Phil Smith

I played Phil Smith (ECF 75, 1625 fide) in the first round of the Spondon Summer Open last night. It ended up being a draw with just kings left on the board. I was pleased with my performance and didn't seem to make massive tactical mistakes, but did overlook a few things I could have done. A draw was definitely a fair result though and ensures I don't remain on zero for the 8-round tournament :)

He played the Philidor defence and I was making stuff up from move 3, thankfully it looks like I chose the right moves to start with. The time control was 1hr 15mins for first 30 moves, then 20mins extra till end of game. I ended up with just about 2 mins on the clock, I've never used up so much time in a game before.

Here's the game:

[Event "Spondon Summer Open 2007"]
[Date "2007.06.05"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Dean Madden"]
[Black "Phil Smith"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C41"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Bg4 4. Be2 Bxf3 5. Bxf3 Nc6 6. d5 Nd4 7. Be3 Nxf3+ 8. Qxf3 g6 9. Nc3 a6 10. O-O Bh6 11. Bxh6 Nxh6 12. Rfe1 O-O 13. h3 Kg7 14. Rad1 f5 15. Qe2 fxe4 16. Nxe4 Qd7 17. Ng5 Rf5 18. Ne6+ Kg8 19. Qe3 Nf7 20. Qd3 c6 21. c4 Nd8 22. Nxd8 Rxd8 23. Re2 Rdf8 24. f3 c5 25. Rf1 b5 26. b3 bxc4 27. bxc4 Qa4 28. Qb3 Qxb3 29. axb3 Rb8 30. Ra2 Rxb3 31. Rxa6 Rf6 32. Rfa1 Rc3 33. Rc6 Rxc4 34. Ra8+ Kg7 35. Ra7+ Kh6 36. Rd7 Rd4 37. Rcxd6 Rxd6 38. Rxd6 e4 39. fxe4 Rxe4 40. Rc6 c4 41. Rc5 Rd4 42. Kf2 Rd2+ 43. Ke3 Rxg2 44. Rxc4 Rg3+ 45. Kf2 Rd3 46. Rc5 g5 47. Ke2 Ra3 48. Rc6+ Kh5 49. d6 Ra8 50. d7 Rd8 51. Rd6 g4 52. hxg4+ Kxg4 53. Ke3 Kf5 54. Kd4 h5 55. Kd5 h4 56. Kc6 h3 57. Rh6 Kg4 58. Kc7 Rg8 59. d8=Q Rxd8 60. Kxd8 Kg3 61. Rxh3+ Kxh3 1/2-1/2

An apparent blunder was move 19. The position was below:


I played Qe3, but fritz says I should have played g4. I can understand this attacks the rook, but would have thought it weakened my king. Fritz says his best move is then Rf8, losing his rook for a knight. Will look into this later.

Update

It's suddenly clearer now. After g4, he can't play rook to f3, f4, g5, or h5 because it will be taken straight away. If he plays Rf7 then Qe3 attacks the knight leaving it nowhere to move to. Finally if he played Rf6 then g5 forks the rook and knight.

There were a few different things I could have tried in the endgame, but it would probably have still been a draw.

1387

I achieved my highest rating so far on fics, 1387. I had a couple of good wins against higher rated opposition yesterday, both of them went to difficult endgames.

[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2007.06.02"]
[Round "?"]
[White "deanmadden"]
[Black "Introspection"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1359"]
[BlackElo "1432"]
[ECO "C88"]
[TimeControl "2700+45"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. Nc3 O-O 9. d4 exd4 10. Nxd4 Nxd4 11. Qxd4 c5 12. Qd2 c4 13. Bxc4 bxc4 14. Nd5 Nxd5 15. Qxd5 Rb8 16. Qxc4 Be6 17. Qxa6 Qc7 18. c3 Bc4 19. Qa4 d5 20. g3 dxe4 21. Bf4 Bd6 22. Bxd6 Qxd6 23. Qxc4 Rxb2 24. Qxe4 g6 25. Reb1 Rfb8 26. Rxb2 Rxb2 27. Qd4 Qe6 28. c4 Rb8 29. c5 Rc8 30. a4 Qc6 31. Qd6 Qxc5 32. Qxc5 Rxc5 33. a5 Rc8 34. a6 Kf8 35. a7 Ra8 36. Kg2 Ke7 37. Kf3 Kd7 38. Ke4 Kc7 39. Ke5 Kb7 40. Kf6 Rxa7 41. Rxa7+ Kxa7 42. Kxf7 g5 43. Kg7 h5 44. Kg6 h4 45. Kxg5 hxg3 46. fxg3 Kb7 47. h4 {Introspection resigns} 1-0

The first, against introspection, was a case of being a pawn up in a rook endgame. I pushed the passed pawn as far as it could go, then when his king went across to attack, my king gobbled up his remaining pawns.

[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2007.06.02"]
[Round "?"]
[White "cheesyperson"]
[Black "deanmadden"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1468"]
[BlackElo "1373"]
[ECO "A48"]
[TimeControl "3600"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Bd3 O-O 6. O-O Re8 7. Re1 Nbd7 8. Bf4 e5 9. dxe5 dxe5 10. Bg5 h6 11. Be3 Ng4 12. Bd2 Nc5 13. Bc4 Be6 14. Bxe6 Nxe6 15. h3 Nf6 16. Be3 Qxd1 17. Rexd1 Nd8 18. Rd2 Nc6 19. Rad1 b6 20. a3 Nh5 21. Rd7 Rac8 22. R7d5 Rcd8 23. Rxd8 Rxd8 24. Rxd8+ Nxd8 25. Nb5 Nc6 26. Nxc7
Nd4 27. Nxd4 exd4 28. Bd2 Nf6 29. Nb5 Nxe4 30. Bf4 a6 31. Nd6 Nxd6 32. Bxd6 Bf8 33. Bc7 b5 34. Bb6 Bg7 35. Kf1 f5 36. Ke2 d3+ 37. Kxd3 Bxb2 38. Bc5 Kf7 39. c4 bxc4+ 40. Kxc4 Ke6 41. Kb4 Kd5 42. Bf8 h5 43. Ka5 Ke4 44. Kxa6 f4 45. a4 f3 46. gxf3+ Kxf3 47. a5 Kxf2 48. Kb7 Kg3 49. a6 Bd4 50. Bd6+ Kxh3 51. Be5
Bf2 52. Bc7 h4 53. Bb6 Kg2 54. Bxf2 h3 55. a7 h2 56. a8=Q h1=Q 57. Kb8+ Kh2 58. Bg3+ Kg1 59. Bf2+ Kh2 60. Bg3+ Kg1 61. Qa1+ Kg2 62. Qb2+ Kxg3 63. Qc3+ Qf3 64. Qc7+ Qf4 65. Qxf4+ Kxf4 {cheesyperson resigns} 0-1

The game against cheesyperson was very even throughout, and I was convinced it would be a draw. It was a same coloured bishop and pawns endame. He had the advantage in the pawn promotion race, so I let him take my bishop in order for him to have Queen & Bishop versus my Queen and pawn. I managed to force an exchange of queens and then he resigned.

Update:

I'm now 1394. I've wanted to reach 1400 for a while and I'm almost there. I think my next medium term aim is to reach 1500, whether that will take a year or two years I don't know. Once I've reached 1400 I'll try to cement it in place and aim for 1450. Hopefully I'll get an OTB rating in the next couple of months so will have something to aim for with that. My long term aim, i.e. in the next five years or so is to reach a 100 ECF rating, equivalent to about 1750 fide and hopefully do-able.

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