Another Game From St Albans

The full results from the St Albans Chess Congress are now available:
http://www.stalbanscongress.com/index.php/2013-congress/2013-congress-outcome.html
This shows that Jessica Wen, whom I beat in the first round of the Intermediate, went on to win all four of her subsequent games and ended in joint third position (among five players on 4 points).

Here is the game: 1.Nf3 Nc6 2.d4 e6 3.Bf4 f5 (I hadn't encountered this Dutch Defence used against the London system before, but it looks to me like a dangerous weakening of the Black King position) 4.e3 Nf6 5.h3 b6 6.c3 Bb7 7.Nbd2 Ne7 8.Bd3 Ng6 9.Bg5 Be7 10.0-0 0-0 11.h4 (aiming for h5) Ng4 12.BxBe7 QxBe7 13.g3 h5? (weakening the Black King position further) 14.Ng5 e5? (a good move to aim for but premature here) 15.Qb3+ d5 (now the Black Bb7 is shut out of the attack) 16.e4! (using the pin on the Pd5) fxe4 17.Be4 Nf6? (overlooking that the attack is on the Ng6 not on d5) 18.BxNg6 Kh8 19.Rae1 e4 20.Ndf3 (using another pin) Ba6! (I missed that one) 21.c4? (expecting dxc4) Bxc4 22.Qd1 BxRf1 23.KxBf1 Nd7 24.Ne5 Nf6 25.Bxh5! (if NxBh5 Qxh5+ and mate) Kg8 26.Ng6 Qe8 27.Qe2 c5 28.Rd1 e3 29.Kg2 exf2? 30.Ne7+ QxNe7 31.QxQe7 NxBh5 32.Qe3 Rae8 33.Qc3 cxd4 34.Qd3 (threatening mate at h7) Nf6 35.Rf1 Ne4 36.Nf3 Rf6 37.Nd2 Kh8 38.Qxd4 a5 39.NxNe4 dxNe4 40.Rxf2 (the dangerous pawn falls at last!) Rfe6 41.Rf7 (threat of Qxg7 mate) Rg6 42.Qe3 Kg8 43.Rb7 Rd6 44.Qc3 Rg6 45.Qb3+ Kh8 46.Qf7! Ree6 47.h5 (at this point Black's flag fell at the end of the extra 15 minutes play, but the position is lost anyway). 1-0

An exciting game to play through again.
 

Chess in St Albans

I played in the Chess Congress at St Albans over the last weekend (13-14 April) and scored a respectable 2.5/5. This year I put my name down for the Intermediate section rather than the Minor, in the hope of avoiding having to play any five-year-olds as I had to last year. This meant that I had the lowest grade in the section (97) while my opponents were all graded around the 125 mark. Evenso I still found myself having to play two juniors (a girl of 13 and a boy of 10), in fact those were my two wins.

Here is my win in the last round as White against F. Rocco: 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 e6 3.Bf4 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.e3 d5 6.Bd3 c4 7.Bc2 b5 8.Nbd2 a5 (so far this is all familiar London System territory for me, although I'm starting to get a bit worried about his Queenside pawn advance) 9.a3 Bd7 10.0-0 Be7 11.Ne5 0-0 12.h3 Qb6 13.g4 NxNe5 14.BxNe5 Ne8 15.Nf3 f6 16.Bg3 Bd6 17.Bxd6 Nxd6 18.g5 Qd8 (here I'm worrying that I may have weakened my King position too much, and wondering how I can manoeuvre my pieces for an attack down the g and h files) 19.Qb1 f5 20.h4 Qe8 21.Kg2 Qh5 22.Qd1 Qg4+ 23.Kh2 Rfd8 24.Rg1 h5 25.Kh3 Be8 26.Qe2 Ne4 27.Bd1 Rdb8 28.Qc2 Qf7 (essential as otherwise Ne5 traps the Black Q) 29.Ne5 Qc7 30.f3 Nd6 31.Qg2 g6 32.f4 Nf7 33.Nf3 Nd6 34.h5 Kg7 35.hxg6 hxg6 36.Qh2 Bd7 (this is where we put the clocks back for the extra 15 minutes - I am getting short on time compared with my opponent) 37.Nh4 Rh8 38.Bf3 Ne4 39.Bxe4 fxe4 40.Kg2 Qb8 41.Rh1 b4 (there are now dangers of Black R or Q coming down to a2 or b2 skewering K and Q - I had to spend a lot of time thinking over the next moves - and complained to the controllers about people coming to stand behind me looking over my shoulder at the board, which I found distracting - at one point there were four people about) 42.Kg3 Rh5 43.Kg4?! e5+ 44.f5 Qd8? 45.Qxe5+ Kh7 46.Qf4 Qb6 47.axb4 gcf5+! (the White King cannot capture the Rh5 since Be8+ and mate follows) 48.Nxf5 Rxh1 49.Rxh1+ Kg8 50.Qe5 Rf8? 51.Qg7 mate. This sudden end caught me by surprise. I was expecting more play, and my clock was close to the flag, but it does seem a won position now.

Chess in Portsmouth

Over the weekend 22 - 24 February I took part in the Minor section of the Portsmouth Chess Congress which was held at the Royal Beach Hotel, Southsea.

http://www.castlechess.co.uk/Events/?ID=30

Not the best time of year to go for a beach holiday. There was a cold East wind all the time and little shelter along the coast there. In contrast the heating in the hotel was oppressive, but fortunately not in the room where the chess was played.

I scored 2.5 out of 6. One win, three draws and two losses. My loss in the first round was to the player, Patrick Reid, who went on to win with a score of 5/6. I seem to play better in these sort of tournaments than in matches for the Hastings club, where I have lost my last two games.

I've set up a slow-play Ladder tournament for internal play in the club, but it remains to see if any members take it up.

An Early Spring Clean

I've spent most of my 73rd birthday, and the weekend following, doing an early spring-clean of my flat and moving everything round. However everything mostly ended up roughly where it was before, or where it has been in the past.

It does look much neater now, and there will be more room once I've managed to dispose of an old TV, Radio and Computer, and six boxes of books. That's assuming I can find anyone to take them.

At least I should be a bit fitter now after moving two bookcases and numerous boxes of books around. I must get back to taking more exercise this year, since I've let my swimming and cycling lapse over the last few months, and also haven't done as much walking as I used to. At least I have the excuse of the weather. Hope it warms up soon.

My Chess Play Improves!

I played in the Hastings Christmas and New Year Morning Tournaments this year (rather than playing in all four as I did last year), but I only managed to score 1.5 in each, i.e. one win and one draw. The gradings which came out yesterday at least show that I have made a recovery, from 79 to 98. Now I need to keep up a good standard and hopefully pass the 100 mark rather than falling back again. My win in the NY AM tournament against Mason Woodhams, another member of the Hastings club, was probably my best game so far. He went on to win a section in the Weekend Tournament, which I hadn't entered. I've recorded this game on a page of my website where it can be played through on-screen: http://www.mayhematics.com/j/j.htm

Travels to Events at Conway Hall in London

Over the 11-12 November I travelled to Conway Hall in London for two very different meetings
On the Sunday I booked online on the National Express Coach to London (Victoria Coach Station), thinking I would try this route for a change. It meant getting up early to catch the coach ar 8:15 from the stand in Queen Street. There was only one other person there, but others were picked up on the way, at Battle, Frant, Tunbridge Wells and other places.

In London I walked down Victoria Street hoping to see something of the Cenotaph ceremonials and hear the band playing. The nearest I could get was by the statue of Abraham Lincoln at one side of Parliament Square, where the sound of the band was completely drowned out by the bells from Westminster Abbey. To get through to Conway Hall I had to go back to Queen Anne's Gate and slip through the barriers there.

At Conway Hall there were two meetings, an EGM followed by an AGM. At the first the decision was made to change the name of "South Place Ethical Society" to "Conway Hall Ethical Society". I voted to retain the old name (there were also choices of "The Ethical Society" or just "Conway Hall" but these were eliminated in a series of votes).

Despite leaving before the end of the AGM I only just made it back to Victoria with a minute to spare before the coach was due to leave at 6:0 pm. I sat near the front and was kept amused by a conversation between the driver, a Geordie from Sunderland, with a lady in the front seat. The journey was quicker since it didn;t have to go via Battle.

On Sunday I caught the train to go to a talk by Sir Roger Penrose on his new Cycles of Time theory of cosmology. I got there an hour early at which time he was signing books in the foyer, and I bought a copy of his book. My ticket was for the balcony area, and I sat at one side, where I could hardly see the speaker, but nevertheless enoyed the talk a great deal. He spoke very clearly.

More on the subject next post perhaps.

Chess and Rainbows in Bournemouth

I got back on Monday afternoon from a weekend away playing chess in Bournemouth, as I did last year. I managed to score 2.5/5 consisting of one loss, one win and three draws, which is about the best I've achieved. This photo of a rainbow was taken from the pier on the Friday before the first game. The rainbow was a complete semicircle but too large to capture in a single image. The sun was low in the sky, setting in the West, and the rain clouds were heading East. There are some photos of the Chess Congress here. A reasonable one including me is number 2754.