Knightmare

I'm back from the Rotherham rapidplay tournament. I had a nightmare of a tournament, played six, lost 5 and drew 1. The other competitors were quite strong, much more so than the last tournament in Nottingham.

First match was against William Heyes from Skelmersdale. He has a rapidplay grade of 89, but standard grade of 121. I held my own for about 20 moves or so, but then he broke through. I wrote the moves for each game, but I seem to have messed this game up so can't reproduce it. I resigned after 25 moves according to the scoresheet.

Second match was against Jim Waddington from Bolton, who I lost to a couple of months ago in Nottingham. This was a frustrating match, I was on top, but let it slip and eventually agreed a draw when I was ahead on material slightly but only had 5mins left on clock whereas he had about 15mins. He is rated 78 in rapidplay. Unfortunately I seem to have screwed up the notation for this game as well.

Third game was against T Russell from Ashby who had estimated grade 88. I lost a rook but fought back and almost got a win. I missed a mate in 2 here:

Should have played Nd6, followed by Qxb7. Instead played Rh6. Here's the game in full, I'm white:

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 Nbd7 4. O-O e5 5. d3
Bc5 6. Nbd2 c6 7. e4 Qb6 8. Qe2 h5 9. h3 dxe4 10. dxe4 h4 11. Nxh4 Nh5 12. b3
Nxg3 13. Qf3 Nxf1 14. Kxf1 Rxh4 15. Nc4 Qa6 16. Qg3 Rh5 17. Qxg7 Nf8 18. Bh6
Bxh3 19. Bxh3 Rxh3 20. Kg2 Rxh6 21. Qxh6 Bd4 22. Nd6+ Kd7 23. Rh1 Ne6 24. Nxf7
Rg8+ 25. Kf3 Rf8 26. Qf6 c5 27. Rh7 Kc8 28. Qe7 Qc6 29. Ke2 Qxe4+ 30. Kd1 Qf3+
31. Kc1 Qf4+ 32. Kd1 Qf5 33. Rh6 Qxf7 34. Rxe6 Qxe7 35. Rxe7 Rxf2 36. Ke1 Rxc2

I will look at the other games later, and see if I can salvage anything from the notes of the earlier games.