Greetings,
A report from London where I bravely took the honour of St John's to the under 135 section of the (3 millionth) Hampstead Congress. I also stayed in a hostel in Swiss Cottage and got brutally drunk on £2 shots. I digress, the chess report! Game one: So fierce and kingly was my mien that my opponent defaulted in fear by not turning up! One point to me, bonus. Adam arranged a graded game for me in substitution with the point bagged. I played a young lad with a low rating and played the pirc with black. He was a blitzer and spent all of 0.5 seconds taking the poisoned b5 pawn I pushed which lost him a piece. From there not too difficult to see home Game two: A young Russian rated 118 and I'm black again. Played the pirc again and this time fell for some trickery to be a pawn and knight down but with his g and f pawns doubled with a poke at his king. I managed to win back my knight and got a rook down into the action but a silly mistake blundered my other knight and he finished me off. One from two. Game three: My first outing with white and an opponent I've met in Golders Green in rapid play, hes a lowish rated but gutsy player. London system versus d5 response and I went about things methodically, bullying his king into a royal fork and he resigned. Two for three overnight Game four: Hungover. But with white again against a rosy cheeked old Irishman rated 112. London system again and a very correct and thoughtful build from us both. He responded to Ne5 with the retreat of knight from f6 and multiple exchanges on e5, all very usual. Rooks, queen and 6 pawns each, I sent Harry running and piled the pressure on. I was unable to break through and the key came when I had to decide whether to trade 2 rooks for his queen and a pawn or trade down to rook a d 5 pawns each. Chose the latter and we agreed a hard fought draw. 2.5 from 4 Game five: Black pieces, opponent awaiting his first ecf rating but had 2.5 points and had beaten players rated 111 and 124. Kings Indian defence to d4 and c4. Had a habit of looking at me hard after every move. He got the upper hand early on with a deft Rd1 xraying my queen with a knight pin and I unlined by moving my queen the wrong way. He could have really shanked me but made a strange pawn push to c6, behind his advanced queen which allowed me to move my knight, tempo attack on the queen and threatening a check fork on his en prise bishop which I applied. I then played probably some of my best chess to totally turn the screws and got to a position where it was either checkmate or lose his queen, rook and any hope. He resigned and confessed the end was brutal. I'll post the moves [below] from it in a bit cos despite my early error the end was sweet as. 3.5 and finished third, very pleased with that. Good fun. Sexy ending to this game, I'm black 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 Bg5 d6 5 Nf3 Bf5 - I like an f5 bishop 6 Qa4+ Nbd7 7 e3 0-0 - I'm about to make a mistake..... 8 Rd1 Nb6 - rook d1 is strong and I'm not sure why I'm chasing his queen 9 Qb3 Bg4 10 c5 Bxf3 - I can already see my error but hes letting me shag his kingside defence and only castling option, if I can hold off the attack I'm in 11 gxf3 dxc5 - bring it 12 dxc5 Nd7 - shows the folly of Nb6, now I'm in a pickle 13 Qxb7 Qe8 - wrong way and now if he takes my c pawn or moves Bh3 I'm screwed 14 c6 Ne5 - my knight literally galloped that, c6 is a terrible move imo 15 Qxc7 Nxf3+ - he could have had that pawn a move earlier and now been in check and forked 16 Ke2 Nxg5 17 Rg1 Ne6 - chase me away and waste a move, go on 18 Qg3 Qxc6 - now hes in trouble, and running away 19 Bg2 Qc4+ 20 Ke1 Rad8 21 Rc1 Rd6 - I want to double rooks but I've got bags of options here 22 Bf1 Qb4 - pin that knight 23 b3 Ne4 - threatens to pick up the knight 24 Qg4 f5 - his position is collapsing 25 Qe2 Bxc3+ - everything is about to implode and he resigned Dave knave
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