Hastings

[Paul Runnacles]

why would Anderson play Bxf5 when Ba2 was a logical consequence of his previous moves , and obvious?!

[John Moore]

Maybe Qa3 - but I have no engine running. But it must be that - Qb1ch Kd2

[IM Jack Rudd]

God, I suck at this game.

[John Moore]

GMs normally see things like Ba2!!

[John Moore]

Hey Jack - what has happened

[Paul Runnacles]

John - I thought that b4 might deal with Qa3 but I too haven't got an engine and I am probably wrong.

[IM Jack Rudd]

I'm on 3 out of 7, losing something like 25 rating points.

[John Moore]

Jack - sorry to hear that - make a couple of wins in the last two rounds. Know it won't really help grading wise. But the stuff you do around the circuit is really important - and I, and others, appreciate your 4NCL stuff.

[Paul Runnacles]

I've just fed the key Gormally -Anderson position into Fritz and Ba2 (rather than Bxf5) looks winning for Anderson. Qa3 is no defence as b4 or Ne2 leave White dead in the water! What a shame for Anderson.

[John Moore]

Wow - I apologise. No-one will be more upset than John Anderson - and a good spot Paul.

[Alex Holowczak]

I'm on 3 out of 7, losing something like 25 rating points.

I have 0.5/4 in Division 5 of the Birmingham League, despite being the highest graded player in the division by about 20 points. So it could be worse...

[David Hamblin]

Greets endgame is interesting.

Does the protected pawn d5 count or are we looking at a draw here?

[James Coleman]

I've just fed the key Gormally -Anderson position into Fritz and Ba2 (rather than Bxf5) looks winning for Anderson. Qa3 is no defence as b4 or Ne2 leave White dead in the water! What a shame for Anderson.

I doubt Anderson missed ...Ba2. Objectively ...Ba2 is best yes but the position after 21.Bd3 Qxb1+ 22.Kd2 Qxb2 23.fxg6 would certainly look quite scary over the board. So he played it safe with ...Bxf5 - which unfortunately proved to be the wrong choice on this occasion.

[David Hamblin]

I've just fed the key Gormally -Anderson position into Fritz and Ba2 (rather than Bxf5) looks winning for Anderson. Qa3 is no defence as b4 or Ne2 leave White dead in the water! What a shame for Anderson.

I doubt Anderson missed ...Ba2. Objectively ...Ba2 is best yes but the position after 21.Bd3 Qxb1+ 22.Kd2 Qxb2 23.fxg6 would certainly look quite scary over the board. So he played it safe with ...Bxf5 - which unfortunately proved to be the wrong choice on this occasion.

I think this is a major difference between IM/GM and lessor players.

IM/GM's will analyse and having confidence in their abilities play the winning variation.

Us lessor mortals look at it,see ghosts,think "it looks scary" and play a lessor move at the critical moment of the game.

This plus the ability to keep the tension makes a big difference between 1-0 and 0-1.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Commiserations to Jack from me too. At least (to look at the positives) he wrapped up his IM title before the recent decline. (Since I only see Jack play in the 4NCL, where he regularly beats IMs and GMs, including during 2009, it is quite a mystery to me how any sort of decline has happened).

There seem to have been two nervous collapses on the "demo" boards today. I feel quite sure that Anderson would have played ...Ba2 against most opponents, and so I think that ...Bxf5 was an unfortunate case of "trusting the GM" (not sure that Anderson has beaten many, or any, GMs, as opposed to IMs). (Since writing this I have seen David's post, with which I agree). As for Hawkins' unsound piece sac (also unnecessary since he may have stood slightly better at the time) - well, I think that is the Howell effect. He knew that David would fight to the last even if he was a bit worse, and so copping out with a timely draw offer was not an option. But that is just what he has been doing of late - Hawkins has played draws in his last four games! - and I don't think he was ready for a long hard fight with Howell. Thus he tried to force a quick conclusion, with a predictable result.

Ansell may get to 5.5/7 - an excellent score, aided perhaps by rather friendly pairings of late but let's not go into that again ...