Spanish - Scottish family

[Giulio Simeone]

Hello,
I'm playing a tournament in northern Italy and tomorrow I play against a 15 year-old girl who plays for the Scottish Federation but whose name and appearance is all but Scottish: Cristina Espinosa Cancino. She has a brother and a sister who also play in the tournament, their appearance is clearly latino - american. Does someone of you know them? I saw on the FIDE website that they play either in Spain and in Scotland, recently they have played in Edimburgh, so almost surely Geoff knows them.

Do they belong to that kind of kids that improve at an impressive rate? I have 450 points more than Cristina, if I lose with her I'm ruined!!

[Alex McFarlane]

She had a big rise in rating two years ago, 100 points last season and 40 so far this.

She is staying in Ayrshire, Scotland now although originally from Spain.

[Giulio Simeone]

I won, Cristina played quite well the first 20 moves but then went short of time and lost herself. Here's the game with some quick comments:

[Event "Arco di Trento (Italy)"] [Site "?"] [Date "2012.10.16"] [Round "4"] [White "Espinosa Cancino, Cristina(1479)"] [Black "Simeone, Giulio(1928)"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "1479"] [BlackElo "1928"] [ECO "B15t"] 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ exf6 {A variation that I play very often and know quite well} 6.Nf3 Bd6 7.c3 O-O 8.Be2 Re8 9.O-O Bg4 10.Be3 Nd7 11.Re1 Nb6 {Aiming at the d5 square.} 12.Nd2 ( 12.c4 {seems bothering but after } 12...Bxf3! {she either loses a pawn or has his king's pawn shelter ruined. Here it happened a funny thing: Cristina took the knight and moved it to the h4 square, then she holded it on that square from some two minutes, finally she changed her mind and moved it to d2!! It is funny that the arbiter, that was walking through the tables, stood at our table and didn't go away until she completed her move, evidently he wanted to make sure that she moved the knight!!} ) 12...Bxe2 13.Rxe2 f5 {Probably this isn't a very good move, there is an open column, so the pieces have to be developed as quickly as possible.} 14.Nf3 h6 {I thought that since the bishop had not many avaliable squares, it would have been a good thing to restrict it even more. Moreover, as there is an open column, it is good to have an escape square for the king ... later we will see that I was right!!} 15.Qd3 f4 16.Bd2 Qd7 17.Rae1 Rxe2 ( {Until that point I played much more quickly than her, but on this move I thought some 20 minutes because I didn't like } 17...Nd5 18.Ne5 {and the f4 pawn seems in trouble. } ) 18.Qxe2 Nd5 {I thought a lot also about} ( 18...Kf8 {but I was a bit afraid of } 19.Qd3 {threatening to enter in h7. For now white controls the open column, but it doesn't seem a big problem as e7 and e8 are well defended.} ) 19.Ne5 Qf5 20.Qf3 Qc2 {This is a good move, I leave white the weak f4 pawn counterattacking on white's queenside pawns.} 21.Bc1 {This is wrong, after that the e5 knight gets pinned and black gets clearly the upper hand. I had calculated correctly that after } ( 21.Bxf4 Nxf4 22.Qxf4 Bxe5 {not} ( 22...f6 23.Qg4 ) 23.dxe5 Qxb2 {black is a bit better, also because he has an escape square for the king, white doesn't ... remember my comment at move 14th!!} ) 21...Re8 22.Bxf4 {She changes her mind and loses a piece!! Here Cristina was already short of time, while I had some 25 minutes left till move 40th.} 22...Nxf4 23.Qxf4 f6 24.h3 fxe5 25.dxe5 Qd3 {White has still two pawns for the bishop and I was a bit afraid of the e6 push, so, remembering some former thrown-away games, I played very cautiosly. After this move white can neither check the king, nor move the pawn that is pinned in two directions!!} 26.Re3 Qd1+ 27.Kh2 Bc7 28.g3 Qd5 {The e5 pawn falls, game is finished. Cristina played on for another uninteresting 25 moves.} 29.Qf5 Rf8 30.Qc2 Bxe5 31.Qe2 Bd6 32.Kg1 Bc5 33.Rd3 Qf7 34.Rd2 Bb6 35.Kg2 Qe8 36.Qc4+ Qf7 {Repeating the moves in order to reach the 40th move more easily ... differently from in the game with Giancotti that I posted some time ago, I was very practical, I didn't want to give my opponent the least chance!!} 37.Qe2 Kh8 38.h4 Qe8 {Again!!} 39.Qf1 Qe4+ 40.Kg1 Qe5 41.Re2 Qxg3+ 42.Qg2 Qxg2+ 43.Kxg2 Kg8 44.f3 {Never give up!} 44...h5 45.Re5 g6 46.Re7 Rf7 47.Re6 Kg7 48.b3 Bd8 49.Kg3 Bf6 50.c4 Rd7 51.Re2 Rd4 52.Rh2 Be5+ 0-1