Pokerstars IoM 3-11 Oct 2015

[Keith Arkell]

Maybe. I think she didn't want to damage her structure and give me the option of a quick minority attack with b4-b5, or perhaps play Qc2 and Bd3. You might be right though. I wondered during the game whether...exd5 might be better.

[Barry Sandercock]

Can Nigel Short win his game (move 63) ? Unless he can get the Queens off, I don't think he can.

[Keith Arkell]

seeing so far in advance (in keith's given line) that Black could retreat with ...Kd7 first and then Kd5 Ke7, so that e6 would not come with check, is impressive.

Going back to the round 4 game again ( thanks Jonathan, by the way!) there was another line I had to check before rejecting the K+P ending, but it involved something that every Russian schoolboy knows, viz: ( W: Kd4, Rg5, ps a3, e3, h4; B: Kd6, Ra5, ps a5,g6,h5) 46 Ke4 Ke6 47 Kf4 Kf6 48 e4 Kg7 ( 48...g5+?? 49 hg+ Kg6 50 e5 h4 51 e6 winning for White) 49 Kg5 Kf7 50 a4 Kg7 51 e5 Kf7 52 Kh6 Ke6 53 Kxg6 Kxe5 54 Kxh5 Kf5 55 Kh6 Kf6 56 h5 Kf7 57 Kg5 Kg7 58 Kf5 Kh6 59 Ke5 Kxh5 60 Kd5 Kg5 61 Kc5 Kf6 62 Kb5 Ke6 63 Kxa5 Kd7 64 Kb6 Kc8 drawing. Note that if the pawns were on a5 vs a6 then White is winning.

Coincidence fanatics might enjoy the fact that in the following round, my opponent's husband, GM Naiditch, who joined us in the post-mortem, had a similar K+P ending against Granda-Zuniga. Again there was no way to win. And meanwhile, again in the following round, I had a similar R+P ending against another of the strong contingent of female players here, and again it was a draw!

[Keith Arkell]

Can Nigel Short win his game (move 63) ? Unless he can get the Queens off, I don't think he can.

I think the answer is yes! Nigel should be able to grind this one down

I think he will just need to be careful not to allow any totally drawing series of checks.

[Barry Sandercock]

Not so easy to avoid the checks though.( Move 83)

[Barry Sandercock]

Oh yes, you were right Keith, Nigel wins now ( move 99)

[John Moore]

Old boy might need a rest tomorrow - although when you are on a roll.

[Tim Harding]

Old boy might need a rest tomorrow - although when you are on a roll.

Well done Nigel. Over seven hours play is tough, even at 50 years young.

It's not clear whether Black resigned or lost on time at move 106.

Who's staying up late for the start of Millionaire Chess?

[John Moore]

Won't be me, Tim - got to stay awake tomorrow for the IOM - notice that Gawain is creeping up there. Impressed with Nigel's win though. Movsesian is a serious player.

[Tim Harding]

Won't be me, Tim - got to stay awake tomorrow for the IOM - notice that Gawain is creeping up there. Impressed with Nigel's win though. Movsesian is a serious player.

Just kept an eye on a few games while watching Ireland beat Germany at soccer (!!).
It will get interesting in a couple of days; today was GMs v 2300 players.
There were a couple of forfeits on high boards - either players didn't arrive as expected or missed the default time.
Yu Yangyi got a walkover and Wang Hao forfeited.

Most amusing was Wesley So as Black. His opponent Albert Hernandez (USA 2327) turned up 12 minutes late and then they blitzed out a Gruenfeld but after 4 Nf3 Bg7 5 Bg5 Ne4 White immediately played 6 Qc1?!, evidently a pet line. Wesley thought 17 minutes and replied 6...c5 whereupon White played 7 Nxd5?! in under a minute, still in prep presumably.

Wesley had another long think and played 7...Nc6! which must have surprised White as he didn't have an instant reply. Evidently he didn't prepare deeply enough. After 7 Qf4? (4 minutes) 7...Qa5+ 8 b4? Nxb4 Black was already winning.

There's a lesson here about how NOT to play when you get a once in a lifetime game against a world top player. We saw the same with that player who was lost in 8 moves against Mickey Adams a couple of days ago in a Scandinavian, or the guy against Topalov last year in the London Classic. He evidently supposed Topalov had blundered in the opening (how likely was that?), grabbed material and it was over in half an hour...

[MartinCarpenter]

Well with that last one you probably owe yourself at least finding out what you're missing

[Tim Harding]

Well with that last one you probably owe yourself at least finding out what you're missing

Actually my recollection was slightly out; it was January this year in Gibraltar. Here's the game and Black's 11th was the naive move:

[Event "Tradewise Gibraltar Masters"] [Site "Gibraltar"] [Date "2015.01.29"] [Round "3.20"] [White "Topalov, Veselin"] [Black "Guerrero Vargas, Andres"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A46"] [WhiteElo "2800"] [BlackElo "2320"] [PlyCount "41"] [EventDate "2015.01.27"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "10"] [TimeControl "6600+685"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. g3 b5 4. Bg5 Bb7 5. Nbd2 Be7 6. e3 Ne4 7. Nxe4 Bxe4 8. Bxe7 Qxe7 9. c3 e5 10. Bd3 Bxd3 11. Qxd3 e4 12. Qxb5 exf3 13. Qb7 O-O 14. Qxa8 Nc6 15. Qb7 Rb8 16. Qxc7 Rxb2 17. Qc8+ Nd8 18. O-O h5 19. Rab1 Rxb1 20. Rxb1 Kh7 21. Qc5 1-0

[Roger de Coverly]

Wesley had another long think and played 7...Nc6! which must have surprised White as he didn't have an instant reply. Evidently he didn't prepare deeply enough. After 7 Qf4? (4 minutes) 7...Qa5+ 8 b4? Nxb4 Black was already winning.

7 . .. Nc6 appears to be an idea not previously played in practice. Whether this was preparation or just a move "obvious" to a top 20 GM remains to be resolved.

[Jonathan Rogers]

....

There's a lesson here about how NOT to play when you get a once in a lifetime game against a world top player. We saw the same with that player who was lost in 8 moves against Mickey Adams a couple of days ago in a Scandinavian, or the guy against Topalov last year in the London Classic. He evidently supposed Topalov had blundered in the opening (how likely was that?), grabbed material and it was over in half an hour...

"That player" isn't exactly a stranger. Let's be familiar with his name: yesterday Alan Merry recovered to beat his second GM of the event ...

[Mick Norris]

Yes, and good luck to Alan today with black against GM Grandelius

I assume Alan is currently heading for another norm performance
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