5 of St Johns finest turned out for Bury, in the minor, yours truly, Dennis, Rod and the majestic Mr Holmes making more great strides post his health woes. In the major Antony Hall flew the flag for us close to his home base. My games as follows: Round one Alan Holmes!! (1281) with white. A real pleasure to get to play Alan again. He played double fianchetto to my London and tbh it threw me a bit, I've not looked at the line at all, i tried a cheeky Bb5+ and provoked a weakening c6 and then probed and prodded picking up a piece and a pawn. Alan defended gamely but eventually his position crumbled and mate came in the corner. Round two Martin Hill (1142) with black. Martin is quite low rated but had scalped Martin Fletcher a good 1400 who duffed me up in Newmarket in the summer in round 1 so I was wary. He lured me into his Jobava London so I set up for my patented Ed King annoying reverse London and he didn't like the look of it at all and tried to smash it off the board with a pawn cascade. His attack was way, way too premature and I punished it fully forcing resignation on move 24 (computer announces Mate in 11). Round three Nathan Weersing (1546) with black. Ahhhh the pain of evening games. Some of you will know I'm really struggling with my Pirc lately and it continued. I played g6 and a delayed Nf6 but eventually went back into main line Pirc, Nathan plays the e4 d4 c3 Qc2 line. I got myself in a pickle and lost a pawn but computer says zeros because of counter play. Got obsessed with counter play which then lost me an exchange but still only plus 1 cos counter play! Unfortunately, I then got angry that i missed he was about to exchange minor pieces with check and snatch moved the knight away. It was pinned to my queen. Ouch. Resigned but had a good chat after and he said he honestly didn't know who was winning almost all way through as it was super sharp throughout. (He was, but not unassailably) Round four Rod Mills (1256) with white. Another Blue on Blue. I played the London and got a good position, semi open h file and pieces in place. Got very frustrated at not getting through, and probed relentlessly, eventually i made a silly error, not blunderous but silly in getting a pawn to g5 and taking his h6 pawn (king on h7), so he could push g6 and my pawn became an irritant shielding his king rather than an asset. An 'umbrella' pawn. Rod defended very very well as the position was borderline overwhelming at times without ever quite getting there, and I became increasingly frustrated. I then made a very stupid error and allowed Rod to pin my knight to my queen and force me to let it go with no compensation. It was horribly crushing as I'd been in my mind in complete control of the situation. Anyway, Rod had offered the draw a couple times earlier and now repeated the offer a piece up. I bit his hand, wrist and arm off! It was an exceedingly generous draw offer and although Rod said after he was concerned i still had counter play and a good position I honestly didn't, I didn't really deserve the draw, Rod had defended stoutly and spotted the counter punch. Round five Daniel Such (1549) with white. This guy knew some London theory, he played the Wesley So line of the early cxd5 and a preemptive a6 preventing a sneaky Ba6 trap in this line. He was however a little sluggish developing and i got a playable position with some menace. He got himself a bit exposed at one point. He'd castled queenside into a QB battery but it didn't 'quite' work because he had an intermezzo capture and we then traded into major pieces, and he overlooked i could hold everything castling into the storm. I won a pawn and thought I was better but he had a forced draw tactic. It looked like it didn't work and he was just sacking a rook and the game, computer says it does, its zeroes. However, he misplayed and ran out of checks, so I'm a rook up, but king in the centre. I think the Rod experience weighed on me because i played very cautiously, I was determined not to lose but missed the win. He had flurries of checks but no mating net and I had no permanent shelter. Eventually I dropped from 7.6 to zeroes as i moved to the wrong square and gifted him a three-repeat perpetual for the draw. A delightful lift home with Dennis and Alan followed. Dennis scored a brilliant 3.5 with some good scalps (including Rod in round 5!), followed by my 3, Rod with 2.5 and 2 1500+ scalps and Alan got a draw in round 5 to end on 1. Antony scored 3 in the Major. A good, but personally slightly frustrating, weekend. Regards Dave Excellent report, Dave. I'll give some brief observations for my inaugural St John's report. I'm not at home today, so can only provide some thoughts on the games and no PGNs (maybe not a bad thing).
The Bury St Edmunds Congress is, by location, my local one and a very good tournament to boot. I've managed to win the U170 section (as it was in old money) a few times - these tend to be few and far between, with many fallow years. 2022 was to be another fallow year! R1 white v Chris Skirrow (1720). I guessed my opponent because we had finally had an even number of entrants with no R1 byes. Couldn't find any of his games online but, given my 'seeding' (#5/46), this game on paper should have provided me with my best chance of a win. It was a French Tarrasch and my opponent blundered on move 8 in a position I've had plenty of times before and have immediately taken advantage of - but not this time. Perhaps I hadn't woken up? Anyway, a lesson to sit on your hands to stop rash moves. The theme of the game seemed to be me having a plus at various points but not following up correctly, so it returned to equality. Then I played one wrong move and he seized his opportunity, playing the remaining moves very well and I had to resign. R2 black v Barry Connor (1645). I won in 14 moves - it was a King's Indian with 3.g3. I offered my opp the chance to bust my queenside pawns by swapping his king's bishop for my Nc6, but this gave him loads of holes and my minor pieces swarmed in very quickly. He was going to lose the exchange and decided to resign, which meant I could go home early (I took a bye in R3). R4 white v Richard McMorran (1683). Was determined to do better on Sunday (the story at last year's congress was the same - a loss, a draw and a bye on the Saturday; managed to win both games on Sunday to add a veneer of respectability to my performance). Another lower-rated opponent that, with sensible play, I should see off more often than not. He essayed the Sicilian O'Kelly, and it was fairly level although I had more space. I allowed him a multiple piece swap which left us with 2R+B+N+6p each, mine a,b,c and f,g,h and he had a,b,d,e,g,h. I felt like I was doing all the pushing for the win, but he defended well. The bishops came off and I was able to create some weaknesses in his position. After much probing, I was able to win a pawn which also sped up other pieces coming off. We got down to a K+N+p ending, where he was very short of time and let me force a N swap, so he resigned. A tough grind. R5 black v Paul Walton (1810). On paper, my first strong opponent of the weekend, and a player I know well (we have in the past both played for Barclays in the London Banks League), so my heart sank a little when I saw the pairings, as I knew it would be hard to win. This was backed up as he opened with the London System 😭. I sensed I wasn't going to get anything more than a draw, so I offered one on move 11. He declined but returned the favour two moves later, which I accepted. Have looked at it since, and the computer thinks I played all the right moves and had a slight initiative; I might have been inclined to play on against a different opponent. As Dave said, I finished on 3/5 - same as last year and just as disappointing - but a fun weekend all the same. regards, Antony
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