Scottish Championships

[Alex McFarlane]

Today's Scottish Championship games at

Round 2 boards 1-4 http://rs7.blueapricot.com/scottish/2011/r2a/tfd.htm
boards 5-10 http://rs7.blueapricot.com/scottish/2011/r2b/tfd.htm

Especially for Loz!!!

[Richard Cowan]

In this position,

http://www.apronus.com/chess/diagram.ph ... kpr_b_____

Did Prichett really play 25.Qxd6??? Qxe3+ in R.6 against Arakhemia-Grant?
25.RxRf7+ seems to just win from my analysis, eg.
25...NxRf7 (forced) 26.Rf1! Qxe3+ 27.Rf2 (...Qxa3 loses via 28.Rxf7+ Kh6 29.Rxh7+ Kg5 30.Qxe5#) abnd there's no way to save the knight...

Maybe there's some DGT / wrong move issues there...

[Richard Cowan]

Ok, so I missed 25. RxRf7+ NxRf7 26.Rf1 Qxe3+ 27.Rf2 Bf5!

25.RxRf7+ NxRf7 26.Bf8+?! doesn't quite work, though ...Kxf8 27.Rf1! Qxe3+ 28.Rf2 Be6 29.dxe6 is good...
26...Kg8! and ...Bf5 holds (ish)

I do like White seemingly after 25.RxRf7+ NxRf7 26.Bc1!? though, it's not obvious how you stop the d-pawn, as ...e4 loses to 27.Bb2+ Kg8 28.Qc3! Qh6 29.d6!

In fact, that's my new winning line, lol.

[Craig Pritchett]

Came across this while browsing. I'm pretty certain I played the best line. Unfortunately I inadvertently allowed Black to draw by threefold repetition trying to gain some clock time before move 40 ... otherwise my (intended) second bishop deflection sacrifice right at the end after the final move ...Qh4+ - Be3! Qd4xe3+, Kh1 Bxd7, Rf6+, followed by Qxh7+ and Qxd7+ etc just wins (work out the rest for yourself ... it's very easy.

Both bishop sacrifices (Bh5 and the unfortunately unplayed Be3) prevent Black giving perpetual check and are rather a nice pair. Too bad!