Hampstead has a time limit of 60mins with a 30sec move-increment - Fide allows such games to be rated, provided no player is over 2200, which is why the congress's three sections are U2200, U1900 and U135ECF.
The fast time-control means that playing three games on a Saturday does not feel anywhere near as tiring as it does with more traditional time controls. Indeed the Saturday 'evening' game starts at 5.30pm and is usually finished before 9pm.
Playing in the U2200, I faced four juniors with a combined age of 50, which was also the age of the one adult, a German, I faced - perhaps something for Jim Plaskett to include in a second edition of his book Coincidences.
My 50% score was a Fide rating performance of 1769.8, meaning I lost 15.6 rating points. That looks pretty bad, although my ECF grading performance was a more respectable 166.4.
In round one I got down to a rook-and-pawn ending for the fourth game in a row.
 |
| Black to make his 34th move in Jessica Mellor (1609/145) - Spanton (1906/171) |
Black's protected passed a pawn means pawn endings will almost certainly be lost for White, but the rook-and-pawn ending is certainly not hopeless.
36...Ke6 37.Rf2 Rf7 38.Rfe2?
But giving up the only open file is definitely hopeless.
I was expecting 38.Rxf7 Kxf7 39.Rf1+. My main analysis engines Komodo9 and Stockfish10 give best play as 39...Kg6 (39...Ke6 40.Rf5 Rg8 looks to be completely drawn) 40.Rf5 a3! 41.Kb1 Kh5 (the reason Black's king went to the kingside - to attack White's kingside pawns).
This position deserves another diagram, as White's next is critical.
 |
| What should White play? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
The engines reckon White's rook has to give up its outpost as 42.Ka2!? is met by 42...Rc8, which they reckon gives Black the upper hand. But it is not clear Black can make serious progress after 43.Rf2. The engines give best play as 43...Rc3 44.Kb1 Kg6 (if 44...g4 then 45.Rf5+ Kg6 46.hxg4 a2+ 47.Kxa2 Rxc2+ 48.Kb3 Rxg2 49.Rxe5 Rxg4 [49...h3 transposes] 50.Rxb5 h3 51.Rb8 with dead equality).
After 44...Kg6 the engines still believe Black has the upper hand, but cannot find a line that improves Black's position, eg 45.Re2 g4 46.g3! gxh3 47.Rh2 a2+ 48.Ka1 Rxc2! 49.Rxh3 Kg5 50.gxh4+ Kg4 when after 51.Rh1 White's dangerous passed h pawn is enough to hold the balance.
Going back to the diagram, the engines reckon White needs to give up the outpost by, say, 42.Rf6, but the engines like Black after the reply 42...Rc8, when they sharply disagree on how White should proceed. One line given by Stockfish10, but initially strongly disliked by Komodo9, goes 43.Kc1!? a2 44.Ra6 Rf8 45.Rxa2 Rf2 46.Ra5 Rxg2 47.Rxb5 Rh2 48.Rxe5 Rxh3 49.Rf5 Rh1+ 50.Kb2 h3 51.Rf8 Kg4 52.b5, when it seems White's passed pawn gives sufficient counterplay for a draw.
Given enough time, Komodo9 comes to quite like 43.Kc1!?, but eventually the engines agree on 43.Ra6, with the main line going 43...g4 44.Rxa3 Kg5 45.Ra7 Kf4 46.Rf7+ Kg6 47.Rg7 Kxg2 48.Rxg4+ Kxh3 49.Rg5 Kh2 50.Rxe5. Again it seems White has enough counterplay, eg 50...Rg8 51.Rxb5 h3 52.Rh5 Kg2 53.c3 dxc3 54.Kc2 h2 55.Kxc3 h1=Q 56.Rxh1 Kxh1, and the Nalimov endgame tablebase shows the position is drawn.
These lines are very tricky, with the engines' evaluations frequently changing and often not in agreement. Nevertheless, it is clear 38.Rxf7 was White's best, and probably was enough to draw, if difficult in practice.
Back to the game:
38...Ref8 39.Kb2 Rf1 40.Rxf1 Rxf1 41.c3
This does not help White's cause, but White was out of useful moves, eg 41.Rd2 Kf6 42.Re2 g4 43.hxg4 Kg5 and Black wins on the kingside.
41...dxc3+ 42.Kxc3 Rb1 43.Rb2 Rxb2 44.Kxb2 Kf6 (0-1, 66 moves)
No comments:
Post a Comment