British Championships 2012 - Games

[Paul McKeown]

Couldn't agree more with the opening theory debate. A couple of years ago I spent time studying the dragon, and wasted a lot of time which could've been spent on other things. In my opening this morning I didn't have a clue really what to do, played a weird move (f5) and then played chess. It makes playing chess more fun as well instead of just repeating moves

Thomas, Black's play looked indecently ugly to me*, but nevertheless coherent and was ultimately rewarded with a draw. I didn't think much of 8. Nf3. Why shouldn't you simply have played 8... Bxc3+ at this point? I think 8. Nge2 was more to the point, when I don't really think Black has much value for his f5 pawn jab: white squares shot and not much to show for it. You got round to it with 10... Bxc3, though, and never looked back, so well played!

Wasn't the opening a Schmidt Benoni, if only by transposition? Not really sure what is meant by a "sniper", though, it all seems to be a Hyper-accelerated Pterodactyl to me, plus a bit of added marketing.

* that's a complement, by the way, if backhanded

[ThomasThorpe]

8.Nge2 was played in the game I found in my database, and white won in convining fashion. i considered Bxc3 earlier, but there was some reason which I can't remember for the life of me what it was! Maybe I was just seeing ghosts, I'm not sure.

One thing about the f5 push which benefited black was the psycological shock of a move which looks horrific! I haven't looked at many opening lines with g6 against d4, I just play thing logically and see what happens; chess is much more fun like that

[Paul McKeown]

chess is much more fun like that

You certainly seemed to be having fun today!

[Simon Ansell]

[Event "British Championship U16"] [Site "North Shields"] [Date "2012.07.25"] [Round "4.4"] [White "Wang, Maria (1743)"] [Black "Foster, Chantelle L (1809)"] [Result "1-0"] [LiveChessVersion "1.4-b19"] [BlackElo "1809"] [WhiteElo "1743"] [ECO "B76"] 1. e4 {[%clk 1:39:57]} c5 2. Nf3 {[%clk 1:39:46]} d6 {[%clk 1:39:49]} 3. d4 {[%clk 1:39:40]} cxd4 {[%clk 1:39:46]} 4. Nxd4 {[%clk 1:39:33]} Nf6 {[%clk 1:39:39]} 5. Nc3 {[%clk 1:39:24]} g6 {[%clk 1:39:28]} 6. Be3 {[%clk 1:39:18]} Bg7 {[%clk 1:39:22]} 7. f3 {[%clk 1:39:10]} O-O {[%clk 1:39:11]} 8. Qd2 {[%clk 1:38:57]} Nc6 {[%clk 1:39:00]} 9. O-O-O {[%clk 1:38:48]} d5 {[%clk 1:38:36]} 10. exd5 {[%clk 1:38:34]} Nxd5 {[%clk 1:38:19]} 11. Nxc6 {[%clk 1:37:58]} bxc6 {[%clk 1:38:01]} 12. Bd4 {[%clk 1:37:47]} Nxc3 {[%clk 1:36:53]} 13. Qxc3 {[%clk 1:37:38]} Bh6+ {[%clk 1:36:10]} 14. Be3 {[%clk 1:37:25]} Bxe3+ {[%clk 1:35:53]} 15. Qxe3 {[%clk 1:37:18]} Qb6 {[%clk 1:34:48]} 16. Qxe7 {[%clk 1:36:57]} Be6 {[%clk 1:33:55]} 17. Qa3 {[%clk 1:36:46]} Rad8 {[%clk 1:32:57]} 18. Bd3 {[%clk 1:36:11]} Rd5 {[%clk 1:30:49]} 19. b3 {[%clk 1:35:18]} Rfd8 {[%clk 1:25:54]} 20. Rde1 {[%clk 1:34:52]} Bf5 {[%clk 1:06:05]} 21. Bxf5 {[%clk 1:15:19]} Rxf5 {[%clk 1:02:09]} 22. Re2 {[%clk 1:09:32]} Qb8 {[%clk 0:49:08]} 23. Qe7 {[%clk 0:54:36]} Rfd5 {[%clk 0:37:06]} 24. Qf6 {[%clk 0:43:40]} Qb4 {[%clk 0:30:00]} 25. Kb2 {[%clk 0:38:34]} R5d6 {[%clk 0:24:23]} 26. Qc3 {[%clk 0:37:13]} Qb8 {[%clk 0:22:37]} 27. h4 {[%clk 0:27:12]} h6 {[%clk 0:12:40]} 28. f4 {[%clk 0:17:45]} Rd5 {[%clk 0:10:05]} 29. h5 {[%clk 0:15:42]} Qxf4 {[%clk 0:06:41]} 30. hxg6 {[%clk 0:15:30]} fxg6 {[%clk 0:06:08]} 31. Re7 {[%clk 0:14:27]} Qf8 {[%clk 0:05:37]} 32. Rxa7 {[%clk 0:13:54]} Rc5 {[%clk 0:05:05]} 33. Rf1 {[%clk 0:08:15]} Rxc3 {[%clk 0:03:27]} 34. Rxf8+ {[%clk 0:08:14]} Rxf8 {[%clk 0:03:26]} 35. Kxc3 {[%clk 0:08:11]} Rf2 {[%clk 0:03:14]} 36. a4 {[%clk 0:07:58]} Rxg2 {[%clk 0:02:56]} 37. a5 {[%clk 0:07:33]} h5 {[%clk 0:02:38]} 38. a6 {[%clk 0:06:23]} Rg1 {[%clk 0:01:56]} 39. Rb7 {[%clk 0:05:17]} Ra1 {[%clk 0:00:55]} 40. a7 {[%clk 0:05:10]} h4 {[%clk 0:00:31]} 41. Rb8+ {[%clk 0:04:36]} Kg7 {[%clk 0:00:24]} 42. a8=Q {[%clk 0:04:29]} Rxa8 {[%clk 0:00:19]} 43. Rxa8 {[%clk 0:04:24]} h3 {[%clk 0:00:11]} 44. Kd4 {[%clk 0:03:39]} 1-0

That looks like a really good, mature game by White. Maria Wang plays for my old club Cowley in Oxford that has a strong junior tradition. Good to see Cowley still churning them out!

Edit: I didn't notice but Chantelle Foster also is Cowley! If they know each other well that could explain the long theoretical variation.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Well, that was surprisingly easy:

[Event "British Championship"] [Site "The Parks, North Shields, ENG"] [Date "2012.07.25"] [Round "3.30"] [White "Hoare, Amy B"] [Black "Rudd, Jack"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "1958"] [BlackElo "2295"] [PlyCount "68"] [EventDate "2012.??.??"] 1. Nf3 Nc6 2. c4 e5 3. Nc3 f5 4. d3 Nf6 5. g3 Bc5 6. Bg2 d6 7. O-O O-O 8. a3 a5 9. e4 Qe8 10. Nd5 fxe4 11. Nxf6+ Rxf6 12. dxe4 Bg4 13. Qd5+ Kh8 14. Nh4 Nd4 15. Bg5 c6 16. Qxc5 dxc5 17. Bxf6 gxf6 18. f3 Be6 19. Nf5 Bxf5 20. exf5 Qf7 21. Rad1 Qxc4 22. Rfe1 Rd8 23. f4 exf4 24. gxf4 Rg8 25. Kh1 Rxg2 26. Kxg2 Qd5+ 27. Kg1 Nf3+ 28. Kf1 Nxe1 29. Rxd5 cxd5 30. Kxe1 b5 31. Kd2 Kg7 32. Ke3 Kh6 33. Kf3 Kh5 34. Ke3 Kg4 0-1

Time used: white 1 hour 34 minutes, black 11 minutes.

[Krishna Shiatis]

.... His opponent collapsed rather rapidly in the face of such outrageous levels of commonsense!

Hi Paul,

Have to disagree here. Both lads played really well and the game did swing a couple of times - it was dead level I think at move 40, when black played a move which seems right but is not. I would not have spotted it correctly in a million years and I can not imagine many below the grade of 160 spotting it in a game.

It was a tough result for black, but having met him a couple of times now, I know he will come back stronger and that he will know he did really well. I know that I will see the white player in action very soon at the Europeans and the quality of his play today to finish it nicely, bodes well for his International debut.

[Ben Purton]

Is Nb5 not a bad idea here for Hugh "Uncle of Anarchy" Murphy?

[JustinHorton]

Piece sacrifice by Howell, I think.

Why does the live display claim that James Adair has got (0)?

[Phil Neatherway]

I was wondering if Hawkins would try some sort of g5 idea.

If Black takes on f4, can White win easily with Qh5 followed by Be4?

[Simon Ansell]

Is Nb5 not a bad idea here for Hugh "Uncle of Anarchy" Murphy?

take on e5 and Qc6 is the answer, I guess.

[Andrew Bak]

To the untrained eye it's looking like Hugh's pawn sacrifice isn't going to work in the long term sadly for him.

The Hawk has come back with a big counter-strike 19...Nxe5! He's such a good calculator I wouldn't be surprised if he foresaw all this before Howell's 17th move.

Still no results on the top 25 boards yet, nice to see all the games being played in a competitive spirit!

[Simon Ansell]

The Hawk has come back with a big counter-strike 19...Nxe5! He's such a good calculator I wouldn't be surprised if he foresaw all this before Howell's 17th move.

I think Hawkins is close to lost, David has either 20. Nb7 or 20. Nf7, both of which probably win back the piece with a large advantage immediately.

[JustinHorton]

Should he actually reach the time control, of course.

[Jonathan Rogers]

agreed.

Generally, I have the feeling that I will not be leading the Yorkshire prediction competition this evening ...

[Simon Ansell]

I actually thought 20. Nf7 looked stronger, but I'm doing other things at the same time and might have missed something.