British 2015 Round by Round

[Tim Harding]

I found three previous games by Keith with 6...Nb6 7 N1f3 Bg4. Here Negi recommends 8 h3 Bxf3 9 Nxf3 saying White is better after 9...e6 but Sveshnikov played this in last year's World Seniors and Keith won.

Adams played 8 Qe2 against Keith at Isle of Man last year so it won't have surprised him; he played 8...Bh5 in that game too and although he eventually lost he must have done some prep on the line. Clearly more than Howell did to judge from clock times.
Houdini said += after either 14 c4 which has just been played or 14 Rd1 offering the b-pawn. Should get interesting.

In Jackson-Williams, Black has also played an unusual move order to avoid any prep based on Negi's book.

[Jonathan Rogers]

I found three previous games by Keith with 6...Nb6 7 N1f3 Bg4. Here Negi recommends 8 h3 Bxf3 9 Nxf3 saying White is better after 9...e6 but Sveshnikov played this in last year's World Seniors and Keith won.

....

...when Sveshnikov went astray from a clearly won position

[Tim Harding]

I found three previous games by Keith with 6...Nb6 7 N1f3 Bg4. Here Negi recommends 8 h3 Bxf3 9 Nxf3 saying White is better after 9...e6 but Sveshnikov played this in last year's World Seniors and Keith won.

....

...when Sveshnikov went astray from a clearly won position

He certainly did; I was there. However Keith clearly thinks the line suits him and presumably found an improvement.
In a previous Seniors event he had a draw against Kalegin in the same line.

[Tim Harding]

Hebden opened 1 d4 Nf6 2 Bf4 and after 2...c5 3 d5 Qb6 4 Nc3 Qxb2 5 Bd2 he had a Vaganian Gambit in the Trompowsky.
Black's 13...Nf8 may be new (and not good)?

[E Michael White]

I found three previous games by Keith with 6...Nb6 7 N1f3 Bg4.

I have 20 games in that line played by Keith who scored 57% as Black.

[NickFaulks]

And there are no doubt many more that you can't find! I expect Keith is happy with where he is at present. Fritz gives White an advantage of about half a pawn, which is what it said after 1.e4, c6!

[JustinHorton]

What's the winning total, do people reckon? I'm guessing that if anybody gets to 8.5 they'll win without a play-off.

[Jonathan Rogers]

I think Nick has a very useful edge on top board

[Michael Flatt]

There an unbelievable amount of echo on today's live broadcast. Impossible to follow Andrew Martin and Ravi.

Does nobody monitor the live broadcast for problems?

The comment below is taken from the Chess24 live chat.

This is beyond ridiculous; it seems the organizers of this broadcast have complete contempt for online viewers. Every day it's another problem. I can only guess what international viewers think about the state of English chess. It matters because the lack of professionalism deters sponsors.

This is a copy of my post on the ECF Forum

[Simon Ansell]

I think Black is absolutely fine in Howell - Arkell and we might have seen a repetition with 21. Nh3 Bc7 22. Ng5 Bf4 etc. if David didn't need to win.

I think Nick has a very useful edge on top board

Looks ok for Black to me after 20. Qb3. I'd rather my f-pawn was back on f7, but White doesn't have any knights, so it's not that big a deal. 20... Bf6 now, presumably.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Yay, I clawed some rating points back.

Arkell's opening line was played in Slade-Arkell, Exmouth 2015.

[Jonathan Rogers]

I think Black is absolutely fine in Howell - Arkell and we might have seen a repetition with 21. Nh3 Bc7 22. Ng5 Bf4 etc. if David didn't need to win.

I think Nick has a very useful edge on top board

Looks ok for Black to me after 20. Qb3. I'd rather my f-pawn was back on f7, but White doesn't have any knights, so it's not that big a deal. 20... Bf6 now, presumably.

I wasn't sure about Nxd5; readers of Dvoretsky's essay on the superfluous knight will know what I mean (both of Black's knights wanted to be on d5, so don't exchange!). It needed a tactical justification, which is not apparent.

[Simon Ansell]

There an unbelievable amount of echo on today's live broadcast. Impossible to follow Andrew Martin and Ravi.

My main problem with the commentary is that Ravi seems to be talking nonsense a lot of the time. The current discussion of Pert - Hawkins, for example Notwithstanding any problems with inadequacies of the live board software, it really shouldn't be that hard to stream a decent quality webcast, and it doesn't need to cost a lot either.

Might have changed my opinion on Howell - Arkell, maybe White does have something.

[JustinHorton]

Yay, I clawed some rating points back.

Did your game end where chess24 says it ended?

[Simon Ansell]

I think Black is absolutely fine in Howell - Arkell and we might have seen a repetition with 21. Nh3 Bc7 22. Ng5 Bf4 etc. if David didn't need to win.

I think Nick has a very useful edge on top board

Looks ok for Black to me after 20. Qb3. I'd rather my f-pawn was back on f7, but White doesn't have any knights, so it's not that big a deal. 20... Bf6 now, presumably.

I wasn't sure about Nxd5; readers of Dvoretsky's essay on the superfluous knight will know what I mean (both of Black's knights wanted to be on d5, so don't exchange!). It needed a tactical justification, which is not apparent.

Yeah, fair enough.