| The following is a personal perspective of the Newcastle Chess Congress held in February 2005. |
| Day 1. Saturday 12 February. |
So my first expedition into Stoke League territory had begun.
Being the
only outsider in the competition AND playing in my first ever mini
congress,
the nerves were a little frayed. Although Vale's trip to Stockport
didn't
help that out either! So my first match was on black against Paul
Clapham
from Newcastle D. Ignoring everything John Amison had taught me, I
played
e5 in response to e4. It didn't start off too bad, until I made my
usual
habit of going a pawn down. If only I had a pound for every time I did
that! Instead of resigning I carried on in the hope I could get
something
back. Now memories are still rife of losing when a rook up to Bushbury
last
season so I was amazed when I put my two rooks to good use this time
and
hammered Paul on the 2nd rank. He saw my threat, then forgot about it
and
from being a pawn down I was 2 up and coasting to victory. He traded
rooks
off as well for some reason making my victory even quicker! Excellent
start!
Then came the obligitory Whitby blunder against Creda's Eddie Burke.
Isn't
Creda a washing machine company? My hope was that I wouldn't get washed
up
in this game! (Ed: shut up!) This time it wasn't going a pawn down,
because
he had doubled pawns and I had a better placed rook. No in this
instance I
played the Queen/Rook trade off the wrong way. If I'd gone for his
rook
first not Queen I'd have ended a rook for a pawn up. But I did it the
other
way round and we traded evenly leaving him just the pawn up. So he
offered
me a draw. Makes perfect sense, in some strange world. Still 75%, not
doing too bad and doing the BDCL some credit.
So game 3 and I'm playing another Newcastle player, James Rothwell.
Like me
another Uni student. Saturday night and we're playing chess.
Shouldn't we
be in the pub? Well I'll be boring and play e4. Damn he's played c6
what
the hell do I do now? D4 looks ok. Hmm d5. So I traded. I have no
idea
why, I should have played e5. Damn me! It was going evenly until for
the
3rd game in a row I blundered a pawn. You'd think i'd have learnt by
now
wouldn't you? Apparently not. Thankfully a rook trade off doubled his
pawns up and the game was drawn after move 38. Though it probably was
drawn
after move 11 really, just we were too tired to offer a draw (and I
think
the high of Vale winning had addled my brain!). |
| Day2. Sunday 13 February. |
A 7.30am start on Sunday should be made illegal! And to
Chris
Ford of Kidsgrove, my first ungraded player. Still another youngster,
makes
a change from the old lot I play back in Brum. He plays d4, I go d5.
Reverse London, yay! Oh b******s, he played c4. Panic Mark! So I
combatted
it with a nice little Queen side attack, so things went well for me.
Chris
messed the trade off and ended up a pawn down, I'm a pawn up! Another
nice
change! The trade offs went my way and I had a nice passed pawn. But
the
position wasn't as nice as it looked and so when he offered the draw I
accepted it. Turns out my position was actually lost and my passed
pawn was
poisoned as well as a useless Knight. Good draw then.
By now I'd noticed a few things. Clan Moruzzi seem to dominate chess
as
much as Chelsea do at football. I wonder if they have a Russian
Billionaire
behind them? After watching fellow Vale fan Carl Mustafa win his
first
game on the Sunday I wondered if he was at the chess on Saturday in
body
(one defeat and one draw) but his mind was in Stockport? The gradings
also
seemed to make no effect on performance and some of the best players
had a
low grade! So did the highest graded players decide this was their
Carling
Cup and rest their best pawns? And every game I watched of Paul
Clapham he
went through about half a dozen cups of coffee. While John Amison was
keeping Coke in profit single handedly by drinking huge amounts of
Fanta!
So anyway to the last game and to Robert Brock. Sadly we were on a
table on
our own, otherwise we'd have had the same problems he gave Fenton's
Pete
Tideswell! Sadly this game also brought my only defeat. I failed to
trade
off Rooks when I should have, he ripped me apart on the Kings side and
I had
no chance of avoiding defeat. One defeat in 5 wasn't bad though, if
only I
could do that in the BDCL!
Still a very highly enjoyable 2 days and I'm fully grateful for the
chance
to have played in the event. I'm hoping when my University degree ends
next
year to play in the Stoke League so I'll hope to be playing these
people
more often. And with a better grade than 32 I hope.................. |
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