Thursday, 10 May 2018

Beautiful Bamberg (part two)

TODAY was a double-round day - or, at least, was supposed to be.
The playing venue is a priests' seminary on the outskirts of Bamberg
In the morning I beat a junior with a German rating of 1500 (no Fide). He played a Veresov, and in the post-mortem we both thought I had probably been better from an early stage.
But my analysis engines (Stockfish9 and Komodo9) rate White as winning, or at least much better, for much of the opening.
Massively behind on development, I was reduced to making vague threats against White's king.
White to make his 15th move in Pawel Strawa (1500) - Spanton (1878), Bamberg U1900 round 2
White is much better after a consolidating move such as 15.Kb1 or 15.a3.
Instead, PS played 15.Qb5?, one point being that 15...Rxd4?? loses on the spot to 16.Qe8+.
But I played 15...Qxb5, which wins a pawn after 16.Nxb5 Rd5 17.Nc3 Rxf5.
My afternoon opponent failed to show, perhaps put off by a hailstorm followed by torrential rain that fell for about half an hour around the start time.
That gave me more time to admire the beauties of Bamberg.
River-view of Bamberg's former town hall

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