Round 1 - April 14th 2008 - game reports

 

Blair v John M

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Just uploaded the .pgn of my game with John - preliminary analysis with Luke post-match did not reveal Bxh6 (winning a piece) for black on move 16, but there are many other 'imperfections', mostly on my part (as evidenced by the result).

 

My giving up of a pawn on move 5 was assumed by John to be a gambit, on account of the fact that arguably I got two moves of tempo for it. It would best be described as having been an 'accidental gambit', or indeed a 'minor blunder', if you prefer ;)

 

Kevin of course already pointed out Rxe4! instead of Rd4 for Black on move 34, winning a pawn.

 

Kc4 seems much better for White on move 36 than Bb4, and Ba3 next move by White seems to be a downright mistake, compounded by White's 40. b4? on the fast track to defeat.

 

After 41. ... e6, I felt totally lost as White. Luke and John K correctly suggested that 42. Kc3 instead of Bb2 gave me better chances of holding on for a while, but the computer suggests that this is still ultimately losing with Black's Q-side majority, the same colour bishops and White's pawn chain stuck on the dark squares.

 

Constructive criticism and any further analysis welcome!

 

 

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Bf4 d5 4. Nbd2 Bg7 5. e4 Nxe4 6. Bd3 f5 7. O-O Nd7 8.

Qe2 O-O 9. Rac1 c6 10. Qe3 Ndf6 11. Rfe1 Re8 12. Ne5 Qb6 13. Nb3 Nd7 14. f3

Nef6 15. Bh6 Nxe5 16. dxe5 Qxe3+ 17. Bxe3 Nd7 18. f4 b6 19. c4 Ba6 20. Red1

Rac8 21. cxd5 Bxd3 22. Rxd3 cxd5 23. Rxd5 Rxc1+ 24. Bxc1 Nf8 25. Nd4 Rc8 26.

Bd2 Kf7 27. Rb5 Ne6 28. Nxe6 Kxe6 29. Bc3 Bh6 30. Rb4 Rc7 31. Rd4 g5 32. g3 g4

33. Kf2 Rc5 34. Ke3 Rd5 35. Kd3 Bf8 36. Bb4 a5 37. Ba3 Rxd4+ 38. Kxd4 Kd7 39.

Kc4 Kc6 40. b4 b5+ 41. Kd4 e6 42. Bb2 Bxb4 43. a3 Bc5+ 0-1

 

the PGN file can be downloaded

then open it in your chess program.14th Apr 08 - BG v JM.pgn

 

by Blair.

 

 

Luke v Derek

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derek unfortunately blundered in the opening and immediately resigned - he then beat me in slightly quicker time in a blitz game so got a rapid revenge!

 

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nbd7 4. f4 c5 5. Nf3 cxd4 6. Qxd4 Qb6 7. Bb5 *

 

 

 

7...a6 ???

8. Q x Q

 

incidentally, Q x Q is given as level by chess computer, and probably is. Note the smarmy B x N+ allows N x B! And wd save the queen!

 

6..Qb6 is fine, but 6...Nb8! has black ahead - allowing a repositioning of the queenside knight.

 

white missed 4 e5, and then again 5 e5!

 

notes by Luke

 

 

 

Kevin v Damien

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An early blunder by me (Damien) made this a pretty quick game.

 

1 e4 e6

2 d4 d5

3 Nc3 Nf6

4 Bg5 Be7

5 e5 Nd7

6 h4 a6

7 Qg4

 

Kevin said later he'd played this line a few weeks earlier and taken 10 minutes to find this (the right move). The main threat is Bxe7 and Qxg7.I took about 10 minutes too but failed to find either f6, h5 or even Kf8 (all playable lines I think) and instead blundered with

 

7... Bxg5

8 hxg5 g6?

 

Wanting to avoid 9 g6 fxg, 10 Rxh7 RxR, 11 Qg6+

 

I did find an example game in a database which black went on to win, but this was after some pretty sloppy play by white. I wasn't so lucky - Kevin engineered a sacrifice on g6 with Bd3, 0-0-0 and Bxg6 which left white equal on material but with a terminal attack on the black kingside.