In fact I have played two tournaments since I last wrote on here, at Scarborough and Bury St Edmunds back in October. These are both tournaments which are an important part of the year - Scarborough is the largest of the year and Bury St Edmunds is my favourite event, but sadly these were both complete disasters for me this year, so much so that I couldn't bring myself to write about them here. Indeed, for a few weeks after Bury I was seriously considering giving up altogether because it was such a dire performance.
Scarborough
To sum up quickly, at Scarborough I played all right for no reward, which is what always seems to happen at Scarborough. I lost in the first round, after being in a better position, which was galling as it's always hard to come back from a round 1 defeat. Afterwards, Russell Goodfellow showed me the win I had missed with a clever tactic. Round 2 I lost a fairly dreary end-game. Round 3 I blundered dreadfully in time trouble against a low-ranked player - fortunately for me, he was in time-trouble as well and missed the fact that I'd given him a free rook! Round 4 I drew a game after getting a fine attacking position; again Russell showed me the win I'd missed. Round 5 was against Alan Fraser, the most experienced player in the country - again, I got into a good, sharp, attacking position and ended up blundering away a Queen. For the event, I stayed at Dave Stephenson's Sister's place; it was very nice of them to put me up. Most entertaining incident of the tournament was watching Dave's reaction to the fact that both he and his opponent missed the fact that there was a rook left hanging for five whole moves. He was beside himself, it was most entertaining.
Bury St Edmunds
I went to Bury with high hopes, but it turned out to be my worst tournament for about 2 years. Morgan Daniels was away in America meeting Bob Pollard, but on the plus side, Colin came along. His chess career is enjoying a wonderful renaissence just as mine appears to be stalling, and he had a good event at Bury. The venue had been changed - it was a shame to bid farewell to the Corn Exchange, but the new venue, a brand-new civic centre, was superb. What was not at all superb was my disasterous chess form. In round 1, I lost to a low-rated junior after being ahead - just blundered a rook for nothing. In round 2, I managed a win against another low-ranked player. Took a drinking bye in round 3. On Sunday morning, I lost on a tactic to an Asian boy who picked his nose throughout the game. Round 5 was my worst game of all ,when I just capitulated to a very low-ranked player without putting up a fight.
Halifax
I also played in the British Rapid tournament in Halifax - did all right on day 1 with 3.5/6 I think, but came back on the Sunday morning and lost the first two rounds, so I pulled out at that stage. I also travelled down to Brighton in November to watch Colin play. He had a good tournament playing in the Major - his form is going from strength to strength at the moment. I found it hard to get decent accommodation and ended up staying in a bit of a flea-pit hotel in Hove which still cost me £38.
Review of the Year
The year started with snow. I went along to the York tournament in January in thick snow. I didn't feel like playing in round 1, so I took a bye. I met up with Nigel Fleming for the first time and he and I caned a few drinks that evening. On the Saturday I got the train back to York, and played all right. I managed to beat two members of the same family, but came unstuck against Sophie Seeber in the final round in a good sharp Nimzo-Indian. I could have come 2nd if I'd won that. Overall, it was a good event.
I travelled to Dublin for Gonzaga at the start of February - had a good weekend with Eoghan, but Gonzaga, as ever, was a disappointment. It's the tournament I've played more often than any other - this was my 6th time there - and I've always done poorly. The event got off to a bad start when I lost a friendly to Eoghan in the pub. The tournament had been moved to a draughty sports hall which didn't help. I lost in round 1 to my old friend Phillip Maguire (no relation to Eoghan) - fell for an opening trap in an Albin Counter-Gambit and try as I might I could never get the material back. I got a walkover in round 2, a good draw in round 3 and lost badly in round 4.
The following weekend I played at Kidlington in Oxfordshire, which is a tough tournament since the bottom section is under 145. I proved that players rated 130+ are really perfectly beatable. I got 3 draws against strong players, and two of those were from good/winning positions. We can forget about my one dire defeat! This event also marked the resumption of Colin's chess career, with such stunning recent results.
I had an unremarkable weekend at Doncaster over my birthday, getting 50%, and then commenced an unprecedented series of 6 tournaments in 6 weekends. At Huddersfield in April, my work colleague Chris Welch played, as did Dave Stephenson - we had a nice curry on Saturday night, though Dave was taken ill on the Sunday and had to pull out. I hope the curry was not responsible. At least I managed to improve on last year's 0/4 - I had a good tournament after a bad loss in round 1 to John Eddershaw during which I managed to miss win via a mate in one! I bounced back though and ended up with 3.5/5 for joint 2nd place. In the last round I agreed a Grandmaster draw, much to Dave's disgust. The next weekend was Easter, and I played at Coulsdon. The venue there is a rather depressing Church hall, though it has the benefit of being a short walk from my parents place. I had a pretty poor tournament - a win and a couple of draws but two bad defeats. On the Saturday night, when my friend Grete had come to watch, I managed to lose in a c3-Sicilian in 9 moves - the first of several very quick losses I was to have this year.
At St Alban's the following weekend, I got off to a superb start on day 1. I won in round 1 against Mark Silman, the bloke who looks like Lovejoy. In round 2 I got revenge on John Eddershaw, though it was rather hairy - I had just blundered a piece in a wild position when he walked into a mate! On 2.5/3 overnight, I was quite confident on the Sunday morning when I was drawn against someone rated only 57 - but the spinners had another idea, and I lost in short order and withdrew.
Much the same thing happened in Nottingham the following weekend. The only reason I was playing was that the volcanic ash cloud had prevented me going to Berlin for the weekend. The Saturday was a fairly nondescript day, with a win against a junior and two draws. I turned up on the Sunday to play a young Asian boy. Within 10 moves I had won a piece, blundered my Queen and resigned! I withdrew in disgust and went to the cinema.
Things looked up the following weekend at Hereford. I had done very well the previous time I played there, and this tournament was held at the Blue Lion hotel in the centre of town. Colin came down for it as well. The night before the tournament, I went to see Peter, an old friend of the family who lives in a village near Leominster, and had a very nice 3-course dinner in his book-lined cottage. I stayed in an excellent B&B in Kingham. I had decided to play the event wearing a suit and tie. My parents came along to the venue on the first morning, because they were in the vicinity. It was also a very small tournament - only 7 people in our section. I'm not sure which of these factors was responsible, but I hit my best form of the entire season and won the tournament. One game was unfortunately against Colin, who was out-of-sorts, because we both hate playing friends, but I had three other very good wins and won only my second tournament.
The good form continued the following week in the unprepossesssing surroundings of a working-mans club in Halifax, where, after a disappointing loss in the opening in the opening round, I had a good win in round 2, and then a very good day on the Sunday, scoring two draws against 130+ players, including a tough junior in the final round.
And so the 2009-10 season ended with me in good spirits; there had been some disappointments along the way but I was definitely on good form. I then took a long break from chess, during which I did go along and spectate at the Grange-over-Sands event. The summer included an excellent walking holiday with Michelle in two parts - a few days in the Hebridean islands of Islay and Jura, during which we visited several whisky distilleries and had a 14-mile hike to see the largest whirlpool in Europe, and a few days in the Southern Uplands near Moffat. We also did several marathon-length long-distance walks, the highlight of which was the Malvern Midsummer Marathon. And I went to work in India for 3 weeks during which I would spend my weekends sitting by the hotel's rooftop pool doing chess study!
It was nice to have a long break from chess, and when I returned from India I headed off the following weekend to the British chess championships at Canterbury in optimistic mood. I was due to play the weekender and then in the under-120 event the following week. Colin was there for the weekender as well. The event was staged in a rather dreary sports hall but the campus itself was nice and it was good to have a chess holiday for a week - I was looking forward to spending the afternoons drinking the odd pint of beer and watching the Grandmaster games. In the event, the weekender went pretty badly - I had some dreary draws and a shocking loss in the opening to Peter Brace. I hate playing friends at the best of times (Peter is a reader of this blog) and he wiped me out in 10 moves - it was a bit like my schocking quick defeats at Coulsdon and Nottingham. It seems that I am prone to the occasional bl0w-up in the opening in sharp positions - moreso than my other chess-playing friends. And the interesting thing is that in all 3 games I was ahead before managing to fall apart in under 10 moves! Maybe I just get overexcitied in these positions, who knows?
Anyway, I returned to Canterbury on the Monday morning for the main event, the biggest tournament I'd ever played in, the British Championship, and it turned out to be a really good week. I had an easy win on the Monday, then got drawn against a high-rated junior in round 2. The event was supposed to be for under-120 strength players; but because it was based on last year's grades, this chap was by now rated 136, so I was really pleased to get a draw. I then managed to win good games on the Wednesday and Thursday, to go into Friday's final round on 3.5/4 in joint first place - the British Championship was almost within my grasp. Well, that game went wrong and I ended up on a creditable but unexceptional 3.5/5, and I came away swearing that I would dedicate the whole of the ensuing season towards the 2011 British in Sheffield: home turf.
The next tournament was Leicester in September, a new one for me, which Morgan Daniels came up for, and I had a remarkably good start to it, going right to the top of the leaderboard on 3/3. Morgan and I had a good curry and night out on the Saturday, and when I came back on the Sunday morning my good form continued as I went two exchanges up against Antony Mathurian. That was when he started his extraordinary psychological gambits - laughing out loud and making comments, which so discombobulated me that I not only lost that game, but also my form plummeted completely. From Hereford to that game, I had won 10 and lost 3 out of 19 tournament games. From that game to today, I won 3 and lost 8 out of 15 games. A complete turnaround in form.
The rest of the story of 2010 is quickly told. Hull was a dreary event at which I only managed 50%, though the venue was sound (a convent) and there was a good cocktail bar round the corner. The two key tournaments of Scarborough and Bury St Edmunds were dire failures which I have already written about above.
So, a mixed year. Some progress, some real successes, but a dreadful finish to the season. I have not played any tournaments since Bury St Edmunds, and have spent the time reassessing my chess precepts and trying to work out ways to improve for 2011. I have managed to come up with a list of chess resolutions which I hope will address my biggest shortcomings and help me to get better results in 2011, including for the all-important British Championship in Sheffield in July.
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