Greetings players and fellow patzers 🙂
I had continued success last weekend over-the-board, this time in Scarborough.
I won 5 games out of 5, picking up a cheque for £500
however people are accusing me of being a shark...
Whilst my grade is still low, I am making the most of it by entering the lower sections of these tournaments.
Things will become more difficult in January after my grade goes up.
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I will share three of the games in full, rounds 3, 4 and 5.
Rounds 1 and 2 were nervy blunder fests, both of which I was lucky to win.
From Game 1, after Rf7+ Black (me) has just played Re7
My opponent had to play Rxe7+, anything else lost the Knight...
...he played Ra1-f1, met by Rxg7+ 0-1
Game 2, I had missed tactic after tactic, each one dropping a pawn.
Against a better opponent I may have resigned, but anything can happen at this level.
Here I am White, currently 2 pawns down and just played Nd1-f2
I have a discovered attack on the Bishop.
Here, Bc3 or even Ra8 are both fine and Black should win.
Instead, he played f5... dropping the Bishop on a1.
More mistakes followed and the central pawns were soon taken, 1-0.
Round 3 to follow.
Game 3 - Brian Bonnyman (ECF 92) vs Zak Tomlinson (ECF 105)
An old opening that I used frequently on this site some years ago, which I'd not seen for a little while, is played against me.
My opponent makes an unsound Bishop sacrifice and later on another error seals his fate.
Out of 76 entrants, surprisingly, only three of us had 3/3 after the 3rd round.
I end up playing both the other two, in rounds 4 and 5.
Game 4 - Kiat Huang (ECF 110) vs Zak Tomlinson (ECF 105)
This was probably the toughest game in the tournament for me, an interesting one,
both of us spent an hour after the game discussing it with a computer and a player from the open section.
The game starts quiet and progresses logically until a slight error from White occurs,
before making a very committal decision which fires the game open.
The other fellow on 3/3 also won, somehow by timeout.
(we have 110 minutes plus a 10sec increment per move, so this was surprising)
We co-leaders would face each other in the final round.
Game 5 - Zak Tomlinson (ECF 105) vs David Summerland (ECF 103)
This player plays fast, never spending more than a minute on a move,
which made me understand how his previous opponent managed to lose on time.
Before the game, he joked with the table next to us that we should all agree to a draw
so that me and him could tie 1st on 4.5pts, where nobody else could catch us.
I smiled and nodded, but really I would be playing for the win... it's in my nature.
My opponent was clearly not prepared for a battle and wanted an early draw,
which only reflects in the result.
I believe that if you are coming to the board with the intention of drawing then you are not playing in the spirit of the game.
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So, not many lessons to be learned from this tournament I'm afraid, other than the usual suspects.
i.e. piece development, protect pawns, castle early etc.
Here's the final results cross-table for those interested:
http://chess-results.com/tnr377124.aspx?lan=1&art=4
(they spelt both my names wrong... and my rating is wrong)
As usual, I hope this was either useful or entertaining for you in some way!
My next tournament will be in Preston, once again in the lower section.
Details and online entry below:
http://congress.popmalc.org.uk/congress/36/home
Until next time, cheers all.
Zak
@64squaresofpain saidCongratulation! So in USCF talk, 105 is around 1700?
Thanks guys.
To be honest, I don't ever expect to win that sort of prize money in a competition ever again,
but you never know, lightning could strike twice.
@sonhouse saidI'm not even sure if it's that much, think I remember seeing a formula for rating conversion.
Congratulation! So in USCF talk, 105 is around 1700?
ECF to USCF is, I believe, rating x 8 + 700
so 105 x 8 + 700 = 1540
This year though, I've had a draw vs a 150 player (would be 1900 USCF) and beaten a 132 (1756 USCF)
I'm not sure how accurate or trustworthy this formula is, but it's only a rough guide.
I doubt it's actually used for any events.