Barnet Elizabethans Chess Club

Earlier in the season I'd been a little lucky to agree a draw in a rook ending, with both players failing to notice that the pawn ending they were about to enter was won for Opponent. In this game I actually went into the losing pawn endgame - and was again lucky enough to get away with it. I strongly suspect that all of the last four moves have been half-point blunders and in this position 33. a4? almost certainly is (I think that 33. axb4 holds). After 33. ... Rxd5 34. Rxd5+ Kxd5 35. h4 ... Opponent played 35 ... gxh4?, missing a win that I'm tempted to describe as "study-like". Correct is 35. ... c4 36. bxc4+ Ke6! In the game position with the g-pawns exchanged, 37. ... Ke6? loses easily to 38. Ke3, when white has the b-pawn covered and black cannot stop both the c-pawn and the h-pawn. However with the g-pawns still on the board, the line goes 37. Ke3 b3 38. Kd2 b2 39. Kc2 f4! and black wins.

When I was last here, some months ago, my chess was going rather well. Results from the second half of the season, though, were distinctly less good - I reckon that I lost about a dozen (ECF) grading points by continuing to play from April onwards. Obviously it's not all about the grades, but while I'm on the topic... I see that the online database claims that I played 26 games last season. I can only find 25. I wonder how I did in that bonus game. So anyway, I'd better start working my way through the backlog - here's the first of several more-or-less disappointing games. If I remember rightly Opponent offered a draw at move 13 or thereabouts, which I turned down mostly on the grounds that it was a bit early for that sort of thing. Instead I went wrong almost immediately with 14. ... e5?. It's a doubly bad move; tactically speaking I'd stopped too soon (at 18. ... exf3, failing to notice that 19. Bxf3 hit my knight), but in any case it doesn't now lo...

http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getclub.php?club=Barnet%20Elizabeth&sort=2 Ref Name Sex Age Club(s) Category Grade Last Year Cat Rapid Last Year 117144G Pigott, John C M Barnet Elizabeth D 218 200 B 221 220 111156F Georghiou, Paul T M Barnet Elizabeth A 207 201 205 110285A Ethelontis, Alexandros N M Barnet Elizabeth A 195 193 C 194 190 111117G Gavriel, Tryfon C M Barnet Elizabeth A 188 196 D 209 206 113039A Hotham, David C M Barnet Elizabeth B 175 171 D 187 185 259880C Zajicek, Petr Barnet Elizabeth D 167 162 E 178 178 246276L Ben-Nathan, David M Barnet Elizabeth E 165 165 E 154 155 118406E Royce, Roy M Barnet Elizabeth D 161 168 144928L Pepe, Salvatore M Hendon C 159 163 B 162 154 268300D Shalabayev, Syrym M Ealing A 157 162 D 177 177 234128B Desai, Amit M 16 Q Elizabeth School Barnet C 153 140 B 137 147 230252E Ahuja, Akshaya M 17 Q Elizabeth School Barnet D 151 160 164371L Myers, Philip M Barnet Elizabeth B 150 153 107078C Bowie, Bria...

Vaganian - Pigott, London 1975, simul 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.f4 Bg7 8.Bb5+ Nbd7 9.e5 dxe5 10.fxe5 Nh5 11.e6 fxe6 12.Nf3 exd5 13.O-O O-O 14.Qxd5+ Kh8 15.Bg5 Ndf6 16.Qxc5 Bf5 17.Rad1 Qa5 18.Nd4 Rac8 19.Qe7 Bg4 20.Rd2 a6 (see diagram) White has 69 moves here. 21.h3 axb5 22.hxg4 Nxg4 23.Rxf8+ Rxf8 24.Qe6 Nhf6 25.Bxf6 Nxf6 26.Ndxb5 Qb4 27.Qd6 Qh4 28.Re2 Ng4 29.g3 Rf1+ and White resigned. http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess2/diary_10.htm