Whilst I am not too fond of posting many of my own games these days I am also aware that the club’s website has been lacking of late of any sort of an update for quite some time. Therefore I hope you will forgive me posting few of my own positions from the recent Major Open.
This years British Chess Championships were held in Hull, a venue which last held the event in 2017. Thanks to the ECF’s recent government cash windfall the tournament boasted an impressive £10,000 first prize this year which attracted all of the UK’s active top players.
As well as the main event the Championships include a number of side events for lesser mortals. The most prestigious of which is the “Major Open” which is a 9 round Swiss Open to any player who is not playing in the main event with no rating restriction.
124 players entered the Major Open this year with FIDE grades ranging between 2249 top seed to 1041 lowest seed.
Round 1:
As the 59th seed for the event I found myself drawn in round 1 against youngster Damien Sobolevski. On paper this should have been an easy affair but I know from experience not to take these young players lightly as they are invariably underrated. True to form the young lad trotted out an excellent opening and set up his pieces very nicely.
But luckily for me he became a little too ambitious and in the following position allowed the centre break d5
After which the youngsters position soon fell apart. With this potential Banana skin game avoided I was happy to move onto round two the next day. 1/1
Round 2
When the draw for this match was announced the next evening I knew I was in for a tough challenge as I had drawn White against Peter Shaw 2135ecf – 2041 FIDE
I have played Peter a number of times over the years the first few times we met he came out the victor but more recently I have done better scoring 1 win and a couple of draws against him so despite knowing I was up against a strong player I was not without hope!
One tricky thing about Peter is that in preparation it became apparent that he plays 3 different systems v 1.e4, namely the Caro Kann, The Czech Pirc and the French Defence. Therefore I had to be ready for all 3!
This time Peter opted for the Caro Kann, where I also decided to deviate from my normal line and went for the Advance variation. A critical moment came in the following position:
In response to White’s last move Peter played the seemingly natural 6…,Nc6?! The problem with this is that it misses the point of White’s last move and now I was able to simply grab the c5 pawn.
Peter was in some difficulty for much of this game as there really isn’t enough compensation. Black would have done better with 6…Qb6 for example. However I was guilty of playing the position far too cautiously and conservatively against the much higher rated player
One example of my conservative play can be seen below in the position after Black’s 24th move
Over the past few moves I’d been trying to access how things would stand if Black went in for the pawn break b6. Finally with the clock ticking down I played the move 25.a4, which was not a bad move in itself but only if played with the right intention. Black responded with Ra8 and I played 26.a5?
My thinking at the time was that after a5 I had a position I couldn’t lose, having deprived Black of his only pawn break and could concentrate on playing the position a pawn up. All correct but as I sort of knew at the time it really is closing the position up too much, instead I should have been braver and instead of a5 gone for 26.b5! To exploit my pawn majority.
After some manoeuvring we eventually agreed a draw in the following position as it was becoming apparent I was unable to make progress despite still having the single pawn advantage;
Still not a bad result which put me on 1.5/2.
McCarthy V Shaw Game
Round 3
In round 3 I was facing a different challenge, Calvin Chris Biju 2008 FIDE, 1856 ECF.
There was almost no data to go on for this one as Calvin seems to be a fairly new chessplayer without many published games to give me a clue what he was going to play as Black. What I did see however was his recent ECF game result history where he had recorded 9 wins 6 draws and 0 losses from his previous 15 rated games mainly against players 1800 or higher so again I knew it would as ever be a tough test.
I was somewhat fortunate that Calvin went down a line of the French well known to me, where the players castle on opposite wings. Visually in this line Black often seems to be “Getting there first” but usually the attack is not so dangerous and White often emerges with either a good endgame or a more dangerous attack of his own if Black is not careful. This could well have been the script for this game as Calvin at least at first glance seemed to be ‘Getting somewhere’ with his attack.
position after 17…,a4
The problem Black has however is that as 2 minor pieces have already been exchanged and a rook is contributing nothing on h8 he simply doesn’t have the firepower to breakthrough.
This can be seen just a few turns later (above), The White King is completely safe and the computer engines already give white a serious advantage who possesses a now strong unopposed attack of his own.
In a tough position Calvin finally played the unfortunate Ne4?? (below)
White to play?
Of course with the weakness of the d8 square which the Queen and Rook were X-Raying it was fairly easy to find 22.Rxe4! Then after 22…,dxe4 23.Nxe6, Black just has too many problems to deal with. He tried 23…,Qc8 to cover the back rank but after 24.Rc1 he decided to resign…
Black resigned…
McCarthy V Biju – GAME
This left me very well placed on an early 2.5/3
I shall update the next 3 games from the event in part 2 later this week… before concluding with some positions from the final 3 games in part 3.