British Championship Update - Day Seven

I think it is fair to say that this was not the strongest day Kenilworth has had in the tournament thus far. It began with Paul, who had a rematch with FM James Jackson, who he beat in the Leamington League this past season. However, in that game Paul had white, whilst in this he found himself on the defensive early on with black, with a space disadvantage and his opponent having the bishop pair. I think it has been commented on before that Paul is not someone who likes defending for a long time and will often lash out, sometimes unsoundly, to try and complicate matters rather than attempt to hold a difficult endgame. Already in this tournament he has a couple of times offered unsound piece sacrifices close to the time control, which he has got away with as his opponents haven't been able find the refutation in the times available. He tried the same again this game, sacrificing a piece on move 38 (the time control is move 40) but on this occasion the extra class of his opponent was evident, as he simply collected the piece, dispelled the small amount of initiative it gave Paul, and collected the full point.

I also have a comment from Mark on his game today: "I was +6 today and lost. I hate chess." Whilst not necessarily all that informative about the game, I believe it probably captures the emotions all of us have felt over time rather well. In brief, Mark got a small advantage out of the opening (an exchange French, with him playing white), and sacrificed a piece for a dangerous attack around move 20. The important thing to note is that at this point both players had around 5 minutes (plus the 30 second increment) for the remaining 20 moves. Whilst it is sometimes stated that short on time it is better to be the player attacking, I have found this often isn't the case in practice. Unless you have direct tactical threats, once you have sacrificed material it is often necessary to be very precise for the next few moves to not let the initiative dissipate. Sadly, in this game, once the time control was reached, Mark had gone from a piece down with lots of play to just a piece down. with nothing left to be done to avoid defeat.

My game in the morning provided the only win for a Kenilworth player today, as I grabbed an exchange early on in a French defence, then grimly hung on for the next 40 moves as my opponent went on the attack. I was eventually able to escape from the pressure by returning the exchange, and ended up a pawn up in a rook endgame. Whilst I am reasonably confident that it should have been drawn in theory, my opponent didn't seem to know the appropriate technique and hence I was able to pick up the full point without much difficulty. The afternoon provided almost the exact reverse; as this time it was my turn to sacrifice in the opening (a pawn in the Caro-Kann) but, despite having pressure on my opponents king the whole game, there was no way through and this time I found myself a pawn down in an endgame, and this time it definitely was lost. I think the lesson to learn, from Mark's game and both of mine, is that one should never sacrifice material, as it doesn't end well.Finally, on to the over 65s, and Bernard had a very exciting game, with both players attacking on opposite sides of the boards, and pieces ending up on a variety of eccentric squares (a black bishop spent a lot of the game mysteriously on f7. It was the sort of game that was never likely to end in a draw, but unfortunately it was Bernard who came off worse in the ensuing tactical complications.

Today's report from our field correspondent (Mike) on his own game goes as follows: "Today's Rd5 game was far more interesting. I played a more flexible idea in a line (where Black plays d6/e5 v Nf3/d4) compared to a well published game of mine from the finals of the British corr ch 1991! (which was published in Chess and at least 3 other mags and in all the databases etc). This generated a queen-side attack (that seems more promising on first look than some very stodgy GM games in this opening) which led to great pressure on the pawn on a7 and domination of the c-file (which allowed me to offer a queen to mate on the back rank-however my opponent declined it and came up with a excellent defensive idea that held on and on over 20 moves of pressure. The game finally liquidated in a curious R+P ending in which each player had a guarded passes pawn but neither player could advance so the point was shared (even though I had 12 minutes advantage on the clock in the final time slot!)"

If I've said it once (and I'm not sure I actually have) I've said it a thousand times; if you play Nf3 and d4 as the first two moves, you have been sufficiently unadventurous that a draw is all you deserve. Overall, not the most successful day from our collection of players, and we clearly need to buck our ideas up if we are going to reach our target score of 50% for the club.

I think the biggest story from the main Championship so far is the success of a couple of junior players, 11 year old Alex Golding and 14 year old Akshaya Kalaiyalahan, both on 3.5/5 after victories over much higher rated opposition in round 5. They certainly seem like promising prospects for the future, which is good news as England doesn't appear to be overstocked with talented youngsters at the moment. The game I will publish however, is the entertaining 16 move win by WIM Sabrina Chevannes, clearly adopting the Swiss gambit, losing her first three games but now coming back with two successive victories. The Caro-Kann isn't normally an opening you associate with quick wins for black, but on this occasion white goes horribly wrong with 14. Ng3, and blunders straight into mate.

Summary thus far:
Total score by Kenilworth players: 29.5/63

My personal performance:
Played: 21
Wins: 10
Losses: 8
Draws: 3
Well played endgames: 6
Atrocious blunders: 5