Premature Resignation?

WHITE has just played 23.Bb2-a3 in Spanton (1934) - Peter J Lynch (1651), Bendirom U2000 Round 8.

Black resigned … was he right to do so?

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Clearly Black has to save his queen.
Stockfish10 gives 23...Qc8 24.Bxe7 Bxb5 25.Qxb5 Qd7 26.Bxd8 with an advantage to White worth more than six pawns. If in this line Black plays the natural-looking 24...Re7, the engine gives 25.Rae1 f5 26.c4 Bf7 27.Nd6 with an advantage worth more than seven pawns.
Komodo10 gives 23...Qe3 24.Nc7 Bxa4 25.Qb2 Nd7 26.Nxa8 Rxa8 27.d4 with an advantage worth more than four pawns. If in this line Black plays the natural-looking 24...Rac8, the engine gives 25.Rae1 Bxa4 26.Qb1 Nc4 27.dxc4 Qxc3 28.Bxe7 Rd7 29.d6 with an advantage worth more than six pawns.
It is fair to say that, from an engine's viewpoint, resignation was justified. But I suspect few humans would have done so.

Better Be Lucky Than Good

I BLUNDERED a pawn on move 17 of my first-round game today at the Bad Wiessee Senioren-Cup, and as you can see from the photos below, I can hardly blame the quality of the playing conditions.

The tournament hall at the Hotel Gasthof zur Post 

The one thing I would say is that it was much too warm - but we will probably appreciate that tomorrow as cold and snow are forecast.


Plenty of space in the analysis room too

Fortunately, although I gave away a pawn for nothing, I already had the bishop-pair, which now afforded me some compensation for my material deficit.
Some 14 moves later we reached the following position, after which the game only lasted one more move for each side.

Black to make his 31st move in Spanton (1880) - Carlo Traversi (1554)

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31...Kd7
32.fxg7 Resigns
Just for fun, annotate the finish of the game, and then compare your annotations with mine below.
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31...Kd7?
Better is 31...gxf6, after which 32.exf6 Kd7 is clearly much better for Black.
32.fxg7!?
This seems to be strong, but not for the reason we both thought at the time.
More straightforward is 32.Bc5 Ke8 (not 32...Bxc5?? 33.fxg7) 33.fxg7 Bxg7 34.Bb6 Kd7 35.Bxd8 Kxd8 36.Bxc6 with what is surely a drawn opposite-coloured bishops ending.
32...Resigns??
Black is winning easily after 32...Bxg7 33.e6+?? Nxe6 (the move we both missed). However White has the possibility of 33.f5 or 33.Bb6, both of which give White a slight edge, according to the analysis engines Komodo9 and Stockfish10. The position is unclear - Black has an extra pawn, and his queenside majority could become very threatening, but Black, despite the small amount of material left on the board, is cramped. Meanwhile White still has the bishop-pair and now has play against Black's kingside weaknesses.
In any event, on this occasion at least, luck-in-chess played its part. It was only when I came to put the game into ChessBase that the engines showed me just how premature Black was in resigning.

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