November 2010


Thu 18th: Clueless
Fri 19th: Heavy Weather
Sat 20th: Slow Starter Prize
Sat 20th: A quickie
Sun 21st: Squashed
Sun 21st: Going Polish
Wed 24th: Mindset
Fri 26th: Missed opportunities
Sat 27th: Back on track
Sat 27th: Petunias
Sun 28th: Double drab

Thu 18th: Clueless
The first half of the month was a bit of a wash out for RR, a match against Cheddleton A being postponed and another against Fenton A cancelled due to their withdrawal. Thus the month starts with the visit to Alsager in the Open Cup where RR had the white pieces against Ben Zitha. A somewhat confused opening by RR led to the position shown after 13 moves. I cannot claim to be proud of the fact that both a3 and h3 have been played, nor of my possession of a backward d-pawn.
RR v Ben Zitha after 13 ... Qb6

I can see Nc6 coming to put more pressure on d4.
14 ... Bxf3, 15 Qxf3 Qxd4 is an immediate threat to win a pawn, though the time it then takes black to extract his queen to safety can be used to good effect by white to centralise his rooks and launch a kingside attack with bishops and queen. However RR prefers to maintain material equality:
14 g4 Bg6, 15 b4 Nc6, 16 Be3 Rac8, 17 Bxg6 fxg6
Ben gets the f-file for his rroks at the cost of potential problems with his e-pawn.
18 Kg2 Rf7, 19 Ng1 Rcf8, 20 Ne2 g5, 21 Qd2 Qb5
Amber and red have been Fritz's preferred traffic lights for much of this game - clearly neither of us know how best to play this position. To prove the point we engage in some shadow boxing aimed at black's queen, though she will only be trapped if Ben is particularly careless.
22 Nc3 Qb6, 23 Na4 Qa6, 24 Qc2 h6, 25 Nb2 Bd8
RR v Ben Zitha after 25 ... Bd8

Looks like the bishop is coming around to b6 for more pressure on the d-pawn. Offering the exchange of queens with Qd3 is surely most sensible as black's only refusal is Qb6. However the foggy matter masquerading as RR's brain came up with
26 Nd3 Be7 Possibly I should now be looking to offer a draw, but there is no sign yet that this is desirable from a match situation - just a couple of draws taken elsewhere, so I continue with the unsubtle
27 Rfb1 Qb6, 28 Qb2 Qb5, 29 Rd1 Qa4, 30 Rac1 a5
31 Nc5 Bxc5, 32 bxc5 Rb8, 33 Rd3
RR v Ben Zitha after 33 Rd3

A blunder that we both missed: 33 ... Nxe5 wins a pawn since taking the knight allows Qe4+ picking up the rook. Fortunately Ben is more interested in extricating his queen:
33 ... Ne7, 34 Rb3 Qd7, 35 Qc2 RR's thoughts are still in defensive mode. Must be better to start asking questions with Rb6. Black's a-pawn could soon be vulnerable, and he would have to keep an eye on his e-pawn too.
35 ... Nc6, 36 Rb6 Rff8, 37 Rcb1 played like a man with all the time in the world. Qg6 surely called for.
37 ... Qf7, 38 Qe2 Qg6
RR v Ben Zitha after 38 ... Qg6

39 f3. No. No. No! Just take the b-pawn. Simple. Whilst f3 takes e4 away from the black queen a) there is no obvious menacing follow up to the check and b) the f-pawn is no longer protected by the bishop.
39 ... Rf7, 40 R1b2 'tis the f-pawn that needs more protection, not the second rank, so R1b3 should be the move.
40 ... Rbf8, 41 Rxb7 Offering the exchange of queens on c2 is RR's last real hope, but with time running out he played grab and hope, which turned out to be grab and hopeless.
41 ... Rxf3, 42 Qxf3 (Bg1 less bad) Rxf3
43 Kxf3 Qe4+, 44 Kf2 Nxd4 Bye-bye lots of pawns. RR struggled on for another half dozen moves, though the result was never in doubt.

To crown a bad night the team lost too. Time to cry.
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Fri 19th: Heavy Weather
Twenty four hours on from my random work at Alsager found me lining up for the first round of the Torquay Congress with black against Omer Narouk. Omer kindly gifted me an early edge:
Omer Narouk v RR after 4 ... Bf5

5 Bd3 (normal) Bxd3, 6 cxd3
This voluntary doubling of the d-pawns is supposed to give white control over centre squares, but doubled isolated pawns are surely a longterm target that black will enjoy.

6 ... e6, 7 0-0 Nc6, 8 Nc3 Be7, 9 Nxd5 Qxd5 RR is very happy to exchange material whilst keeping the d-file half open.

10 Be3 0-0, 11 a3 Rfd8, 12 Rc1 Rac8, 13 Qe2 Qh5 vacating d5 for a rook and making sure that any kingside plans that white has are stillborn.

14 Rfe1 Rd5, 15 Rc4 a6, 16 Qd2 Bf6, 17 Rec1 h6 Thinking of launching the g-pawn. However black has neglected to consider the fate of his queenside and his knight is now tied to c6 and his b-pawn immobile.

18 Qc3 g5
Omer Narouk v RR after 18 ... g5

19 Rc5 Rcd8 As so often happens neither player is covering themselves in glory. White could have sacrificed the exchange on c6, picking up at least two pawns as well. Black meanwhile should have removed the c5 rook immediately, as with d-pawn pinned white has to recapture with the queen leading to it being on a square it has no desire to occupy.

20 h3 Qg6 still declining the obvious Rxc5
21 Qb3 Rxc5, 22 Rxc5 (dxc5 Qxd3) Be7 achieving nothing. Removing the d-pawns from circulation is better.
23 Rc3 Na5 Not Rb7 leading to immediate death of knight.
24 Qa4 Nc6, 25 Qb3 and sane black's can find nothing better than repeating the position. But RR and sane are not commonly bedfellows.
Omer Narouk v RR after 25 Qb3

25 ... Bd6, 26 Qxb7 Ne7, 27 Ne5 Qh5, 28 Qf3 Qxf3
29 Nxf3 Rb7 a5 required first to prevent the b-pawn advancing.
30 Rc2 Rb3, 31 Ne5 Nd5, 32 Bc1 f6, 33 Nc4 Rxd3
34 Nxd6 cxd6, 35 Rd2 Nf4 36 Kf1 Kf7 37 g3 Rxd2
38 Bxd2 Nd5 (38 ... Nxh3, 39 Kg2 g4, 40 Bxh6 and black could be vulnerable on the queenside. This would still be true had the black king been on g7 protecting the h-pawn.)

39 Ke2 h5, 40 f3 Ke7, 41 Kd3 Kd7, 42 Ke4 Kc6
43 g4 hxg4, 44 hxg4 Kb5, 45 b3 Kc6, 46 Kd3 Ne7
Omer Narouk v RR after 46 Kd3

47 a4 Kd5, 48 b4 Kc6, 49 Bc3 Nd5, 50 Bd2 Nb6 pulling the a-pawn forward
51 a5 Nd7, 52 Kc4 d5+ the reason for the knight not going there
53 Kc3 Kb5, 54 f4 gxf4, 55 Bxf4 e5, 56 dxe5 fxe5 and RR is looking to call the tune with knight and centre pawns against bishop and pawns on opposite wings.

57 Bd2 Kc6, 58 g5 Nf8, 59 Kd3 Kb5 the king had no need to leave this square

60 Kc3 Ng6, 61 Kb3 d4, 62 Be1 e4, 63 Kc2 Kc4
64 Kd1 e3, 65 Kc1 d3, 66 Kd1 Kb5, 67 Bc3 Kc4
68 Be1 d2, 69 Bg3 Kd3 0-1
The knight is close enough to a1 should white give up the bishop for the central pawns 69 bxd2 exd2, 70 Kxd2 Kxb4, 71 Kd3 Kxa5, 72 Kc3 Kb5
73 Kb3 a5, 74 Ka3 a4, 75 Ka2 Kb4, 76 Ka1 Kb3
77 Kb1 a3, 78 Ka1 Nf4, 79 Kb1 a2+, 80 Ka1 and the knight reaches c2 before the g-pawn queens.

Methinks I should have found a bigger advantage earlier when the major pieces were still on. Still a points a point. Back to my hotel which tonight is charging £29. Tomorrow its £34 and Sunday £19. Sorting costs out for hotels is getting as bad as finding the best tickets on the railways.
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Sat 20th: Slow Starter Prize
Saturday morning. A leisurely breakfast and a stroll up to the venue via a paper shop found RR in relaxed mode for the start of round two. Waiting to take advantage was friend and old foe Brendan O'Gorman. We join the game after 7 mundane moves.

RR v Brendan O'Gorman after 7 ... 0-0

Nd5 would now be a fairly normal RR-type continuation, a standard case of preventing a pawn move (d5) by the opponent by occupying the square concerned yourself. Continuing development with Bd2 is also natural, but RR chose Rb1 to protect the b-pawn and remove the rook from the long diagonal occupied by black's dark square bishop. So far so sound.
8 Rb1 d5, 9 cxd5 Nxd5, 10 Nxd5 A poor choice. Bd2 is natural, as is a3 to keep the knights out of b4.

10 ... Qxd5, 11 Qd2 compounding the error by failing to notice that the queen recapture threatened the a-pawn. No surprise that Brendan helped himself to the booty on offer.

11 ... Qxa2, 12 Qc2 Nb4, 13 Qxc5 Qxb1, 14 Qxb4 Qa2 electing to avoid any chance of his queen being trapped, though by molesting whites minor pieces with Qc2 black more readily gets to see the full advantage of the exchange. A natural continuation would be
14 ... Qc2, 15 Bd2 a5, 16 Qc3 Qxc3, 17 Bxc3 (bxc3 and the a-pawn is very powerful) and black can start preparing for his round three opponent.

15 Bd2 a5, 16 Qb5 Be6, 17 Bc3 the e-pawn could and perhaps should have been taken, but a pawn is coming back anyway as black's b-pawn is now also vulnerable.

17 ... Qb3, 18 Qxb3 Bxb3, 19 Nxe5 (Bxe5 takes the bishops off, with the simplification presumably being to black's liking. Capturing this way means that if black does exchange material white at least has the bishop pair)
19 ... Rfd8, 20 f4 b5, 21 Nc6 Bxc3
RR v Brendan O'Gorman after 21 ... Bxc3

22 bxc3 (Nxd8 Bxb2 and the a-pawn is too powerful)
22 ... Rd6, 23 Nd4 a useful fork drawing the materialistic response
23 ... Ba4, 24 Ra1 White is back in the game with a vengeance. Not only is the black bishop out of moves but it's presence on a4 prevents the advance of the queenside pawns.

24 ... Rb8, 25 Kf2 Kf8, 26 Ke1 Ke7, 27 Kd2 Kd7
RR v Brendan O'Gorman after 27 ... Kd7

For the past few moves RR has been trying to judge the best time to play c4. Maybe it should have come earlier; but it does come now:
28 c4 Ra6, 29 Ra2 Kd6, 30 cxb5 Bxb5, 31 Nxb5 Rxb5, 32 d4 revealing both an attack on the rooks by the bishop and the purpose of the earlier Ra2 which was to prevent the escape from this set up by Rb2+. RR is about to be a pawn up in a rook and pawn ending.

32 ... Rab6, 33 Rxb5 Rxb5, 34 e4 f5, 35 e5+ Kd5
36 Kc3 Ke6, 37 Kc4 Rd5, 38 Rb2 Rd7, 39 d5+ Ke7
40 Ra2 Ra7, 41 Ra4 Rc7+, 42 Kb5 Rb7+, 43 Kc6 Rb4
44 d6+ Kd8, 45 Rxa5 Rc4+, 46 Kd5 1-0 So for this game I ended in the winners enclosure, but I could have done without the slow start.

Ever sociable Brendan joined me for a light lunch in the coffee shop attached to the nearby Abbey.
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Sat 20th: A quickie
My next opponent turned out to be John Nyman, who I had played previously in the last round at Exmouth this year. John again had the white pieces. An early exchange of material on d4 at least meant I didn't have to worry about queens.
John Nyman v RR after 9 Nxd4

9 ... e5 greedy and the cause of a lot of problems. Bd7 would have been better, and probably a few other things too. Guess I'm too used to f3 retreats and didn't consider the obvious continuation.
10 Nb5 Na6, 11 N1c3 Bd7, 12 b3 Be7, 13 Bb2 glad not to see Be3
13 ... 0-0, 14 Bf3 Bc6, 15 Nd5 Nxd5, 16 Bxd5 Rfd8 Considered e4, but discounted as Rfe1 now gives problems
17 Rfd1 Nb4 the knight jumps to b4 one move too late since after Nc7 by white black cannot move the a rook to d8. e4 now would have been a satisfacory option. Seem to be suffering from right ideas at the wrong time.
18 bxc6 Nxc6, 19 Nc7 Rac8, 20 Nd5 ½-½

A sterile final position in which neither of us had the energy to start again.

Chip supper, a pint whilst watching live footie on TV, then back to base.
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Sun 21st: Squashed
Some games just go downhill almost from the start. In his fourth round game at Torquay RR was still even after a dozen moves against John Waterfield, but then things started to go wrong.

RR v John Waterfield after 12 ... Be6

Obvious ideas are to disrupt the centre with f4, prevent the knight coming to d4 with e3 or the old chestnut of placing a rook on the same file as the enemy queen with Rc1. Unfortunately RR came up with a less obvious variation:
13 Qc2 Qd7, 14 Nf3 Nd4, 15 Bxd4 cxd4, 16 Qd2 Rac8
17 Rfc1 Rc3, 18 Rxc3 dxc3, 19 Qc2 Qe3 surely better, for the queen is not a piece that should normally be used as a blockader. Looking back it is easy to see ways of preventing the creation of the passed pawn on c3. Unfortunately it is foresight we need, and for some reason, having allowed the creation of the passed pawn, RR does nothing to prevent support arriving.

19 ... Rc8, 20 Kf1 Qe7, 21 Ng1 b5, 22 e3 f5
23 Ne2 a5, 24 Rd1 b4, 25 d4 e4 and although white now also boasts a passed pawn his cramped postion is a clear disadvantage.
RR v John Waterfield after 25 ... e4

RR squirmed for the best part of 40 more moves, but John is too strong and careful a player to let that distract him. One to the bad guys, except of course John is one of the nice guys.
For the record the remaining moves were
26 Kg1 Rd8, 27 Nf4 Bf7, 28 Bf1 g5, 29 Ng2 Qc7
30 Rc1 Rb8, 31 Be2 Bd5, 32 Rd1 Qf7, 33 Ra1 Rb6
34 Kh1 Bf8, 35 Bd1 Qc7, 36 Qe2 Bb7, 37 Qc4+ Qf7
38 Qxf7+ Kxf7, 39 Bc2 Ke6, 40 Kg1 Ba6, 41 Ne1 Be2
42 Bd1 Bd3, 43 Bc2 Be2, 44 Bd1 Bxd1, 45 Rxd1 a4
46 Nc2 Ra6, 47 Ra1 Kd5, 48 Kf1 f4, 49 exf4 Can't allow f3 and Rh6
49 ... axb3, 50 axb3 Rxa1+, 51 Nxa1 gxf4, 52 Nc2 f3
53 Ke1 Bg7, 54 Nxb4+ Kxd4, 55 Kd1 e3, 56 Nc2+ Kd3
57 Nxe3 Bd4, 58 Nc4 Bxf2, 59 Ne5+ Ke4, 60 Ng4
Nxf3 with intention to use b-pawn as distraction to win c-pawn and leave black with rook pawn and wrong bishop isn't going to work. But then, nor is anything else. Why am I still playing?
60 ... Bd4, 61 Kc2 h5, 62 Nf2+ Bxf2, 63 Kxc3 Be1+ Enough!

No, it wasn't clear to me what I was trying to achieve at every point either. Guess the basic premise was one of "Can you find a way in?". He could.


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Sun 21st: Going Polish
Those who know me will not be surprised that I don't have pet lines ready for all white's possible openings, so when Andy Heard opened 1 b4 against me in the last round I was already out of my opening preparation. Perhaps I would start thinking early enough in proceedings to give a better account of myself than in earlier rounds.

1 b4 f5, 2 Bb2 Nf6, 3 Nf3 e6, 4 b5 a6
5 a4 Bc5,6 e3 0-0, 7 Be2 axb5, 8 axb5 Rxa1
9 Bxa1 b6, 10 0-0 Bb7 11 c4 d5, 12 Qa4 Nbd7
13 Nc3 Qa8, 14 Bb2 Qxa4, 15 Nxa4 Bb4, 16 d4 h6 have been concerned about the possibility of the knight coming to g5 to molest my e-pawn for some time, but there have always seemed to be more important things to do.

17 h4 Ne4, 18 Rc1 Ndf6, 19 c5 Ra8, 20 Bd1 Ra5
21 cxb6 cxb6, 22 Nxb6 Rxb5, 23 Na4 Ng4, 24 Rc2
Andy Heard v RR after 24 Rc2

24 ... Bd6 with intention of stopping Rc7. However Ra5 causes more problems.
eg 24 ... Ra5, 25 Nc5 Bxc5, 26 Nexf2 c6, 27 Be2 Ra2 with clear advantage or
24 ... Ra5, 25 Rc7 Nexf2, 26 Bb3 Rb5 and white has no compensation for his material deficit; indeed black also has the e3 pawn in his sights.

25 Ne5 Ngxf2 A touch of panic. Bxe5 is fine as the f3 fork comes to grief after the return fork Nxe3.
26 Rxf2 Nxf2, 27 Kxf2 Bxe5, 28 dxe5 Bc6, 29 Bd4 Rb1
30 Nc3 Rb2+, 31 Kf3 g5, 32 hxg5 hxg5, 33 g4 Kf7
34 Kg3 Rd2, 35 Bf3 perhaps intending pressure on the d5 pawn, but in practice taking an important square from the white king

Andy Heard v RR after 35 Bf3

35 ... f4+, 36 Kh3 fxe3, 37 Bxe3 Rd3, 38 Nd1 Ba4
39 Bxg5 Bxg1 0-1

A win to end with took RR to 70% and a tie for third. A definite case of the score being better than the chess. An entertaining evening meal in the company of Brendan, Tim Allen and Alan Fraser rounded off the weekend nicely.
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Wed 24th: Mindset
Back to the North Staffs League and a division two fixture against Macclesfield. The progress of the RR v Geoff Laurence game was clearly affected by the mindset of the two players. Early on RR had the chance to shove his d-pawn far into black's guts, but unused to such manoevre's and believing that Geoff must have played such positions before and would happily undermine such an advanced pawn, RR took a slower route.
RR v Geoff Laurence after 5 ... Qh5

6 e4 e5, 7 Nb5 Bd6, 8 Nxd6+ cxd6, 9 d5 Ne7
10 Bb5+ Bd7, 11 Qa4 Qg4, 12 Bxd7+ Qxd7, 13 Qxd7+ Nxd7 Geoff is the first to be afflicted by the "get castled" mindset. Kxd7 would
a) move the king to guard the important c-file and
b) force Nd2 from white to guard his e-pawn, gaining several tempi for black as white slowly unravels his pieces.

RR v Geoff Laurence after 13 Qxd7+

14 Be3 0-0, 15 Rc1 Rfc8, 16 0-0 Cleverly connects his rooks, but Ke2 achieves the same and keeps the king closer to the coming endgame action. perhaps if Kd2 was possible RR would have found it, but the d2 square is still needed for the knight. So RR also succumbs to the castling temptation.

16 ... b6, 17 b4 h6 The players take it in turn to ignore the centre. Black has had two chances to play f5 with threat to isolate the d-pawn, with white unable to respond Nd2 because f4 would then win a piece. White belatedly turns his attention to his central problem:

18 Nd2 f5, 19 f3 f4, 20 Bf2 Rxc1, 21 Rxc1 Rc8
22 Rc4 Kf7, 23 Kf1 the kings start to return to the centre they should never have left

23 ... Rxc4, 24 Nxc4 Nc8
RR v Geoff Laurence after 24 ... Nc8

RR's thoughts are too set on controlling squares so fails to play b5. In practice for black to play Nc5 in response would be suicidal - the bishop removes the knight and the recapture with the b-pawn gives white a winning queenside majority. Progress was more pedestrian:
25 Ke2 Ke7, 26 Kd3 g6, 27 a4 a6, 28 Kc3 g5

We are well into endgame territory here, and RR has already turned down one draw offer, and does so to another that comes later. RR feels he is calling the tune and is playing for a win, Geoff would appear to be content with a truce, and keeps his king close to the quenside to prevent any tricks on that wing. Lots of moves are wasted in the chosen line in an attempt to time correctly the arrival of pieces onto their desired squares, so don't expect every move to make sense.
29 Kb3 Kd8, 30 g3 Kc7, 31 h4 fxg3, 32 Bxg3 Nf6
33 hxg5 hxg5, 34 Bh2 Nh5, 35 Bg1 Nf4, 36 Be3 Kb7
37 Kc2 Kc7, 38 Kd2 Kb7, 39 Nb2 White wishes to continue his king march back to the kingside, but does not wish yet to exchange his bishop for the f4 knight, so has to cover d3.
39 ... Kc7, 40 Bg1 Ng6, 41 Nd1 small change of plan brought on by black's unexpected retreat
41 ... Nf4, 42 Ne3 Ne7, 43 Bh2 Nc8, 44 Nf5 Kd7
45 Bg1 Nh3, 46 Be3 Nf4, 47 a5 b5, 48 Ng7 Ne7
49 Bb6 Neg6, 50 Nf5 Ne7 (... Nh4, 51 Nxh4 gxh4 forces white onto the defensive. Indeed RR has been acutely aware for some time that black must have some chances of causing problems on the kingside)
51 Ng3 Neg6, 52 Be3 clang! now Nh4 wins the f-pawn. Fortunately Geoff has a "prove you can find a way in" mindset
52 ... Ne7, 53 Nf1 Neg6, 54 Nh2 Nh4, 55 Bxf4 gxf4
RR v Geoff Laurence after 55 ... gxf4

This latest exchange has reset the poition to even, but white still intends to probe further on the kingside.
56 Ke2 Ng2, 57 Ng4 Ke7, 58 Kf2 Nh4, 59 Nh2 The king can only progress via g1 and h2, so first the f-pawn needs protection. This gives plenty of time for black to bring his king into play, but it proves to be a cowardly piece, preferring home comforts.

59 ... Kf6, 60 Nf1 Ke7, 61 Nd2 Kd7 (the knight could be intending to sacrifice itself on b5 so that the a-pawn escapes to victory, though the black knight still has time to retreat to cope with that.)
62 Kg1 Ng6, 63 Kh2 Kc7, 64 Kh3 Kd7, 65 Kg4 Ne7
66 Nf1 Ng6, 67 Kg5 Ne7, 68 Nh2 Ng8, 69 Ng4 Ne7 With white's king and knight advancing black will find it impossible to keep both out.

70 Nf6+ Kd8, 71 Kh6 Nc8, 72 Kg6 Ne7+, 73 Kf7 Nc8
74 Ng8 (Ke6 quicker) Kd7, 75 Kf6 Na7, 76 Ne7
RR v Geoff Laurence after 76 Ne7


At this point the clock intervened in RR's favour, though the position is clearly won for white. A credible continuation: 76 ... Kd8, 77 Ke6 Kc7, 78 Ng6 Nc8, 79 Nf8 Na7
80 Nd7 Nc8, 81 Nb6 Nxb6, 82 axb6+ Kxb6, 83 Kxd6 a5
With white to queen first with check it really is all over.
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Fri 26th: Missed opportunities
RR completed a busy second half to November by competing in the Preston Congress. The weather was cold, though at least Preston was spared the snow inflicting most of the rest of the country; the chess I fear was not much hotter. As I'm rather behind with the diary my reports of most of the games will be skimpier than usual.
Round one, white against Alan Barber, and for once RR got the better of the opening. Unfortunately such occurrnce is so rare that RR doesn't really know how to force home the advantage in double quick time. We join the game with RR having completed his development by castling, it will take black at least four more moves to connect his rooks.
RR v Alan Barber after 10 0-0

10 ... Qe7, 11 e5 for some reason RR couldn't bring himself to believe in Qg5
11 ... Nd5, 12 Ne4 0-0, 13 a3 A waste - Nd6 would have prevented Nb4 anyway
13 ... f5, 14 Nd6 N7b6, 15 b4 Rb8, 16 Ng5 Bd7
17 f4 h6, 18 Nf3 Be8, 19 Rac1 Bh5, 20 Be2 Bxf3
21 Bxf3 a6, 22 Rc2 Rbd8, 23 Rfc1 Rd7, 24 g3 Nc8
RR v Alan Barber after 24 ... Nc8

25 Bxd5 exd5 having taken advantage of the pinned c-pawn to create a supported passed e-pawn RR's normal style would be to exchange material and slowly squeeze a victory. Today he elected to try a more esoteric approach:
26 Nxb7 Rxb7, 27 Rxc6 Nb6, 28 R1c5 Rd8, 29 Rd3 Qf7, 30 e6 failing to take the a pawn because of a fear of Ra8 in response. However closer examination shows that the fears are unfounded:
30 Qxa6 Ra8, 31 Qd3 Nc4, 32 e6 and 33 Rxd5 emerging with 4 pawns for the knight.

30 ... Qh5, 31 Ra5 Qe8, 32 Rac5 Qh5, 33 Kg2 Nc5
34 Rxd5 Ne3+, 35 Qxe3 Rxd5, 36 Rc8+ Kh7, 37 e7 Rxe7
38 Qxe7 Rxd4 and RR emerges a pawn up.
RR v Alan Barber after 38 ... Rxd4

However with his own king exposed RR spent too much time unsuccessfully seeking simplification, and when thirty moves later he was ready to share the spoils found he had insufficient time on his clock to prove the draw, and so lost on time.
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Sat 27th: Back on track
Next up was Neil Coward, who I had beaten a few weeks ago at Scarborough. There seemed to be nothing much in terms of advantage to either side by he time fifteen moves had passed.
Neil Coward v RR after 15 ... N7b6

16 Bxd5 cxd5 An unexpected exchange. I think I gain more from reconnecting my c-pawn to its pals than I lose by no longer being able to launch a frontal attack on his d-pawn.
Neil Coward v RR after 28 ... B(f6)g7

And by move 29 things were definitely under control.
29 Rac1 Qc7 Missing the chance to simplify and win a pawn by
29 ... Rxc1, 30 Rxc1 Rxc1+, 31 Bxc1 Qb4

30 Qd2 RR gets a second chance. Carnage on c1, followed by Bxd4+, and the rest as they say is technique 0-1.
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Sat 27th: Petunias
Before the beginning of morning play we had been warned that that day Preston was playing host to a political demonstration and a counter demonstration, whilst Millwall were also in town. The general consensus was to back the Millwall supporters. Despite the dubious quality of this entertainment I spent the break in town - it does have a Waterstones after all, and as so often the bookshop proved to be bad for my wealth. My health however was fine, for the demonstrators were causing no problems.
Back to the venue. The bowl of petunias in The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy is famous for thinking "Oh no, not again" during it's all too brief appearance. I was in place to see my opponents reaction when first he caught side of the draw, and though possibly worded slightly differently, he clearly shared the petunias' sentiments. Yes, it is time for another installment in the RR v Jon Blackburn show.
RR v Jon Blackburn after 12 ... 0-0

RR had already lost white's natural initiative by the time both players castled on move 12. RR now starts looking for a minority attack in the queenside, though his attention is soon diverted to deal with Jon's kingside prodding.
13 a3 Rfe8, 14 b4 Ne4, 15 Qc1 a rook belongs here Qg6
16 Bf3 h5 Not sure where that's going, but let's remove some minor pieces anyway.
17 Bxe4 dxe4, 18 Ne2 Bg4, 19 Nf4 Qg5
RR v Jon Blackburn after 19 ... Qg5

20 Qc5 Told you there should have been a rook on c1. More to the point RR's desire to remove the black queen from the g-file dominated more sensible thoughts such as removing the bishop first with h3. Move in haste, repent at leisure.
20 ... Qxc5, 21 bxc5 g5, 22 h3 gxf4, 23 hxg4 hxg4 Don't like the look of my d-pawn if I play exf4, though with the help of rooks and king I think I can hold it. Nevertheless I elect to turn my attention to making use of the half-open b-file, and play on a pawn down.
24 Rab1 Re7, 25 Rb3 f3, 26 Rfb1 Rb8, 27 a4 a5 I feel a pawn coming my way
RR v Jon Blackburn after 27 ... a5

28 Rb6 Rc7, 29 Ra6 bxa6, 30 Rxb8+ Kg7, 31 Rb6 Kf6
32 Rxa6 Too quick to grab the pawn. Make use of the pin with d5 and d6.
32 ... Ke6, 33 gxf3 Have been worried about the limited mobility of my king for some time, but getting him to g3 via h2 is surely a better solution. I was of course relieved when a pair of rooks came off earlier as this meant that there was no longer any possibility of being embarrassed by doubled rooks on the h-file. However now I can just take the a5 pawn - black can't do anything useful with the b-file if he claims it. It is amazing how taking time out from the active approach to "solve" some defensive problems allows the opposition back into the game.
33 ... gxf3 34 Kh2 Kd5, 35 Rb6 f6 A slightly curious half move, based presumably on the kings inability to defend both c6 and f5. However
35 ... f5, 36 Kg3 Rg7+, 37 Kf4 Rg2 and black picks up the f2 pawn for his f5 one, leaving the f3 pawn as the most significant feature on the board. White cannot play 38 Rb2 as Ke6 then leads to mate.

36 Kg3 Rg7+, 37 Kf4 Rg2, 38 Rb2 Rg5, 39 Rb8 Rg2
40 Rd8+ Kc4, 41 Kxe4 Rxf2, 42 Rf8 Rf1, 43 Rxf6 f2
44 Kf3 Kd3, 45 Rxc6 Mopping up time. Black can't play Kd2 and Ke1 as white responds Rb6 and Rb1+. The game continued for a few more moves, but we already knew the result.

Game over, it was soon time to repair to Wetherspoons in the company of Brendan, Tim, Alan and former Newcastle player James Rothwell, who is happy to report that he is gainfully employed.
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Sun 28th: Double drab
Sunday morning found RR black against Dave Boulden in a game whose interest was in what nearly happened instead of what did. Edges were acquired and then frittered away through inaccuracies, but the result was that it took us the whole session and 66 moves to reach a position about to become K+N v K, with Dave's bishop being used to neutralise RR's pawn advantage.

Equally uninspiring stuff in the afternoon by RR with white against John Shakespeare transformed a promising early position into a minor piece ending in which RR's passed pawn was probably only partial compensation for black's bishop pair. However we shook hands on a draw before the thirty move mark, which had the by-product of enabling RR to get home in time to find the kitchen tap part frozen. Turning it on initially only a dribble of water came out, but that gradually increased presumably as the flowing water melted a small piece of ice. A silver lining to the cloud of poor chess - had we played any longer I would have had to catch a later train and perhaps would have had a larger plumbing problem.

Overall the weekend was still enjoyable, and in truth Sunday's chess was not as colourless as I might be leading you to believe. However RR didn't deserve the extra half point he would have needed to get on the prize list, so he can't complain about the outcome.
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