Dyfed Closed Round 1

After some tremendous analytical work by Rudy, I am now able to post the annotated games from the Dyfed Closed Championship, which was played over the last weekend in October. As I've done with other tournaments, I'll post them one round at a time, and this time I'll include every game, not just those featuring Aber players.

In Round 1, all the games were won by the higher-graded player, with the exception of newcomer Jamie Sen's win over the experienced Roland Spencer. The winner here had been given a provisional grading of 1200, but, following a fine performance in the tournament, it was clear that this was much too low, and it was retrospectively raised to 1500. Of the other games, it should be said that Tony Geraghty outplayed Colin Denham for much of their game and only lost through mishandling the clock. Georgina Gray had me in a lot of trouble (not for the first time) before I managed to wriggle out - Rudy's annotations, tracing the line we played through games by nineteenth-century champions and fledgeling modern grandmasters, are fascinating. Ian Finlay surprised Rudy with a new gambit in the Budapest, but lost anyway, and John Basterfield, after a disastrous opening against Tony Haigh,very nearly managed to get back on terms.


Gerry Heap - Scott Hammett 1-0

Ian Finlay - Rudy van Kemenade 0-1

Tony Haigh - John Basterfield 1-0

Tony Geraghty - Colin Denham 0-1

Julie van Kemenade - Jan Sendall 1-0

Georgina Gray - Matthew Francis 0-1

Paul Orton - John Florence 1-0

Jamie Sen - Roland Spencer 1-0

Meanwhile I can report that Aber A are leading Aber B 3-0 in the St David's Club derby, with the postponed Board 1 game between Mark Talbot and myself still to play. Report soon.