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.
Tuesday night I played Terry Pearson (rated 124 ECF) in the 6th (out of 8) round of the Spondon Summer Open. I had a decent position up to the 17th move when he'd just played Be3:
I played Rxe4, figuring I'd have the advantage when I could take back his bishop with my bishop. But I didn't calculate any further ahead than that, missing where he could play Bxb6 threatening my queen and attacking my now undefended bishop on e4. A better move in the position above would have been Bxe4, he could have taken my rook but I would be able to win another minor piece.
After this he proved the superiority of two rooks against a rook and minor piece, and finished me off nicely.
Last night I played Louise for the first time in a long time control game. My idea was to play the closed Sicilian against her, but as is typical for my memory, I forgot move 3 was supposed to be g3, not d3. This didn't seem to make much difference to the game, and I suppose shows that learning openings is a waste of time for me and I might as well play any old move that develops or helps strengthen my position to get to an evenish middlegame.
By move 14, I'd just played Na4, and Louise had a much better position with a strong pawn centre and better placed pieces. But I think she pushed a bit too much by playing c4. This gave me a nice square for the Knight on c5, and weakened the pawn structure. She pushed the same pawn again which left me a pawn up. Shortly after I won another pawn.
The big mistake, easy to make, was playing Nd7 above. This allowed me to take the knight for free due to the discovered check from the Queen. Shortly after I skewered her Queen to pick up the rook for a bishop and she resigned on move 30.
I'm sure she'll have better luck next time, and is already much better than I was after only playing for a few months.
This evening I won against John Powell in Round 3 of the Spondon Summer Open. A bit of a strange game, where I was never really comfortable but managed to make the most of the strange opening and capitalised on my opponents mistakes.
He played 1...b6 which I can't remember playing against before, not sure if it's even got a name.
On move 15 I won a pawn, but I had a scare on move 18 when he sacrificed his bishop by taking my pawn on h4 and I was worried he had a mating attack:
But luckily my king had space and time to escape. We then came down to a rook, bishop and 5 pawns versus rook and seven pawns endgame. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to force a win.
Above I'd just played 30.Rd8, he then played Kc6 and I said I'll move the clocks back for the time control. He suggested a draw which I declined, then as I was picking up the clock he realised his mistake and resigned. I could play d5+ which gives me the rook. I hadn't noticed it yet as was concentrating on the clocks, so who knows if I would have actually played it? A strange end to the game.
Spondon Chess Club. Results Summer Open Championship.2008
Round 1 Archer Barry W ½ - ½ Atkins Nathan Heelan David W 1½ - 0 Bowes Getting T Williams David ½ - ½ Gregory Ian Hartley Dean M 1½ - 0 Sheldon Phillip Brown David 1½ - 0 Bradbury Howard Burke Steve 1½ - 0 Bramely Doug Loomes Herbert 0 – 1½ Pace Graham Smith Phil 1½ - 0 Madden Dean Hickling Richard 1½ - 0 Orridge Mick Davison Gary 0 -1½ Pye Ted Tabberer Stuart ½ - ½ Gibson Martin Somers Malcolm 0 – 1½ Brace Peter Crawley John 1½ - 0 Brace Louise Kirk Colin 1½ - 0 Hill Fred
Round 2 Crawley John 0 – 1½ Burke Steve Brace Louise 1½ - 0 Bradbury Howard Brace Peter 1½ - 0 Smith Phil Praeson Terry 1½ - 0 Davison Gary Gibson Martin 0 – 1½ Williams David Ratner Harry 0 – 1½ Somers Malcolm Gregory Ian 1½ - 0 Archer Barry W Pye Ted 1½ - 0 Hickling Richard Atkins Nathan 1½ - 0 Tabberer Stuart Pace Graham 0 – 1½ Hartley Dean M Kirk Colin 0 – 1½ Heelan David W Orridge Mick 1½ - 0 Sheldon Phillip Bramely Doug ½ - ½ Bowes Getting T
Round 3 Bowes Getting T 1½ - Gibson Martin Burke Steve ½ - ½ Gregory Ian Heelan David W 1½ - 0 Brace Peter Hartley Dean M 1½ - 0 Pye Ted Williams David ½ - ½ Atkins Nathan Hickling Richard 1½ - 0 Crawley John Somers Malcolm 0 – 1½ Orridge Mick Smith Phil 0 – 1½ Praeson Terry Brace Louise 0 – 1½ Kirk Colin Tabberer Stuart 0 – 1½ Bramely Doug Madden Dean 1½ - 0 Powell John Davison Gary 0 – 1½ O’Flannagan Paul Bradbury Howard 1½ v 0 Ratner Harry Sheldon Phillip ½ - ½ Loomes Herbert
Gregory Ian 2½ Madden Dean 1½ Archer Barry W ½ Gibson Martin ½ Heelan David W 4½ Somers Malcolm 1½ Brace Louise 1½ Brace Peter 3 Tabberer Stuart ½ Atkins Nathan 2½ Hartley Dean M 4½ Bowes Getting T 2 Kirk Colin 3 Smith Phil 1½ Bradbury Howard 1½ Hill Fred 0 Pye Ted 3
Burke Steve 3½ Hickling Richard 3 Williams David 2½ Pace Graham 1½ Sheldon Phillip ½ Bramely Doug 2 Crawley John 1½ Orridge Mick 3 Davison Gary 0 Loomes Herbert ½ Ratner Harry 0 Pearson Terry 3 O’Flannagan Paul H 1½ Powell John 0
I've just read the very sad news that a local player called Dave Brown died last Monday. He played most Tuesdays at Spondon, as well as for Long Eaton chess club. He was a great player who always played with a smile and was very kind and helpful. A sad loss.
Dave Brown† Geoff Gibson sends the sad and unexpected news that Long Eaton’s Dave Brown has died. He writes: Dave passed away at home [on Monday 9 June] following his return from cycling to Long Eaton – he had planned to go further, but changed his mind and returned home – perhaps he had a premonition of what was coming? It seems he had a heart attack on his settee and passed as he had lived – a quiet, dignified man, a little eccentric but much-loved by all who knew him. His wife said he has requested no funeral, but the family will hold a wake in his honour – details to be advised. His only request was that a beech tree be planted in his memory. And I’ll just add this: Dave was one of the tiny handful of players who seemed to treat winning and losing exactly the same. Whether resigning or accepting his opponent’s resignation, Dave always had a smile on his face. He will be missed.
Last night was the first round of the Spondon Summer Open, an 8 round swiss tournament that runs during the off-season summer break and attracts players from other local clubs that close over the summer.
I played Phil Smith, the same opponent I played in Round 1 last year. I managed a draw then, but last night played as black against him for the first time and lost.
He played an unusual 3rd move of Qf3, I was a bit worried how to defend against it so just exchanged queens.
My 8th move was a mistake, I played g6 above, allowing his knight to move to g5, attacking f7. This weakened the pawn structure.
By move 22 he'd taken a rook and 2 pawns for a knight and a bishop. I thought I'd blundered to allow him to do this, but Fritz still gives me the advantage. However I think you need a lot of skill to co-ordinate and prove that two minor pieces are better than a rook.
I was desperate to keep my rook on the board and tried to keep the bishop and knight active, and did quite well for a while.
The big move I missed was at move 38 above. I'd just been checking and chasing his king around, so automatically played Bf8+, i.e. as Bobby Fischer said: 'Patzer sees check, patzer gives check'.
I should have played Nd3+ instead, winning a rook for a knight. His rooks then forced the advantage and I resigned on move 48 below.
I'm on holiday for round 2 next week, so will hopefully do better in round 3!
Update:
Here's the game in the ChessFlash application, see ChessFlash.com for more details.
