Being one of the lower seeds in my section I was not surprised to be outgraded in round one, a circumstance I would suffer throughout the congress. At least I had white, against Robert Taylor (Preston, not Fenton). This would be my first longplay game since April, so it would be interesting to see whether various club quickplays and friendlies have kept the rust from my game.

RR v Robert Taylor after 6 ... Nf6

r1bqk2r/ppp2ppp/2nb1n2/4p3/2B5/2N1PN2/PP1P1PPP/R1BQ1RK1 w
Neither of us tried anything too ambitious in the first few moves, so rapidly reached the position shown left. RR's immediate concern is to make sure he doesn't end up with a backward pawn on the half open d-file. After a brief consideration of both Qc2 and d3, RR plumped for the more expansive d4:
7 d4 O-O Black can play the cramping e4 without loss of material:
7 ... e4, 8 Ng5 appearing to win material by forking e and f pawns
8 ... 0-0, 9 Ngxe4 (f3 better) Nxe4, 10 Nxe4 Bxh2+, 11 Kxh2 Qh4+, 12 Kg1 Qxe4 evening things up on the material front, though white's central pawns should give him an edge.
8 d5 Ne7, 9 e4 a6, 10 a3 Ne8, 11 b4 f6, 12 Be3 g6
13 Qb3 Kg7, 14 Nd2 g5 Unexpected. Had anticipated f5 with intent to launch a fullscale frontal attack on my king, though in truth I felt comfortable about this too as our slow build-up has left his pieces tripping over each other.
15 b5 b6, 16 bxa6 Bxa6, 17 a4 Kh8,
18 Rfc1 Ng7, 19 Bb5 Nh5, 20 g3 Nf4

RR v Robert Taylor after 20 ... Nf4

r2q1r1k/2p1n2p/bp1b1p2/1B1Pp1p1/P3Pn2/1QN1B1P1/3N1P1P/R1R3K1 w
Now what? I still don't see his attack going anywhere. Perhaps take off the white squared bishops, and then Qc4 to keep his knight out of e2 and d3. Instead RR chose the inferior:
21 Nc4 Nd3, 22 Rc2 Nc5, 23 Qb1 Bxb5, 24 Qxb5 Nb7 Another unexpected play - thought I'd be confronted by the knight on c5 for a long time.

25 a5 Nxa5, 26 Nxa5 bxa5, 27 Rxa5 Rb8, 28 Qc4 Rb4
29 Qa6 Qd7, 30 Bc5 Bxc5, 31 Rxc5 Rfb8 The continuous queenside pressure that has left black's c-pawn as a target has also worn him down mentally, and this blunder should effectively end the game provide white is careful.

One of the biggest battles in chess, particularly between players of a similar standard, is trying to reach positions in which you feel comfortable, and the opponent doesn't. Sometimes you don't seem able to prevent a game developing along lines not of your choosing, yet sometimes one can't resist the dangerous temptation to deviate from ones normal territory. After a day and a half of nudge-nudge wink-wink chess RR couldn't resist the temptation to indulge in some thud and blunder, despite knowing his opponent is reputed to be comfortable with tactical maelstroms. Putting the game on Fritz afterwards certainly checked that the bulbs in his red and yellow lights hadn't failed.

We join the game with Ben considering his ninth move.

RR v Ben Scattergood after 9 Bg2

r2qk2r/ppn1ppbp/3pbnp1/1Pp5/2P5/P2P1NP1/1B2PPBP/RN1QK2R b
9 ... d5, 10 Nbd2 Qc8, 11 Qa4 Being in a crude rather than Sunday best mood, RR encourages Ben to castle as too quick an attempt to exchange white squared bishops
11 ... Bh3, 12 Bxh3 Qxh3, 13 b6+ costs a piece.

11 ... O-O Normal service is to castle and grind on. Today however: 12 h4 dxc4, 13 dxc4 Nce8, 14 Ng5 Bd7, 15 Qc2 Nd6 Perhaps he is still expecting me to castle short so wants to keep bishop and queen lined up against h3, but it seems better to play Qc7 freeing access to d8 for his a-rook whilst seeing whether I really have an attack.

16 h5 Nxh5, 17 Bxg7

RR v Ben Scattergood after 17 Bxg7

r1q2rk1/pp1bppBp/3n2p1/1Pp3Nn/2P5/P5P1/2QNPPB1/R3K2R b
17 ... Kxg7, 18 Rxh5 h6 (check for yourself why gxh5 is not a good idea)
19 O-O-O Bf5 Alan told me afterwards that he had seen this position when looking around between moves in his own game, noticing that I had three pieces en prise. Luckily it was my move!
20 Qc3+ f6, 21 Rxh6 Kxh6, 22 Rh1+ Kg7, 23 Rh7+ Kg8

RR v Ben Scattergood after 23 ... Kg8

r1q2rk1/pp2p2R/3n1pp1/1Pp2bN1/2P5/P1Q3P1/3NPPB1/2K5 w
Now what? The pinned f-pawn stays so if I grab the e-pawn, which I probably should. Instead RR selects the inferior e4. Hitting pieces is nice, but doesn't he prefer his bishop on g4 anyway? As you can tell I'm running out of ideas, and beginning to think that perhaps I'll need to get in Bxb7 at some point so that my queenside pawns can win an endgame. Fortunately Ben is still playing without his a-rook.

24 e4 Bd7, 25 Rxe7 Ne8, 26 Nh7 Rf7, 27 Rxf7 Kxf7
28 e5 Kg7, 29 Ng5 (Nxf6 more powerful)
29 ... fxg5, 30 e6+ Nf6, 31 Ne4 Qf8, 32 exd7 Rd8
33 Nxg5 Qe7, 34 Bxb7 Rxd7, 35 Bd5 Kh6 The king moves, but the knight is still pinned.
36 f4 Qg7, 37 g4 Qf8, 38 Ne6 Qh8, 39 g5+ Kh7, 40 Qxf6 Qxf6 Black can't stop the queens coming off, so that despite white's shortage of time, mopping up operations are straightforward - not that RR doesn't miss a mate in one at the end.
41 gxf6 Kh6, 42 Kd2 Rf7, 43 Ke3 Rxf6, 44 a4 Kh5, 45 a5 Rf7
46 b6 Kg4, 47 b7 Rh7, 48 Bf3+ Kg3, 49 b8=Q a6, 50 f5+ Kh4
51 Qf4+ 1-0