Jamboree 2008

Last night was the Derby League end of season Jamboree. It's a four round quick play team competition. My first one was last year and I ended on zero. This time I ended up with one win and three losses so by my calculations I'll win every game in 2011.

The games were initially scheduled for 20mins each but were cut down to 15mins due to traffic problems causing delays for some players. I enjoyed the event, but am still quite poor at playing quickly. I either play too fast and blunder, or play too slow and run out of time.

First game was against Mick Orridge, he broke through my kingside very quickly and I was thinking I might lose within the first couple of minutes. But I managed to hang on and had a healthy lead in time. But then when he noticed he was behind on time he played faster and I started hesitating. He had a much stronger position, and eventually my flag fell when I'd ran out of ideas.

Game 2 was against someone who plays for Derby & Mickleover but I can't remember his name. This was one where I played too quickly and blundered early on. He played fast but very accurate.

I got my sole win against Barry Lings in round 3. We got down to an evenish endgame with him having about 8mins left and me 1min. I was able to promote a pawn and luckily stumbled into a mating position with about 10 seconds left.

Round 4 I lost to a girl! Only kidding Pete & Louise if you read this. I was a piece up early on, but shortly afterwards I gave a piece away too and we came to an evenish rook and pawns endgame. However I'd been playing much slower so didn't have much time left. I'm sure we both made loads of mistakes in the endgame, but she played better and when the dust cleared she had forced me to exchange rooks and had an unreachable passed pawn.

The Rolls Royce venue was great and I hope we play there again. Will post the full results here when the hardworking Bert sends them out.

Update:

Jamboree 2008
At Rolls Royce Chess Club (Nightingale Hall)
Thursday May 8th 2008

Open
CHESTERFIELD (A) 12½ Winner
BREADSALL (A) 10½
BELPER (A) 10
DERBY/MICK (A) 6½
ROLLS ROYCE (A) 4½
SPONDON (A) 4

Minor
SPONDON (B) 11 Winner
DERBY/MICK (B) 8
ROLLS ROYCE (B) 7
SPONDON (D) 6½
SPONDON (C) 4½

Bert Loomes, Phil Smith and myself played for Spondon D; Gary Davison, Martin Gibson, and Pete & Louise Brace played for Spondon C; Spondon B were Doug Bramley, Mick Orridge, Phil Sheldon and Graham Pace; Spondon A were Ian Gregory, Mark Carter, Howard Bradbury and Richard Hickling (from what I can remember).

The Spondon Summer Open (an 8 round swiss) starts in June, very much looking forward to it.