We are happy to announce that the American copies of the ‘Killer French’ DVDs are now ready for shipping.
There was a slight delay due to problems at the replicator but the first batch of DVDs have already been sent out. We await to hear your reviews!
To be opposite
1. To be in contention or conflict with: oppose the enemy force.
2. To be resistant to: opposes new ideas.
3. To place opposite in contrast or counterbalance.
4. To place so as to be opposite something else.
To act or be in opposition.
“What was I doing here? What was the meaning of this trip? Was I just roaming around in a drug frenzy of some kind? Or had I really come out here to Las Vegas to work on a story? Who are these people, these faces? Where do they come from? They look like caricatures of used car dealers from Dallas, and sweet Jesus, there were a hell of a lot of them at 4:30 on a Sunday morning, still humping the American dream, that vision of the big winner somehow emerging from the last minute pre-dawn chaos of a stale Vegas casino.” *
So recently I returned from a trip to the USA where, amongst other things, I:
*So says Raoul Duke in Hunter S. Thompson’s classic novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
So the highs and lows of the British are over for another year and it is now time to reflect on what actually happened.
Blair Connell, a fellow Drunken Knights player has kindly offered his take on the event. Hopefully Blair will become a regular contributor.
Anyway let’s welcome the ‘View from the Sofa’ man. I would just like to say that the views are Blair’s opinion and therefore they do not necessarily reflect the views of the website….
Round 11 GM Simon Williams v FM Jonathan Hawkins 0 – 1
The money game!
The last round has finally arrived and the pressure is now firmly on. In order to secure a decent money prize, Simon must win. He faces FM Jonathan Hawkins, a player who has improved enormously over the past few years. Here’s how the game panned out:
Simon decided to play the Four Pawns Attack against the King’s Indian. On move 11, he played Kh1 – a fairly new idea which was recently featured in New In Chess. However, much to Simon’s dismay, Jonathan successfully showed that the idea in question is flawed by playing 13… Bc6. Simon then had to waste precious time maneuvering his king back to g1.
After 19… d5, Black had achieved a notable advantage and moments later White was left with an inferior position. Indeed, Black found a neat way to gain a material advantage on move 25 by playing Bxe5 in the position below:
Simon’s position soon crumbled after this tactic and despite having a passed e-pawn, he was unable to make any progress due to the activity of Black’s pieces. The game ended on move 38 in Black’s favour. Sadly, this second consecutive defeat left Simon out of the prizes.
Ginger GM would like to take this opportunity to congratulate GM Mickey Adams (British Champion 2010) and IM Jovanka Houska (British Womens Champion 2010)
Crunch time!
(Photo taken by Stephen Connor)
It’s 9:35pm on Wednesday 4th August 2010. The pairings have just been published and Simon will now face the tournament leader, Mickey Adams. It’s a pretty difficult pairing but even more so as Simon has the black pieces for the second round in a row. Mickey is leading by 1.5 points so Simon must win if he has any chance of becoming British Champion. Here’s how the game went:
Simon chose to play the Sicilian and in response, Mickey opted for 3. Bb5+ (the Moscow variation). Both players followed standard opening theory until move ten when Simon mistakenly played 10… Rc8. He should have played 10… Nc6, followed by Rac8, e6 and d5.
Unfortunately, the game continued to go downhill for Black when he chose to play d5 and e5 at the wrong moment. By move 18, White had already gained a considerable advantage. Mickey has just played 18. Ne4 in the position below:
Sadly, as is often the case when a player makes a mistake in the opening, Simon was unable to recover and he eventually conceded the game on move 27. Although this was a disappointing result for Simon, he still has all to play for in the last round as 2nd place is still up for grabs.
We’re now at the final stage of the tournament. With only 3 rounds to go, the pressure is firmly on and every game will prove to be crucial. After a difficult game yesterday, Simon was paired against Stuart Conquest, the 1998 British Champion. As you can see, the pairings don’t get any easier!
Simon chose to wheel out the French – not a bad idea, especially when you have just released two DVDs on the same opening. (Good bit of promotion there, Simon!) ;o) Stuart, a notoriously difficult player to prepare against due to his vast opening repertoire, decided to play a fairly offbeat line in the Advanced Variation. In fact, the position that arose after 8…Nh4 cannot be found in any chess databases at Ginger HQ. Following on from the opening, Black had more control of the centre whereas White had a useful space advantage. The position was fairly dynamic and White seemed to have a slight advantage, however, when given the chance, Stuart should have swapped off Black’s most active piece, namely the dark squared bishop on f6.
Later on in the game, Black exchanged White’s dark squared bishop on d4 with his knight and made full use of his bishop pair by opening the position up. Stuart mistakenly allowed Black to roll his centre pawns down the board. Take a look at the final position below to see Black’s overwhelming pawn storm.
Simon now faces tournament leader and number one seed Mickey Adams with the black pieces. If anyone can stop Mickey in his tracks, it’s Simon. Stay tuned for the outcome!
Further to the previous post, the Killer French DVDs are now ready and UK orders will be dispatched today. Click http://www.gingergm.com/shop/dvds/ to purchase copies from our shop!
Round 8 presented Simon with his first grandmaster pairing of the tournament in the shape of Nick Pert, former World U18 Champion.
Nick decided to play the Accelerated Dragon and surprised Simon on move 7 with Qa5. Unnerved by Nick’s choice, Simon gallantly soldiered on and completed his development. Later on in the game, Black committed a serious error by playing 18… b5, a move which seems unnatural given the positioning of Black’s queen in relation to White’s rook on c1.
Regrettably, Simon didn’t choose the most accurate continuation and played 20. Ne6 instead of 20.Qf3, a move which gives White a big advantage due to the fact that Black has so many weaknesses.
On move 23, Simon still had the advantage and a position was reached whereby White had an extra piece for two pawns. Although Black was on the ‘back foot’, he played resourcefully and forced White to commit a number of inaccuracies. Nick made excellent use of his extra pawns and an ending was reached where White had to face the wrath of Black’s three connected passed pawns despite having an extra piece. A draw was agreed in the position below as both players are unable to make much progress.
Simon is now lying in joint 3rd place with 5.5 points out of 8. He’s been desperately unlucky not to win the last two games but the fact that he’s getting these good positions against strong opposition shows that he’s playing well.
Elsewhere in the tournament, Michael Adams stormed to victory in round 8 and now leads with an impressive 7.5 points out of 8 games. IM Adam Hunt beat IM Jovanka Houska to achieve his 2nd GM norm. Congratulations from all of us at gingergm.com!
British Champion? Pah! At Ginger HQ, we were more interested in who was going to win the coveted title of Ginger Champion! With so much pride and honour at stake, this game was always going to be a hotly contested affair and needless to say, both players did not disappoint.
Adam chose to play the Richter-Rauzer Attack against Simon’s Classical Sicilian setup. In typical fashion, White quickly completed his development and started punting his h-pawn down the board with the sole aim of creating havoc on Black’s kingside. Meanwhile Simon, who wisely chose to leave his king in the centre for the time being, wasted no time in mounting an attack on White’s queenside-castled king with the typical a7-a6 and b7-b5 plan. Whilst Adam’s attack seemed to run out of steam, Simon’s was gaining full momentum, so much so that he managed to play b3 in the following position:
On move 24, Simon missed his chance to take full advantage of his huge attack. He chose to play 24… Qa4 in the position below, whereas 24… 0-0 followed by either Na5 or Rc7 would have been better. White is never really threatening to capture on b3 because 25… Qa4 gives Black a big advantage due to the fact that the knight is pinned to the rook on d1.
Later on in the game, Simon sacked the exchange on c3 – now let’s be honest, we all knew that he would be itching to sack somewhere along the lines. It was more a matter of when rather than if. You can see Simon’s moment of glory below:
It was soon clear that Black had more than enough compensation for the exchange so Adam felt that he had to sacrifice the material back in order to keep his position alive. Although Simon was a pawn down in the later stages of the game, he still had a slight advantage as White’s king was so vulnerable. Unfortunately, Black needed a few extra pieces on the board if he wanted to mate White and the position soon petered out to a draw where both players were unable to make progress.
Sadly, the title of ‘Ginger Champion’ cannot be awarded as the game was left undecided. Perhaps we can arrange for a re-match soon. Best of three guys? 
