Wednesday 16 April 2008

Dubbo Open - Games from Day 2

As promised, here are my games from day 2 of the 2008 Dubbo Open.
The first was against Garry Mann and I was helped by the fact that he ran himself short of time as early as move 20. Of course at the tournament time limit (G60+10s move) this is likely to happen, but you still need to be aware of the consequences. In this case moves like 29. ... Qe6 and 33. ... Re7 had as much to do with posing my opponents problems as they had to do with any objective merit.

Mann,G - Press,S [C88]
Dubbo Open (4), 13.04.2008

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.d4 d6 9.dxe5 Nxe5 10.Nxe5 dxe5 11.Bg5 Bb7 12.Nd2 c5 13.c3 Qc7 14.Qe2 h6 15.Bxf6 Bxf6 16.Nf1 c4 17.Bc2 g6 18.Ne3 Rad8 19.a4 Rd6 20.Red1 Rfd8 21.Rxd6 Rxd6 22.axb5 axb5 23.g3 Bg5 24.h4 Bxe3 25.Qxe3 Kg7 26.Ra7 Rd7 27.Kf1 Qc6 28.Ke2 Qd6 29.f3 Qe6 30.Ra1 Qh3 31.Qf2 f5 32.exf5 gxf5 33.Rd1 Re7 (D)
34.Rg1 e4 35.f4 e3 36.Qe1 Qg4+ 0-1

In my Round 5 game I was just crushed by Mos Ali. The seeds of defeat were sown as early as 9.Re1? where the idea of forcing e4 was never going to be good, while the idea of preventing e5 with 9.Rd1 was clearly better.

Press,S - Ali,,M [A88]
Dubbo Open (5), 13.04.2008

1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 d6 4.Nf3 c6 5.g3 g6 6.Bg2 Bg7 7.0-0 0-0 8.Qb3 Kh8 9.Re1 Ne4 10.e3 Na6 11.a3 e5 12.Qc2 Nxc3 13.bxc3 g5 14.e4 f4 15.h3 h5 16.dxe5 dxe5 17.Rd1 Qf6 18.Qd3 Be6 19.Nh2 Nc5 20.Qe2 Qf7 21.g4 Bxc4 22.Qf3 Rad8 23.gxh5 Rxd1+ 24.Qxd1 Be6 25.Qf3 Rd8 26.Ng4 Rd3 0-1

My last round game was against defending champion Bill Egan. When I started playing chess 25 years ago even taking a half point from Bill was a huge achievement for me. However I'm a little more ambitious these days, and even knocked back a draw offer on move 32. Possibly Bill chose the wrong moment to make the offer as I was just getting my queenside pawns rolling, and so had something to do for the next few moves at least.

Egan,B - Press,S [D87]
Dubbo Open (6), 13.04.2008

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 0-0 8.Be3 c5 9.Ne2 Nc6 10.Rc1 Na5 11.Bd3 c4 12.Bb1 b6 13.0-0 Bb7 14.Qd2 Qc7 15.Bh6 Rad8 16.Bxg7 Kxg7 17.Qf4 Qxf4 18.Nxf4 (D)
18. ... e5 19.dxe5 Rfe8 20.e6 fxe6 21.Rcd1 Kf6 22.f3 Nc6 23.Bc2 a6 24.Rxd8 Rxd8 25.Rd1 Rxd1+ 26.Bxd1 b5 27.Kf2 Nb8 28.Ke3 Nd7 29.Ne2 e5 30.g3 Nc5 31.Bc2 g5 32.Ng1 a5 33.Ne2 b4 34.cxb4 axb4 35.Nc1 Bc6 36.Kd2 g4 37.Ke3 gxf3 38.Kxf3 Kg5 39.Bd1 Nxe4 40.h4+ Kf6 41.Bc2 Nc3+ 42.Kg4 Be4 43.Bxe4 Nxe4 44.Kf3 Nc5 45.g4 b3 46.axb3 cxb3 47.Ne2 Na4 48.g5+ Ke6 0-1

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