I stopped at a pub and wrote my own entry and then handed it over to them to take to her. They were going up to stay at her place in Oxforshire to look after the children so that she and her husband could go away to a spa hotel.
I had dinner at their house, and we got a fairly early night. They were leaving at 6am to drive up to Oxfordshire. I headed off to the chess venue at 9.30. Unusually, there were no friends playing as well. Also, it turned out to be a very tiny tournament - there were only 23 boards in all three sections put together. I decided to regard it just as a good opportunity to get some practice.
Game 1 - Perfect Storm
All the things I don't like came together in one game for me. As you know, I always seem to do worse in the first round - my round 1 hoodoo. I also always play badly against young girls, and I had been drawn against a girl of about 12, albeit with a strong rating (better than mine). When you add in the fact that I've never done well at Coulsdon, the omens were not good for this game. And then to make matters worse she launched off with an opening I don't like, the Grand Prix Sicilian 1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 Nc6 3 f4 which is an aggressive opening I find hard to play against and have been considering using myself as White.
I was pleased with how the game turned out - I managed to find good defensive moves to counter her attack which also offered counter-attacking possibilities and gave her problems to answer herself. When under attack it's not good to get too stuck in a defensive mode, and the best way to respond is usually to try to find a counter attack to take advantage of the fact that they might have overpressed or opened up the position by attacking hard. In the end, after some scary moments, I was in fact slightly better owing to the fact that she had opened up her Kingside and it was she who had to close the centre and offer a draw, which I accepted.
I found a totally empty Thai restaurant with a lunchtime deal , and limited myself to sparkling
water with my Thai red vegetable curry.
Game 2 - Easy Win
Not much needs to be said about this. I was drawn against someone who played for the local Coulsdon club, who was rated only 39, and I ended up with a very easy win. At least I finished it off efficiently. Afterwards he asked me for a couple of friendly games so he could practice.
My friend Grete was coming down to Coulsdon to meet up with me, and I met her at the station. We went to the pub and I had a couple of alcohol-free beers whilst she told me about her new magazine project. She accompanied me back to the venue. She was going to sit and wait for a bit but I did point out that she might be waiting over three hours for the game to finish.
Game 3 - A rapid reverse
When there are three games in a day, I normally take the evening game as a bye, arguing that I don't like to play three times in one day. On this occasion, however, I had decided to try playing three times. This proved to be a mistake as I lost very fast - in only 9 moves. In fact this was my worst defeat probably since Bradford last September. It was rather unfortunate. The opening was a c3 Sicilian and I played my usual line against it. This has had some good results - including my draw vs Richard Desmedt at the local club last December - but I know that you can get into problems because of the open lines you give White. Anyway, this opponent misplayed the opening, giving up a pawn. I wondered if he had sacrificed the pawn on purpose (played a gambit) to gain open lines, but he told me afterwards that he had not. I took the pawn but quickly found myself in all kinds of trouble - losing a Rook in fact, so I resigned on move 9.
Having told Grete the game could take three hours, it was all over in 20 minutes! It did at least mean that she and I could have a bit more of a chat and get something to eat.
I took her to East Croydon station and headed back to my parents' place for an early night.
Saturday 3 April
Game 4 - In which I find a good tactic to save the game
There was already not much to play for in this tournament since I was on 1.5/3 after the previous day's reverse. This morning's game was against an older guy who has apparently been around on the circuit for many years and still plays in a lot of tournaments. The opening was quite a quiet 1 d4 (I was White) and we ended up in a Queen's Gambit Declined. In an interesting sequel to last night's game, I lost a pawn by a blunder, but it turned out that this game me some open lines to attack along in compensation, so I had some opportunities. I managed to get my Rook up the board - I was convinced that there had to be a tactic that would be good for me, and eventually it proved that that instinct was right - after much searching I found a way to win back the pawn. After that the game was about equal; most of the pieces were gone and we were in a level endgame. After we agreed a draw, the bloke on the next board commented that I had been ahead because my Rook was strong and his Queenside Rook and Bishop were undeveloped, but I pointed out that to set against that I had a weak back rank, and the moves I would need to invest to sort that out would allow him to develop his Queenside.
We went through the game afterwards in an upstairs room with a friend of his. Then Russell Goodfellow turned up. He wasn't playing owing to the small size of the event and the hard section limits, but came along for a beer and to collect the duty-free tequila I'd got him. We had a couple of pints and a chat in the local pub.
Game 5 - I have to dig deep to survive
Possibly because of the beer, or possibly because it was a dead last-round game, I played the opening fairly loose and soon found myself in a bit of a pickle against a solid middle-ranking player. In fact I thought I had lost a piece on move 11 and was looking at another very early resignation, but I decided to mix things up and give him a few problems to solve, and as ever this helped to confuse things. At our level players can often get confused by complications, and I managed to escape from the mess losing only a pawn. When I later looked at the game in the computer it confirmed that he had indeed been winning a full piece, so I'm glad that I managed to fight my way out.
In fact I came back to a position where I was level or even ahead in the subsequent end-game - I was a pawn down but with a superior pawn structure. The game dragged on and on. Eventually I did make a mistake and exchanged the last pair of pawns into a lost ending, where my King was stuck on the edge and his King was closer to his remaining pawn, so eventually I lost on move 63, but it was a pretty good effort considering I was staring defeat in the face on move 11. At least I manage to keep fighting on more often these days in positions I used to resign. Make the buggers work for it.
I ended up with a very average 2/5, but I don't feel that I played all that badly - both draws were good hard efforts, one defeat was just a nasty opening and the other was a long hard-fought battle.
I headed back to my parents' place where we had dinner with my Aunt and Uncle. The next day, I headed to my Aunt and Uncle's house, met some of their family including cousins I've not seen in a long time, and then I drove to Reading to see Colin. He is in the throes of a "living on £5 a day campaign", a valiant effort at frugal living, so instead of going out for dinner he cooked us a nice meal, and we sat and went through all my Coulsdon games - as ever, he had plenty of insights to offer. Then we played some "knock-down" blitz games, at which he had a considerable advantage as the evening wore on, since I was drinking wine and he was on the water!
On the Monday I drove back to Leicester where I stayed with Mark Ward, whom I've not seen for ages. He gave me a round 2-0 thrashing at Risk and we had a curry. I stayed overnight at his house and returned home on Tuesday.
Tomorrow I will be heading back down south again for yet another tournament at St Albans. I've not played in this one before, though I did spectate two years ago. I'm hoping to get the fortune that eluded me at Coulsdon, and also to be able to learn the lessons of my recent defeats. Report to follow, as ever.
Thursday, 1 April 2010
In the money at Huddersfield
me in action in game 4 - I'm the one without the white hair. Posing as a Grandmaster. Thanks to Brendan O'Gorman who took this.
Sunday March 28th
Once again I awoke early and managed to get out for an early-morning walk in the woods to clear my head. When I got back, Chris was up and about after sleeping in the front room, but Dave still hadn't emerged. I banged on the door and it emerged that he'd set his alarm wrong, or something, though apparently this was not due to the clocks going forwards.
He had taken ill overnight - not, apparently, due to the mountain of curry he'd eaten the night before, but some virus/sore throat sort of situation - and wasn't really ready to play. Chris and I had to leave, so I gave Dave the front door key and told him to get there when he got there. He asked me to tell the organiser that he was pulling out of the tournament due to bad health.
Chris had had enough too - he said he was "chessed out" and I don't blame him - it was his first tournament and five full games are very draining and demanding. Despite not winning any, he had acquitted himself well. Due to the eccentricities of the draw, he, despite losing all his games, had had a tougher series of opponents than I had - his were rated 99, 106 and 108 whereas mine were 62, 88 and 92! He did play his Sunday morning game, but his heart wasn't in it, and he lost within a few minutes. We said our goodbyes and he went home.
Game 4 - Another good win
So I was the last man standing out of our little team. I have to say I was pleased with how I played in game 4. I was up against another old fellow, very well turned-out and dapper in a jacket and yellow tie, and with neatly brushed white hair. The chap I played in the Sunday morning round at Scarborough (you might recall, the fellow with a strong Geordie accent) was playing on the next board and he said we were both good and it would be a tough battle.
There's a photo of the game in progress at the top of the page.
As it turned out, I never really let him get into the game. The game transposed into a sort of Samisch King's Indian, an opening I've long played as White but rarely won, but I managed to take advantage of the space advantage, helped by some inaccuracies on his part, and soon won a Queenside pawn and got a passed a-pawn. After that it was just a matter of gradually squeezing the advantage and pushing him back. It can't have been a particuarly enjoyable experience for him, since he was on the back foot throughout.
Both this and the last game were wins for me that just depended upon efficiently carried-out plans where the opponents never really had any chances once they'd made initial inaccuracies. As games, they were dreary, but it was nice for me to get such efficient no-fuss wins.
I was on 3/4. There were two people on 3.5/4 who would be on board 1 in the final round, and me and one other bloke on 3/4. He came up to me as I was perusing the leader board and suggested that we just play a few moves and agree a "Grandmaster draw". That way we avoid all the risk of playing an actual game, and both guarantee some prize money. Sounded good to me - I didn't want the risk of losing and going home with nothing after all my hard work. And since he was on 3/4 as well he would clearly be a tough opponent.
Dave and I went to the Grove for a drink but he only allowed me to have one pint! He didn't know about the little deal I had made with my opponent so he thought I was in for a tough struggle.
Game 5 - Grandmaster draw
There's not much to say about my last round game. He was White and played the Sokolsky, 1 b4, an off-beat opening I don't enjoy facing. I played the Goodfellow line that Russell suggested to me, which Modern Chess Openings refers to as "an eccentric line" or something - 1 .. c6 2 Bb2 Qb6 3 a3 a5. It all got a bit hairy but just when things were starting to go badly for me, he honourably stuck his hand out and stuck to our pre-match deal.
Dave wasn't happy and thought i should have battled on, but I was happy to get 3.5/5. The game on board 1 didn't end in a draw, which was good because it mean I ended in joint 2nd with a fifth-share of £75. Fifteen pounds isn't a fortune but it's a lot better than nothing!
Stephenson went home and I stuck around to watch the final games. I went into town for a roast pork dinner at Wetherspoons, came back, saw the end of the games and collected my prize money. A new chess friend, Craig, who plays for Wakefield, kindly gave me a lift home and some good chess advice en route.
Coulsdon
So now here I am at our Dunstable office. Will leave here now and drive round the M25 to my parents' place where I will stay over Easter. They will be away visiting my Sister and I will be playing the Coulsdon tournament tomorrow and Saturday. Reports to follow as ever. I managed 0/3 last time I played at Coulsdon (Jan 09) so I can only hope for better things.
Brendan O'Gorman took a good photo of me during game 4 at Huddersfield, posing as a Grandmaster - if I can workout how to do it, I will post it on here.
Well, I have uploaded it, but it will only let me put it at the top of the page which is a bit of shame but there we are.
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