T9030 : Frenched....

A very enjoyable game in the T9030 format today.

My opponent obviously enjoys his slow chess and played at a good pace.

An unexpected French Defence ( to both of us : he was trying something new ) as I was expecting an e4/e5 game, but I produced "The Fascinating Réti Gambit", and we were both out of book by move 3 or 4 !

I need to take some time to think and analyse this one, but this was a real gambit for me : a pawn with compensation in the form of a very good attack and long-term pressure against the d6-pawn.

This blatant pressure gave me my simple plan, and I stuck to it ( abandoning the initial g4 idea ).

He defended, while I attacked, and when I played Ne2 to "remove a defender", it was the key moment of the game ( at least in my eyes).

14. Ne2...How should Black respond ?

I think this was better than I believed at the time. I was aiming for a remove-defender play, but with the attack on f5 , the exposure of the b2 bishop, and especially the pin (crucial in the latter part of the game), Black needed to find a good response.

What would you play ?

Magnus Carlsen - No longer a teenager, describes his 'perfect weekend'

The prodigy is now twenty, and shared his perfect weekend with Telegraph readers, a rare outing for chess in a a national newspaper !

Missed Opportunities....

A tale of two halves ( or possibly more ! ) and a significant missed opportunity for me to claim an 1800 scalp.

Qf2 ! would have been a winner

 After a decent opening, a moment of blindness loses a pawn. I manage to recover to an excellent position, but miss the above opportunity to hit a winner.

 I even had another chance in a seemingly lost endgame, but it was not to be.

More later....

Chess Net Etiquette II - The Sequel

Not been too active in the chess-o-sphere, with a pathetic cold lingering on and spoiling life in general !

However, the subject of this post relates to this where I commented on being censored for my "rudeness" of having 'Handshake' as my end-of-game message.

How would we cope in the replay ?  Would we shake and make up  ? Would there be a titantic struggle at the board as neither player gives in ?

Complete anti-climax, although I suppose a consistent approach.

No reply to game offers in the  forum, so I win by forfeit, never the best way, but at least the team gains a point !

In between, I lost my previous T4545 round.

No real excuses ( not even the cold ). We both had chances, I made a mistake, but worked my way out of it, then failed to capitalise on my opponent's mistake, overlooked the strong pawn advance and although I clearly remember calculating Rf2, I actually played Rf3, which put me back into difficulty !

Here I played what I thought was the clever Nd2, threatening the Queen. The simple Nxb2 would have been good, with Rxf8, followed by Qd2 or Nd1 and White is fine, if not a with an edge.

Nxb2 is better than my Nd2 ?!

This should have been Rf2. I thought it, I calculated it, but I played Rf3 ?  The brain works in unfortunate ways sometimes...

Rf2 gives an even game...Rf3 ?! does not 

Although I played on and defended like a trooper, I had to give up Bishop for pawn to prevent a queen promotion.
Rook, Knight and pawns vs Rook and pawns is not an easy endgame to lose, and my opponent played it well.

This week I am also in the U1800, as the team there is down its strongest player. I intend to play as best I can, but have no illusions as my opponent is consistently rated around 1800.

In local news....the first snow of the Winter arrived last night, and I am not surprised. It was bitterly cold walking home after food and drink at the local bar. Even a fine de Koninck could not keep from me the easterly wind that swept across the harbour  !

Time to settle down with Réti's best games and a chess board.....

Chess Net Etiquette

A strange occurrence...

After what can only be described as an interesting game, with some unusual and thought-provoking moves by my opponent, he allows a King/Queen knight fork on move 30, and, quite naturally, resigns.

No problem, I am looking forward to chatting about the game, but what happens...

Yes, I have an auto-reply of "Handshake", and this appears to upset him as my initial chat has the answer "I really don't like auto"handshake" wrecks the spirit of the gme YOU ARE CENSORED FOR RUDENESS "

What can I do but be polite in my message to him, despite his shouting at me !

I've heard of OTB chess etiquette incidents with the refusal to shake hands at the start of a game etc, but this is the equivalent of me offering a handshake OTB, and being refused : how would that make you feel ?

Well, we will see how the return match goes in a few weeks as it may be difficult to arrange if I am 'censored' ! Looking at his finger notes, I had to smile even more as his attitude did not reflect what he had written !

Here's the final position, move 30 from a slightly unusual Philidor...analysis later.

30...Nf3+ ....Eek ! Game over !

TeamLeague T4545 - T47 R1 : Scotch Bishops

A Scotch game : Four Knights variation, I'm White.

I won.

Why  ?

1) My opponent made at least 3 consecutive, weak moves with his bishops early in the game, losing time and giving up his dark-squared bishop anyway.
2) After his bishop was lost most of his immediate threats were gone
3) f4 is a great move to make at any stage of the game
4) I did some lucky preparation on the exact variation before the match
5) I had some good ideas from Nigel Davies and Tony Miles.
6) I'm a Grand Master in disguise.

Well, not all of those are true :)

Here's the game...

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