English Chess Forum

Well I thought the idea after 18 .. Qd7 was to go 19 Nd6 Bd6 20 Bb6 but it's probably all garbage.

John Moore wrote:Well I thought the idea after 18 .. Qd7 was to go 19 Nd6 Bd6 20 Bb6 but it's probably all garbage.

Engines think 17 Bxb5 is suspect, suggesting instead just conceding the Bishop pair with Bxb6 and retreating the Knight back to b3. Admittedly they think it marginally worse. The Nxd6 idea is the only way to stay in the game, with the line played in the game assessed as lost. Earlier I suppose White has to try to maintain initiative by trying a4 and f4 in some sequence. Actually the engines don't like 16. Na5, suggesting that the immediate 16. Bxb6 retains equality.

Not sure what's more relevant, Marcus Harvey's 2 rooks on the 7th, or the respective clock times (1hr 13 mins vs 3 mins 10 secs)!!

Phil Neatherway wrote:Not sure what's more relevant, Marcus Harvey's 2 rooks on the 7th, or the respective clock times (1hr 13 mins vs 3 mins 10 secs)!!

Black has now reached the safety of move 40. It appears they are using the spectator and player unfriendly approach of not showing the correct clock times for a few moves after the first time control The addition of time for the next time control won't take place until one player hits zero time. I'd expect the passed a pawn to win without much difficulty.

And, indeed, it did!

Is Simon Knott looking at 30 h4 - the idea is to clear a route to d7.

Stewart Reuben wrote: We were perfectly prepared to play some token moves as you Keith did in round 2... I loathe the idea of concocted games, especially if it isn't at all obvious this is what they are.
Gallagher v Arkell British Championship last round Scarborough 1999. A 3 move draw, if I remember correctly. I never discussed it with you, but I suspect this was NOT pre-arranged.

Jonathan and I had no idea what moves each other would play, Stewart.

Corrections: Scarborough 2001, it was 5 moves and Joe offered the draw. I wrote at great length in 'Arkell's Odyssey' about how angry I was with myself after throwing away the chance to play for the British title, and how I redeemed myself when I next played in the event 7 years later.

Of the 3 draws which you have publicly suggested were, might have been or probably weren't pre-arranged ( ie the 2 mentioned above and my round 3 game mentioned in your report last year) somewhere between zero and one of them actually was pre-arranged.

In general, to those who went off topic to take a pop at my occasional quick draws with friends, feel free to email me and I'll direct you to 100s of marathon length games in which I ground away trying to win positions which most players would have given up as draws hours earlier

Roger de Coverly wrote:

David Sedgwick wrote: However, the entry form for the London Chess Classic Open states quite clearly "Untitled players can take up to three half-point byes between Rounds 1-8 provided they are requested before the end of the previous round" (my emboldening).

Am I missing something?

Definition of Untitled? FMs (Andy Smith (and others?) in round 1) and IMs (John Cox) were allowed half point byes.

This is exactly the kind of muddle I had in mind when I posted. In this case the rules didn't differentiate between eg IMs and GMs, but when I requested a bye I was refused on the grounds that if I ended up doing well then players might complain. Anyway I've made my point and now rest my case. Let's get back to the chess...

Keith Arkell wrote:In general, to those who went off topic to take a pop at my occasional quick draws with friends, feel free to email me and I'll direct you to 100s of marathon length games in which I ground away trying to win positions which most players would have given up as draws hours earlier

The games inputters union can attest to this.

Sean Hewitt wrote:

Keith Arkell wrote:In general, to those who went off topic to take a pop at my occasional quick draws with friends, feel free to email me and I'll direct you to 100s of marathon length games in which I ground away trying to win positions which most players would have given up as draws hours earlier

The games inputters union can attest to this.

Especially the one who was paid to input his entire games collection some years ago

Stewart wrote..

Similarly it is 40 moves in 90 minutes. A plays 1 e4 and B is present. But he sits there for 90 minutes without making a move until his flag falls. He is 'thinking' about his first move. A scores the point, B scores zero, but it is not a rated game.

This actually happened in a high profile London league game circa 1988 - 1990

A friend of mine told me about it.... My friend was a younger player at the time and perhaps a bit brash. He was playing on board 1 for Kings Head chess club at the time. Before the match started he was horseplaying around (don't know the exact details) and his own match captain gave him a slap. It certainly seemed to have an effect as my friend simply sat down at the board waited for his opponent to arrive shook hands and after his opponent played the first move my friend calmly sat there for the whole game and allowed his flag to fall. He then shook hands with his opponent and signed his score sheet 1-0.

I am not sure if the game was rated but I believe Kings head lost the match as a result of losing 1-0 on their top board.

Keith Arkell wrote:
In general, to those who went off topic to take a pop at my occasional quick draws with friends, feel free to email me and I'll direct you to 100s of marathon length games in which I ground away trying to win positions which most players would have given up as draws hours earlier

Completely agree with the above. I'm not sure why the original comment about the quick draw was posted, but it was entirely unnecessary and antagonistic.

Live games looking good to go, shame I am at work as usual.

Keith, you are and always have been a gentleman at the board, and as you know, we first played about 40 years ago? Stewart's comments wide of the mark and unnecessary, not for the first time, and no doubt not the last.

Well done to Bernard Cafferty making a draw with James Jackson.