European Senior Championships, Round 3

Report by Rudy:

A near miss(almost a triumph)

The game of the match and the best played so far was that of Colin. Playing against one of the youngest players in the tournament(some 350 points higher graded)
his King's Indian Atack initially held Michael Yeo. When Bl began to put his pieces on some slightly unusual squares seeking tactics, Colin sidestepped all of these and began to dominate the board. Playing safe Colin then offered the draw, which realistically Michel should have taken. Colin continued playing vigorously, but both sides ran into extreme time shortage with less than half a minute in Colin's case, being saved by the increments. Then tragedy struck. Coming up to the time control, instead of taking a B and giving up a N, he went for a mating attack, missing a crucial Bl defence, and shortly after the time control had to accept defeat.If he had simply taken the B then his Q & B would have been far superior to Bl's Q & passive N, especially with a line of Bl pawns on c6,b5,and a4 ripe for the picking. An unfortunate end to what should have been an excellent win.

Before Colin's game ran to its conclusion, there were two earlier results.

In a Fianchetto King's Indian Ken Norman and Rudy played quite quickly in the opening to reach a position both were comfortable with. Rudy then played an agressive f4, ceding all the wh e4 square for Wh, but strongly barricaded on all the bl squares. Wh pressurised d6, Bl kept an eye out for K side chances. A slight misstep meant Wh could have won an exchange for a messy position, but then it looked as if Bl had winning chances, until Wh started swapping of the dangerous pieces.There was play possible , but risky, so a Q swap lead to peace.

John's game featured a Ruy Exchange with a rare Na3 move. When things cleared Bl was behind in development and it looked good for Wh. However exchanges brought it down to heavy artillery only battle, Wh being slightly better, but a draw most likely result anyway.

As usual the captain leads from the front, and endures the heaviest gunfire.Lately returned to active chess, Anthony Stebbings chose not to play his normal e4 and have to face Iolo's sturdy Petroff. Instead it went to an Old Indian. It looked as if Bl was getting good K side chances, but these were contained, and instead attention turned to the Q side where Iolo was unable to hold the a6 pawn, leaving Wh with a passed B pawn. And despite struggling for counterplay, Iolo had to admit there was no preventing a Wh K march to b7 picking up a B on b8.

So, England1 3 Wales 1 (but ....)

The team is not disheartened because we have now faced teams no's 5,7, and 19 to our no 28. And tomorrow we face our first lower ranked opponents.

Ken Norman - Rudy van Kemenade ½-½