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Showing posts from August, 2009

Another endgame

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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.

Inactivity

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

New club grades are out

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

Pigott beat Vaganian!

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