Round 3  7th May 2007

Unfortunately, Hendrik has had to withdraw

1   Davy     (2)   0-1   Stewart   (2)     Orang Utan

2   John     (2)   1-0   Blair     (1.5)   English

3   Kevin    (1)   0-1   Damien    (1)     French

4   Colin P  (1)   1-0   Bryan     (1)     King's Pawn

5   Giuseppe (1)   1/2   Derek     (1)     Sicilian

6   Luke     (1)   1-0   Tamas     (1)     King Fianchetto

8   Colin M  (0)   0-1   Stephen   (0.5)   King Fianchetto

7   Jim      (0)   1-0   Fergus    (0)         Bishop's Opening

John & Blair played on Monday 30th. 

Davy showed Stewart the futility of spending 6 hours preparing for a game by unleashing 1 b4.  So much for buying a book on the Vienna. The position ended up balanced - white's weak pawns compensated by much more active pieces. However, black managed to unravel a bit and white ended up on the back-pedal.  A blunder of a pawn made the position very difficult and in time trouble white allowed some more weaknesses. Davy resigned 2 pawns down with only a few seconds left on the clock.

Kevin won/exchanged Damien's queen for 3 minor pieces (which looked fine for black, in my opinion).  When Kevin tried to open up the centre, this allowed Damien to unleash a very amusing combination which forced white's immediate resignation.  I'm sure we'll see the game in the annotated games page. It might be harder finding Kevin's grading next year.

Colin won tactically after Bryan played a poor opening. Black's king was stuck in the centre with his king-side exposed to multiple forks and tactics.

Giuseppe and Derek both attacked on the king-side and queen-side respectively. Giuseppe's attack looked by far the stronger with Derek's pieces huddled around his king and white's pawn-storm creating both open lines and weaknesses to attack.  I didn't see how Derek survived but the game boiled down to a pawn-endgame with Derek finding a picturesque stalemate. An interesting game.

Luke got a nice opening when Tamas allowed a knight for bishop exchange on f5 and then let his queen get kicked around on the queenside.  Luke won the exchange and despite time-trouble - both at move 30 and at the end of the game - managed to convert the material and positional advantage to a nice win. I think there were 4 queen promotions.

Colin & Stephen were redrawn against each other.  Colin played the opening quietly conceding the centre and giving away a large space advantage to black. This looked really nice for black and Stephen won a pawn.  A tactical flurry picked up an extra piece for black and the game.

Jim and Fergus played their game on the 21st.