Ron Harrison

On Wednesday I drew against Ron Harrison in round 2 of the Derbyshire Individual championship, a great result for me considering he's rated 108 (about 1790 fide) compared to my 46 (apparently about 1480 fide, but think is inflated). We played in Belper and it was a long long game. It ended up with me having two pawns and a rook against his pawn and rook, but I couldn't figure out a way of winning so offered a draw instead of playing on in a tired state and maybe losing.

[Event "Derbyshire Individual Championship"]
[Date "2007.11.28"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Ron S Harrison"]
[Black "Dean Madden"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B01"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. Bc4 c6 5. d3 Bf5 6. Bd2 Qc7 7. Qf3 e6 8. Nge2 Bd6 9. g4 Bg6 10. h4 h5 11. g5 Ne7 12. Nf4 Nd7 13. Nxg6 Nxg6 14. d4 Qb6 15. Ne4 Qxd4 16. Bc3 Nge5 17. Bxd4 Nxf3+ 18. Kd1 O-O 19. Bxg7 Kxg7 20. Nxd6 b5 21. Be2 Nde5 22. Bxf3 Nxf3 23. Ne4 Rad8+ 24. Ke2 Nd4+ 25. Kf1 Nxc2 26. Rc1 Nd4 27. Rh3 Rc8 28. Rhc3 Rfd8 29. Ng3 Kg6 30. Ne2 Nxe2 31. Kxe2 Rd6 32. Rc5 a5 33. Rxb5 cxb5 34. Rxc8 Rd5 35. f3 Rd4 36. Rc5 Rxh4 37. Rxb5 Rh2+ 38. Kf1 h4 39. Kg1 Rc2 40. Rxa5 Rxb2 41. a4 Ra2 42. Ra7 Kxg5 43. Rxf7 Rxa4 44. Kg2 Rf4 45. Rg7+ Kh5 46. Rg8 1/2-1/2

It was an interesting game, swinging back and forth. The time controls for this tournament are 36 moves in an hour and a half, then add 30mins to completion. So plenty of time to really analyse each position.

I played a normal Scandinavian defence, until he started a kingside pawn push and I had to improvise a bit while still trying to catch up in development. Thankfully I just about managed to get to an evenish middlegame position.

Thankfully he missed Qe2 in the position below, he spotted it only after he played the wrong move.

This allowed me to keep the pawn advantage and simplify down a bit. Shortly after he played a nice bishop sacrifice to get the pawn back. What helped me after this was him having a wide open centralised king that couldn't castle, so I picked up another pawn.

Something I overlooked later on was Rxb5 below, I still have trouble getting myself to consider moves which appear to lose material initially, but obviously he could get another pawn out of it.

By move 34 below, I had started fatiguing. I wasn't really thinking on what the whole point now was. I needed to try and promote a pawn, and take away his pawns. His pawn on h4 is obviously weak and should have been the point of attack, but I just played defensively trying to guard my own pawns on the other side of the board.

Thankfully he gave me another chance to play Rd4, and I managed to create the passed pawn on h5. This gave him time to create his own passed pawn on a2, but I could easily get my rook behind it.

The final position is below. Fritz initially thinks I have a 1pawn advantage but after a few seconds thought agrees the game is drawn. I doubt there is much I could have done.

Tuesday of last week was the 3rd and 4th round of the Derbyshire Cup & Plate, two 30mins games. I again played for the C Team, had a nice win in the first game after reaching an evenish endgame but much more time left on my clock. Second game I blundered a knight after playing against a weird looking Scandinavian where he just kept attacking with the queen and not developing, but I played too quickly to really exploit it.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow, the Derbyshire Rapidplay Tournament, six 30mins games in the U90 section at my home club.

Circles update:

I completed the first chapter of 'The Complete Chess Workout' with 58 out of the 100 correct. The next chapter is much more difficult, so far I've got 7 correct out of 21. But I'll still plow on as I'm enjoying them.

Breaking the slump...

Tuesday night I broke my losing slump. I beat Stuart Tabberer in the club championship, a good win as he's graded 61ECF compared to my 46. I didn't really do anything wrong, I was up a pawn early on, got another pawn in the middle game, another towards the end, and used the 3 pawn advantage once the pieces were off the board.

[Event "Spondon Club Championship 2007/08"]
[Date "2007.11.20"]
[White "Stuart Tabberer"]
[Black "Dean Madden"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D00"]

1. e4 d5 2. d4 dxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. f3 exf3 5. Nxf3 Bg4 6. Be3 e6 7. h3 Bh5 8. Be2 Bb4 9. Bd2 O-O 10. O-O Bxf3 11. Bxf3 Qxd4+ 12. Kh1 c6 13. Be1 Qxd1 14. Nxd1 Bxe1 15. Rxe1 Nbd7 16. Ne3 Rad8 17. Nc4 Nc5 18. Rad1 Nd5 19. Bxd5 cxd5 20. Ne3 Ne4 21. Kg1 Rc8 22. c3 f5 23. Rc1 f4 24. Ng4 f3 25. Rf1 fxg2 26. Kxg2 Rxf1 27. Rxf1 Rf8 28. Rxf8+ Kxf8 29. Kf3 Nf6 30. Ne5 Ke7 31. b4 Kd6 32. Nf7+ Ke7 33. Ne5 Ne4 34. c4 Nd2+ 35. Ke3 Nxc4+ 36. Kd4 Nxe5 37. Kxe5 g5 38. a4 h5 0-1

Circles update:

So far I've completed 94 problems, with 54 correct. I've enjoyed doing these sorts of problems where you have to think for a few minutes and sometimes you're just looking to win a pawn. They seem more applicable to real games. I think I'm already benefitting from it, so looks good for the future.

Chess Blogs

I thought I'd make a list of all the chess blogs I regularly read, all of which are much better than mine. So click away!

Streatham & Brixton Chess Club is a recent addition to my bloglines account, I'd been aware of it for a while, but the hilarious Scorebook Notes columns here, here and here got me hooked. Eagerly awaiting the next installments!

The British Chess Magazine blog is a collection of posts by John Saunders, the editor of the magazine, and very interesting and entertaining for us English readers. I have a similarly talented chess cat to his, although mine prefers the bishop.

Confessions of a chess novice is obviously the big daddy of the chess blogosphere, always getting the most comments, lots of interesting posts, and a good inspiration for newcomers.

Chess improvement, by DK-Transformation is one of the more zany and entertaining of the blogs, always with fascinating photography and a bordering on insane addiction to whatever he's currently interested in.

Hardcore pawnography has the most entertaining reports of tournaments he's entered, making you feel like you were there with him!

Blunderprone is always a good read, although sadly he hasn't as much time to dedicate to chess as previously.

Boylston Chess Club is a regularly updated blog, with some great posts now and again.

Castling Queen Side is one of the few chess blogs with a female author, and as such is great at communicating her ideas and feelings at the board.

The Daily Dirt is the number one news blog, and probably the most read and commented chess news blog around.

I always enjoy the posts on SonofPearl's blog, his sense of humour and humility strikes a chord with my own.

The award for most updated blog obviously goes to Susan Polgar, sadly a lot of it is just photos and copy n pastes from other sites, but definitely worth keeping up with.

A great local blog for me is that of West Nottingham Chess club, Ian Kingston does a great job of supporting chess in Nottinghamshire.

The Chess of Edwin Meyer has some entertaining posts, including his recent games in a simul tournament.

The current secretary of the Knights Errant is Samurai Chess, he has a very expressive writing style, although most of it is way over my head!

Chess Tyro has some nice posts, recently celebrating its first birthday. The Endgame Tactician has lots of informative endgame tips. Also hat-tips to SquirrelChess, Magnus Carlsen's dad, Phorku and Takchess.

Finally, the most entertaining yet totally incomprehensible blog has to be Team Tsubasa! Anyone who knows ReyFeroz on channel 101 of fics will know what I mean.

There will obviously be a lot more blogs I've yet to come across, so don't feel sad if you're not mentioned!

The seven circles...

Thanks to everyone for the welcoming comments. I've done 40 problems so far with just 21 correct, and some are pretty tough. But of course they seem easy once you know the answer. Some of them I've got the first move right, but didn't calculate the correct 2nd move for example, so have ruled it incorrect.

The first chapter of the book is supposed to be a bit easier than later ones, so I think once it gets so that I'm getting a very low percentage correct, I'll redo the set from the start a few times to learn them all. It's been quite enjoyable so far anyway!

8th Sheffield Congress

Over the weekend I played four games in Sheffield in the U100 section of the Spectrum Chess tournament. Unfortunately I lost all four, all my opponents had grades in the 80s compared to my 46. I was disappointed with the first two games because I was completely over-run in the openings, and played particularly badly. The last two were better, but again I made simple tactical mistakes.

[Event "Sheffield Congress 2007"]
[Date "2007.11.10"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Andrew J Smith"]
[Black "Dean Madden"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B01"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. Nf3 c6 5. d4 Bf5 6. Bd3 Bxd3 7. Qxd3 e6 8. O-O Bb4 9. Bd2 Nd7 10. a3 Bxc3 11. Bxc3 Qc7 12. d5 Ngf6 13. dxe6 fxe6 14. Rfe1 Nc5 15. Qc4 b6 16. b4 b5 17. Qxc5 O-O-O 18. Rxe6 Rhe8 19. Rxc6 1-0

The first game on the Saturday morning was against Andrew J Smith, he basically destroyed my Scandinavian defence. I'd read the Andrew Martin book on the defence recently, and he said you should try to delay playing Nf6 as long as possible (not sure I understand why), so anyway for the first dozen moves, Fritz screams at me to play Nf6, which I will do in future.

Move 16 I give away my knight for no reason, then after he pins my queen to my king I give up. Terrible play.

[Event "Sheffield Congress 2007"]
[Date "2007.11.10"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Dean Madden"]
[Black "Benjamin Hobson"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C58"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Na5 6. Bb5+ Bd7 7. Be2 Nxd5 8. Nxf7 Kxf7 9. Bh5+ g6 10. Qf3+ Nf6 11. d3 gxh5 12. Bg5 Bg4 13. Bxf6 Bxf3 14. Bxd8 Rxd8 15. gxf3 Rg8 16. Nc3 Bh6 17. Nb5 a6 18. Nxc7 Rc8 19. Nd5 Rxc2 20. Rb1 Rg2 21. Ne3 Bxe3 22. fxe3 Rxb2 23. Rc1 Rxa2 24. Rd1 Rxh2 25. Rxh2 Rxh2 26. d4 Rh1+ 27. Ke2 Rxd1 28. Kxd1 exd4 29. exd4 h4 0-1

In the afternoon I played against Benjamin Hobson. He obviously knew the two knights defence much better than me, and outplayed me again in the opening. I unsoundly sacrificed my knight early on in what I thought would resemble some fried liver. Lightly grilled spam is a more a fit description I think.

The book move 7 should have been Qe2. Move 8 was the unsound sacrifice which I spent a lot of time trying to analyse, but just couldn't figure everything out. Anyway he defended correctly against it and for some strange reason I decided to give my bishop away as well.

[Event "8th Sheffield Congress"]
[Date "2007.11.10"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Dean Madden"]
[Black "Michael Bolan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B01"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 c6 5. Nf3 Bf5 6. Bd2 Qc7 7. Bc4 Nf6 8. O-O e6 9. Re1 Be7 10. Nh4 Bg6 11. Nxg6 hxg6 12. h3 Nbd7 13. b3 O-O-O 14. Ne4 Nxe4 15. Rxe4 Nf6 16. Bf4 Bd6 17. Bxd6 Qxd6 18. Re2 Qxd4 19. Qe1 Rd6 20. Rd1 Qxd1 21. Qxd1 Rxd1+ 22. Kh2 Ng4+ 23. Kg3 Nf6 24. Kh2 Rhd8 25. Bd3 Nd5 26. a4 Nf4 0-1

Saturday evening (all games were 1hr 30mins for 36 moves followed by 15mins to finish), I played as white against Michael Bolan's Scandinavian which I felt comfortable against. Move 20 was where I made the fatal mistake:


I thought that by playing Rd1, I would be scaring away his queen, but as soon as I put down the piece I realised it was a blunder and that he would win rook and queen for queen. I've done that a few times by simply not counting the captures.

Sunday morning was a bye. Sunday afternoon I played a long gruelling game against Alan Fraser, haven't analysed it yet, but it was the most enjoyable as I spent a lot of time thinking, but unfortunately I fatigued late on.

[Date "2007.11.11"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Alan Fraser"]
[Black "Dean Madden"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B01"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 c6 5. Bc4 Nf6 6. Bd2 Qb6 7. Bc1 Bf5 8. Nf3 e6 9. a3 Be7 10. O-O Nbd7 11. Re1 O-O-O 12. b4 Qc7 13. Ne2 Nb6 14. Bf4 Bd6 15. Bxd6 Qxd6 16. Bb3 Ne4 17. c4 Qe7 18. Qc1 Nd7 19. Nf4 h6 20. Bc2 Ndf6 21. Nh4 g5 22. Nxf5 exf5 23. Ne2 Qc7 24. f3 Nd6 25. c5 Nde8 26. Bxf5+ Kb8 27. Qb2 Ng7 28. Bh3 Rhe8 29. d5 Qe5 30. Nc3 Qxe1+ 31. Rxe1 Rxe1+ 32. Kf2 Re7 33. dxc6 bxc6 34. b5 cxb5 35. Nxb5 Nge8 36. Nd6+ Ka8 37. Nxe8 Rdxe8 38. Qxf6 Re2+ 39. Kg3 Rc2 40. Qc6+ 1-0

I decided after this to re-focus on tactical training, hence the circles. I also bought the Nigel Davies book 'Gambiteer I' which I intend to use to help practice attacking tactical play in real games.

Knights Errant

Over the weekend I played in a tournament in Sheffield and picked up a new book called 'The Complete Chess Workout' by Richard Palliser. It's a compilation of 1200 tactical problems, all from real games and most of them quite recent. So I thought this would be the ideal way for me to join the Knights Errant in the Seven Circles of Death.

For those who don't know what I'm talking about, it's a technique of going through a set of about 1000 tactical problems seven times, each time with a shorter time period to complete the 'circle'. This is based on the techniques developed by Michael De La Maza in articles here and here. He improved 400 points in 400 days using the method and so it developed a cult following with some of the followers forming the Knights Errant blogging group to document their journey and help each other through the torture :). The idea behind it is that pattern recognition of the basic tactical motifs is of paramount importance in chess, and by doing the same set of problems seven times, this will fast track the process.

Anyway, I think this book will be a good way for me to do the circles, and so I've updated my sidebar to include the relevant Knightly links and will apply to join the cult right away. I'm not 100% sure on how I'll organize it, most likely just go through the 1200 puzzles all at once, then do the same again 6 more times. But some people have broken the circles down into sets of 200 or so. I guess I'll see how I'm feeling and how long it takes to get to the first 200. There can't be too long a time between circles or the pattern recognition could ware off, especially with my poor memory. Another thing is I won't be able to dedicate my life to the circles like De La Maza did, and I will still be playing regularly, not just training.

For the record, my current standard rating on FICS is 1454. So if I'm not rated 1854 on 16th December 2008 I am burning the book :)

Castello

I played an online game against Castello and missed a winning combination below:


I thought hard about it, but couldn't find anything and took the bishop with the pawn to even the game up. But I totally missed the awesome Qa4. Probably because I was just concentrating on the centre. I didn't even think of moving my Queen in that direction. After that his best move is Kf8 allowing dxe7 winning the queen.

Game below:

[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2007.11.04"]
[Round "?"]
[White "deanmadden"]
[Black "castello"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1471"]
[BlackElo "1575"]
[ECO "B30"]
[TimeControl "3600"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. g3 b6 4. Bg2 Bb7 5. d3 Rb8 6. O-O e5 7. Nbd2 d6 8. Re1 Nf6 9. Nf1 h6 10. h4 Be7 11. N3h2 Nd4 12. c3 Nc6 13. f4 exf4 14. Bxf4 Ne5 15. Nf3 Nxf3+ 16. Bxf3 Nh7 17. e5 g5 18. exd6 gxf4 19. dxe7 Qd6 20. Kh2 fxg3+ 21. Nxg3 Rg8 22. Rg1 a6 23. Qe2 Qf4 24. Bxb7 Rxb7 25. Raf1 Qxh4+ 26. Kg2 Rxg3+ 27. Kf2 Rh3+ 28. Rg3 Qxg3# {deanmadden checkmated} 0-1

Our team has done well in the first five rounds of teamleague T34, finishing second even though we are the worst ratings wise:

Section U1600
Team Name	MP	GP	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6
RainbowWarriors16	3.0	12.0	2.0	1.0	4.0	3.0	2.0
KnightRiders	3.0	11.5	1.0	3.0	3.5	2.0	2.0
MonkeyClub1600	2.5	9.0	3.0	3.0	0.0	2.0	1.0*
AllGoodPeople_II	2.0	8.5	0.5	3.0	2.0	2.0	1.0*
WeRock	1.5	9.0	2.0	1.0	2.0	2.0	2.0*
PoisonedPawns	1.0	7.0	3.5	1.0	0.5	1.0	1.0*

Round: 1

Section: U1600 - TDs: bLAZinFiRe

MonkeyClub1600		vs	KnightRiders
White	dstrout	1-0	jsswaheguru	Black
Black	boonen	1-0	sreeneni	White
White	AcuWill	1-0	schoorl	Black
Black	Introspection	0-1	deanmadden	White

Round: 2

KnightRiders		vs	WeRock
White	jsswaheguru	0-1	zcomcon	Black
Black	schoorl	i-o	ccaseiro	White
White	deanmadden	1-0	OldFlyer	Black
Black	manquer	1-0	stevelco	White

Round: 3

PoisonedPawns		vs	KnightRiders
White	petlya	0-1	Jasher	Black
Black	Berke	0-1	sreeneni	White
White	Niettajean	o-i	schoorl	Black
Black	SCUGrad	1/2-1/2	deanmadden	White

Round: 4

KnightRiders		vs	AllGoodPeople_II
White	jsswaheguru	0-1	twotowers	Black
Black	Jasher	1-0	tjraczko	White
White	schoorl	0-1	NikosGr	Black
Black	manquer	1-0	Dreadtower	White

Round: 5

RainbowWarriors1600		vs	KnightRiders
White	Krait	0-1	Jasher	Black
Black	NoiroP	1-0	sreeneni	White
White	pchesso	1-0	deanmadden	Black
Black	estepona	0-1	manquer	White