British Championships 2012 - Games

[Jonathan Rogers]

actually I don't see gawain blowing many good positions. He is really very incisive. He is more likely to struggle getting the good positions in the first place. So, he might beat Kramnik if he gets a winning position, but he wouldn't get there if, eg, he plays like he did today (imagine Kramnik taking over today's game at move 30).

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Were the previous comments in Arkell-Jones referring to the position before or after 40.Rh4? I'm not sure whether the 'resigns' and 'fortress' comments are referring to the position where the queen was lost or where it went back to being the exchange for a pawn. (I can see 36.Rh4 is better than 40.Rh4, so why was 36.Ng1 played? Was the idea to play 40.Rh4?)

EDIT: Was thinking 45...Rf3 was rather nasty, and then Jones played it and Arkell resigned. So that answers my question...

[Jonathan Rogers]

a shock defeat for Richard Palliser apparently, though the obscurity over the final few moves leaves that in some doubt.

[Jonathan Rogers]

beginning to wonder if I have actually finished last in today's prediction competition, though i suppose my Yorkshire opposition would have failed to foresee the defeats for James Adair and Richard ...

[Jonathan Rogers]

ah Jean-Luc weller beat Kolbus. I expect the Yorkshiremen predicted that. But so did I! (you need to gamble a bit on some of these games with over 100 ratings difference...)

[Paul Cooksey]

rather a sudden collapse ...

Certainly, but I'll throw in more annoying "its easy to be clever when you are running Rybka" stuff. The machine is giving white advantage round move 30, but only a fairly small one. Initially it likes white a lot, and gives +1 and +2 in the lines Keith played. But it starts to fall very rapidly, +.3 or so when it finds the h5, qg4, nf4 tactics, some of which are, well inhuman. Trying to justify my earlier comments, there was indeed more potential activity in blacks position than there looked. From bitter experience, it is extremely easy to lose control of the white position in such structures.

Kramnik with White might indeed nurse the small advantage into something bigger. Putting a rook on the h-file before initiating Qb7 type tactics does seem to be a way the machine tries to handle the position. But it needs precision to avoid the reduced pressure on d6 being an issue. Typical really, it looks like White can press however he wants, and objectively maybe he is better. But you needs Kramnik's calculation and precision or the position explodes.

[Andrew Bak]

I've been distinctly unpatriotic today with the predictions and I think I'm gonna be slipping down the leaderboard. I did pick Palliser to win to that's also another 2 points I missed out on... I wonder if that game was a draw rather than an Osborne win, we'll have to wait for confirmation later on I guess.

Shame for Keith, having briefly looked through the comments and looked at the game he seemed to have a nice position, although I can't exactly figure out where he blundered.

I note that the result on Board 23 Harvey-McDonald has been altered to the correct result, we'll have to see what happens on the Palliser game.

[Simon Ansell]

a shock defeat for Richard Palliser apparently, though the obscurity over the final few moves leaves that in some doubt.

That has to be wrong. Given the course of the game I expect Richard won.

[Jonathan Rogers]

why so sure? he really did seem to have most of his pieces on the back rank towards the end.

[Andrew Bak]

It's been put up on the Tournament Director results that Palliser did indeed lose to Osborne. I'm not sure why repeat and then resign, but maybe it was something to do with the time control. I might have to fire up Houdini if I can't figure it out for myself soon...

[Simon Ansell]

On the back rank maybe, but he has one more of the horsey ones at the end. And the game seems fairly logical up to Black's 42nd.

[Paul Cooksey]

It's been put up on the Tournament Director results that Palliser did indeed lose to Osborne. I'm not sure why repeat and then resign, but maybe it was something to do with the time control. I might have to fire up Houdini if I can't figure it out for myself soon...

very mysterious. I don't think Houdini will tell you anything. Hard to understand what might have happened. They are past the time control. If Black had just played Rf4, maybe white could have touched his king and resigned. But with black to move? Strange.

[Jonathan Rogers]

well he would need to mate with it, because black had enough pawns not to worry unduly about an ending. but impossible to know, and it's not even sure there was a repetition. We can at least be sure that Black didn't play ...Rh4 in a position where that would allow N(f3) x Queen on g5!

[Andrew Bak]

I've just notice ....Qf5+ wins the rook on h7, so 43...Qf5+ 44.Kg3 Rg4+ might be enough to force resignation?

EDIT: Scrap that idea, 43...Qf5+ 44.Nf3 looks plausible enough. I'm not having a good day today...

[Simon Ansell]

well he would need to mate with it, because black had enough pawns not to worry unduly about an ending. but impossible to know, and it's not even sure there was a repetition. We can at least be sure that Black didn't play ...Rh4 in a position where that would allow N(f3) x Queen on g5!

He has three pawns left! Are we looking at the same game?

David Howell has made progress... (as predicted - Kd3, Bc2-d1-f3 )