Greetings players and fellow patzers 🙂
Over Easter Weekend, I played in a 4-day 7-round event, the longest I've done so far.
The section I entered was the FIDE rated Under 1825.
There's a dispute over whether the ECF or the FIDE ratings of players are more trustworthy.
In particular, there were many junior players in the U2050 section
who's playing strength was at least 200 points higher than their listed rating.
My own rating at the moment is 1660, I'm not even sure how I got it.
I simply turned up hoping to play well and have some good games worth sharing.
I'll share all 7 games, in separate posts as usual... hopefully you'll find them enjoyable!
The time controls were 90 minutes + 30secs increment for all moves.
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Game 1 - Zak Tomlinson (1660) vs Neal Fisher (1473)
I had faced Neal last year in Telford, where he played very aggressively and very fast.
He came at me like a train, I managed to defend well and in the end he fell to a tactic and lost.
I was a little worried to face him in the opening round... would he come out guns blazing again?
Game 2 - Graham Neil (1540) vs Zak Tomlinson (1660)
This was a classic London System vs King's Indian, with me on the Black side.
I recall making a thread about this sometime ago... Thread 171892
It's funny that in the past 2 years my opinion on this battle has not changed much!
Game 4 - Zak Tomlinson (1660) vs Michael Dunkley (1777)
After playing the section's 2nd highest rated player in the previous round, I now meet the top seed.
It was a French Exchanged, which I had decided I was going to play when discussing over a pint
the night before, where a friend told me that Michael usually plays the French against e4.
There is an argument that the Exchanged variation does not create many opportunities for White,
at least compared to the Advanced, however I simply wish to avoid central pawn lock-downs.
Did my decision pay off?
Game 5 - Zak Tomlinson (1660) vs Ron Usharovsky (1609)
Heading into this game, I was the only person on 4/4.
My opponent, one of two brother's in the same section, was a junior player rated ECF 147.
He had taken a half-point bye in round 1, then had won all 3 following games.
I realised during this game that I hadn't played any junior players before...
One drawback to this was that I wasn't prepared for the constant visiting of other juniors,
lot's of them, spending more time looking at their friends' games than their own.
It is only their nature and is not really a bad thing, I'm just grumpy because...
Well, see the game below and you'll see.
Game 6 - Cecil Sloan (1654) vs Zak Tomlinson (1660)
Monday morning I faced the one person in the field who was flying the American flag.
Which is funny considering Cecil is a full-blooded Irishman.
I actually had dinner with him on Saturday with a couple other players, I asked him about it,
he spoke how he goes to America twice a year to play tournaments in Vegas and so is
affiliated with the USCF. This is probably why organisers put him down as an American.
As for our game, he played an opening which has bitten me before...
unforgettably, the woeful loss I had in the Doncaster final round.
Would lightning strike twice?
Game 7 - Gursharanjit Gill (1520) vs Zak Tomlinson (1660)
Named "Gus" for short, my opponent had a good tournament, with only 1 loss up to this point
which was, just like me, by the hands of Ron Usharovsky.
Gus said that we had met once before, in Blackpool, where we spoke very briefly.
He was one of the players watching the conclusion of my tense final round encounter with Pavel.
I was half a point behind the leading junior, so I needed to play for a win and hope Ron slips up.
Of course, Gus will also be playing for a win to finish strongly.
Let's see how the tournament concluded.
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The good news is that Ron could only manage a draw in the final round
and so meaning that myself and him shared 1st place with 6/7, netting £375 each.
Considering this was my first OTB tournament of this level (FIDE U1825) I'm happy with the result!
The final ranking crosstable is below:
http://chess-results.com/tnr433146.aspx?lan=1&art=4&flag=30
I have since done some homework on the French and Caro-Kann systems.
As White I'm going to try something else in future...
Hope y'all got something out of this, do let me know what you think of the games.
All criticisms welcome!
Cheers all,
Zak
@64squaresofpain saidI've played this gent before in a remarkably similar circumstances where he fell to bits after being a pawn up!
Game 3 - Geoffrey Bishop (1740) vs Zak Tomlinson (1660)
This game started life as a typical Spanish, with set-ups we e4 players see many times,
however both sides seemed hesitant to make a claim for central control.
Would the aptly named Bishop bash me in this game?
Your 6... h6 looks like a tempo waste to me. Without it you can get in b5, Bc5 and d5 for an active set up. There were a couple of games in the famous Anderssen Morphy match 1857 where Morphy played this way. He does play h6 but it's later and more specific. Here's one from the RHP master database.
https://www.dailychess.com/chess-games-explorer/master-game-analysis.php?gameid=9661&halfmovenumber=31
Good result - well played!
@64squaresofpain saidJMHO - You are clearly better than 1660.
Game 7 - Gursharanjit Gill (1520) vs Zak Tomlinson (1660)
Named "Gus" for short, my opponent had a good tournament, with only 1 loss up to this point
which was, just like me, by the hands of Ron Usharovsky.
Gus said that we had met once before, in Blackpool, where we spoke very briefly.
He was one of the players watching the conclusion of my tense final ...[text shortened]... ut of this, do let me know what you think of the games.
All criticisms welcome!
Cheers all,
Zak
@Ragwort
Cheers for the tip Rags, I've always been conscious of these a3/h3/a6/h6 moves not being well timed,
it's a nuance that's very hard to master.
My next tournament will be the U166 ECF in Huddersfield, major section.
I expect to run into much tougher competition, where ill-timed h3's may well be punished.
Edit:- cheers mchill 🙂 I suspect my real OTB rating should be either high 1700's or into the 1800's.
I drew against a player rated 1990 in March, was a great result.
Excellent post and good games. (it what chess threads were designed for)
We are all following your chess career 🙂 Keep it up.
(but don't give too much away about what you like and don't like.)
Think I would have said something along the lines:
"If material up don't try and hang on it if you start to feel uncomfortable.
Look for ways to give it back and maintain an advantage."
Something like you did on move 33 in Game 2.
If a piece up I think: "Good. Now I have two pieces to sac!"
Something like you did on move 33 in Game 2.@Greenpawn: Can you back it up with a (tiny) variation. I don’t understand.
@bikingviking
I believe he meant game 3, move 33 🙂
Thanks GP, I've learned a bunch from your blogs over the years!