Last weekend I played my first two FIDE-rated games, competing in the 4 Nations Chess League (Northern division) for Cheddleton 2.  I managed to win both games, but both were full of tactics and could easily have gone the other way if I’d slipped up.  The first featured probably the most interesting time scramble I’ve been involved in.

I tried to do some opening preparation beforehand, but this was a bit tricky as I only knew which team we would be playing, and not who my opponent would be.  From the list of players registered for Jorvik (our first opponents) I determined my three most likely opponents and did a quick search for their games.  Consequently, when I turned up on Saturday morning and found out who my opponent was I knew he was a Najdorf player.  By then I only had about 15 minutes before the round started, but I went over some Najdorf lines/games quickly to make sure they were fresh in my mind.

I played 6. Be2 – a line I’ve not played before, but one my opponent seemed even less familiar with as he started to use a considerable amount of time.  His time consumption increased drastically in the ensuing sharp middlegame, meaning that by move 17 he had used an hour and forty-seven minutes and had only thirteen left to make the time control at move 40.  I still had about an hour left at the time, and felt sure that if I didn’t flag him I could play more accurately in the complications.  However, I spent a lot of time double-checking variations, and, feeling a little nervous in my first FIDE-rated game, I started to panic.  The result was that I eventually got into time trouble too.  At move 30 he had just 32 seconds, and although I still had 6 minutes the time seemed to fly by and by move 35 we both had around 10 seconds left to make 5 moves.  We started banging out the moves without pausing to think, and, a little later, I stopped playing and pointed out that I had run out of time whereas he still had 3 seconds.  Fortunately an arbiter had been recording the moves and could confirm that we had definitely passed move 40; the digital clock had simply failed to add on the time.  My opponent left the room for a few minutes to recover from the time scramble, and, when I turned my attention to the board again I noticed that I had a mate in two.  He also realised this while he was outside, and returned soon to conclude the game.

The walk to the station after the game was enough to freeze the blood of even the most fearless of Frankenstein-Dracula Variation practitioners.  It took 30-40 minutes in almost total darkness (except for when there were car headlights), with the first half along the very uneven verge of a main road, and the second half through a tunnel of trees which was completely enclosed overhead.  Fortunately I made it back without twisting an ankle or being eaten just in time for a train; if I’d missed it I’d have had to wait more than two hours in the cold for the next.  The report on game 2 will follow soon (probably tomorrow).

On Sunday I played board 8 in the Somerset 1st team at the West of England Chess Union annual Jamboree (a tournament format which allows several teams to compete with each person playing only one game). I was white against Rob Thompson, a young Devon player who was the only person to beat Michael Adams in the recent Paignton simultaneous. Our post-mortem analysis indicated that at some point I was winning – for example 25. Qxh5 should have sealed the deal – but my time management was so idiotic that I was left with 5 minutes for 16 moves to make the time control at move 40, and I couldn’t play accurately. Here’s the game (numbers in brackets indicate number of minutes remaining on the clock):

In the end, Somerset, Devon and Gloucestershire were all tied with 6 points in the Open section, and Dorset won the Graded section with 8/12.

Today is my 21st birthday, and what better way to start the day than with a report on my poor performance at the recent Paignton congress? My final score in the Boniface 5-round Morning tournament was 2.5/5, and in the Rowena Bruce Challengers section it was 2.5/7. My only good game was the draw with Adams in a simul, shown in the last post.

Before looking more closely at my results, I’d like to thank the organisers and arbiters for a splendid event. They were all very helpful and friendly, which is more than can be said for some congresses. I plan to be back next year.

In general, the player of the white pieces scores something in the region of 54%. To break that down further, white wins 39% of the time, draws 30% of the time, and loses the remaining 31% of games (stats from Chessbase Mega Database ’09). The advantage of the white pieces is perhaps more noticeable at higher levels, but still, I would expect to win more than I lose with white. In fact my score with white at this tournament was a dismal 0/5! With black, on the other hand, before the last round I was on 4/5 (or 4.5/6 including the Adams simul game), with no losses. Unfortunately I started to correct things in the last round, not by winning with white, but by losing with black. I’m not sure quite how to explain this result, but several of my white losses came against slightly offbeat opening systems, where I was out of book very quickly and failed to come up with a good plan of development.

Here are two of my games, the first a quick loss against the ‘St. George Defence’ (1. e4 a6!?), and the second my only win against a higher-rated player. In the first, my attempt to gain a psychological edge by revealing my knowledge of the famous Karpov-Miles game clearly didn’t work, as I was going down by about move 11. 😉 I’ll probably put up more of the games, along with my comments, later.

When I rolled into Paignton on Sunday afternoon the sun was shining and the sea breeze carried with it the promise of success.  My first opponent was stronger than me, and usually played in the Open section, but I had white and was looking forward to a nice win to open the tournament, the season, and the Road to Grandmaster.  In fact I was crushed in sixteen moves.  Here’s the game:

After this demoralising defeat I made my way to Dartmouth, where I’m staying on the family boat, and rowed across with my stuff.  The evening was quite pleasant, as I had my guitar with me and it carried very nicely over the calm water.  Unfortunately it didn’t stay calm for long, and I was kept awake for a long time by the wind whistling in the rigging and the water slapping against the side.  The waterproofness of the boat got a good test, as it rained all night, and somewhat surprisingly I didn’t wake up and find I’d been dripped on.

After reluctantly exiting my cold sleeping bag in the morning, I arrived eight minutes late, unshowered and bleary-eyed, to the first game of the morning tournament.  I soon fell further behind on the clock, but my opponent missed a tactical shot on move 21 which won me the game.  Here it is:

This afternoon the pairing board told me I had a bye, which for those who don’t know means that an opponent couldn’t be found for me (due to an odd number of players) so I would be awarded a free point.  I hung around anyway and one person didn’t turn up, so I still played.  I was told I would get a point anyway, regardless of the outcome (i.e. it was a friendly), but they appear to have put the game on the pairings board, so I may find I’m on 0/2.  The game went badly for me from the opening, and I eventually succumbed in time pressure.