BRITISH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS - THE GAMES

[Michael Jones]

I only have time to play evening league chess, but I am constantly amazed at how swiftly average club players will talk about "drawn" or "won" positions which actually have plenty of play left in them.

I think the first part of that sentence explains the second - at evening league time controls, by the time they get to an endgame both players will probably have less than ten minutes left, so whatever play there may be in the position, no-one gets time to see it.

[LozCooper]

Way back in the thread someone asked about possible norms. I've picked out a few performances after six rounds below:

GM norm possibles (2600 perf):

Jonathan Hawkins 2519
Richard Pert 2480
Jovanka Houska 2475
Adam Hunt 2460

IM norms (2450 perf):

James Adair 2446
Terry Chapman 2417
Ryan Rhys Griffiths 2398
Martin Brown 2394
Peter Shaw 2360

WIM norm (2250 perf):

Maria Yurenok 2152

[Gavin Strachan]

Chapman not had any norms in the past?

Slightly off the thread but if the rule is that only UK players can play in the British Champs (since the commonwealth rejection following Kunte champion in 2003 and the Indians doing particularly well en masse) how did GER/MAS/POL get through the filter? What WLS is beyond me (only joking). Shouldn't these be amended to ENG/IRL/etc if a player now resides permanently in a different country to where they started?

[LozCooper]

Chapman not had any norms in the past?

Slightly off the thread but if the rule is that only UK players can play in the British Champs (since the commonwealth rejection following Kunte champion in 2003 and the Indians doing particularly well en masse) how did GER/MAS/POL get through the filter? What WLS is beyond me (only joking). Shouldn't these be amended to ENG/IRL/etc if a player now resides permanently in a different country to where they started?

They will be listed by the country they appear on the FIDE rating list as. The German resides in the Isle of Man which isn't recognised by FIDE whilst I suspect the Polish players reside here.

[IM Jack Rudd]

The Pole lives in Yeovil.

[Gavin Strachan]

is there a rule that says that you have to reside in the UK for x amount of time to be able to play in the British? Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant is Scottish via marriage.

[IM Jack Rudd]

is there a rule that says that you have to reside in the UK for x amount of time to be able to play in the British?

You must meet either a citizenship criterion or a residency criterion.

Affiliation to one of the six home federations is neither necessary nor sufficient as an eligibility criterion.

[Gavin Strachan]

cheers Jack. You are from the west country. this country is in the UK

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Just played through the games from the top 6 boards. Hawkins-Short was instructive. Was Howell level or better before the Ng5 blunder? I'm still trying to work out what Adams plays if Howell takes the f5 pawn en passant after f5+ was played. Really good run by Jovanka. At the beginning of the tournament, I thought Susan Lalic's start of 2/2 against GMs was going to make the women's title a tough battle, but sadly Susan has lost her last 4 games following that start. Best of luck for the second week to all those trying to get norms. I'm still sticking to my pre-tournament prediction of Howell, Adams, Short, Wells, Jones (though I may regret leaving Williams out of that mix).

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... 258#p65370

Given that three players have reached 5/6, I think a winning score of 8 or 8.5/11 is now looking more likely.

[AustinElliott]

I only have time to play evening league chess, but I am constantly amazed at how swiftly average club players will talk about "drawn" or "won" positions which actually have plenty of play left in them.

I think the first part of that sentence explains the second - at evening league time controls, by the time they get to an endgame both players will probably have less than ten minutes left, so whatever play there may be in the position, no-one gets time to see it.

Another reason might be that the player(s) hasn't/haven't any kind of idea where the winning chance/plan might be.

We were analysing a rook & pawn endgame ( K+R+6Ps vs K+R+6Ps) the other day that came from a recent club game the players had agreed drawn. The player who was clearly better (more space, more advanced pawns, more active R, possible K infiltration path) offered a draw. The player with the (worse) position accepted, unsurprisingly... and he and others in the team said the player with the better game simply didn't realise he had the advantage, or know how to go about trying to exploit it.

Impressed with Short's game yesterday - made me think of some of Tigran Petrosian's games. I remember Fischer saying something about playing Petrosian and trying not to get ground down in a long endgame along the lines of:

"Amazing... every time Petrosian has manoeuvred one of his pieces onto a good square, he manages to come up with an even better one"

[Richard Bates]

If anyone's got a serviceable second-hand black opening repertoire for sale then I'm open to offers. At over 20 year's old i think mine has finally packed up...

[Paul Cooksey]

If anyone's got a serviceable second-hand black opening repertoire for sale then I'm open to offers. At over 20 year's old i think mine has finally packed up...

None of us can offer you anything that will stand up to a 2600 GM in form, I'm afraid. In fairness, I find your comments a bit insensitive to those of us who don't have a white repertoire either.

[Richard Bates]

If anyone's got a serviceable second-hand black opening repertoire for sale then I'm open to offers. At over 20 year's old i think mine has finally packed up...

None of us can offer you anything that will stand up to a 2600 GM in form, I'm afraid. In fairness, I find your comments a bit insensitive to those of us who don't have a white repertoire either.

Oh i don't really have much of one of those either, but you can survive without one

With black, facing a 2100 (who knows how to use a computer for preparation) is as scary as playing someone like Gawain these days. I think the gap in rating performance between white and black over the last year or so is running at about 200 pts (!) and rising rapidly...

[Simon Spivack]

Impressed with Short's game yesterday - made me think of some of Tigran Petrosian's games. I remember Fischer saying something about playing Petrosian and trying not to get ground down in a long endgame along the lines of:

"Amazing... every time Petrosian has manoeuvred one of his pieces onto a good square, he manages to come up with an even better one"

From My 60 Memorable Games, Faber and Faber, SBN 571 09312 4, game 3. Fischer-Petrosian, Portoroz 1958, page 27, note to move 34:

Heading for the strong point on Q4. I was amazed during the game. Each time Petrosian achieved a good position, he managed to manoeuver into a better one.

If anyone's got a serviceable second-hand black opening repertoire for sale then I'm open to offers. At over 20 year's old i think mine has finally packed up...

But that's cutting edge. My theory, where it exists, dates from the sixties and seventies.

Seriously, I believe Gawain has an excellent chance of winning the tournament. He has that attitude of determined opposition which Napoleon highlighted as the real art of making war in his letters to Eugène de Beauharnais in 1813. Gawain's game is far more rounded than many believe. I expect his FIDE rating to increase significantly over the next two years.

[LozCooper]

Just played through the games from the top 6 boards. Hawkins-Short was instructive. Was Howell level or better before the Ng5 blunder? I'm still trying to work out what Adams plays if Howell takes the f5 pawn en passant after f5+ was played. Really good run by Jovanka. At the beginning of the tournament, I thought Susan Lalic's start of 2/2 against GMs was going to make the women's title a tough battle, but sadly Susan has lost her last 4 games following that start. Best of luck for the second week to all those trying to get norms. I'm still sticking to my pre-tournament prediction of Howell, Adams, Short, Wells, Jones (though I may regret leaving Williams out of that mix).

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... 258#p65370

Given that three players have reached 5/6, I think a winning score of 8 or 8.5/11 is now looking more likely.

29 exf6 loses to 29....Nxg5+ followed by Re8+ against either recapture winning the rook on e1. It's an easy tactic to overlook when playing Ng5 as it's not immediately obvious that e1 is hanging on an e-file that has a knight on e6 and pawn on e5.

I will be surprised if no one scores at least 8.5 unless there's a massive tie on 8. Adams probably has three whites to come and has played Howell & Jones so 3.5/5 is only plus two in the last five round.