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Kidlington Chess Congress 2015

Once again a chilly weekend in February heralds the annual Kidlington Chess Congress. Playing for the fourth year in the Under-180 section, I was looking to improve on last year’s 50% score.

  • Round One: I was drawn against a slightly lower graded, but very experienced opponent (he has played 175 graded games in the past 12 months!) and I had White. It was a long game and fairly even although I felt I had a small edge. Just as we reached the 3.5 hour stage, and while both our clocks were below 5 minutes, he misjudged a Queen exchange to leave me with a clearly winning pawn endgame. Nice to Win in the first round!
  • Round Two: My prize for winning the previous game was a game with Black against one of the strongest players in my section. I managed to keep the opening fairly solid, although I felt under pressure throughout the game. After three hours play we had only reached move 30 and I was down to under 3 minutes. Soon he was in time trouble too and we blitzed out a further 30 moves in the next 5 minutes! He missed an immediate win, but in the end it didn’t matter and he managed to play correctly to force a result in his favour shortly afterwards. Shame to have Lost such a long game, but I felt that I played well and have no real complaints about this one.
  • Round Three: The evening game for the first day paired me with White against a stronger player. I deliberately played an unambitious opening in order to simplify quickly because I was tired from two 3.5-hours games earlier in the day, but he then played very strangely: after playing normally for the first 10 moves, he undeveloped nearly all his minor pieces which left me with a huge advantage in space and, eventually, his position was so cramped he had no good moves at all. I used this advantage to force a win of material and he resigned almost immediately. He could have played on for a bit, bishop or knight down, but presumably decided he’d had enough. Very pleased to Win this one and end the day on 2 out of 3. The game finished in under two hours as well, which is very fast for this type of tournament!
  • Round Four: Day Two began with a game against a very strong and rapidly-improving 15-year-old boy. I played one of the new openings I’d been studying for when I play Black, but perhaps didn’t choose the best variation. He had a good advantage heading into the endgame and I lost a pawn. This would have eventually proved fatal if I’d just played ‘normally’ so I mounted a last-gasp “bayonet charge” against his king, which was unfortunately repulsed. Shame to have Lost, first time I’ve lost to a teenager since being one myself: but I was never graded this high at that time! Interestingly, in my post-match computer analysis I found that I’d missed an astonishing move which would have saved the game and forced a draw! We both missed this during the game and during the post mortem immediately after the game had finished. Pesky kids.
  • Round Five: Going into the last round on 2 out of 4 I played White against another rapidly-improving child: although this one was only 10! It’s easy to be complacent saying “Oh, he’s only 10…” but I had to remember that he had also managed to get to the score 2 out of 4 against similar opposition as me. The game was very even but I managed to keep control enough to have a very tiny edge as we approached the endgame. He had been playing very fast, however: at the critical moment, I had only 14 minutes left against his 38 minutes. I had an opportunity to play for a win in a very uncertain, theoretical endgame: it was *probably* drawn, but I knew there was a very small chance of winning; equally, there were plenty of opportunities to go wrong and lose, quite likely in time trouble. He actually offered a Draw and I gladly accepted. The computer tells me that it was indeed possible to win but far from simple to do so. I think I made the best decision, pragmatically. Perhaps if I’d been in the running for a prize I might have been more tempted to play for a win, I suppose.
  • Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen were playing in the Grenke Classic in Germany while we played in Kidlington.

    Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen were playing in the Grenke Classic in Germany while we played in Kidlington.

Like last year I ended on 2.5 out of 5, giving me 50%: I suppose that’s pretty reasonable, but it would have been nice to have a win on the second day. Especially since the computer says I missed good moves in both those games. On the other hand, I won because of unforced errors in two other games, so maybe all this stuff evens out in the end.

UPDATED 12.02.2015 My game analysis with comments is here and the full cross-table results for the U-180 section is here.