Barry Archer

In round 2 of the Spondon Summer Open, I lost against Barry Archer. I was a bit disappointed because I was winning in the early part of the game. I'm glad that I played well to start off with though. I played the Scandinavian Defence for the first time, and seemed to get a good middlegame out of it so will probably stick with it for a bit. I'm hoping to learn the basics of the Sicilian Defence over the next few months, but there's so much to learn about it. Here's the game from last night.

[Event "Spondon Summer Open 2007"]
[Date "2007.06.12"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Barry Archer"]
[Black "Dean Madden"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B01"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. d4 Bf5 6. Bd2 c6 7. Ne4 Qc7 8. Nxf6+ gxf6 9. g3 e5 10. dxe5 fxe5 11. Bg2 Nd7 12. O-O O-O-O 13. Re1 f6 14. Nh4 Be6 15. Qe2 Bc5 16. Kh1 Qb6 17. f4 Qxb2 18. fxe5 fxe5 19. Bg5 Rdf8 20. Reb1 Qd4 21. Bxc6 bxc6 22. Qa6+ Kc7 23. Qb7+ Kd6 24. Rd1 Bd5+ 25. Ng2 Bxg2+ 26. Kxg2 Rf2+ 27. Kh3 Rxc2 28. Rxd4+ exd4 29. Bf4+ Ne5 30. Bxe5+ Kxe5 31. Qg7+ Ke4 32. Qxh8 d3 33. Qxh7+ Ke3 34. Re1+ Re2 35. Qh6+ Kd4 36. Rxe2 dxe2 37. Qd2+ 1-0

The game changed at move 21 when he sacrificed his bishop by taking c6:


It was a mistake according to Fritz, he's seven points down after the move, but it allowed him to attack more with checks and open up the game. The critical point of the game from my point of view is below.


As you can see he's pinning my Queen with his Rook. He's just moved his knight in front of his king after I checked with the bishop. If I would have played Rf2, I would have had over 14 points advantage, but I just took his knight with the bishop, levelling the game.

The reason the Rf2 move was best was because although he can take my queen, I'll have a very strong mating threat with both bishops pointing at his king along with the rook. He'd have to give up his queen to thwart it. I tried playing on to promote a pawn after this, but it was in vain.

Here are the results from the first two rounds of the competition. I was very impressed with a young boy called Maitreya Thakur, last night he was up in material against the top rated Spondon player, Ian Gregory, who won the competition last year.

Round 1

Steven J Burke 161 1½ -0 Phillip Sheldon 97

David J Brown 120 ½ - ½ Ian Gregory 146

David Williams 144 1½ - 0 Graham J Pace 95

Douglas Bramley 99 0 – 1½ Mark Carter 123

Maitreya Thakur e120 ½ - ½ Barry W Archer 94

Howard Bradbury 84 1½ - 0 Harry A J Ratner 70

Richard Hickling e75 1½ - 0 Gethin T Bowes e80

Ted Pye 48 0 – 1½ Joseph A Pacitto e35

Dean Madden ug ½ - ½ Phil Smith 75

Herbert T Loomes 99 1½ - 0 Gary Davison 80

Round 2

Richard Hickling e75 0 - 1½ David Williams 144

Howard Bradbury 84 0 - 1½ Steven J Burke 161

Joseph A Pacitto e35 0 - 1½ Herbert T Loomes 99

Ian Gregory 146 ½ - ½ Maitreya Thakur e120

Phil Smith 75 0 – 1½ David J Brown 120

Barry W Archer 94 1½ - 0 Dean Madden ug

Gethin T Bowes e80 1½ - 0 Harry A J Ratner 70

Phillip Sheldon 97 ½ - ½ Douglas Bramley 99

Graham J Pace 95 1½ - 0 Ted Pye 48

Gary Davison 80 1½ - 0 Mick Orridge 80

Martin J Gibson 46 ½ - ½ Malcolm Somers 66

Stuart Tabberer 61 0 – 1½ Adrian Murfin e60