Report – 19 September 2008
Allegro tournament
Results:
Nathan Shaw 2 Peter Ford 0
Greg Colwell 1 Josh Ford 1
Greg Colwell 2 Peter Ford 0
Mark Taylor 1 Nathan Shaw 1
Four sets of games were played tonight. The following report is supplied by Nathan:
Nathan v Peter
2-0
The first game Peter was white and I defended with a Sicilian. Peter castled
kingside and I fianchettoed kingside. Peter had a knight sitting on g5 for a
lot of the game, but was not able to get any troops around it to capitalise on
the strong position. We decided afterwards that, had Peter supported the knight
with an early pawn advance along the f file, he would have had a strong attack
with few defensive weaknesses. With Peter's f pawn sitting on its heels, I was
able to force an exchange of his strong white squared bishop on b3 for
my bad knight, which in turn enabled the advance of my own f pawn. This
led to a retreat of Peter's strong knight and a choice for him of losing a
piece or seriously blowing his king's pawn cover. He chose the former and I was
able to exchange down to a relatively easy endgame.
In the second game I played a slightly offbeat and very aggressive opening that
rarely gets white an advantage in long time controls, but works well on the
short ones. Peter made a few too many knight moves early on and allowed me at
least 3 tempi development and a kingside pawn storm that proved decisive.
Mark v Nathan 1-1
In the first game I again played a Sicilian and, thinking I was in a
strong position about to blow open Mark's kingside, Mark moved his knight (to
my astonishment), leaving his queen en pris but threatening mate in one if I
took it. This played havoc with my pawn structure, gave Mark a good
attack. He declined the opportunity to snap up a couple of free pawns and
instead went for the jugular. The critical point came with a position something
like (black to move):
White: a2, b2, c3, d3, f2, g2, h2, Kg1, Re1, Ra1, Be3, Qc4, Ng5
Black: a7, c5, e5, e6, e7, g6, h7, Kf6, Ra8, Qd8, Rh8, Bg7, Ng4
After considerable thought I grabbed the extra piece with NxB, thinking play
would continue 1.Qxe6+ KxN 2. fxN, which I thought would allow my king just
enough time to get back to safety. I did not consider 2 RxN instead, which was
the move played. From there Mark methodically and easily forced mate.
In the second game it was Mark's turn to play a Sicilian and we were pretty
even about 15 moves or so moves in. After that, I played a move that won a
pawn, but also threatened to win a piece. In reality it would have given me one
or two more pawns only, but Mark let more than half his time wind down and
resigned in a position that was certainly not totally lost in short time
controls.
Allegro Trophy 2008: Current standings
All players to play 22 games
|
No. |
NAME |
POINTS |
PLAYED |
|
1 |
Andrew Robinson |
8.5 |
10 |
|
2 |
Kieran Lyons |
5.5 |
8 |
|
3 |
Nathan Shaw |
5.5 |
8 |
|
4 |
Brian Willcock |
4.5 |
10 |
|
5 |
Mark Taylor |
4 |
12 |
|
6 |
Russell Lyons |
3.5 |
6 |
|
7 |
Greg Colwell |
3.5 |
6 |
|
8 |
Josh Ford |
3 |
8 |
|
9 |
Tony Howes |
2 |
2 |
|
10 |
Peter Ford |
2 |
8 |
|
11 |
John Roper |
0 |
0 |
|
12 |
Joseph Curtain |
0 |
6 |
Allegro tournament 2008 results in detail
Quote of the night
No quote.