In a 5 board OTB social meet up Ealing v's Fareham:
Dragon Fire went down to Sicilian Smaug who played an unusual line in the Scotch leaving DF a pawn up but in a difficult position. The 30 min time control finished him off. Fareham's honor was restored when Tapestry beat Smaug in the next round after Smaugs 1...g6 response to 1.c4 ended up with muddled black pawns.
Meanwhile Mahout for Ealing totally banjaxed a tactic early in his game making Chopin look like a GM. From here Chopin won so quickly and easily there was enough time on the clock for another before the break. Chopin prevailed again in this more closely contested extra game.
The venue was the comfortable homestead of Dragon Fire himself. Mrs Dragon Fire had taken herself out for the afternoon under the impression that all chess players are weirdos (an opinion Mahouts charm offensive did nothing to change) leaving Dragon's abode as a temple to the royal game for a few hours.
And despite having trained his cat to jump on the board at key moments this still wasn't enough to prevent Dragon Fire losing again as Ealing fielded a former British correspondence champion as a last minute replacement to Marinkatomb (who attended a weekend long party instead).
When asked about the final score players from both teams looked at their shoes muttering something about it being a social game so it didn't matter - presumably both sides thinking they'd lost.
The Smaug then annoyed everyone by reminding them how short a time he'd been playing chess while Ealing scooped up the remaining food before dashing back to London intending to watch England thrash South Africa in the rugby:'(
The highlight of the day was explaining to Sicilian Smaug that the user name "Chopin" is pronounced "show-pan" after the Polish classical composer and not an abbreviation of "Chopping"
Originally posted by Mahout In a 5 board OTB social meet up Ealing v's Fareham:
Dragon Fire went down to Sicilian Smaug who played an unusual line in the Scotch leaving DF a pawn up but in a difficult position. The 30 min time control finished him off. Fareham's honor was restored when Tapestry beat Smaug in the next round after Smaugs 1...g6 response to 1.c4 ended up with muddled ...[text shortened]... how-pan" after the Polish classical composer and not an abbreviation of "Chopping"
seems like a great day of chess. it was very fun to read, thanks.
Originally posted by Mahout In a 5 board OTB social meet up Ealing v's Fareham:
Dragon Fire went down to Sicilian Smaug who played an unusual line in the Scotch leaving DF a pawn up but in a difficult position. The 30 min time control finished him off. Fareham's honor was restored when Tapestry beat Smaug in the next round after Smaugs 1...g6 response to 1.c4 ended up with muddled how-pan" after the Polish classical composer and not an abbreviation of "Chopping"
It was great to see you guys and know that at least 2 other players on RHP are genuine real people, almost human in fact.
Mrs DF was pleased her home was not left in too bad a state even though all the beer was drunk and I will no doubt recover from my 2 losses although I noticed there was no mention of my subsequent wins against unmentioned opponents.
SS Scotch line just goes to show that no matter how hard one tries to improve openings here that when faced with a new line OTB you are still on your own and can get it wrong. No doubt SS knew that I would not be able to resist the temptation to follow a sharp line and grab an offered pawn but it is the sort of thing you can get away with in correspondance with at least a day to think about every move, but OTB with only 30 minutes such lines usually result in time trouble and time trouble ultimately results in blunders. Once my time started to run down the game was too complex and I started falling to bits before resigning 2 pawns down in a opposite B & P end game with 1 second left on my clock. Such is the nature of OTB play and all the players who whinge about losing on time here don't know how lucky they are.
Losses aside I enjoyed the day and hope we can all get together again. Thanks for making the trip after finding out Fareham was not Farnham.
1. e4 e5;
2. Nf3 Nc6;
3. d4 exd4;
4. Nxd4 Bc5;
5. Nb3 (I was unfortunately not familiar with this line of the Scotch so did not play the correct move Bb6, keeping the B where it belongs on the black diagonal. I don't believe my move to be objectively bad and has the advantage of taking us straight out of the book.) Qe7;
6. Nxc5 Qxc5;
7. Nc3 Nf6;
8. Be3 Qb4;
9. Qd2 Nxe4;
10. Nxe4 Qxe4;
11. O-O-O O-O;
12. Bd3 Qa4;
13. a3 d6;
14. h4 Ne5;
15. Be2 Be6;
16. h5 Nc4;
17. Bxc4 Qxc4;
18. h6 g6;
19. Bd4 f6;
20. Rh4 Qa2;
21. Qc3 Rae8;
22. Bxf6 Bf5 (up to now there have been no seriously bad moves and surprisingly Fritz rates black as being slightly ahead which is the way its been since that reckless pawn grab);
23. Qxc7?? (Dreadful, especially considering white had about 8 minutes to blacks 2 minutes on the clock) Qf7?? (In serious time trouble I returned the favour and with it the game.) (Initially I had planned 23... Rf7!! but when I looked at it again (for all of 10 seconds of my remaining 40 seconds) I thought 24. Qxd6?? would lose for me but it does not due to Rd7!! when due to the threat of Qa1+ white must play 25. Qxd7 Bxd7-+ when black will win);
24. Qxf7+ Rxf7;
25. Rxd6 Be4;
26. f3 Bc6;
27. Bg7 Rfe7;
28. Rhd4 Re1+;
29. Rd1 R1e2;
30. R6d2 R8e7;
31. Bc3 a6;
32. Rxe2 Rxe2;
33. Rd8+ Kf7;
34. Rd2 Rxd2;
35. Kxd2 (With time rapidly running out another dozen moves were played before I resigned with 1 second left on my clock.) 1-0
The tactics missed by both sides at moves 23 / 24 clearly show the difference between OTB play and play here as I am sure neither SS or I would have missed the lines I now suggest if fiven a day to think about things.
1. e4 e5;
2. Nf3 Nc6;
3. d4 exd4;
4. Nxd4 Bc5;
5. Nb3 (I was unfortunately not familiar with this line of the Scotch so did not play the correct move Bb6, keeping the B where it belongs on the black diagonal. I don't believ ...[text shortened]... r I would have missed the lines I now suggest if fiven a day to think about things.[/b]
Aren't the normal time controls now-a-days 40 moves in 30, 60, or 90 minutes
Originally posted by Squelchbelch 42 in 90 in our league & club matches.
In my club tournaments it is 40 moves in 30 for preliminary rounds 40 in 60 for main part of the tournament and when there are only 4 left it is 40 in 90.
Dragon Fire OTB Match Report
21 Oct '07 03:211 edit
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