And so it is finally time for the main event to begin. I will leave the main championship until last and begin with some of the side events. With the exception of the absent Rajen Parekh (he was signed up to play in the U15 event in the morning but never appeared) I was the only Kenilworth player scheduled to play in the morning. Clearly both me and my opponent were still recovering from our exertions in the rapidplay the previous two days, as an extremely turgid and uninteresting game was played, which led to a draw without anything really happening at all. A sad end to my 100% record for decisive games.
The afternoon, however, saw a lot more Kenilworth players in action. Mike Donnelly and Bernard Charnley were both competing in the senior events, with contrasting fortunes in the draw. Bernard, with a grade slightly above the average for the event, found himself playing one of the, by grade, weaker players in the draw whilst Mike was up against the number 2 seed, Mike Surtees (who incidentally I have already lost to once in this tournament). Mike Surtees is known for playing rather irregular openings, and so it proved again with an extremely unbalanced position appearing on the board, with white (our Mike) suffering from doubled pawns but having excellent control of the centre in return. Mike tells me that after the game he discovered he had a win in the opening with an unexpected pawn sacrifice, but after he didn't find it he got slowly ground down, and unfortunately succumbed in the end. Bernard, on the other hand, opened with what looked like a fairly comfortable victory, so at least one Kenilworth player is off to a good start.
The less said about my game in the major open the better, as a slightly overoptimistic double pawn sacrifice in the opening left me with enough compensation for exactly one pawn. Unfortunately, some basic arithmetic will tell you this was unlikely to end well for me, and so it proved. However, my disappointment was mitigated somewhat by the knowledge I didn't make the worst mistakes of a local player in the event today. Dave Ireland, who many of you may know from his association with Coventry Chess Club, has a reputation for always turning up late for league games, despite living a 10 minute walk from the venue. Anyone expecting this pattern to change when he was pared with a 2490 Hungarian GM and the strongest player in the tournament by over 300 points will have been surprised, as he duly turned up 20 minutes and proceeded to play the first 20 moves so slowly he was down to 4 minutes with 20 moves still left to play before the first time control. I think everyone can fill in for themselves show that story ended.
On then to the main event, with our two gallant knights in action. The most attention for this round was on Mark, who found himself on board 8 against GM Glenn Flear. Around 15 moves into the game I found myself rather optimistic about Mark's position, as he appeared to be have successful pushed his opponent into quite a passive position. I don't know if Mark was also feeling good at this point, but looking at the online computer analysis of the game shows just why GMs win so many of their games. It transpires the engine thinks black was better for essentially the whole game, and after castling queenside an extremely vicious attack brought a premature end to proceedings, finishing with quite a nice (if you weren't playing the game on the other side) king hunt across the board. Paul on the other hand found himself just over halfway in the rating list and playing the second lowest rated player in the tournament (a 189 graded 15 year old). He appeared to be very slightly worse out of the opening, and remain that way for quite some time through a period of manoeuvring. Unfortunately I had to leave before the end of the game so didn't see the conclusion, but as the outcome was ultimately I draw I would assume Paul was eventually able to neutralise the pressure and equalise.
Summary thus far:
Total score by Kenilworth players: 17.5/39
My personal performance:
Played: 13
Wins: 6
Losses: 6
Draws: 1
Well played endgames: 5
Atrocious blunders: 4
I think we will close today with an excellent little miniature by Jonathan Hawkins on board 2. I'm sure we all wish we found it this easy to swat aside people graded 190.
The afternoon, however, saw a lot more Kenilworth players in action. Mike Donnelly and Bernard Charnley were both competing in the senior events, with contrasting fortunes in the draw. Bernard, with a grade slightly above the average for the event, found himself playing one of the, by grade, weaker players in the draw whilst Mike was up against the number 2 seed, Mike Surtees (who incidentally I have already lost to once in this tournament). Mike Surtees is known for playing rather irregular openings, and so it proved again with an extremely unbalanced position appearing on the board, with white (our Mike) suffering from doubled pawns but having excellent control of the centre in return. Mike tells me that after the game he discovered he had a win in the opening with an unexpected pawn sacrifice, but after he didn't find it he got slowly ground down, and unfortunately succumbed in the end. Bernard, on the other hand, opened with what looked like a fairly comfortable victory, so at least one Kenilworth player is off to a good start.
The less said about my game in the major open the better, as a slightly overoptimistic double pawn sacrifice in the opening left me with enough compensation for exactly one pawn. Unfortunately, some basic arithmetic will tell you this was unlikely to end well for me, and so it proved. However, my disappointment was mitigated somewhat by the knowledge I didn't make the worst mistakes of a local player in the event today. Dave Ireland, who many of you may know from his association with Coventry Chess Club, has a reputation for always turning up late for league games, despite living a 10 minute walk from the venue. Anyone expecting this pattern to change when he was pared with a 2490 Hungarian GM and the strongest player in the tournament by over 300 points will have been surprised, as he duly turned up 20 minutes and proceeded to play the first 20 moves so slowly he was down to 4 minutes with 20 moves still left to play before the first time control. I think everyone can fill in for themselves show that story ended.
On then to the main event, with our two gallant knights in action. The most attention for this round was on Mark, who found himself on board 8 against GM Glenn Flear. Around 15 moves into the game I found myself rather optimistic about Mark's position, as he appeared to be have successful pushed his opponent into quite a passive position. I don't know if Mark was also feeling good at this point, but looking at the online computer analysis of the game shows just why GMs win so many of their games. It transpires the engine thinks black was better for essentially the whole game, and after castling queenside an extremely vicious attack brought a premature end to proceedings, finishing with quite a nice (if you weren't playing the game on the other side) king hunt across the board. Paul on the other hand found himself just over halfway in the rating list and playing the second lowest rated player in the tournament (a 189 graded 15 year old). He appeared to be very slightly worse out of the opening, and remain that way for quite some time through a period of manoeuvring. Unfortunately I had to leave before the end of the game so didn't see the conclusion, but as the outcome was ultimately I draw I would assume Paul was eventually able to neutralise the pressure and equalise.
Summary thus far:
Total score by Kenilworth players: 17.5/39
My personal performance:
Played: 13
Wins: 6
Losses: 6
Draws: 1
Well played endgames: 5
Atrocious blunders: 4
I think we will close today with an excellent little miniature by Jonathan Hawkins on board 2. I'm sure we all wish we found it this easy to swat aside people graded 190.
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