Chess is rubbish

Bad news to report, I'm afraid. Two bad tournaments and my rating is back down again. It started really well in Fremont, with 2.5/3, including a draw against eventual winner GM Sam Shankland. That was where the good times stopped however, as I finished on 4.5/9, including a very poor blunder in the last round against a young FM. Thanks to Ted Castro and Arun Sharma however, for organising a really good event :)

A few days off, catching up in Davis CA with Steve Hamilton and then off to Concord Ca for the Golden State Open. I was completely outplayed in Round 1 by a lower rated player, before scraping a draw. I worked my way back to 4/5 before succumbing in a complicated game to IM (and I presume) eventual winner Justin Sarkar. I withdrew from the tournament after that game, simply being too tired and frustrated with my own play. If there are any of my students reading this, DO NOT WITHDRAW when things aren't going so well(bad etiquette). So I'm back to the UK tomorrow, with my chess playing tail between my legs, realising that if I have any hope of becoming a GM then a massive amount of work is needed. Next up is Gibraltar in a week or so.

Leaving Las Vegas......

It's new years day and sadly we are leaving las vegas today for a flight to Oakland, CA for the Northern Californian International starting tomorrow. Vegas has been a brilliant experience and I would highly recommend it to anyone. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel from Christmas eve until 30 December, and then the Trump International until today. Both great hotels in their own right with the Hard Rock having a younger crowd and the Trump being more business designed (with no gaming).

The chess event here was the North American Open link here. It went quite well for me, as I managed to reach 5/7, losing to GM's Vallejo and Akobian but beating everyone else, for a rating gain of +7. GM Vallejo won the event outright with 6/7 for the jackpot prize of over $9000. I was told after the event by the organisers that I won $2633, which came as a pleasant surprise but since then they have amended my prize downwards to $625 :(

I will update again when in Fremont, CA.

Legnica and London

So I've just finished two interesting tournaments, in Legnica at the 'Voivoda Cup', and at the London Chess Classic. In the Polish tournament I managed to claw back the rating points I lost in Budapest by winning my last two rounds (having drawn all but one of my previous 7). By doing this I finished 5th in the tournament with a juicy 6 point rating gain. The event was well organised and Poland is cheap, but hardly anyone spoke English so I felt a bit isolated from the other players.

London started promisingly with two wins followed by a draw against my 4NCL teammate Laurence Webb. Another win and a hard fought draw against GM Gawain Jones followed. A draw against his housemate IM Thomas Rendle left me in a good position of 5.5/7 with white against GM Arkell in Round 8. However I didn't play that well and lost :( Fortunately I managed to win a decent game against the World Under 12 (!) champion in the last round to end up with a solid but not very spectacular 3.5 rating point gain.

I am now only a few days away from the US leg of the World Chess tour, and have been trying to prepare hard for it. It's certainly going to be an adventure!

The Budapest Marathon

The Eastern european leg of the world chess tour started in Budapest for my first taste of the famous 'First Saturday' tournament series. Upon arrival I was greeted with the (not totally pleasant) news that due to there being only 8 participants the event would be a 14 round double round robin event (over 12 days). Better value for money Mr Nagy said. Hmmm.

Well it started well enough, with an easy win in the first round but that was tempered with a loss to GM Czebe (who I beat at the Artemis Cup earlier in the year) in round 2, before winning in Round 3. Exciting start eh?!

Well what followed was a sequence of draws as my opponents didn't seem to be making any mistakes which soon finished off any hopes of a norm. By the halfway mark people were halving out after 10 minutes (not me I hasten to add) as the players were becoming more and more tired. In the second half of the tournament Czebe beat me again, fully exacting revenge for the Leros tournament. In fact Mr Czebe was on form here, winning the event comfortably. I managed to beat GM Ilincic 2-0 before another sequence of draws.

I finished with a dreadful defeat against FM Battey of the USA in round 13 with white, and an incredible draw against IM Arnold in the final round.

Total result for 14 rounds of chess: -5 rating points :(

But a lovely time in Budapest...

Pros of the tournament:
In Budapest
Cheap accommodation
Norm chances guaranteed

Cons:
Entry fee is high
All the players are good!
Quite noisy at the venue

Anyway next up is Legnica, Poland in a few days. I shall let you know how that one goes.

World Under 16 Olympiad- Round 9 and 10

Round 9: Slovakia vs England
1. Christopher REPKA 2129 0.5-0.5 James HOLLAND 2204
2. Jergus PECHAC 1960 1-0 Craig WHITFIED 2010
3. Oliver SPACEK 1907 0.5-0.5 Henrik STEPANYAN 1956
4. Viktor HARING 1964 0-1 Peter BATCHELOR

Round 9 of 10 against a young Slovakian side promised to be a difficult match. Henrik was the first to finish, having played an interesting Tarrasch defence against the Slovak board 3. Actually, as he has done for most of the tournament Henrik got himself into a very nice position from the opening, but was overly worried about three white pieces circling around his king. Using up a lot of time, Henrik exchanged queens into an uncomfortable endgame which he drew using a three-fold repetition.

Craig suffered a bad defeat. Having prepared a main line Sveshnikov his opponent surprised him in the opening and Craig didn’t react in the best way. Having blocked his main source of play (the d5 square) it was left for his young (10 year old!) opponent to try to open the game up. White gave up a pawn to try and keep the position closed, but this extra pawn sadly trundled up the board and gave black the win.

Peter has grown in confidence through the course of the tournament, and played another fine positional game today. Having learnt all he knows from a Kasparov DVD a few days previously, he was happy to enter into a so called ‘Carlsbad’ structure, where he outplayed his opponent convincingly.

James tried something new against his opponent’s solid London System and clearly surprised him, quickly gaining a good position. However somewhere in the early middlegame James misplayed things, and his opponent managed to force black into a passive defensive position. James gave up a pawn to try and free himself, and in the end managed to hold what looked like a very difficult endgame.

So this draw leaves us in 17th place before the last round, tied with the Scottish on game points! We were hoping for a final round clash, but instead we have a downfloat to the UAE ‘B’ team. A good victory should push up towards the top 10. Let’s hope the boys can do it.

Round 10 England vs UAE ‘B’
1. James Holland 2204 1-0 Ali ABDULLA 1701
2. Craig WHITFIELD 2010 1-0 WFM Amna NOUMAN 1710
3. Henrik STEPANYAN 1956 1-0 Fareed AHMED 1711
4. Peter BATCHELOR 1-0 Ali Abdouli MAJED 1506

They did it! An absolutely superb effort in the final round saw us secure a 4-0 win. It didn’t look like happening though. Peter managed to win a nervy first game for us, but got his move order mixed up just out of the opening and could have lost a piece. Fortunately his opponent was playing too fast and missed it. Peter managed then to win a piece, only to expose his own king to a series of checks. Eventually they ran out and Peter mated his opponent.

Henrik was out shortly afterwards, having played what on the surface looked like a very a good positional game. However further investigation revealed a sequence of errors up to the end of the match. His opponent capitulated towards the end, eventually making the last mistake which allowed a nice tactical shot.

James played against a French Rubenstein variation, and his opponent seemed to allow James a pleasant advantage, with weakened black kingside pawns. Our board 1 remained patient, shuffling his pieces about but ceding the initiative to his opponent. Fortunately for us black decided in time trouble to blunder a rook and immediately resigned! I think James earnt a bit of luck for the way he played this tournament.

And that leaves us Craig, who, having obtained a small edge from the opening, almost immediately went into a complex ending. He probed away for what seemed like eternity before winning a pawn. However, in mutual time trouble he missed the opportunity to liquidate into a winning king and pawn endgame, leaving a (theoretically) drawn rook and pawn vs rook. But he continued to play, a good half an hour after every one else in the hall had finished. We missed lunch, but on he went! Eventually, on the 109th move his opponent resigned having missed a clever saving stalemate resource just a few moves earlier.

So this tremendous effort saw us finish 9th overall. Winners were Mr Kobalia and Russia, followed by Armenia and Iran, who edged out Azerbaijan on tie break for 3rd. The tournament, as ever was excellently run by the Turkish Chess Federation, and the boys seemed to enjoy themselves immensely (a good last round win helps!) Craig was very close to a board prize and picked up some valuable rating points, and the whole team chipped in at crucial moments with wins and draws. All is left is for me to go and bring our players down a peg or two with some table tennis lessons.

World Under 16 Olympiad- Round 7 and 8

World Under 16 Chess Olympiad, Ismir, Turkey 24-31 October 2012

The scene of the mauling on the rest day :)

The team weren’t too keen on the idea of the organised trip on the rest day, which the majority of the teams went on so we spent the day instead preparing for the Czech Republic and playing in the games room. I am delighted to (smugly) inform you that England’s finest players were no match for England’s finest coach on the table tennis table where I held off the challenge from James Holland and Peter Batchelor convincingly.

Round 7: Czech Republic vs England
With the rest day behind us, the England team came alive in Round 7, outplaying the Czech Republic and scoring a convincing 3-1 victory. Perhaps they should have spent the day preparing too?!

1. Tadaes BALACEK 2245 0.5-0.5 James HOLLAND 2204
2. Tomas KRAUS 2197 0-1 Craig WHITFIELD 2010
3. Petr CIZINSKY 2178 0.5-0.5 Henrik STEPANYAN 1956
4. Stepan SEIDL 2144 0-1 Peter BATCHELOR

The Czech board one looking tired from his excursions on the rest day

Draw with black, win with white! Boards 1 and 3 amazingly followed each other for 15 moves after our players introduced a James Holland novelty in the Tarrasch defence on move 13. The Czech board three eventually erred and seemed to play the incorrect 16.Nfd4 which allowed Henrik the advantage. He always seemed in control of the position after that, but dropped his extra pawn and sensibly offered a draw with little time remaining.

James also comfortably held on board 1. His opponent played the stronger 16.g4, and seemed to obtain the slightly better chances. James though thought differently, turning down a draw only to offer one a couple of moves later with the position balanced.

Craig played the White side of a 6.g3 Sicilian Najdorf. A complex middlegame ensued, with a bad light squared bishop being compensated for by his pressure down the d-file. Somewhere under time pressure Craig’s position became really difficult, but yet again he was up to the task of defending well. In mutual time trouble black overpressed for the win, and Craig mopped up his opponents pawns and won the endgame.

Peter played a prepared line of the Anti-Grunfeld, which I had an unpleasant experience with recently at a tournament in Madrid. This idea seemed to work, as black used up a large amount of thinking time. Peter won a pawn in the early middlegame, before having to weather a little bit of black pressure. Eventually Peter traded down to a double rook and pawn ending a pawn up, which he converted expertly for his first win!

Play chess online

Round 8: England vs Armenia
1. James HOLLAND 2204 0-1 Karen GRIGORYAN IM 2473
2. Craig WHITFIELD 2010 0-1 Hovhannes GABUZYAN FM 2404
3. Henrik STEPANYAN 1956 0-1 Arman MIKAELYAN 2214
4. Peter BATCHELOR 0-1 Zohrak APRESYAN 2185

The scene of the mauling from Round 8 :(

What to say about Round 8? Well, firstly that we were unfortunate to get a 4 point upfloat to play the Armenian team on board 2. But actually I was pleased with the draw, even if the players weren’t. Much better to test yourself against the best than not I told them. And test them we did.

Well, most of them! Craig, who was been playing absolutely tremendously, and before the round was leading the overall standings for board 2 went down quite easily to his nearest rival, the strong Armenian board 2. After being surprised in the opening, Craig gave away a pawn, and his position collapsed quite quickly after that.

The other three games were very tense, and at one stage it looked like we were going to win 2.5-1.5. James was surprised by his opponents ‘North Sea Defence’ (1.e4 g6 2.d4 Nf6 3.e5 Nh5?!) using up a fair bit of time, and getting a slightly worse position. However a clever pawn sacrifice turned the tables in his favour. At a critical moment in the middlegame James missed an opportunity (28.Bxe6!) to enter an endgame 1, or more likely 2 pawns up. Amazingly the Armenian player wriggled out of trouble, and with James running out of time won a king and pawn ending.

Peter played his Caro-Kann main line again, and got a perfectly acceptable position from the opening. His opponent played a neat tactic which seemed to win (24.Rxg4!). But as is the English way this tournament Peter defended superbly, finding a series of only moves up until a critical moment on move 30, where a slip allowed his opponent to consolidate his extra kingside passed pawn and convert the endgame.

Henrik was the last out, again losing but missing his chances during the game. Having chosen to surprise his opponent with 1.d4! his opponent responded in turn with 1…c5!?. Henrik closed the position, before launching an attack on his opponent’s king on the dark squares. He sacrificed an exchange and had his Armenian opponent on the ropes, missing a series of knockout blows. Mr Apresyan defended very well, managing to co-ordinate his rooks and with it the game.

So the team is a little deflated, but only because we had excellent chances to get something from the match. Tomorrow we face the young Slovakian team, which promises to be a close game.

World Under 16 Olympiad- Round 6

Round 5: England vs Kyrgyzstan

The view from my hotel room on most mornings

1. James HOLLAND 2204 0.5-0.5 Bakai Uulu ESENBEK
2. Craig WHITFIELD 2010 1-0 Talia TAILAIBEKOV
3. Henrik STEPANYAN 1956 0.5-0.5 Aidar KENENBAEV
4. Peter BATCHELOR 0.5-0.5 Kelsinbek ISAKZHANOV

The view from my hotel room today!!

By the teams admission we were lucky to beat Kyrgyzstan today, but will happily take the win! About halfway through the session, 3 of the 4 games looked like losses, with James seemingly coasting to the solitary point. What never ceases to surprise me about these events, no matter how many times you come to them is that trying to make predictions about the results based on the positions is completely pointless.

James was out first, but not with the result we had predicted. Having played another smooth attacking game with white against the Sicilian (this time a Scheveningen) his advantage at one stage was in the region of +11 on the computer (that’s a lot!!) However as he missed his opportunities, and his clock started running down things got more and more complicated and in the end had to sacrifice a rook for a perpetual check ‘Craig Whitfield style’.

The man himself was finding life tough going on board 2. Playing against another grand prix attack against his Sicilian, Craig gave himself a weakened queenside pawn structure, and was somewhere between worse and clearly worse for almost the entire game. What was very impressive was the way that he held on, refusing to panic and offering an exchange sacrifice for some compensation towards the end. Rather than take it, his opponent rather generously left a piece ‘en prise’ to a simple tactic and promptly resigned!

Henrik was out next, having been taught a lesson in how not to play the white side of the Kings Indian (he was white ). After allowing black to unleash his ‘Kings Indian’ bishop free of charge, and finding nowhere to put his king I feared for his position. Once again though our player showed his tenacity and somehow managed to push his opponent into a drawn opposite coloured bishop and rook ending a pawn down which Henrik held.

Peter’s game was the last to finish in the entire playing hall. He played down a well known line of the Queens Gambit declined. In fact the whole game was of a high quality, with White possessing a miniscule advantage for a lot of it. Seemingly having had enough of draws Peter bravely sacrificed a piece for some pawns (soundly), but a slip in concentration allowed his opponent a decisive advantage. The favour was returned later on in the endgame, and Peter secured a hard fought draw.

So, tomorrow is a rest day! The organised trip involves a visit to a local museum, followed by some shopping. Not quite as dramatic as the ‘journey to hell and paradise’ we were offered on my last visit to Turkey for this event. Plus it also involves getting down and up the mountain, which will cut into the trip by a good couple of hours. So we will see- it may be blitz with the Scottish (again) and some preparation for a difficult looking 7th round pairing against the Czech Republic.

Green Park resort Kartepe, from the outside