‘Easter would not be complete without a trip down to Southend!’

The Southend Easter tournament has become a regular fixture for a crowd of English chess players and it normally involves a lively little chess trip. With all the pubs, fish and chip shops, amusement rides, nightclubs and casinos many a young man has woken up with a sore head.

A great bunch of people made it down this year, Dave Ledger, Steve Ledger, Bob Eames, Adam Ashton, David Spence and a bunch of Ipswich players, Mark Hebden, Keith Arkell, Peter Wells etc Basically a group of people who can enjoy a good game of chess in the day and a good beer/meal in the evening.

I was lucky enough to be invited to the GM all-play-all group. The first time I had ever been invited and I believe the first time that a English GM all-play-all group had ever taken place anywhere in the world. So quite a special occasion.

Aly was playing in the group below and we had booked ourselves into a cheap B+B by the seafront. Now we will come to the B+B a bit later, as you may have seen from my last report on the French League we had not been too lucky with our choice of accommodation lately.

Anyway we arrived early Friday, so it was straight into the first game where I got completely crushed by Glenn Flear.

1 d4 d6 2 c4 e5 The first time that I had tried this opening and considering the course of the game probably the last! 3 d5 I have to admit that I was expecting this move and had briefly prepared for it the night before, but briefly and my preparation was pretty awful.

3…f5 My plan was to try and reach a Classical Dutch type of position where I had achieved the …e5 and f5 advance. This can lead to a kingside attack later on. 4 e4! This is the best response. White contests the light squares in the centre. 4…fxe4 5 Nc3 Bf5 6 Nge2 Bg6 7 Ng3 Nf6 8 Bg5 Be7 9 Bxf6 gxf6 10 h4 Qd7

So far I had been following my preparation which had been based on a game where White had played 11 h5 Bf7 12 f3! with an advantage. I was really trying to double bluff Glenn in the hope that he would try something else. That he did…

11 Be2! After the game Glenn told me that this move was over the board inspiration. It contains a deadly idea. In hindsight it looks like Black is trouble here. 11…f5 12 h5 Bf7 13 Qb3!

The real idea behind 11 Be2! White attacks Black on the light squares. The position is already very difficult. 13…b6?! This was not the best defence but I could not find a good move, for example:

a) 13…c5? 14 Nxf5! Qxf5 15 Qxb7 0-0 and I was now worried about the simple 16 Qxe7 when Black is left with a miserable position.

b) 13…c6? is pretty much the same thing. 14 Nxf5 and Black is in trouble.

c) 13…Qc8! was the move pointed out by Glenn after the game and it would seem to be the best try. Black can drum up some counter play after 14 Nxf5 Qxf5 15 Qxb7 0-0 16 Qxa8 Na6 and Blacks knight is jumping into b4 or c5 when Black may have some compensation for the material invested but it is doubtful whether it is enough.

14 Qb5! 14 c5 was tempting but 14 Qb5 is clearly superior. White sticks to a simple plan. 14…c6 trying to create complications, everything else was smelly, for example, 14…f4 15 Nxe4 and White has a useful hold of e4. Black on the other hand has little counter play. Both of my bishops are very bad and I can look forward to some slow torture for the rest of the game. 15 dxc6 Nxc6 16 Nxf5 a6 17 Qa4 b5 desperation 18 cxb5 Qxf5 19 bxc6 d5? The final straw.

Glenn now finished me off in style. 20 c7+ Kf8 21 Qc6 Re8 22 Qh6+ Kg8 23 Rh3 Bc5 24 Rg3+ Bg6 25 f3 Kf7 26 Nxd5 Bf8 27 Qg5 and enough was enough it was time to throw in the towel.

This was rather a depressing game, losing always is, but getting crushed like a baby is not a good way to start your first ever GM only all-play-all tournament. Playing such a tournament is always rather scary as if your not in form then things can go horrible wrong. There are no easy games.

Anyway things improved for me in the next game when I managed to beat Mark Hebden. My preparation went perfectly here and Mark got an awful position from the opening. I know Mark had a crap tournament but these things happen and I am sure that Mark ‘the ever ready’ will come bouncing back in his next tournament.

Aly also managed to win both her games so we were in a good mood but decided to only take a couple of drinks to get ready for the next day.

The next morning I was rather lucky to win an ending against Peter Wells but in my favour I had the advantage for most of the game, anyway Peter missed his chance in the following position:

White now played 48 Rb7+? this is a horrible mistake, which forces the Black king into the centre. White could have drawn fairly easily by playing 48 Bxe4 Rxe4 and then 49 Rb6. This was one of the only moves during the game that Peter played quickly but it would come back to haunt him. 48…Kf6 49 Bxe4 Rxe4 50 Rd7 Rd4 51 Rxd6+ Kf5 52 Rd7

A critical position for me, I realised that I had good winning chances but what was the best way to continue? 52…Ke4! To win this position the Black king needs to go in front of the Black pawn. This is for two reason: 1) To avoid White’s rook from checking the king, for example if I had played 52…e4 then the king runs out of escape squares 2) The king can also help force through the promotion of the e-pawn. 53 d6 Ke3 53 Kd3 was also probably good but I had spotted a winning plan, a plan where White runs out of moves. 54 Re7 e4 55 d7 h5 56 g4!?

White was lost anyway, so he decides to try and confuse me, for example, 56 Kh2 g4! White’s rook can no longer keep an eye on Black’s e-pawn and as soon as it moves away Black can play …Kd2 …e3 …e2 …e1=Q! 56…hxg4 57 Kh2 Kf2!

A nice touch because of the following variations:

a) 58 Rxe4 Rxe4! 59 d8=Q g3+ 60 Kh3/h1 Rh4++

b) 58 d8=Q Rxd8 59 Rxe4 Rh8++

58 Rf7+ Ke2 59 Kg3 e3 60 Rg7 Kd2 and White lost on time even though his position was hopeless.

Aly kept her winning role going which was pretty impressive as she was lower rated then her opponent in the last 2 games. And with wins over S. Ledger and G. Lock she was on fire. In the afternoon game I was faced against Keith ‘The Grinder’ Arkell. We were both in a peaceful mode and the sun was shinning so we had a quick draw and disappeared off for a drink or two in the local beer garden. It’s sometimes nice having a drink when you know that everyone else is slogging it out for the rest of the afternoon! Anyway it was a peaceful afternoon but a rather stressful evening…

It started off well enough as Aly manage to beat an IM (Naylor, she’s not tripping) and we then headed off to have an Indian meal. It was an ok meal that was enjoyed with a mix of funny stories.

One that sticks in my mind was ‘the fainting policeman’. Apparently police are allowed to ‘take a dive’ if the questions get too hard in the witness box. Of course no one in our company would do this but a friend of friend has heard of someone taking such a dive.

After the meal we headed back to our hotel, arriving at it around midnight.

Now our room was by the front door and our window is the window at the front of the B+B, which overlooks a bench and smoking area.

When we arrived back at our B+B we were happily greeted by a group of 4/5 young 20 something drunken’s loitering outside our window. The conversation that followed went something along the following lines:

‘Oi you with the ginger head you seen my leopard skin purse?’

‘No sorry’

‘Well I cant get in this ******** hotel as mine and my mates keys are in it, we bunk up in your room?’

As you can imagine the thought didn’t really appeal to either myself or Aly, even though I am sure that it would have been fun sharing a small room with 5 drunk youngsters.

‘Not much room sorry’. Around this time I was desperately trying to get into the front door with my key. Fortunately it opened and we made a dive for our bed.

The problem was that for the next 2-3 hours it was like sharing a room with our pleasant guests, who remained outside. We could hear everything they said, which seemed to range from, ‘Lets bash the next person who comes along’ to ‘Shall we climb up this drain post and smash our window upstairs?’ Eventually they got bored I am not sure where they went bet let’s hope it didn’t involve, ‘bashing up the next person who comes along’.

From reading my website I hope I haven’t given the expression that I am a boring old fart, but come on a man needs his sleep!!

Anyway onto the next day. I was sitting in equal first on 2.5/4 with Keith Arkell, Glenn Flear and my morning opponent John Emms. I decided to play the Hippo, a strange opening where you keep all your pawns on the 2^nd and 3^rd rank. On the plus side it lacks any theory and retains a lot of tension, which is perfect when you are playing for a win. The following position was reached after move 11:

One ‘normal’ plan here is …Kf8 …Kg8 and …Kh7. Black finally castles by artificial means. As the position is closed Black can afford to lose time by playing such a plan.

I have always thought that the most dangerous way that White can meet the Hippo is by playing f4 at some point with the idea of breaking up the Black kingside with a well timed f5. In order to do this White would obviously need to lose time by moving his knight on f3 but again timing is not that important. 11…f5!? I wanted to place some pressure against White’s centre but this is a risky plan because if the centre opens up then Black’s king may start to feel a bit insecure. 12 c4!? An interesting reply, White has a specific plan in mind. 12…Nf6 13 d5 The point of 12 c4!? 13…fxe4 14 Nxe4 exd5 15 Nxf6+ Bxf6 16 cxd5

The position has clarified somewhat. Black’s king is in some danger but White has a weak pawn on d5. 16…Qd7 I felt like I needed to castle queenside. 16…Bxd5 17 Bxg6+ Nxg6 18 Qxd5 Bxb2?! 19 Rae1 looks very dangerous but maybe I could have tried 17…Kd7!? my pawn formation on c7 and d6 gives the Black king some protection, with an unclear game. 17 Be4 White decides to guard the pawn on d5. 17 Rac1 was another option, sacrificing the pawn on d5 but stopping Black from castling queenside due to Bxb6. 17…0-0-0 18 Bxh6 Bxb2 19 Rab1 Ba3! The bishop is well placed on c5. It guards the queenside and adds some pressure to White’s king. 20 Be3 Nf5 21 Nd4 Nxd4

22 Qxd4?! At the time I was more worried about 22 Bxd4 at least this move gains a tempo by attacking the Black rook on h8, for example, 22…Rh4 23 Qd3! and White is threatening Bf6 and Qxa3. 22…Bc5 23 Qd3 Kb8 24 Bxc5 dxc5 25 Qg3 Qd6 26 Qxg6 Qxg6 27 Bxg6 Bxd5

And we have reached a very interesting position. Black is better, mainly because of his bishop on d5 which controls both sides of the board. The result of the game will be decided by who can mobilise their pawn mass the fastest. 28 f4 Black was threatening 28…Rhg8 28…Bxa2 29 Rc1 Bd5 30 f5 c4 31 Rf4 b5 32 h4 a5 This pawn will decide the game. 33 f6 a4 34 f7 a3 35 Rf6 Kb7 To stop Ra6 36 h5 b4 37 Rf5 b3 38 Rxd5 Rxd5 39 Be4

39…a2! The quickest way to win. 40 Bxd5+ c6 41 Bxc4 b2 White resigned, Black’s pawns are unstoppable.

This win put me in a very good position. Only Keith had the same amount of points as me. I had a rather boring draw in my next game against Chris Ward leaving me in first equal with Glenn Flear (who managed to beat Keith) with 1 round to play. I had White against McDonald and Glenn had Black against John Emms who was half a point behind us the leaders.

There are two ways of reacting in such a situation, 1) Play it safe and try to keep a draw in hand 2) Throw everything at your opponent with no regard to the result. Well I obviously opened door number 2 and the ensuring game was very exciting.

1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Be7 4 Nf3 Nf6 5 Bg5 The first time I had tried this variation. I normally play 5 Bf4 but I did not want to run into some nasty preparation h6 6 Bh4 0-0 7 e3 b6 8 Qc2 Bb7 9 Bxf6 An interesting idea with an aggressive plan in mind. 9…Bxf6 10 cxd5 cxd5

11 0-0-0 With the straight forward plan of checkmating Black on the kingside, but of course White’s king may also come under fire. 11…c5 12 g4 cxd4 13 exd4 Nc6 14 h4 Rc8

With a very double edged position. I spent a long time here looking at 15 g5!? which may be the best move for example, 15…hxg5 16 hxg5 Bxg5+ 17 Kb1 (17 Nxg5!? may be best 17…Qxg5+ 18 Kb1 and White has pressure along the g and h files.) 17…f5 and I could not see anything clear cut for White. So instead I decided to play the useful waiting move. 15 Kb1 Re8 Setting up a nasty trap, which I fell straight into. 16 g5 I now left the board to have a cigarette, with the following thoughts running through my mind. ‘What’s Black thinking? He can’t play hxg5 hxg5 when I mate him on the h-file…’. Then about half way through my cigarette it suddenly dawned on me what Black’s plan was, ‘Oh no Black can play …Nxd4!! That might be the end of my chances to win the tournament.’ So I rushed back to the board and sat rather red raced looking at the move that Black had just played. 16…Nxd4! I was fortunate not to be completely lost here. Anyway I battled on with 17 Nxd4 Bxd4 18 Bb5 which might be the best chance. The point behind Black’s plan is 18 Rxd4 Re1+ 19 Rd1 Rxd1 20 Qxd1 d4! and Black is clearly better. 18…Bxc3 I was more concerned about 18…Re4! Which would have left me in trouble, 19 f3 Rf4 and Black is better. 19 Bxe8 d4!? 20 Bxf7+ Kxf7 21 Qf5+ Kg8 22 Qe6+ Kh7 if 22…Kh8 then 23 gxh6 is strong as White is threatening to capture on g7 with check. 23 Qf5+ Kg8

I took a look over at the Emms/Flear game around here and it looked like Flear was in a bit of trouble. A draw would probably mean that I would share first prize with one other player, not a bad result but a rush of blood went to my head and I played. 24 dxc3?! which was just too risky. I should have taken the draw by repeating the position with 24 Qe6+ 24…Bxh1 25 gxh6 This was my idea, with Black’s light squared bishop on h1, Black’s queen can’t venture forward due to me capturing the rook on c8. So I thought that I would have a strong attack here but Black responded with the calm. 25…Rc7 A good move, the rook moves out of the attack and gives extra protection to g7. Black is better now. 26 Rxh1 dxc3 27 Rg1 c2+ 28 Kc1 I offered a draw here, a depressing thing to do but my position has obviously gone ‘tits up’ . 28…Qd6! The move that I had missed in my calculations when playing 24 dxc3. 29 Qf3 Qxh6+ 30 Rg5 Qe6 31 Qe3 Qxe3 32 fxe3

The ending is pretty disgusting for me. 32…Rc3?! I don’t think that this is the best plan. A better idea would have been 32…Kh7! and its very hard for me to find any plan, for example:

a) 33 Rg2 Kh6 34 Rxc2 Rxc2+ 35 Kxc2 Kh5 and the king and pawn ending is lost for White.

b) 33 e4 Kh6 34 e5 Kh7!? now that White has pushed his e-pawn Black’s king can come back around to capture it 35 Rg2 what else? 35…Kg8 36 Rxc2 Rxc2 37 Kxc2 Kf7 38 Kd3 Ke6 39 Ke4 b5 and the king and pawn ending looks lost for White. Black will force the White king over to deal with the b-pawn and then Black will capture the e-pawn and probably the h-pawn. 33 Rd5! I must activate my rook and I was aiming for a specific position, which we will come to later. 33…Rxe3 34 Kxc2 if we compare this position to some of the lines we looked at after 32…Kh7! it is clear that White has made progress. At least the White king is now active. 34…Rh3 35 Rd7 Rxh4 36 Rxa7

This is the position that I was aiming for. If I can swap my a-pawn for Black’s b-pawn and then place my king in front of the g-pawn the game will be an easy draw. Black on the other hand has to try and cut my king off from reaching the g-file, so that the Black king can support the advance of the g-pawn. 36…Rh6 37 Kd3 Rf6 37…Re6 was a better try but the game should still be a draw. 38 a4 Kh7

A critical position for the outcome of the game. Originally I wanted to play 39 Ke2 with the following plan in mind: 39…Kh6 40 a5 bxa5 41 Rxa5 g5 42 Ra3 Kh5 43 Rf3 but the pawn ending is lost after 43…Rxf3 44 Kxf3 Kh4 as Black gets the opposition. I then found the correct way to continue. 39 Ke4 Kh6 40 Ke5! The game should now be a draw. To achieve anything Black has to let White’s king back to the g-file. Black can’t move the g-pawn due to the threat against his rook. 40…Rc6 41 Kf4= I was starting to feel happy again now! 41…g5+ 42 Kg3 Rc3+ 43 Kg2 Kh5 44 a5 b5 45 Rb7 Rb3 46 a7 Kg4 47 a7 Rb2+ 48 Kf1 Ra2 49 Rxb5 Rxa7 50 Rb3! after this move the draw is easy. The position is a technical draw. White has to wait until Black advances his pawn and then the rook comes around the back to check Black’s king, which wont be able to escape. 50…Kh4 51 Kg2 Ra2+ 52 Kg1 g4 53 Rc3 g3 54 Rc8 g2 =

So after all the ups and downs the game turns out to be a draw anyway. I was obviously quite relieved to draw in the end, a loss would have been painful. So in the end I received a nice paycheck so thanks must go out to everyone who helped out at Southend. The only downside was Aly losing the last round but she still gained 50 points or something equally ridiculous. Anyway hopefully I will get an invite for next year!