Fighting For Strangers

Three fixed points in the gaming (and indeed general) calendar:

Beer and Pretzels - third Saturday in May
Midcon - third weekend in November
and
The Live Draft - first (but this year, second) Saturday in September.

You get to annoy people at all three, but perhaps most enjoyably at the Draft when someone has been following a player for several minutes waiting for his chance to draft him - and you take him the pick before. 15 minutes later, Mark said he was still cross with me. Result. And only a L6 Returner who's not quick. But it was at least a more interesting choice than a L3 OG with 65S.

The thing is you know they are only little bits of computer code but you get strangely attached to them. (Groome and John this time are lamenting "old boys" who are now retiring.) So although now they are strangers, you hope in time they will be old friends (unlike several of the little so-and-sos who came to nothing - Groome again, cut a first round pick who never played ..)

It's All In the Game

Time to catch up on three more results before the final game of the season on Tuesday.

Blundering a pawn on move 11 is not the best thing to do. However I get a surprising amount of counterplay and the basis of an attack. The Draw Specialist does what he does best. Has to be said that the opponent was a bit cautious.

Winning a pawn is much better. What was supposed, after 1. c4, to be a quiet strategic game turns into into a wild tactical melee in the centre of the board with his knights dodging all over the central files and me giving myself a backward e-pawn in a desperate attempt to avoid a crushing attack down the e- and f-files. Well in the end it looks to me like I can take his weak central pawn and if he can see better through it than I can he deserves to win. But he can't. So a pawn up in the centre of the board - force the queens and knights off (OK not quite forced but awkward to avoid) to a rook ending. But all rook endings are drawn? Not this one. Carefully advance the backward pawn till it is the front one, swop off to make it passed, the rooks come off and the king is far enough forward so that the opposition makes the win. Job done. Pity that we still lost the match 2.5 to 3.5.

And then one that really is a positional game. Good for the Chigorin Defence to the Queen's Gambit. The key move, the winning move is 5 ... B x f3 - because he gets a doubled pawn. So that when we get to a same-bishop endgame my 3v2 on the Q-side is mobile and his 4v3 on the kingside is crippled - not helped by the fact that all through I have slightly had a lead in development which turns into initiative which turns into a king slightly further up the board. Finally with the threats available (good old Nimzovitch, a threat is stronger than its execution) 3v2 becomes 1v0 and 4v3 gets completely stopped on the same colour the bishops are on. And one drops off and even though the bishop looks trapped, there's a safe maneouvre to get it out and the when the bishops are forced off the king has to take the outside passed pawn which leaves me enough time to take all his. Always put your pawns on the opposite colour square to your bishop. My word, two wins in a row. +4 in division 2 and +2 in division 4.

The Hunter

Some results the Draw Specialist get are achieved easily (too easily, even). Some take a bit more work.

Yes, another draw on board 3. This one a bit different. I sacrificed a rook (R x b2+, he didn't see that coming) on move 21 for what I hoped would be a winning attack with a perpetual in hand. It wasn't a winning attack and he managed to find the way out of the perpetual. So I played on a rook down.

A glorious king-hunt, chased the White King from b1 to h3.

At one point the other rook was hanging, too, for at least 3 moves. Threats of mate in 2 (there might have been a mate in 1) were ignored, mainly because there was no way to defend them. Initiative is everything.

At the death he has a pawn ready to promote with check. (My king is on g5 by this point, his pawn is on g2 and g1 is guarded by his rook.) And then I finally forced a perpetual. Draw agreed on move 51; all I have left is queen and a few pawns, in just the right places.

Thirty moves played a rook down (a pair did get swopped at one point) achieves a draw. Is this a record?

My team-mates said I was lucky. I said I always had the draw. You just have to know how to play it.

Sadly, the team lost - to the bottom of the division, see last week - as Boards 5 and 6 yielded only half a point and Glen on 4, despite playing well (their board 4 got a bit distracted by the fireworks on 3), winning at one point, misplayed the ending and eventually lost a piece. 2-4. Heigh-ho.

Still, it was fun.

Sing When You're Winning

Yesterday's chess match was one of the most thrilling ever. This is my report on it.

Background info: we are second bottom in the division. Our opponents, Clevedon, are second top, relegated last season from division 1. Promises to be a toughie. However our captain, Steve, points out that there are a lot of teams in the middle very close together and that if we win, we go third. I point out that actually we go fifth on board count. We compromise on "equal third" not worrying that other teams will also be playing tonight and some of them have to score points ...

Our team is:
Board 1: Andy, most improved player last season, stepping up to the mark again
Board 2: Steve, with no wins this season
Board 3: me, undefeated but mostly draws
Board 4: Glen, currently with the best grading performance in our club this season
Board 5: Phil, who gets into and out of positions you wouldn't believe
Board 6: Anthony, the smart one (but not today)

Odd board numbers are playing black, as usual.

I get to watch quite a few openings since my opponent is really taking his time (and seems to have had a tough day at work, given by his yawns). Glen has a strong centre, Andy seems to have a loose kingside, a shortage of space and no desire to castle; his opponent's king is also remaining in the centre, with an h-pawn advance. I play the usual Caro-Kan but in response to Nf6 I get not NxN ch doubling my pawns (I of course would play gxf6 like Miles against Karpov) but the retreat Ng3. Which seems to leave my white-square bishop a problem. I lock it in with e6 and start thinking about a Q-side fianchetto.

Meanwhile Andy has played Qxb2 and declines to play Qxa2 in response to Rb1. I can't see the trap ... still a pawn up is a good start.
I get in c5 and cxd4 rather easily and have to think what to do next. Nc5 looks good, forcing Bc2. What now? Develop the Q-side what a good idea. Nh5 really forces g6 but seems to do no harm - he doesn't even force off the dark bishops.

However Nc5 seems to lead inevitably to a threat of a rook on the seventh. Just as he's about to achieve it though, after a bit of swapping off, he offers the draw that I hadn't expected. I accept with alacrity. I wouldn't have offered one there, even with opposite bishops. This time it wasn't the Draw Specialist making the running in splitting the point. All done by half-nine and time to watch some others.

Andy is still a pawn up with a George Crockart-type structure and rooks going to be doubled on the c-file. Still squashed but looking like breaking out. Anthony is dominating the board with a massive space advantage but as pieces get swopped the defence looks easier and counter-play seems easier. Phil wins a pawn and looks comfortable. Steve has a nice-looking centre, but what to do? Is the sacrifice playable? Oh, there go a pair of bishops, perhaps not. Glen's opponent refuses a draw offer, quite a fair one I thought what with Glen's passed pawn securely blocked.

Richard is watching with me and I say prophetically "we could win this with four and a half or lose by the same" and he agrees. The match is heating up nicely. Anthony still looks like he is winning but if that passed e-pawn moves there will be mate threats (after some Q manoeuvres it does and there are, but he has it covered). 1-0.

Phil and Andy both have opposing Qs in their defence. Andy gets rid of his but Phil has to play very delicately, not taking a pawn until the second opportunity, but this seems to be his opponent's last desperate throw and suddenly Phil is a knight up with only rooks on in addition. Careful play and he closes it out. 2-0.

Andy is short on time. He's broken out, bits everywhere, particularly the knights look to have had sone fun, but he's repulsed although his opponent seems relieved. 2-1. Steve is losing. The sacrifice didn't work although I thought he missed a chance to win the piece back (surely Qe5+ works?) and he's got not just a Q in his defence but a rook too. So I go to watch Glen.

I'm not sure where it came from but his opponent misses some tactics and Glen goes a pawn up in a same-bishops ending. That pawn secures the sacrifice of the bishop so it's two v two all on one side but Glen has a bishop. Slightly behind in the race to the Q-side he plays the B to a3 where I would have gone to f6. But it seems to work - I don't think I would have advanced the black pawns, I think Kb1 was the way to go - and when Black resigns against a lone pawn and bishop with his K stranded I say "You've just won us the match, Glen." "Have I?" he says when Steve says "Excuse me, but I won it a few seconds ago". And he did too. Apparently there wasn't the mate his opponent thought and Steve has won with sixteen seconds left on his clock. A captain's performance. Even he can't quite believe his first win this season. Four and a half to one and a half against one of the strongest teams in the division.

So we are third. Or fifth. Or third equal. Or somewhere. And as Richard points out, if we lose next week we'll be back to second bottom. Still that's another day.

A Team Player

Not every chess team has one, but those captains who have access to one prize them highly; they have some rather rude names, but one polite one: The Draw Specialist.

They are usually in the older age bracket. In their youth they may have been unpredictable, exciting, volatile, with wild attacking games, imaginative sacrifices and disastrous opening strategy. Now they have one opening against each of the two major opponent's moves, e4 and d4, generally obscure, stodgy and devastatingly simple, which they routinely wheel out. The Caro-Kan, say. Or something vaguely sound but which no-one has heard of, let alone plays anymore. The Chigorin Defence to the Queen's Gambit. As White they play something sound and strategic (ie c4 or d4 or both) so that no tactical surprises can occur while they are watching other people's games.

Some play Nimzovitch over-protection; make sure everything is solidly protected and wait for something to happen. Defend doggedly until the opponent over-reaches and offer a draw while he is shell-shocked at the defensive technique. Some just seem to be lucky, or clearly offer a draw too soon, at the psychological moment. "Perhaps I should have played for the win, but I didn't see it coming through."

The captain respects them, though. They play Board 2 or 3. The top boards will play their interesting theoretical stuff and that will go one way or another. But one of the opposition's threats is carefully neutralised, so that the bottom boards, playing down one, have that extra edge to give them the win. Three wins at the lower end and a draw on board 2 will do. They sacrifice their interesting ideas to the team's victory.

It does depend of course on the rest of the team doing their job, of course. But they have great (if misplaced) faith.

And when the rest of the team all lose, honour is upheld. Five and half against is not a whitewash. Today two and a half for - and someone drew a game he should have won, surely? (thought that in earlier weeks, too). Nearly there.

Three games, three draws; two solid and one rather lucky. One third of the whole team's game points (one half before today!). At least it's better than last season which started with four straight and appallling defeats (and the one where the play wasn't too bad came up against Mighty Megan, who exploits older men's weaknesses to an extent that a £200-per-hour lapdancer would be proud of).

A team player.

A British Champion

Who says chess isn't exciting?

This afternoon is the last day of the British Championship and I doubt it's ever been so tense in the last round. The two leaders are the number 8 and 12 seeds, by half a point over numbers 1, 3, 4, 7, 10 and 11. 5 and 9 are half a point behind those two and number 2 seed is off the pace (!) a further half point behind. Now 12 is playing 10, 7 v 8, 1 v4 and 3 v 11. Any of these can therefore finish up first or equal first if the results go their way.

I've been watching live the last few days as Jacob Aagaard (12) has tried to blow a colossal lead. At 6.5 out of 7 he looked like a winner all the way; after 1 point from the next 3 games he's been demoted to Board 2, but is still guaranteed at least a share of first place (with up to one other) if he wins, and a draw will do it unless the game on board 1 is a win for White (potential for up to a four-way tie, if boards 3 and 4 are decisive one way or the other. A draw can't give him the title outright). Another defeat will leave him nowhere, relatively.

I note that Jacob has played (including this afternoon's game) the players currently lying in positions 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10. So I think he'll deserve it if he wins. Averaging the gradings of opponents, he has played the highest average of anyone, equal with the number 4 seed, Nick Pert. Jacob drew with the number 1 seed and beat numbers 3, 4, 5 and 9.

Jacob plays under the Scottish flag. The Scots do seem to have a lock on the championship in recent years .... (Famous last words.)

UPDATE:
Well every bit as thrilling as anticipated. No short draws with so much at stake. Aagaard won a pawn at the cost of an open g-file to his king, and contrived to lose the exchange. Pawn for the exchange then, but pressure against his king-side ....

Rowson beat Pert, so that's one player on 8. Hebden plugging away, but lost his a-pawn and facing an advanced passed d-pawn ... (which disappears with surprising speed)

On board one Gordon, needing a win for 8.5 to overtake Rowson, had a pawn for the exchange ... but I was never convinced his attack was going anywhere. Aagaard I felt could always resist the pressure but one slip and it would be over. Much tense manoeuvring.

Suddenly Kosten gets two rooks round the back of Gordon's defence, whose bishop is pinned to his queen and behind that the king. But the Black king is suddenly exposed ....

Howell beats Williams with 25 seconds left on his clock. (You can make a lot of moves in 25 seconds.)

I don't understand all the pawn captures in Hebden-Haslinger but it looks drawish, two bishops v bishop and knight. Yes, there it goes, in 62 moves. And Aagaard has two passed rook pawns. Now you don't see that too often. He must win, surely? Yep, thought so. Resignation after the second time control, move 60. Both players down to last two or three minutes before that. So can Gordon break through? I didn't think so. Drawn on move 61 - Haslinger can repeat moves and Gordon can't afford not to.

The winner is Aagaard, after all. I'm pleased for him.
Second equal, Gordon, from Oldham, and Rowson from, er, Aberdeen?