Nottingham Rapidplay 2011

I played my first competitive matches for over seven months today at the Nottingham Rapidplay. Ended up with four wins and two losses, pretty good seeing how rusty I was.

Entered Minor section as Rapidplay grade of 104 is under the 110 limit (my standard grade this year is 115). Games are 30mins each.

Round 1:
Won with black against junior Andrew Fergusson (grade 68). 1.d4 opening, played Kings Indian defence. After exchanges had bishop pair against knight and bishop. Became a pawn up after exchanging one of the bishops. Went to opposite coloured bishops with rook and about 6 pawns to 4 after forking bishop and pawn. Then pinned his bishop to king with rook. Promoted pawn to Queen and he resigned shortly after.

Round 2:
Lost with white against Matthew Wilson (ungraded - looked too good to be in minor section). He played french defense. He was up a pawn after I pushed e pawn too far. Then got up another pawn after attacking with knight and setting up a bishop-queen diagonal attack. Then I miscalculated to throw away rook when trying to get something out of nothing.

Round 3:
Lost with black against Joshua Field (58). He opened with the English 1.c4 but it transposed into a 1.d4 kings indian. Again I was vulnerable to attacking knight which won a pawn after threatening forks. Lost another pawn after more pressure, then resigned after sacrificing bishop to stop promotion, but couldn't stop another pawn.

Round 4:
Won with white against junior Russell O'Brien (92 rapid, 107 standard). Sicilian opening. Won a bishop for pawn in middle game after pushing f pawn and leaving bishop trapped nowhere to go. Swapped off pieces, got a bit scary with my king protected by just one pawn and open f and g files, but managed to get queen and rook in line forcing checkmate at the opposing end.

Round 5:
Won with black against junior Jonah Willow (UG). Scandinavian defence. He blundered a knight in middle game. I got a few pawns but then blundered knight back. Was bishop endgame with me having more pawns. He had to sacrifice his bishop to stop me promoting. Then it was a race to promote other pawns, but I could just stop his with my remaining bishop. Practiced my Queen v King ending.

Round 6:
Won with white against Ronald Watson (107). He played a Qd6 Scandinavian which I didn't have much of a clue how to play against. Got a good middle game though and broke through when attacked Queen with knight, meaning he had to move it leaving a nice rook and king fork. Struggled a bit when got towards end game with time running short. Eventually sacrificed two rooks for rook and bishop, leaving up a few pawns in pawn endgame. He couldn't stop me promoting one of the two flanks of pawns so won with 1min 30secs to spare.