In the IM group the big story was Nicholas Croad’s attempt to score 2 points from his remaining 3 games.  He was playing black against Clement Sreeves and was clearly determined to half his required points by playing the most attacking line of the classical Caro-Kann as black by aiming to castle kingside and launching a direct assault on the white king on the queenside.

This proved to be a very wise choice as white acceded to the black assault by playing a game ending blunder in a complicated position.  Carpe diem indeed.  Nicholas not only moved closer to 7/9 but joined Danny Gormally on 6/7 who was held to a draw by Philip Makepeace.

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Writing reports can be a thankless task.  Firstly I suggest that chess is unlike any other sport and rain stops play – that’s 0 for 1 , then I manage to suggest improvements to a position which never happened- that’s 0 for 2 and finally I compliment Suri Vaibhav’s command of theory and suggest future opponents should avoid such positions.

Simon Williams takes him on in a highly theoretical and dangerous line of the Yugoslav Attack of the Sicilian Dragon and wins in 27 moves as black.  With no hint of irony, I guess that’s my three strikes and I’m out.
Oh well, best keep trying…

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Even as early as round 5 in a tournament of this nature much is being determined about the competitor’s eventual fates.  Some will enhance their claims towards that elusive GM or IM norm whereas others’ hopes will suffer a serious if not yet fatal setback.

Among those in the latter camp is Khosla Shiven who was defeated by a rejuvenated Luis Galego.  Luis showed his wisdom by steering the game away from the well researched lines in which the two young Indian challengers seem so well versed.   Playing as black Khosla came out of the opening unscathed but gave the impression of uncertainty in what must have been a relatively unfamiliar position.  Luis showed no hesitation and took full advantage.

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I was going to write about Rounds 3 and 4 together but the events of round 3 were somewhat overshadowed, to say the least,  by the following day.

Round 4 of the Big Slick started quietly enough with nearly no one sensing how the day’s events would unfold.  Perhaps with some degree of foreboding Nicolas Croad played a decent game against Danny Gormally and a fairly quick and reasonable draw was agreed.  Most of the other games were heading towards interesting and in some cases unbalanced middle games when force majeure intervened and just to contradict my previous assertion that chess was not directly comparable to other sports rain stopped play.

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A fairly quiet day in the GM section with only one decisive game but that doesn’t quite tell the whole story.

Congratulations go to Suri Vaibhav who maintained his 100% record with a defeat of David Eggleston.  Simon Ansell played a solid Caro-Kann against Dave Ledger ,  Keith Arkell and Luis Galego played like GMs should and Alexei Slavin had a tight and at times fascinating struggle with Simon Williams but eventually they cancelled each other out.  All three were drawn.  Khosla Shiven drew with Jovanka Houska but missed a winning continuation.

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‘View from the Sofa’ continues his report on the 2nd Big Slick International

My game of the day may come as a surprise.  There were a number of good wins registered in round 1.  Such is the quality of the players and high scoring requirement for norms a good start is essential.  In fact a good start backed up by wins in the middle of the tournament and a strong finish is really what’s required.  Losing in the first round , whilst not condemning anyone to an unsuccessful tournament, is a real blow.

The game of the day means both players live to fight another day but psychologically the draw might not have the same effect on the two players.  I have referred to Lazarus before and he would be proud of white’s insistence at avoiding defeat.

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We are very lucky to have Drunken Knights regular, ‘A view from a Sofa’, writing reports on the 2nd Big Slick International!

Chess-Poker, Chess-Boxing and Chess

Purley is not a holiday destination.  In this regard Borneo may still retain a slight edge.  The Big Slick club is however ideally suited to hosting poker events by night and all play all chess tournaments by day.  Logging onto the club’s homepage shows photos of previous competition winners.  They are an intimidating bunch who, by all accounts, are also quite handy at poker.

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The Drunken Knights Surrey Branch had their first match last Tuesday, we were paired against Guildford A, who turned out a surprisingly strong team with a GM on board 1 and an IM on board 2. I had a interesting draw with Danny King, which is shown below, but unfortunately the team lost.

‘The view from the Sofa’ man has kindly done a report on the match including his board 2 clash with Nigel Povah.

Match results available at www.borderleague.org.uk.

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(I must thank ‘A View from the Sofa’ man for the following entertaining report)

Simon Williams may not have made it to the Olympiad much to the disappointment of the View from the Sofa man but it appears he has a more than able deputy in Baadur Jobava.

The Georgian rated no less than 2710 became well known for beating Bareev in a prepared classical Caro-Kann line lasting 34 moves. ( 27. Kxa5 must surely be the most unusual “theoretical” move ever played but challenges to this are welcome) It seems however that even at the tender age of 26 such in depth home preparation has taken its toll on poor Baadur so he decided to seek enlightenment elsewhere and mix it up a bit (or indeed a lot).

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It’s a bad day for your intrepid reporter. Ooh my head. You see Eamon Keogh turned up from Ireland last night. Need I say more? However the ‘Buffalo Theory’ now comes in to play. What’s the buffalo theory I hear you cry?

Well let me indulge you with yet another gem of wisdom from my vast archive of useless and possibly incorrect information.

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