Doug Bramley

Last Tuesday night I played Doug Bramley in what is probably the last club championship match for this season. Next week the summer tournament starts. I was relatively pleased with my performance, considering he has a rating of 99 (about 1745 fide).

[Event "Spondon Club Championship 06-07"]
[Date "2007.05.29"]
[White "Doug Bramley"]
[Black "Dean Madden"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E87"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 O-O 5. f3 d6 6. Be3 Nbd7 7. Qd2 e5 8. d5 Re8 9. Bd3 Nf8 10. g4 b6 11. h4 h5 12. gxh5 Nxh5 13. O-O-O Bf6 14. Bg5 Nh7 15. Bxf6 N7xf6 16. Nge2 Bd7 17. Rdg1 Rc8 18. Qg5 Kf8 19. Kb1 Nh7 20. Qh6+ Kg8 21. Qxh5 Qf6 22. Qh6 Qxf3 23. Nc1 Qf4 24. Qxf4 exf4 25. h5 g5 26. Be2 f6 27. Bg4 Bxg4 28. Rxg4 Rf8 29. Rgg1 f5 30. Nd3 Kf7 31. e5 dxe5 32. Nxe5+ Ke8 33. Re1 Kd8 34. Nc6+ Kd7 35. Re7+ Kd6 36. b4 1-0

The big mistake was move 20. See below:


The right move would have been Ke7. I'd thought about that, but wrongly thought he could have taken the knight on h7. I'd realised I could then move the rook to h8 and try to trap the queen, but presumed he could escape firstly to g2, but of course I could have taken him with the knight on h5. So I played Kg8, totally over looking that he could just take the knight on g5 due to his rook pinning the pawn on g6 to my king.

I got a bit cramped in the opening. But overall thought I played reasonably.

Puppy

We got a puppy last Friday, so have been busy looking after him for the last week and haven't played much chess. I'm looking forward to the Spondon Summer championship, a long game each week for about 8 weeks against good opposition should improve my game. There are no local long game congresses or tournaments coming up soon so will have to stick with Internet chess and tuesday nights at the chess club. There are a few rapid play events, but have decided to give them a miss as I don't think they really contribute to my improvement at this stage, I need longer to analyse properly.

I've been practising tactics quite regularly, mainly with 'Chess Tactics for Beginners' software which I've found useful and at a good level for me. I've read the basic chapters of Silmans endgame book, and am playing through a few Chernev 'move-by-move' games.

I'll obviously carry on reading and practicing tactics, but I think it's just as important to play lots of long time-control games to put it into practice, and at least analyse the basic mistakes afterwards with Fritz.

Jamboree

Last Tuesday was the 'Jamboree' at Spondon Chess club, it's a 4 round 20mins each team tournament. Predictably in the shorter games, I played badly, losing all the games. I tended to either play too fast, making blunders, or too slow, losing on time. Couldn't find a happy medium.

A better performance was this evening in an online tournament, losing in a close endgame:

[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2007.05.13"]
[Round "?"]
[White "deanmadden"]
[Black "CameronD"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1344"]
[BlackElo "1654"]
[ECO "B10"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]

1. e4 c6 2. d3 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. dxe4 Nf6 5. Ngf3 Nbd7 6. g3 Nc5 7. e5 Nfe4 8. Bg2 Bg4 9. h3 Bh5 10. O-O Qd7 11. Nxe4 Qxd1 12. Rxd1 Nxe4 13. Re1 Nc5 14. Be3 e6 15. Rad1 Be7 16. g4 Bg6 17. c3 O-O 18. Bxc5 Bxc5 19. Rd7 Rab8 20. Red1 Bb6 21. Ne1 Rfd8 22. Rxd8+ Rxd8 23. Rxd8+ Bxd8 24. f4 Kf8 25. Kf2 Ke8 26. Nf3 Kd7 27. g5 Bb6+ 28. Ke2 Bd8 29. h4 f6 30. exf6 gxf6 31. gxf6 Bxf6 32. Ng5 h6 33. Nf3 Bh5 34. Kf2 Bxf3 35. Bxf3 Bxh4+ 36. Kg2 b6 37. Kh3 Bf2 38. Kg4 Kd6 39. Kh5 Be3 40. Kg4 Kc5 41. f5 exf5+ 42. Kxf5 Kb5 43. b3 c5 44. Be2+ Ka5 45. Ke4 Bg5 46. Kd3 b5 47. c4 b4 48. Ke4 Kb6 49. Kd3 Kc6 50. Kc2 Kd6 51. Kb2 Bf6+ 52. Kc2 Ke5 53. Kd3 Kf4 54. Bd1 Kg5 55. Ke4 h5 56. Bxh5 Kxh5 57. Kd5 Bd4 58. Kc6 Kg4 59. Kb5 Kf3 60. Ka4 Ke3 61. a3 a5 62. axb4 axb4 63. Kb5 Kd3 64. Ka5 Kc3 65. Ka4 Kc2 {deanmadden resigns} 0-1

Online tournaments

I played two games in online fics tournaments today. The first was in the teamleague 45-45 tournament against manyhorses. This is the 3rd round of it, but the first time I'd had an opponent turn up. I started off the game well, up a knight. But he got back level and smashed through my kings defences:

[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2007.05.05"]
[Round "?"]
[White "deanmadden"]
[Black "manyhorses"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1362"]
[BlackElo "1210"]
[ECO "A07"]
[TimeControl "2700+45"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nc6 3. Bg2 Nf6 4. O-O e5 5. d3 Ng4 6. Nbd2 Bc5 7. e4 Nxf2 8. Rxf2 Bxf2+ 9. Kxf2 dxe4 10. Nxe4 Bg4 11. h3 Bf5 12. Qe1 Nb4 13. Qxb4 Qd7 14. Qxb7 O-O 15. Nxe5 Qd4+ 16. Be3 Qxe5 17. c3 Rab8 18. Qxa7 Rxb2+ 19. Kg1 Bxe4 20. Bxe4 Qxg3+ 21. Kf1 Qxh3+ {deanmadden resigns} 0-1

The second match was against a stronger opponent and I was predictably destroyed. This was in the 1st round of a 90-30 'mamer' fics tournament, my first. Here's the game:

[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2007.05.05"]
[Round "?"]
[White "xboard"]
[Black "deanmadden"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1740E"]
[BlackElo "1346"]
[ECO "B09"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. f4 Bg7 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 Nc6 7. d5 Nb4 8. a3 Na6 9. Bxa6 bxa6 10. e5 Nd7 11. Qd4 dxe5 12. fxe5 e6 13. O-O exd5 14. Nxd5 Bb7 15. Bg5 Qc8 16. Ne7+ {deanmadden resigns} 1-0

My opponent, xboard, was kind enough to give me some advice after the game. He suggested dropping the pirc defence and going with an open game so as to concentrate on tactics. I intend on following his advice. The big blunder in the game was obviously 15 ... Qc8, allowing the Knight fork.

Mick Orridge

I beat Mick Orridge in the club championship last night, he has a rating of 80, so am very happy with it.

My first mistake was below.


I'd played the Pirc defence and he was busy developing all his pieces. I played Re8, but after analysing with fritz, he could have played Bxf7. If I then had took his bishop, it would have been as below.

He can then play Ng5, and wherever I put the king, he plays Ne6, trapping my queen! Fortunately he didn't spot this and played a3. What I should have played was c5 according to Fritz.

The first 'mistake' I noticed during the game was after the position here, where I'd just played my rook back to e8 after snatching a pawn:

He then played Qxg6, which I realised he could do because my f7 pawn was pinned to my king. I tend not to notice pins and need to think more about them. In this particular case however the move was a mistake because I could have played Ne5, forking the bishop and queen. But for some reason I overlooked it, probably because I was worried about him mating me. So I played Qe7.

A simple combination I missed is here:

I could have played Rxe3, then after Qxe3, play Qxd4, winning knight, bishop and a pawn for a rook.

Here's the game:

[Event "Spondon Club Champ 06-07"]
[Date "2007.05.01"]
[White "Mick Orridge"]
[Black "Dean Madden"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B08"]

1. e4 d6 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Bc4 Bg7 5. O-O O-O 6. d4 Nbd7 7. Bf4 Re8 8. a3 e5 9. Bg5 h6 10. Be3 exd4 11. Nxd4 Nxe4 12. Nxe4 Rxe4 13. Qd3 Re8 14. Qxg6 Qe7 15. Qg3 Ne5 16. Bd3 Qf6 17. f4 Nxd3 18. cxd3 Bf5 19. Nxf5 Qxf5 20. Bd4 f6 21. Rac1 c5 22. Bc3 Re7 23. Rce1 Rae8 24. Rxe7 Rxe7 25. Qf3 b6 26. Re1 Rxe1+ 27. Bxe1 Qe6 28. Bc3 f5 29. Qg3 Qf7 30. h3 Kf8 31. Qe1 Bxc3 32. Qxc3 Qg7 33. Qd2 Qd4+ 34. Kh2 c4 35. Qe2 cxd3 36. Qd2 Kf7 37. h4 Ke6 38. g3 Kd5 39. Qg2+ Qe4 40. Qg1 Qe2+ 41. Kh3 0-1