Greetings, a report on my efforts at newmarket, I will let fellow st johnites Cap'n, Lim and Harry report as they wish on their respective efforts.
Friday evening game one Michael Osborn rating 116, black pieces Played the black lion to his e4, he deployed the anti philidor e4, d4, nc3, f4 lions cave variation. I made a hideous miscalculation and accidentally sacked/lost a knight for dubious compensation although I had piece activity. It was enough and I mated him with all his major pieces on the back rank helpless 1/1 Saturday morning game two Peter Wood rating 119 white pieces London system and he struggled against it, inexplicably maneuvering his knight to f8 before castling allowing me to trap his king in the centre and deny castling rights. However I over extended my attack and he won a crucial centre pawn and got his king relatively safe. A pawn down in the endgame but he was under extreme time pressure so I offered the draw which he reluctantly accepted rather than flag 1.5/2 Saturday afternoon game three Matthew Morter rating 125 black pieces English opening, so it was like having Delsey along for the ride. I played the symmetrical defence and he pushed e4 for a maroczy bind. It turned into a totally locked position, game was 42 moves, 17 of which of mine were knight moves, he would simply not let my knights out or settle on a square, so I played a very unusual approach for me of playing dead and letting him advance on me relentlessly in the hope of getting in behind his pawn advances. Sure enough he pushed one too far and left a juicy king queen knight fork in the offing. My best win rating wise so far in long play. 2.5/3 Sunday morning game four George Horan rating 98 white pieces London opening and he played the leningrad Dutch. Moves 4 and 5 were h4, h5, and I blew the kingside open with his king stuck in the centre. Made my worst mistake of the weekend and went for development and solidity when I should have launched everything at his king having started attacking rather than try and consolidate the position and he got a very very powerful pawn centre forcing my pieces back, I then missed an inter mezzo check on a complex exchange that I thought won me at least a rook for a knight but ended up losing me a full knight. He then strangled my king and with his two passed connectors and the piece up I resigned 2.5/4 Sunday afternoon game five Clive Le Baigue rating 113 black pieces English opening and again played the symmetrical but he went for the Nd5 advance into the hole between e5, c5 and d6 which caused me some distress. It was a very interesting game and we both found our fianchettoed bishops getting forced off, he got his queen to f6 and with a knight on d5 was looking very dangerous - the threat being me exchanging queens and him then playing knight f6 check with rook fork to follow. I found a way of forcing his queen back but the knight threat remained and I couldn't take it due to the follow up fork when he recaptured with pawn. So I attacked his queen and he decided to set up an attack with his black bishop in support. This let me get the knight off and win a pawn and then my remaining knight became an utter monster with check followed by forking the rooks with mate in one threat. Basically I chased his king round the board picking up his two rooks and bishop for a knight leaving me 2 rooks ahead with his king on c5. He resigned. I'll post the game later as the end is so much fun, 11 checks in a row (I've probably missed mate in there a couple of times!) 3.5/5 equal 5th of 32, and I'm waiting for confirmation but pretty sure I won the under 100 rating prize. Tournament rating 134. Very pleased with my performance in a tough field. Also pleasant fish and chips and a few drinks with the St Johnites Saturday evening too. Good company, good times. Dave of the Knave.
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