European Senior Championship Round 6

Report by Rudy:

On track again.

After yesterday's loss, Rudy with another Bl played safe with the Petroff vs a cautious 4.Nc4. Despite getting a good development and opposite sides castling, both sides protected all the entry points and a draw was agreed. Even Iolo,when asked afterwards, thought there was not much chance of making any headway.

In any case in a complex Accelerated Dragon, Richard was by now a sound pawn up. However a little inaccuracy gave his opponent some counterplay, with both sides trying to maximize their R activity. A Bl K move when checked to the wrong square, h6 rather than f6 as played, dropped the h pawn, and with Richard's h pawn advancing to h7, the end was a pretty mate with the K on f5.

John's Dutch Stonewall didn't move very far, and initially Bl stood much worse as Wh obtained a protected passed p on e5. However some neat play by Bl yielded a two to one majority on the Q side, enough to lure the Wh K away. Despite John winning both the e and f pawns, it was down to B & 2 vs B and 1. The problem was the B was the wrong colour for John's h pawn, so a draw was agreed with John relying on increments to survive onto move 70+. (there may be a tactical trick found by Iolo that saves crucial tempo and keeps the Wh K from f1).

Iolo won a long endgame, lasting 84 moves, again needing the increments of 30 sec per move, when his opponent was an hour ahead on the clock. In a complex Dutch position Iolo found a way to win a pawn, but there was counterplay. Faced with the disruption of his K side, Bl chose to sacrifice the exchange, which eventually boiled down to R & b pawn vs B & e pawn, with the Bl K on the b file. Iolo found the way to drive the Bl K towards the back rank and death.(Those so minded can check out Iolo's technique with that found in the Nalimov Endgame tables)

So a classic style of winning matches, draw with Bl and win with Wh.
Wales:3 - Austria Wien 2: 1.

Tonight features the second of two lectures by Mihalchishin, the Russian National Trainer, commemorating recently deceased great players.

Herbert Titz - Rudy van Kemenade ½-½