Haunted Knight Chess Blog

Oh dear

2009-10-20T21:38:00.001+01:00

Sorry Pete but I couldn't resist putting this game up, I doubt I'll get an easier game against you than this :)

DeanMaddenvPeterBrace.pgn

Draw against Nathan

2009-09-16T05:56:00.002+01:00

My run of good form continued into the game against Nathan last night. I played quite well until the end game where I made my bishop bad and let him get his strong knight in. However he had to sacrifice the knight after it was trapped, and I was up a bishop for two pawns. But he had much the better position.

After a bit of maneuvering we got to a repeating position where he offered a draw. It looked pretty drawish so I accepted. However after analysing with the computer it looks like he was way ahead and could get the bishop back for free if he just took with the c rook. I don't know how we both missed that!

DeanMaddenvNathanAtkins.pgn

First place!

2009-09-14T05:13:00.006+01:00

I don't know how I managed it but I won both games on Sunday, making me outright winner with five wins out of five and £150. First time I've ever won anything! Both were tough long games with the last one lasting 3hrs 55mins. Was exhausted at the end.

One thing I've learnt from the experience is that I'm suited to open unbalanced tactical positions, I felt I was able to calculate more deeply, and when I realised a threat wasn't really a threat I could concentrate on launching better attacks. Also a fair amount of luck went my way.

DeanMaddenvKeithHodgson.pgn

First game was against Keith Hodgson from Bramhall. He played the Petroff defence which I've had very little experience playing against. Thankfully I remembered the moves I wanted to play, in the past I've really blocked myself in.

However he was better out of the opening with a strong knight. But this simplified down and on move 32 I offered a draw, as it was a very even endgame and I thought if anyone was going to win it was him. Luckily for me he turned it down!

So it worked out to be 7 pawns against 7 pawns. 43...d4 is where he made the mistake and over-committed a pawn allowing my king to get in between them. This meant I was a pawn up.

In the position above I played Kb5 but a much easier win would have been Kd6, where he wouldn't be able to stop my e pawn. I initially miscalculated and thought the a pawn had less moves to make to promote by pushing the g pawn as well, but realised he could promote his e pawn at the same time. But luckily my king had the much better position to block his pawn where as mine was unhindered. So he soon resigned.

RichardCantliffvDeanMadden.pgn

Final round was against Richard Cantliff from Fenton. I was hoping an easy short game as was already quite tired. I knew that a draw would make me outright winner, with a loss still giving me a share of 1st prize.

For the third time I faced 1.d4, this time he played what he told me afterwards was the four pawns attack, something I'd never encountered before. But he told me the crucial thing he forgot was Kh1 as f4 exposes the castled king.

A big miscalculation by me was 21...Nxb4 and I thought it had cost me the game. I overlooked that Nb2 would protect both minor pieces from my queen. But he made a bigger mistake and put his rook there instead, allowing Qc5 checking his exposed king and winning a knight and pawns.

In the position below I was sure there was a mate somewhere but couldn't figure it out.

There was actually a mate in 5: 34... Rh1+ 35. Kg3 Nh5+ 36. Kh4 Bf6+ 37. Qg5 hxg5+ 38. Kg4 Qf4#.

I lost the momentum and it simplified down but I still had the advantage. He was by now very short of time, I just played what I thought were sensible moves until his clock ran out. I might have struggled to convert the win otherwise!

A very pleasing overall result, beyond anything I'd imagined.

Leek Congress day 2

2009-09-12T18:04:00.003+01:00

Had a great day at the Leek congress, won both my games so am now on 3 out of 3, with two more games to come tomorrow. A score of 3 is already my best ever result in a tournament.

Second round game was against fellow Spondon member Louise, I felt sorry for her as she blundered early on, and didn't get any chance to fight back.

DeanMaddenvLouiseBrace_0.pgn

Round 3 was against Ray Thomas from Market Drayton. Managed to get it into another open tactical game, and have been calculating well in this tournament. Ray offered a draw after 16 moves but I turned it down as wanted to go for the win.

RayThomasvDeanMadden.pgn

It was the most even game so far, I managed to get a pawn up but couldn't protect it so had to give it back. I managed to activate my remaining rook before his, and because of the back rank threat he played h3, realising when he let go of the piece that the square was attacked with my knight leading to mate. If not for that it was looking very drawish.

Wish me luck for the next two games tomorrow!

Grzybowski

2009-09-12T08:12:00.002+01:00

Had a great win to start off the Leek congress, played the highest rated player in our section, 112 ECF compared to my 83. And to make it even better, he had a surname I can't pronounce so feels like I've beaten a Russian GM.

KarolGrzybowskivDeanMadden.pgn

I seemed to outplay him tactically, very surprising. We played with digital clocks, 2 hrs each for entire game. I've rarely played with them but unlike most people in English chess I think they're great. You know exactly what time you have left, don't have to bend over to try to work out what you've got left and then only have a rough idea. And I don't trust the accuracy of the mechanical clocks, clubs seem to have kept them for decades, and don't need to worry that it's not wound up.

I was up the exchange on move 16. I was surprised when he played 23.f5, not sure if he missed 23...Qxb5 or if it was a miscalculated last throw of the dice.

So I was up two rooks for a bishop. But Queens were still on the board so had to be careful he couldn't perpetually check me. After I forced the exchange of Queens it was over.

Two games today then two tomorrow. Good start but plenty still to do.

New season

2009-09-08T22:11:00.002+01:00

First match of the season tonight was against Ian Gregory in the Spondon club championship. Predictably I got smashed, I never seem to know what to do when the opponent throws their pawns forward. Any advice on what I could have done better would be appreciated.

DeanMaddenvIanGregory.pgn

Derbyshire Individual tournament

2009-09-02T10:01:00.003+01:00

Just a quick plug that I'm the new controller of the Derbyshire Individual tournament which runs over the league season as a seven round swiss. More details at http://www.derbyshirechess.org.uk/

In other news, I'm still playing chess but not much blogging. Tend to twitter more these days. Just sent my entry form off for the Leek Congress over the weekend of 11th-13th Sep.

Notts Congress Rd4&5

2009-05-01T20:44:00.007+01:00

Sunday was a bad day for me after a good first day. I threw away round 4 with a mistake on move 8, miscalculating the resulting position from some trades. I missed a chance to get back into it by not playing Rxd4 below.

PeterMellorvDeanMadden.pgn

Round 5 was the most frustrating game for me. I was ahead but threw it away by not visualising properly.

I was happy that I spotted 11.Ncxe5 below (11...Bxc5 12. Nxe5 Qxe5 13. Bc3 skewers the Queen to the rook). Fritz says 11. Ba5 is even better.

In the position below I played 33 Nxg6. For some reason I thought him taking with the Queen would leave his Rook undefended. Obviously didn't think it through.

Shortly afterwards he put me out of my misery.

DeanMaddenvRonaldWatson.pgn

Notts Congress Rd3

2009-05-01T20:00:00.000+01:00

Round 3 of the Nottingham congress I played Sean McDonald. He played the Pirc defense and I tried to play a symmetrical Kings Indian Attack against it. His big mistake was missing the Knight fork on move 33. I got into deep time trouble in this game, and stopped taking score with a few minutes left, it ended up with King and Rook versus King when he resigned with me having a minute or two left. Move 54 was the one that sealed it for me.

DeanMaddenvSeanMcDonald.pgn

Nottingham Congress 2009

2009-04-25T17:27:00.002+01:00

I'm playing in the minor section of the Nottingham Congress, lost the first game but didn't play too badly. The mistake in the end was deciding to exchange the knight for the bishop. Could maybe have hung on for the draw if I hadn't done that. Second game was a bit too easy, against an ungraded player who I don't think has encountered the Fried Liver before. Games:

MichaelZhangvDeanMadden.pgn

DeanMaddenvArjunNehra.pgn

Mick Orridge - RIP

2009-04-08T05:47:00.002+01:00

I was saddened to hear last night that Mick Orridge, a local player, had passed away on Saturday. He was a genuinely nice guy, and I'll miss him a lot.

I've been told he had been diagnosed with cancer late on in the last few months. He was always energetic and full of life, much more so than a lot of people younger than him.

This season was his first as chairman of Spondon chess club, he'll be missed by everyone.

His funeral is on Friday 17th April 2009 at 1:15pm at Derby crematorium. He wished for donations to be made to Macmillan Cancer Support instead of flowers.

Derbyshire Individual Rd.2

2008-11-19T19:46:00.004Z

I played Harry Ratner in the Derbyshire Individual championship Tuesday night.

DeanMaddenvHarryRatner.pgn

I didn't enjoy the game very much, and misplayed the opening. I should have played 7.Nc3. He launched a good attack on my queenside, and I didn't get much of an attack going towards his kingside which was my aim.

When I was starting to hate the position, I tried opening it up and making it quite sharp. But it didn't really phase him and Harry deserved the win. Hopefully one of these days I'll beat him, but I say that everytime!

The main tactical mistake was in the position below. I played d4, it's one of those moves where you realise the mistake as soon as you let go of the piece, but for whatever reason it didn't register when thinking about it before touching the piece.

This weekend should be fun, it's the Spectrum Chess Derbyshire congress.

English Chess Forum

2008-10-26T07:38:00.002Z

Just a quick note to let people know that the English Chess Forum has had to move location to http://www.ecforum.org.uk/. It was originally the English Chess Federation official forum, but the ECF has decided to disassociate itself with it, blaming it for losing sponsors. Looks more like they don't want freedom of expression to me. Anyway, the ECF has removed any links to it, but I'd recommend the forum to all English players as a good way of debating issues and keeping up to date with the latest news and politics.

Leicester Congress 2008

2008-10-25T19:36:00.000+01:00

I played in the amateur (u80ECF) section of the Leicester congress over the weekend of 10-12th October. Better late than never, here's how I got on.

Unusually for this time of year, we had some very bright and sunny days. The venue unfortunately had no blinds or curtains in the smallish hall we played in, meaning a lot of players were looking directly into the sun in the afternoon games. This was a bit of a let down as the venue for last years congress was much better and bigger.

Anyway I ended on 2/5, with four draws and one loss out of the five games. Too many draws, and I feel like I had good winning chances in most of the games including the loss. But I was happy to play in some good competitive games and a few of them went to interesting end games.

DeanMaddenvRichardGreenwood.pgn

Game 1 on Friday night was against Richard Greenwood (69ECF) of Northampton. It got down to a Queen and Rook endgame, and I felt he had a stronger position. I had a chance of perpetual check and took it, as he had a mating threat on f2. However it looks like I could have played Re2 and have better chances.

PeterBracevDeanMadden.pgn

Game 2 on Saturday morning was against fellow Spondon player Peter Brace, I was hoping they might keep players from the same club apart. It was pretty much a fair draw with no big mistakes by either of us.

DeanMaddenvColinRoss.pgn

My sole loss was against Colin Ross (73ECF) of Littlethorpe, who apparently reads this blog, so I can't saying anything nasty about him :).

In the position above, Colin chose to sacrifice his knight by taking g4, which looks to probably be a mistake, although he does get 2 pawns and opens up my king. As the pieces were traded off he got a passed pawn on the h-file which caused me a lot of trouble.

In the position above I threw the game away by playing Qxg3, totally miscalculating that h1Q, Bxh1 leaves my Queen undefended. Qf8+ would have given me possible winning chances.

LucaszKacprzakvDeanMadden.pgn

The Sunday morning game against Lucas had a massively tactical opening, so I thought it'd be over quick, but it dragged out into a long game and I had little time left on my clock at the end.

It worked into a Queen, Rook and more pawns versus Queen and 2 Knights. I should really have won this game, but didn't kill him off.

DeanMaddenvDorothyBlampied.pgn

The last game against Dorothy was bit of a non-event. I was very uncomfortable with the sun in my face, and was very thankful to accept a draw offer after 20 moves.

Chess blindness

2008-09-17T19:49:00.004+01:00

Last night I had a nice game against Howard Bradbury in the club championship, another long game where I hung on for a while but was gradually outplayed towards the end when he launched his attacks. I'm not too disappointed as I can see myself improving and learning from these types of games. I'm holding on for much longer in games and making less mistakes. These sorts of games will give me experience and hopefully I can improve my mid to end game technique.

HowardBradburyvDeanMadden.pgn

I allowed too many of his pieces to assemble around my king and on move 29 had to sacrifice rook for knight due to a mating threat.

On move 39 I had the position below. For the life of me I have no idea why I played Ne5, can't remember what I was thinking at all. Must have been a moment of chess blindness. If I would have played Nf6, Fritz thinks I'm back in the game. His rook is close to getting trapped and the e4 pawn is the only thing defending it.

Leek Congress rd 4&5

2008-09-15T18:37:00.005+01:00

I had a much more enjoyable day on Sunday at the Leek Congress (not sure why we in England call tournaments congresses). Even though I lost both games, they were good and competitive against stronger players with lots for me to learn.

The first game was against Alan Millward (95ECF) who plays for Macclesfield. We had a long analysis of the game afterwards, and I learnt a lot when he explained things he was thinking during the game.

DeanMaddenvAlanPMillward.pgn

He started off playing the Scandinavian but then fianchettoed kingside which I hadn't seen before. On move 20 he blundered his rook for a bishop, but I didn't have a massive advantage with him having the bishop pair.

I think one of my weakness is trying to form a plan for launching an attack. More experienced players tend to sense at the right moment when to start throwing pawns forward towards the enemy king, whereas I tend to play more passively and wait for things to happen. Anyone have any ideas on how I can improve this?

For example in this game, for ten or so moves, Fritz is screaming at me to play h4, h5, but the thought never occurred to me as I naturally think it will weaken my own king?

In the position below I blundered my rook back to even up the game by playing Qc1 leaving me open for Bh6. I tend to overlook bishop tactics quite often I've noticed, whereas I always check for knights. Something I need to actively think about I guess.

After this I was hoping for a draw, so in the position below I exchanged the knight with the bishop to simplify down. But this was a mistake as the knight in this position is stronger, and exchanging leaves his rook with the open file. It's nice to get to this stage of a game and have to think about it though!

He kept control of the open file and gradually squeezed my position until I was running out of moves and just moving the king back and forth. After swapping queens, my rook was stuck defending the b2 pawn and he could bring his king out to attack the pawns on the other side.

Final game was against Paul Clapham (82ECF) who plays for nearby Newcastle Under Lyme.

PaulJClaphamvDeanMadden.pgn

I rattled off the first 13 moves very quickly whereas he took a lot of time. But after completing the development I was trying to think of a plan of attack, whereas I should probably have had a bit more patience in this case and tried to control the centre.

I think the position below is where I started to go wrong. I moved the king to a8, but this was boxing it in and leaving it without anywhere to escape whereas moving it to e.g. c7 would have made it more active and less easily trapped. Also my light-squared bishop was particularly useless in this game, I'm not sure how I could have got it more involved.

He then picked the right moment to launch his pawns at my king, supported by his rooks, and my king was trapped in the firing line. I made it worse by hemming in the king with more pieces, until his attack was a winning one.

A brief circles update, the chess workbook section has been put on hold for the time being due to other things occurring. But I've been ploughing away at Chess Tactics server on and off.

Leek Congress

2008-09-13T18:04:00.003+01:00

Round one of the Leek congress last night was against Nicholas McLean, graded 96ECF.

DeanMaddenvNicholasMcLean.pgn

I played the Moller attack against him but got confused when he played 7...Bxc3, as most people play Nxe4. On move 9 I should have played d5 instead of castling. It was one of the rare games where it was pretty much lost in the opening, I never got into the game and not much more to say about it.

I turned up for round two this morning and was paired against John Fenby, then with 2 minutes to go they announced some repairings. When I looked at the board I was the odd one out without an opponent. I'm pretty annoyed because there was at least one person who turned up at the venue to enter just 10 minutes before the start of the round, and just happened to be a member of the organisers club, then he gets a game but someone like me who applied a couple of weeks ago doesn't get a game.

So anyways I had to kill four hours, and then turned up for round 3 against a 13yr old called Adam S Arshad.

AdamSArshadvDeanMadden.pgn

To be honest he didn't seem to be much interested in playing, not recording his moves, and offering a draw after about 10 moves.

Move 14 I was a Queen up, and just played sensibly until he resigned.

Hopefully I'll have some more interesting games tomorrow!

New season

2008-09-12T07:00:00.000+01:00

A new season in English chess started for me Tuesday night. I played Ted Pye in the Spondon club championship, a competition that runs throughout the season, an all play all for the members of the club. I counted about 18 people who turned up.

I've had many interesting games against Ted, usually wildly tactical. He was one of the first people I played when I joined a couple of years ago. He used to slaughter me all the time, but the games are more even now and I've managed to beat him once or twice. His ECF grade is about the same as mine, but he has a lot more playing experience and so outplays me in positions that I'm not used to. Luckily for me, he makes tactical mistakes, which I sometimes do and sometimes don't spot, and he doesn't always capitalise on my mistakes. He tends to make very open positions where lots of tactics crop up, I've noticed he tends to get frustrated in closed positions and throws pawns forward to open it up.

TedPyevDeanMadden.pgn

So anyway, this was a typical game. I made a mistake so that he had a material advantage, he made a mistake to allow me to have the advantage, he then had the advantage after another mistake, and finally mated me. Lots of things to go over. The good thing is I have lots of things to think about and try and learn from the game.

He played 2. Bd3 against my Scandinavian, a move I hadn't seen before and which I think he just makes up as he plays it. I thought about taking the pawn, but wasn't sure how it would play out so decided on developing my pieces.

The game got difficult for me when I played 22...Kg7 below. This allowed him to play Ng5, attacking the h7 pawn with his rook. I then played Qg8, allowing him to force a trade of my Queen for his rook and knight.

In the position below he played Qg1, but this allowed me to play Bf4+, also attacking his rook. He was able to then fork the rooks with his bishop, but for some reason decided not to take one.

However after this I was getting tired and didn't know how I was supposed to force a win with rooks and a knight versus a queen.

I then made the fatal error of playing Be5 below, not noticing he can fork king and rook on e3. Hen then ended it with a nice mate.

This weekend I'll be playing in the Leek congress, one game on Friday, two on Saturday and two on Sunday, each 2 hours per player long. I'm not sure if there will be relatively weaker players like myself so don't know if I'll expect to pick up any points. Looking forward to it anyway.

BLundering against BLoomes

2008-08-27T20:04:00.005+01:00

Last night I played the final club championship game of the season against Bert Loomes. When I've previously played against him with white he used to play the Philidor, but this time he played the French defence, with some moves that totally threw me. I was lost very early on.

When he played 4...Ba6, I just carried on playing the standard Kings Indian Attack, but in this case I should have altered the plan, playing Be2 so that I could castle safely.

In the position below, I miscalculated and played Bf1, overlooking that taking back with the Knight leaves me unable to castle. I could have in fact trapped his bishop by playing b4 followed by e5.

I then blundered by moving my Queen instead of taking back the bishop, thinking I'd discovered a way out of the mess.

DeanMaddenvBertLoomes_0.pgn

Peter Brace

2008-08-13T19:55:00.004+01:00

I played Peter Brace for the first time yesterday. It was an okayish game but I was pretty disappointed with myself for never really getting any advantage in it. I was impressed with how Peter managed to usually pick the right move and didn't appear to make any major mistakes. The big mistake was from me when I allowed my knight to run out of escape squares.

I attempted to play the closed Sicilian as white for the second time, but soon forgot what I was supposed to be doing. I decided to give up my fianchettoed bishop to give him doubled pawns. Still not sure whether it was the right thing to do as it left him with the bishop pair and I had weakened pawns on the kingside.

I made a mistake in the position below:

I played b3 without thinking about how it lines up the Queen and a1 rook for a skewer. It's little things like that what I need to consider more, I tend to not think about them, that and making sure my pieces always have adequate escape squares.

The e4 knight was then trapped when attacked by a pawn, and once moved he could execute the skewer.

I played on for a bit since I still had two rooks, but Peter played accurately enough to force the win.

DeanMaddenvPeteBrace.pgn

Before the game, Ian had me, Martin and Bert playing some weird team game where if you take a piece from your opponent, you can give it to your partner for his board. So lots of silly positions arose.

Smashed

2008-07-31T20:46:00.002+01:00

Tuesday night I got smashed against the strongest regular player at the club, Ian Gregory, in a club championship game. It was an interesting game where I made an unsound sacrifice, but I was never really in the game and it was good to see how he gradually built up his attack with massive control of the centre files.

IanGregoryvDeanMadden.pgn

There's a good post on the Boylston Chess Club Weblog, which sort of sums up why I am enjoying OTB chess much more than Internet chess. Something else I've found is that it helps to get rid of any other nagging worries and stress, because you're just totally engrossed in the board for a couple of hours.

Improve your chess

2008-07-28T20:54:00.002+01:00

Tom Chivers at Streatham & Brixton Chess Club blog has written a series of great articles documenting how he has improved his chess strength in one season by 23 ECF points after being at the same level for a number of years. Some of it is probably somewhat above my current level, but there are plenty of interesting bits to think about:

http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com/2008/07/improve-your-chess-i-why-coach-others.html

http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com/2008/07/improve-your-chess-ii-vice-and-advice.html

http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com/2008/07/improve-your-chess-iii-simulation-not.html

http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com/2008/07/improve-your-chess-iv-read-rowson.html

Gary Davison

2008-07-23T18:28:00.007+01:00

8th and final round of the Spondon Summer Open was against Gary Davison. I was originally paired with Stuart Tabberer, but we got repaired after playing a few moves so that Gary could play someone he hadn't already played. In the position below I played 9...Nxd3, but better would have been Nfd7, attacking the loose knight and also threatening Nc5.

The main turning point of the game was the position below:

I'd just played 11...h6, and instead of moving the knight he played h4, sacrificing the knight for an open h-file for his rook. But he wasn't able to take advantage of it so was probably unsound.

Gary spent a long time thinking about move 16, probably about 20mins. So he then had about 15mins left for the 14 moves left until the time control. I just carried on taking my time to find the right moves, and let him bother about the time. I created a very strong attack, and on move 25 with a couple of minutes left he dropped his queen.

Very pleasing end to a good tournament for me: 3wins, 1 draw and 3 losses. Much better than 1 win and 1 draw from 8 last year.

GaryDavisonvDeanMadden.pgn

New grade: 56

2008-07-21T07:23:00.003+01:00

I'm pleased with my new ECF grade of 56, an increase of 10 points. So I've improved a bit.

Field	Value	Description
Ref	269843C	Grading reference
Name	Madden, Dean	Name of player, surname first
Sex	M
Age		Juniors only, Age on September 1st of current season
Club(s)	Spondon Derbyshire CA	Club(s) player is listed for
Nation		Nationality code
FIDE		FIDE code

Standard
Category	A	Category A-E
Grade	56	Current Standard grade (amended version, if appropriate)
	56	Standard grade (original unamended)
Games	39	Standard games played, latest season
	39	Standard games counted (total)

Rapid
Category	E	Category A-E or X
Grade	63	Current Rapid grade (amended version, if appropriate)
	63	Rapid grade (original unamended)
Games	6	Rapid games played, latest season
	12	Rapid games counted (total)

Grade history

Date	Cat	Standard	Cat	Rapid
July 2008	A	56	E	63
Jan 2008 RP
July 2007	E	46

Here's the complete list for Spondon:

Ref	Name	Category	Grade	Last Year	Cat	Rapid	Last Year
111035E	Gamble, Raymond J	A	152	152
231082L	Gregory, Ian	B	149	142
210967A	Makinson, Paul A	D	138	137
107427B	Brown, David J	A	132	147			157
164809D	Carter, Mark AK	C	131	127
166596A	Sands, J Graham	D	115	114
187429K	Sheldon, Philip	B	113	98
116587C	Pace, Graham J	B	103	105
233557J	Bradbury, Howard	B	100	90
253102B	Wright, Nigel	C	100	97	D	106
265846L	Atkins, Nathan	A	99	101	D	95
107075H	Bowes, Getting T	D	97	92
107186F	Bramley, Douglas	A	93	91
268242E	Hickling, Richard P	C	92	84
114581C	Loomes, Herbert TT	B	81	94
116506K	Orridge, MJ	B	76	71
117666D	Ratner, Harry AJ	B	75	78
231470J	Davison, Gary	C	67	77
265349H	Tabberer, Stuart	C	59	61
269843C	Madden, Dean	A	56	46	E	63
274208B	Brace, Peter	E	56
265866F	Pye, Ted	C	55	55
265851D	Gibson, Martin	B	52	55
264243J	Pacitto, Joseph A	C	33	38	D	37	37

24 Record(s) Found

Round 7 versus Bert

2008-07-19T16:32:00.006+01:00

In round 7 last Tuesday I was initially scheduled to play Harry Ratner, but since he didn't appear, organiser Bert Loomes took his place instead. It was a very interesting game, which I could probably spend hours analysing. It was very tight at the start, but then burst open with lots of tactical opportunities. I would have been happy with the draw initially, as I think I've always lost to him previously, but should really have won the game with the chances I had.

He played the Philidor defence, which looks to me as somewhat defensive for black, and blocks his own pieces in. So I tried to play positive and attacking, developing my pieces to good squares. It looks like I should have taken his pawn on e5 early on, as it would make the pawn that he takes back with very vulnerable. Below is the position before my 13th move.

I struggled for a while to come up with any ideas. I thought about Nh4, but saw that he could play Nxe4 leaving a discovered attack on h4. So I dismissed it, thought about other stuff, reconsidered Nh4, and played it forgetting what I'd only just thought about!

I was very lucky in that white is actually attacking the d6 pawn with his knight if black takes the h4 knight, which then leads to a fork of king and b7 bishop. He actually played 14...Bxd5 leaving the position below.

I rightly spotted Ba5 which attacks both the queen and d5 bishop, leading to a great position, even though the h4 knight is still undefended. When he played Nb6, I should have just taken it as I would still have the same advantage. But I picked the moves in the wrong order, and played Qxd5 instead. I was lucky in that he took back with his bishop after we swapped queens, as it lead to the position below:

I can now play Bxb5 because of the undefended rook. After he then moved his king, I missed the obvious bishop fork on c6, I was too worried about moving the h4 knight to safety. After that I threw away more of my advantage by not playing simply and safely, looking for tactics where there weren't any.

I managed to keep a pawn advantage going into a rook endgame, but didn't really have any strategy on how to force a win. I was trying to push a passed pawn, but he was able to defend against it easily. I should have got my king involved more, but kept putting it off. We swapped off rooks and it was a very drawish 2 pawns each endgame. I offered a draw in the position below but he wanted to play on.

He played e3, which was in fact a big blunder but I didn't take advantage of it. I played Kf1 to stop his pawn, but the possible winning move would have been f4, as I could still take his pawn later, and would have a pawn advantage. There would still be plenty of work to do, but would have had better chances.

Anyway I ended up with pawn against king, but had no chance of winning due to losing the opposition.

DeanMaddenvBertLoomes.pgn