First Draw For Battersea

PLAYED twice more for Battersea, losing last week to a 180 and drawing yesterday with a 199.

Date..........Event..............Colour...Grade...Opponent's Grade...Result
14/9/17.....CLL................White.....169.........183............................L
26/10/17...CLL................White.....169.........197............................L
1/11/17.....LL...................Black.....169.........158............................W
2/11/17.....CLL (Div2).....White.....169.........158............................W
15/11/17...LL....................Black.....169........204............................L
16/11/17...CLL (Div2)......White....169.........203.............................L
14/12/17...CLL..................Black.....169........180............................L
19/12/17...Eastman Cup...Black.....169........199............................D

Overall for Battersea I am +2=1-5 with a grading performance of 167.

Weak Squares v Dynamic Piece Play

I FINISHED Benidorm with a score of +5=2-3 for a rating gain of 8.4 Fide elo.
I cannot claim to have played an outstanding game, but I was pleased with aspects of my round six win.
Spanton (1880) - Jose Maria Najarro Garcia (1765), Benidorm U2000
1.c4 g6 2.Nc3 Bg7 3.g3 d6 4.Bg2 e5 5.e4
A Botvinnik English formation, as championed by Tony Kosten in his classic 1999 book, The Dynamic English. The set-up is generally reckoned to work best when Black has committed to blocking his dark-square bishop with the move...e5.
5...Nc6 6.Nge2 Nge7 7.0-0 0-0 8.d3 a6!?

Position after 8...a6!?, which goes back at least to the 1950s

Most popular is 8...Be6, but the text has been played by some strong players, including Joe Gallagher. Black scores 58 percent with it in ChessBase's 2018 Mega database.
9.Rb1 Rb8 10.a4
Played to stop Black advancing with ...b5. Now White is threatening to push his own b-pawn to b5.
10...a5 11.Nb5
This may be a novelty, but it was part of my plan in playing 10.a4. The idea is that the knight on b5 supports a White central advance.
11...Nb4 12.d4 c6 13.Nbc3 Qc7 14.Be3 b6 15.Qd2 Ba6 16.b3 Rbd8
Black plans his own advance in the centre. He uses this rook as White can now close the centre with d5, in which case the rook on f8 would be well-placed to support the push ...f5.
17.Rfd1?
Sloppy play. This rook may or may not belong on d1, but clearly White's other rook should go to c1, where it is opposite Black's queen and so prevents ...d5. Unfortunately, I was under the misapprehension that ...d5 was impossible anyway as Black only had three men supporting the move; I had missed that the knight on b4 was a fourth support.
17...d5 18.cxd5 cxd5 19.exd5 Nexd5 20.Nxd5 Nxd5 21.Rbc1
At least I get to occupy the open file with tempo.
21...Qe7

The key position in the game

22.Bxd5!?
I was quite pleased with this surprising move, which turns out to be the analysis engine Komodo9's second choice, behind 22.Bg5. White gives up the bishop-pair and leaves horrible weaknesses around his king. But in return he gets a central passed pawn, which White's pieces are better positioned to support than Black's are to restrain.
22...Rxd5 23.Nc3 Rd7
I thought 23...Rd6 was better, keeping an eye on b6, but Black may have feared this would lose a tempo later to White's knight landing on e4 or b5.
24.d5 Qb4
This aggressive move looks good as the queen defends b6 and attacks b3.
Komodo9 prefers 24...Qf6, but still slightly favours White's position.
25.d6 Bb7
A natural-looking attempt to exploit White's weakened light squares.
On 25...Qxb3, I planned 26.Rb1, followed by capturing on b6 and threatening, among other things, the a5-pawn.
Komodo9 reckons that even better is 26.Nd5, so that the knight captures on b6, hitting the d7-rook. Capturing the d-pawn with 26...Rxd6?? loses to 27.Ne7+.
26.Nd5 Qe4
26...Rxd6?? is still bad, eg 27.Qxb4 axb4 28.Ne7+, etc.
27.Qd3 Bxd5
Black's attack also comes to nothing after 27...Qf3 28.Bxb6.
28.Qxd5 Qxd5 29.Rxd5
White is winning.
29...Rb8 30.Rc7 Rdd8
Not 30...Rb7? 31.Rc8+ Bf8 32.Bh6.
31.d7 f6 32.Bxb6!
Black played on for another 30 moves, but the result was never seriously in doubt.

Happy Ending

I AM playing at the annual Benidorm chess festival held in the Gran Bali Hotel, where I am seeded 75th out of 384 entrants in the U2000 tournament.
Just for a change, I managed to come up trumps in an ending in today's round two.

Black offered a draw after playing 36...Kg7-f6 in Spanton (1880) - Andres Parreno Cueto (1766)

Black is a pawn up, but I was ahead on time and felt I should be able to hold a draw if my attempts to win came to nothing.
37.Ke2 Ke6 38.Rc5 Kd7?
This gives White chances. Analysis engines reckon Black should hold comfortably after either 38...f5 39.Ra5 g4 40.Rxa6 g5 41.Ra5 gxf3+ 42.Kxf3 Rd2, or 38...Ke7, eg 39.Rxg5 f5 40.g4 fxg3 41.Rxg3.
39.Rxg5 Re6+ 40.Kd2 Rd6+
Komodo9's choice for a long time, but it comes to prefer 40...Kd6! when 41.Ra5 Re5 seems to hold whether White goes for the pawn ending after 42.Rxe5 Kxe5 43.Kd3 Kd5, or the rook-and-pawn ending after 42.Rxa6 Rh5 43.h3 Rg5.
41.Kc3 Re6
41...f5 prevents White's next, but then comes 42.h4, eg 42...Ke7 43.h5 gxh5 44.Rxh5, and at least one of Black's f pawns drops anyway (Komodo9).
42.Rg4 Re2
The passive 42...Rf6 will not save Black, eg 43.h4 Kd6 44.Kd4 Rf5 45.Rg5! (the hasty 45.Ke4 is well-met by activating the rook with 45...Rb5) 45...Rf6 46.Re5 Kd7 47.Ke4, and White's advantage is huge thanks to his dominant pieces and Black's pawn weaknesses (Komodo9/Stockfish8).
43.Rxf4 Rxg2 44.Rxf7+ Ke6 45.Rc7 Kd6 46.Rg7 Kd5?
This makes White's task easier.
47.Rd7+ Ke6 48.Rd2 Rg1 49.Rf2 Re1 50.Kd3 Re5??
A serious positional blunder that makes the win relatively trivial by allowing White to get down to a pawn ending.
51.Re2 Rxe2 52.Kxe2 52...Kf5 53.Ke3 a5 54.b3 g5 55.a3 c5 56.h3 Ke5 57.a4 Kf5 58.f4
This pawn sac is the only way to win, but it is also very simple to calculate. The game finished:
58...gxf4+ 59.Kf3 Kg5 60.h4+ Kxh4 61.Kxf4 Kh5 62.Ke5 Kg6 63.Kd5 1-0.

Time To Improve

I PLAYED in a nine-round swiss in Malta from Nov 19-25.
The tournament was organised by Juergen Wempe, who also runs one of my all-time favourite events, Bad Woerishofen in Bavaria.
The Maltese open was blessed by excellent weather and very good playing conditions at the Topaz Hotel, Bugibba.

The well-lit main playing hall

My final score of +3=4-2 was sufficient to gain 21.2 Fide elo, which in itself is good enough reason to go back next year!
They say you learn most from your losses, but I think I picked up quite a bit of knowledge from the following draw.
Per Green (1973) - Spanton (1859), Malta 2017, Round 8
I had noticed in preparing for this game that PG nearly always played 1.Nf3. I intended to offer a Sicilian by replying 1...c5, to which I expected, judging by his repertoire, that he would play 2.c4. We were chatting idly before the round started, and PG made reference to the fact that I enter a lot of tournaments. I took this to be evidence that he had looked me up. So when he opened with ...
1.c4
... I decided he wanted a Symmetrical English - these days I normally reply 1...c5 to 1.c4 - but without being committed to bringing the king's knight to f3. Accordingly, I switched to another old favourite of mine, viz:
1...e6
The game proceeded:
2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.Nf3 c5 5.e3
I expected 5.cxd5 or 5.d4. In fact 5.0-0 is the commonest option. The text, although looking strange to me, is also popular.
5...Nc6 6.b3

Can Black take serious advantage of White's last move?

I thought White's last was a straightforward mistake, but the position has been reached by some strong players, including Botvinnik in a consultation game against Keres.
6...dxc4 7.bxc4 Qd3 8.Qb3!
Since this loses the bishop-pair, I had thought White was practically obliged to play 8.Bf1, after which 8...Qd7 9.Bg2 would have been a clear gain-of-tempo for Black.
8...Nb4 9.Na3N
This seems to be a new move. Two games in ChessBase's 2018 Mega database feature an immediate queen swop.
9...Qxb3
It was better to get on with development, but I did not want to miss the chance of exchanging knight for bishop.
10.axb3 Nd3+ 11.Ke2 Nxc1+ 12.Rhxc1
It was around here I realised that, far from having an advantage, I could be in serious trouble. Black has the bishop-pair, but White has a massive lead in development. Even his king is well-placed for the late middlegame, with nothing to fear from Black's inactive pieces.
12...a6
Played to prevent Nb5, but it does nothing of the sort!
13.Nb5 Kd8?
For some reason I rejected the superior 13...Rb8 with hardly a second glance.
14.Ne5 Ke7 15.Nc7 Ra7
Definitely not 15...Rb8? 16.Nxa6!
16.Nb5 Ra8 17.Rd1

Black faces a tricky decision after 17.Rd1

17...Ne8
I rejected 17...Nd7 because of 18.Nxd7 Kxd7 19.d4. I rejected 17...Rb8 because of 18.Na7 Nd7 (I think I also saw 18...Bd7 19.Rxa6!) 19.Nxc8+ Rxc8 20.Bxb7.
18.d4 f6 19.Nd3 cxd4 20.exd4 Kf7 21.Re1 Rb8 22.Nc3 h5 23.h4 Nd6 24.Kd2 Nf5 25.Ne2 Be7 26.Kc3 g6
Somehow I have managed to avoid material loss while slowly getting my pieces developed. 27.Nb4?!
Nevertheless White could have maintained a clear advantage with 27.Be4 according to Stockfish8, or 27.c5 according to Komodo9. The text is presumably aimed at trying to create a passed d pawn, but instead the knight becomes the means by which Black untangles his queenside.
27...Rd8 28.Rad1 a5 29.Nc2 b6 30.Bh3 Ng7
I tried but failed to make 30...Nxd4?? work. Instead, S8 points out 30...e5!? 31.dxe5 Rxd1 32.Rxd1 fxe5, when Black's bishops are starting to get some freedom.
31.Nf4 Bd6 32.Nd3 Bb7 33.Re3 Nf5!? 34.Bxf5 exf5
34...gxf5 looked too loosening to me, but is preferred by the analysis engines.
35.d5 Re8
White wins the e6 square, but it turns out he cannot really afford this as his king is vulnerable. S8 reckons Black is clearly better after 35...Rbc8 eg 36.Kb2 b5.
Instead, I neutralised White's pressure along the e file, but after ...
36.Rde1 Rxe3 37.Rxe3 Re8 38.Rxe8 Kxe8 39.f4
... the game ended in a draw following ...
39...Bc8 40.Kd4 Ba6 41.Kc3 Bc8 42.Kb2 Ke7 43.Nd4 Bd7 44.Kc3 Kd8 45.Nc2 Bc8 46.b4 axb4+ 47.Ncxb4 Bb7 48.Nc2 Bc8 49.Nd4 Bd7 50.Kb3 Kc7 51.Nc2 Bc8 1/2-1/2.

Two Losses - And A Missed Opportunity

TURNED out twice more for Battersea this week, playing bottom board in the London League first team against Wood Green, and top board in the Central London League Division Two third team against Kings Head.
In the first game I had the black pieces against an Evans' Gambit. I played a recommendation of GM Victor Bologan, but without having studied it to anything like a decent degree, and lost in 20 moves.
My second outing also ended in defat, but only after I missed a glorious chance to score an upset.

Position after 23...Nf5-d4 in Spanton (169) - Simon Randall (203)

I had been under the cosh on the queenside earlier thanks to my weak pawn on a2. But by now I had generated kingside counterplay, aided by Black's queen being a long way from what had become the key part of the board.
24.Bxd4 Bxd4
I now played the uninspired ...
25.g4?
... and after ...
25...hxg4
... compounded the error with ...
26.Qe1??
... completely missing ...
26...Kg7
I lost quickly, but it could have been so different if I had played 25.f5. If Black plays, similar to the game, 25...Kg7, White has 26.fxg6 fxg6 27.Rxf8 Kxf8 28.Rf1+ with a huge attack.
Komodo9 prefers the plausible-looking 25...Bf6, but the tactically-superior engine Stockfish8 gives 26.Nxf7+!, which both engines agree wins in all lines, eg 26...Rxf7 27.fxg6 Rg7 28.Qh5+ Kg8 29.Rf2, etc.
I am certainly not claiming I would have found all this over the board, but it is galling to have missed the strength of 25.f5.

Date..........Event............Colour...Grade...Opponent's Grade...Result
14/9/17.....CLL..............White.....169.........183............................L
26/10/17...CLL..............White.....169.........197............................L
1/11/17.....LL.................Black.....169.........158............................W
2/11/17.....CLL (Div2)..White.....169.........158............................W
15/11/17...LL.................Black.....169.........204............................L
16/11/17...CLL (Div2)...White....169.........203..............................L

Overall for Battersea I am +2=0-4 with a grading performance of 167.

Endgame Mate

PLAYED in my first Royal Beacon Seniors, which ended today.
The congress, held at the Royal Beacon Hotel in Exmouth, Devon, is divided into players aged 65+ and 50-64 - colloquially known as the Senior and Junior Wrinklies.

Royal Beacon...stylish venue

I scored +2=2-1 for a grading performance of 184 (15 over my ECF of 169).
None of the games was especially noteworthy, but I did have a neat endgame finish in round four.

Position after White's 33rd move in Spanton (169) - Philip Kennedy (158*)

Black is lost whatever he plays, but PK's choice of the active ...
33...Kf5?
...walked into a mating net. The game finished:
34.Kf3 Rf7 35.g4#
34...h5 would only have delayed the mate after 35.h3, while 34...Rg8 would have lost instantly to 35.Rf6#.
*PK does not have a currently published ECF grade, so I have converted his Fide elo.

Opening My Account For Battersea

HAVING lost my first two games for my new club Battersea, I bounced back on successive nights by wining for them in the London League (LL) last night and the Central London League (CLL) tonight. My Battersea record now reads:

Date..........Event............Colour...Grade...Opponent's Grade...Result
14/9/17.....CLL..............White.....169.........183............................L
26/10/17...CLL..............White.....169.........197............................L
1/11/17.....LL.................Black.....169.........158............................W
2/11/17.....CLL (Div2)...White.....169.........158............................W

Overall for Battersea I am +2=0-2 with a grading performance of 174.

Another Blown Rook-and-Pawn Ending

I MADE it 0/2 for my new club Battersea on Thursday, and the following day caught a train to Hull for the city's 54th annual chess congress.
My cold was still streaming, but I turned in a 178 performance against players graded 180-200.
It could have been even better had I taken my chance in round one ...

Position after White's 42nd move in Spanton (169) - John Cooper (199)

JC has been trying for 10 moves to win this ending in which his only advantage, apart from the massive grading difference, is the weakness of my g3 pawn.
Here he had to accept the inevitable draw that follows 42...Rxg3 43.Rxf6. Instead the game went:
42...Ke5? 43.f4+ Kd5
JC offered a draw. Much worse than the text would have been 43...gxf4+? 44.gxf4+ Kd5 45.Kf3.
44.Kf3 Rg1?
Another mistake. I expected 44...Rb2, with good drawing chances.
45.Rxf6 gxf4 46.gxf4 Rh1 47.Rf5+ Kd4 48.g5 hxg5 49.fxg5 Rg1
Here I rejected the winning 50.Ra5 because I could not see how the pawn would advance, but in fact the White king is perfectly able to see to that. Instead I played ...
50.Rf4+??
.... and the game was quickly drawn after:
50...Ke5 51.Rg4 Rf1+ 52.Ke3 Kf5 53.Rg2 Kg6.

How To Lose A Won Rook-and-Pawn Ending

GUERNSEY turned into something of a nightmare tournament.
I had winning positions in six games and was much better in the other one, but I ended up losing five of them before converting the last two into wins.
That gave me a score of +2=0-5 for a Fide rating change of -24.4 (not as bad as it might have been - all five losses were against higher-rated opponents).
Of course I am blaming the heavy cold I was suffering from, but my round five loss had more to do with lousy endgame technique.
Here is the position after White's 25th move.

Black to play in Ruediger von Saldern (1894) - Spanton (1858)

Black is clearly much better - the only question should be whether White can somehow hold on for a draw.
25...Kf8 26.Rb3 Rd7 27.Re4 Re8 28.Reb4!?
An interesting choice. There is a rule-of-thumb in rook endings that, for the side with the advantage, two rooks are better than one, and none is better than one. In other words, the defending side's best chance of a draw usually lies in getting an ending with one rook aside. However, here RvS opts instead for pressure against my b-pawn.
28...Ree7 29.Rb6 Ke8 30.Kh2 Kd8 31.f3 Kc8 32.h4
Stockfish8 and Komodo9 now agree Black is winning rather than just much better.
32...h5 33.Kh3 Rd1 34.Kg3 Ra1 35.a3 Rae1 36.Kf4 R1e2 37.g3 R2e6 38.g4 Rf6+ 39.Kg3 hxg4?!
The analysis engines are happy enough with this although it does give White the prospect of creating a passed pawn on the h-file. I rejected 39...g6 because I thought 40.g5 might be good for White. (The engines prefer 40.gxh5 gxh5 41.R6b4, rating Black's advantage at around 7/10ths of a pawn).
40.fxg4 Rfe6 41.h5 c5??
MUCH disliked by the engines. Two question marks might seem excessive but White is now better, according to the engines. The point is that after an exchange of one pair of rooks, White's king is much better able to support his advanced kingside pawns.
42.Rxe6 Rxe6 
Better is 42...fxe6!, which gives Black two isolanis, but more importantly gives counterplay thanks to the passed e-pawn.
43.g5 Kc7??
Black is now lost!  43...Re8 was vital to try to restrain White's coming passer.
44.Kf4?
Better was 44.Rf3, eg 44...Re7 45.h6.
44...b5?
Again necessary was 44...Re8.
45.Rh3
If 45.Re3? then 45...Kd7, and if 46.Rxe6?? then 46...Kxe6, eg 47.h6 gxh6 48.gxh6 Kf6 49.h7 Kg7 50.Ke5 c4 51.Kd4 Kxh7.
45...a5 46.h6 gxh6 47.gxh6 Re8 48.h7 Rh8 49.Kf5 c4 50.Kf6 b4 51.axb4 axb4 52.Kxf7 Kd6 53.Kg7 Rxh7+ 54.Kxh7 Kd5 55.Kg6 Kd4 56.b3??
56.Kf5 wins, eg 56...c3 57.Rh4+ Kd3 58.Rxb4 c2 59.Rb3+ Kd2 60.Rc3.
56...c3??
Played instantly, whereas 56...cxb3 is a trivial draw.
57.Rh4+ Kc5 58.Rc4+ Kb5 59.Kf5 1-0

Guernsey Stinker

ARRIVED on Friday for my 19th Guernsey Chess Festival, but unfortunately I was already developing a stinking cold.
The tournament began yesterday, so three of us used the spare day on Saturday to catch a boat to Herm.
I knew the island was supposed to be beautiful, but I was surprised at just how beautiful.

View from Herm, looking back to Guernsey

A day of almost non-stop sunshine helped enormously, but for me it was the second day of having a terribly sore throat.
The cold broke yesterday, but even so I reached the following position in my round-one game.

Spanton (1858) - David Collier (2015), after Black's 34th move

White is a pawn up, but under pressure on the kingside. My priority was to drive away the black knight, but how is this best achieved?
I was torn between playing g3 (trying to take advantage of the unprotected status of the f7-rook), and first consolidating with Nd3.
In the end I settled for 35.g3?? and could have resigned immediately after DC's reply 35...fxg3. What made it especially annoying was that I had seen this idea in another variation.
Komodo9 gives 35.Nd3 h5 36.gxh5 Qxh5 37.Ne1, with a large advantage to White.
Stockfish8 is not so convinced by this line, reckoning Black has fair compensation for the pawn.
Either way, 35.Nd3 was the better choice ...

Notorious f+h Pawns

"ALL rook (and pawn) endings are drawn" is an aphorism often attributed variously to Tarrasch or Tartakower.
It sounds much more like the latter, but in any event there is a lot of truth in it, sometimes even when one player is two pawns up.
The ending of rook, f-pawn and h-pawn versus rook "has been notorious ever since the famous game Marshall-Rubinstein, San Sebastian 1911," according to Reuben Fine in Basic Chess Endings.
I reached such an ending last month in the second round of the Highlands Open in Trebic, part of the Czech Tour.
Here is the position after White's 51.Rxa3:

Black to play and draw in Spanton (1858) - Svante Norlander (1583)

Because this position can be analysed perfectly thanks to the Nalimov endgame tablebases, I shall use the John Nunn endgame convention to punctuate the moves.
Here is a subbed down version of the convention (a fuller explanation is available on Wikipedia):
!: The only move which maintains the current evaluation of a win or a draw. An ! is used no matter how trivial the move in question, unless it is the only legal move.
!!: A particularly difficult-to-find ! move.
?: A move which negatively affects the evaluation of the position. ie turns a win into a draw or a draw into a loss.
??: An obviously bad ? move.
51...Rd1+
Seven other moves maintain the draw, including 51...Rc1 and 51...Kd7 - evidence that the drawing margin in this ending is wide indeed.
52.Ke3 Rh1 53.Ra4 Ke5 54.h5 Kf6 55.h6 Re1+
No fewer than 10 moves maintain the draw here, but they do not include 55...Rxh6?, which becomes a lost pawn ending after 56.Ra6+ Kg7 57.Rxh6 Kxh6 58.Kf4 (or Ke4 or Kd4, or even Kd3).
56.Kf4 Re8?
Only one rook move draws, 57...Re7, and so does the natural-looking 57...Kg6 and even 57...Kf7.
57.Ra6+
57.Ra7 also wins.
57...Kf7

White to play and find the only move that keeps the position a win

58.Kf5!
That wasn't so difficult. Clearly White's king and f-pawn need to advance.
58...Re1

White again to play and find the only move that keeps the position a win

59.f4?
I needed to find 59.Ra8! The point is that Black's king has no useful move, while 59...Rh1 can be simply met by 60.h7 (60.Kg5 also wins).
59...Rh1 60.Ra7+ Kg8!
A fairly obvious choice, but a sign that the drawing margin has significantly narrowed.
61.Kg6 Rg1+! 62.Kf6 Kh8?
Black had to play 62...Rh1! He may have been worried by the line 63.h7+ Rxh7?? 64.Ra8mate. But 63...Kh8! draws.

White has two winning moves in this position -  I didn't find either

63.Rg7?
White wins with the understandable 63.f5 and the less obvious 63.Re7.
63...Ra1?
63.Rf1 and 63.Rh1 draw.
64.Rg6?
Again, 64.f5 and 64.Re7 win.
64...Ra6+ 65.Kg5 Ra1 66.Re6 Rg1+! 67.Kf6 Kh7 68.Kf7 Rf1 69.Rf6 Rg1
69...Rxf4?? is the only move that loses in this position!
70.f5 Rf1! 71.Kf8

My plan over the last few moves has been to sacrifice the h-pawn in return for reaching a winning Lucena position, but Black has three moves that foil it

71...Rg1?
Black had to keep his rook on the f file. After the text, I get to execute my plan.
72.Ra6 Rf1
Stockfish8 reckons 72...Rg8+ draws, but Nalimov (and Komodo9) show White winning after either legal king move.
73.f6! Kxh6 74.f7+ Kh7 75.Ra4 76.Rh4+ Kg6 77.Kg8 1-0

How To Lose In 13 Moves

I PLAYED at the Highlands Open, a nine-round swiss held in Trebic from Sep 23-30 as part of the Czech Tour.
My score of +4=1-4 was good enough to gain 25 elo points, but in the sixth round I had the embarrassment of losing in 13 moves.
The game began reasonably enough ...
Jan Bartos (FM2209) - Spanton (1858)
Catalan Opening
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 c5 5.Bg2!?

Black to make his fifth move

This is quite a common idea in the Catalan: White ignores Black's threat to demolish his centre and instead gets on with developing his kingside. I was already out of book.
5...cxd4
Most popular is 5...Nc6, but the text has been played by some strong players, including Aronian.
6.0-0 Nc6
6...dxc4 is possible, but White replies 7.Qxd4, leaving Black even further behind in development.
7.Nxd4

How should Black play in the centre?

First, it is important to realise that the ambitious 7...e5? loses a pawn to the simple 8.Nxc6 bxc6 9.Nc3, eg 9...Be6 10.Bg5 Be7 11.Bxf6 etc.
7...Bc5 drives the d4-knight from the centre, but there is no gain of tempo as White hits the c5-bishop with 8.Nb3.
Instead, I came up with ...
7...Qb6?!
This drives away the knight with gain of tempo, and I later discovered it had been the move of some strong players. But I think it is more significant that the queen becomes a target for White's minor pieces.
8.Nc2
By no means the only reply. The most popular line runs 8.Nxc6 bxc6 9.Nc3 Be7 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.e4 dxe4 12.Nxe4, with an excellent position for White thanks to the powerful Catalan bishop on g2.
8...d4?
The text is liked by the analysis engine Stockfish8, but Bartos's strong reply shows it to be an error.
Komodo9 prefers 8...dxc4, but that hardly convinces after the straightforward 9.Nba3.

Bartos's ninth move proved very strong

9.e3!
I had not been worried about White giving up the bishop-pair to grab a pawn with 9.Bxc6 Qxc6 10.Qxd4 - Black's compensation is obvious. But the text gives White a strong game, whatever Black replies.
9...Bc5??
I rejected 9...dxe3 10.Bxe3 Qxb2 as too risky. The analysis engines at first disagree, until they find the move that caused me to reject this line, namely 11.Nba3.
Best may be 9...e5 10.dxe4 dxe4, although Black's passed d-pawn is probably weak rather than strong.
10.b4 
Even better, according to the analysis engines, is 10.exd4! eg 10...Nxd4 11.b4, which wins a piece.
10...Nxb4?
Black is still just about in the game after 10...Bxb4, but 11.exd4 gives White the upper hand.
11.exd4 Be7
11...Qd8!? is a computer-suggested near-save, and does keep the game going, but White should win comfortably enough after the forcing 12.Nxb4 Bxd4 13.Nc2 Bxa1 14.Qxd8+ Kxd8 15.Nxa1.
12.c5 Qb5 13.a4 Qd3
Losing instantly, but the b4-knight could not be saved, eg 13...Qc4 14.Nba3 Qb3 15.Rb1.
1-0
So how do you lose in 13 moves? There are many ways, but this game shows three things that help:
1. Pick a variation where you know very little theory.
2. Develop your queen early.
3. Push a pawn across the halfway line when it will be difficult to support it.

Resigning In A Won Position

I PLAYED at Bradford over the weekend, hoping to repeat last year's feat of winning the U171 tournament.
Instead, I had one of my worst congresses ever, despite facing five players graded 117-147, ie considerably lower than my 169.
I had losing positions in every game, but somehow managed to scrape together a 50 percent score.
I was much helped in this by my round-three opponent resigning in a won position.
Here is the game after White's 50th move:

Spanton (169) - Dennis J Wright (141), Bradford U171, 2017

Seeing he was about to lose his pinned bishop, my opponent played 50...Rxe2, desperately hoping I would fall for 51.Kxe2 Qa6+, when Black picks up White's bishop and has an attack against the exposed White king.
But I was ready for this and so played 51.Qxe2, prompting DW to immediately resign.
It was only later that evening, putting the game into my database, that I realised - thanks to analysis engines - that Black, not White, is winning after the simple 51...Qxf5+.
True, White can save his bishop with 52.Bf2, but the engines have Black winning easily with 52...Bb6. Materially, Black has only a pawn for the exchange, but there is much more to come thanks to the exposed nature of White's king.
On a brighter note, the congress, held upstairs at Bradford Latvian club, featured good playing conditions and, an increasing rarity these days, a well-stocked bookstall.

Players gathering before round four on Sunday morning

New Team, Old Tim

MY first game for my new club had a familiar feel to it - I get a slight edge out of the opening against a higher-graded opponent; he runs short of time in the middlegame and offers a draw; I over-rate my position and play on; I too get short of time and the blunders follow.
It's late and I'm off to Bradford tomorrow morning a for a weekend congress, but I hope to post more about the game once I've had a chance to look at it in more detail.
For the moment, here is the position after Black's 20th move, at the point where he offered a draw.

Spanton (169) - Angus French (183), Central London League

Incidentally, we (Battersea) lost the match (against Pimlico Knights) 4-1, and I now have a lifetime score against AF of +2=0-3.

A Position That Baffles Computers

EVERYONE knows analysis engines are very strong these days, but there are still positions they find hard to evaluate correctly.
Most such positions occur when there are lots of men still on the board, but in my most recent tournament, the Devon County Congress at the Livermead House Hotel earlier this month, the following example arose after White's 60th move.

Spanton (169) - Daniel Gibbs (153), Rowena Bruce Challengers 2017

The game continued routinely: 60...Nd7 61.Kd4 Kxh6 62.Kxc4 Kg6 63.Kd5 Kf6 64.a6 Nb6+ 65.Kd4 Nc8 66.Nb5 Ke7 67.a7 Nb6 68.Nc7 Kd7 69.a8Q Nxa8 70.Nxa8 Kc6 1-0.
But the next day DG told me he actually had a draw, and this does seem to be the case - but you have to give analysis engines plenty of time to find it.
The key line runs: 60...c3 61.a6 Nxe4! 62.a7 c2 63.Kxe4 (63.a8Q c1Q+ doesn't change the outcome) c1Q 64.a8Q Qh1+ with a trivial draw.
So it seems 60...Nd7 should have a question mark (under the John Nunn endgame convention).
Analysis engines eventually realise White is not winning in the diagram position (although many continue to believe White is much better), but it certainly baffles them at first.