September 17, 2021
Congratulations to Tim Wall for making the first post Covid other-the-board tournament to be held in the North East the biggest ever NE event with almost 200 players. A tough 9 rounds in four and a half days was ameliorated by the possibility of taking up to 3 byes.
We had three club members playing in this tournament. Paul Bielby played in the Challengers and took two byes to finish on 4.5. Dave Patterson played in the Major and finished in 6th place on 5. Michael Allen was joint winner in the Minor with an excellent 7/9. Well done!
We got Michael, Paul and Dave each gave us one of their games with their thoughts and annotations.
[pgn height=500 initialHalfmove=1 autoplayMode=none]
[Event “Northumbria Minor”]
[Site “Gateshead”]
[Date “2021.08.30”]
[Round “8”]
[White “Allen, Michael”]
[Black “Mckay, Ruaridh”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteECF “1405”]
[ECO “A03”]
[EventDate “2021.08.30”]
1.f4
{By this point, we were nearing the finals of the tournament and I
needed a win. The tension was high and I had been playing 1. e4
throughout the tournament. To get my opponent out of his comfort zone,
I decided to play the Bird Opening with 1. f4.}
1…d5 2.Nf3 c5 3.g3 Nc6 4.Bg2 e6 5.d3 Rb8
{Rb8 to safely fianchetto the light-squared Bishop is a valid idea,
but too slow in my opinion. Better would have been an immediate
development on the kingside and castling. Black’s reluctance to castle
becomes an apparent weakness later in the game.}
6.a4 b6 7.O-O Nf6 8.Nc3 a6?!
{Again, too slow. Four of Black’s pieces remain undeveloped, giving me
ample time to strike in the centre.}
9.e4! dxe4 10.Ng5?!
{Too imaginative a move. Better was 10. dxe4, gaining control over the
d-file.}
10…Bb7 11.Ncxe4 h6 12.Nxf6+ Qxf6 13.Ne4 Qd4+ 14.Kh1 Be7 15.Bd2 Qd7
{15…Qxb2 is impossible due to a devilish trap. 16. Bc3 wins
material.}
16.Bc3 Nd4 17.Qg4 Rg8?
{Castling was better. A future Bf6 adequately defends the kingside.}
18.Bxd4 Qxd4 19.Qe2?
{This move annoyed me in later analysis. I had the right idea by
pushing the f-pawn later, but it would have been better to do it with
an immediate 19. f5.}
19…Kf8 20.c3 Qd8 21.f5! exf5 22.Rxf5 Bxe4 23.Bxe4 g6 24.Rf2 Kg7 25.Raf1
Rf8 26.Bg2 Qd6 27.Re1!
{I believed the f-file had been exhausted of all potential so I sought
to reroute my pieces to control the e-file.}
27…Rbe8 28.Qf3 f6 29.Rfe2 Qd7 30.Qc6 Qxd3??
{This blunder is an unfortunate way to end the game. Simplification is
unavoidable.}
31.Rxe7+! Rxe7 32.Rxe7+ Rf7 33.Rxf7+ Kxf7 34.Qd5+! Qxd5 35.Bxd5+ Ke7 36.b4
Kd6 37.Bc4 f5 38.Bxa6 cxb4 39.cxb4 Kd5 40.Bd3 Ke5 41.a5! 1-0[/pgn]
[pgn height=500 initialHalfmove=1 autoplayMode=none]
[Event “Northumbria Challengers”]
[Site “Gateshead”]
[Date “2021.08.29”]
[Round “6”]
[White “Kyle Pelling”]
[Black “Paul Bielby”]
[Result “0-1”]
- e4 {My opponent, Kyle Pelling, is a 13-year old prodigy from Heywood, Manchester. He had never met the Siesta Variation before but played sensibly and took advantage of my error on move 8. I had a hard job defending till he in turn made a mistake on move 27 and missed his saving chance on move 28.} e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 d6 5. c3 {This is the best continuation for White against the Steinitz Deferred Defence (4. .. d6). But it does allow Black to play his favourite Siesta Variation.(5… f5) attempting to seize an immediate K-side initiative.} 5… f5 6. d3 Nf6 7. Nbd2 Be7 8. Bb3 {White has avoided the standard lines against the Siesta after 6. exf5 and now tries to stop Black from castling.} 8… d5? {This move causes Black a lot of trouble. The simple 8…Na5 is safe, solid equalises completely.} 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nc4 Bf6 11. O-O O-O 12. Re1 Re8 13. Ne3 {Wins a pawn, but the direct 13. Nxe5 does the same job and leaves White with a better position} 13… Be6 14. Bxd5 Bxd5 15. Nxf5 Qd7 16. Ng3 Rad8 17.Be3 {Allows Black to regain the pawn. 17. Re3 would keep the pawn, is an ugly move, allowing Black some initiative} 17… Bxf3 18. Qxf3 Qxd3 19. Rad1 Qc4 20. Ne4 Rf8 21. Qg4 Qf7 22. Rxd8 Bxd8 23. Rd1 h5 {A saving move else Rd7 would be overwhelming} 24. Qh3 Be7 25. b3 Rd8 26. Rxd8 Bxd8 27. Bg5? {Carelessly played allowing Black to fork B and N. If 27 Nc5 White retains the advantage.} 27… Qg6 28. Qd7?? {And this loses. White misses the trick 28 Bxd8 Qxe4 29. g3 Nxd8 30. Qd7! and if 30…. Nc6 (the only way to save the N) then Qe8+ and a draw by repetition follows.} 28… Bxg5 29. h4 Be7 30. Ng5 Bxg5 31. hxg5 Qxg5 32. g3 Qd8 33. Qe6 Kh8 34. Qg6 Qd1 35. Kg2 Qg4 36. Qe8 Kh7 0-1[/pgn]
[pgn height=500 initialHalfmove=1 autoplayMode=none]
[Event “Northumberland Masters (Major)”]
[Site “Gateshead Marriott”]
[Date “2021.09.23”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Alex Settle”]
[Black “Dave Patterson”]
[Result “0-1”]
[BlackElo “1700”]
[EventDate “2021.08.28”]
- e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 {French Defense, Exchange Variation. Used by White to open up the position and take Black away from comfort zone of well known variations.} 4. Nf3 Be6 5. Be2 {Bd3 is more common and gives white more attacking options.} 5. … Nf6 6. O-O Be7 7. Re1 O-O 8. Be3 Nbd7 $201 {Fairly standard opening variation up to move 8, although the move order may not be strictly correct.} 9. a4 {This move slightly surprised me as Ive not seen it before at this stage. Opponent said he like to pawn storm on the Queen side in this variation.} 9. … c6 10. Nbd2 Re8 11. c3 Qc7 {Standard development continued and engine has it all even after move 11.} 12. b4 Bd6 13. b5 $201 {White continued with his Pawn Storm , however the engines shows a small (0.4) advantage to Black.} 13. … Ne4 14. Qb3 Ndf6 {Black largely ignores the Queenside pawn storm and starts a King side build up.} 15. Rac1 Ng4 {White supports the Queenside with a potential pin on the black Queen. Meanwhile I (Black) carry on with the King side advance.} 16. Nf1 {White pays some attention to his Kingside with a strong defensive move supporting H2. If White hadn’t played Nf1, Bxh2+ looks winning. Even so, the engine has Black 0.8 ahead with continuing pressure.} 16. … c5 17. c4 Nxe3 ( 17. … cxd4 18. cxd5 dxe3 19. Rxc7 exf2+ 20. Kh1 fxe1=Q 21. Nxe1 Bxc7 {I, and it seems the engine missed this impressive Queen sacrifice and a 4 pawn-move attack. Even if white didn’t take the Queen, Black ends up with a 4.0 advantage. Silly me!!} ) 18. fxe3 dxc4 19. Bxc4 Bxc4 20. Rxc4 Qe7 $201 {Meanwhile back in the real game, by move 20 the position was clearing but Black had not increased his advantage with engine suggesting only a 0.6 lead.} 21. dxc5 {A poor move, improving Black’s advantage to 1.3. Qc2 appears best.} 21. … Nxc5 22. Qc2 b6 23. Nd4 Qg5 24. Nc6 h5 {Black’s attempt at reinvigorating his attack with h5 was not liked by the engine which suggested a6 to undermine white’s advanced position. My preference is for attack, attack, attack.} 25. h3 {White responded h3 to prevent my pawn helping in the attack.} 25. … Ne6 {The engine considers this poor, and a now equal position, however I wanted to swap bishop for knight and then get my knight into the Kingside attack. The engine suggested a6 to maintain my slight advantage.} 26. Rd1 Bc5 27. Nd4 {Black moved Knight back and allowed me to pressure White further and/or exchange his Knight for my Bishop. The engine suggested Bxd4 immediately, whereas I missed that and brought my QR to the party (Rad8) Black also missed the blunder and moved his King instead of perhaps moving his Knight back to c6.} 27. … Rad8 28. Kh1 Bxd4 {Finally, I correctly exchanged Bishop for Knight, with strong advantage.} 29. exd4 Nf4 {Bringing the Knight into the Kingside attack maintained my strong positional advantage and set up the win. I was expecting Rd2 to try and stave off the Black attack. This was played but it seems that Qf2 was better, as it prevents Re1 for a few moves at least. Nxh3 would have undermined the defence, and eventually forced Re1.} 30. Rd2 Re1 {Re1 was played with an overwhelming attack.} 31. Rf2 Nxg2 $201 {Nxg2 maintained the attack and stopped things fizzling out. The engine suggested a Rc8 response instead of Qf5, however this loses to Ne3, eventually winning the Knight with an significant end game advantage.} 32. Qf5 $4 {White overlooked the Knight fork on e3 after exchange of Queens, so the win became easier possibly due to increasing time trouble.} ( 32. Rc8 Ne3 33. Rxd8+ Qxd8 34. Qe4 Rxf1+ 35. Rxf1 Nxf1 {A significant advantage with engine suggesting +8 for Black} ) 32. … Qxf5 33. Rxf5 Ne3 0-1[/pgn]
