The Zonal Summary ... Part 3

Round 8

Black v CM Manoj Kumar (2017)

This was another game where I played a horrible opening (perhaps I need something better against 1.e4?) and found myself in a bad position after only a dozen moves. At the time I was thinking a lot about the idea of undevelopment, where you move a piece back to its original square, so that it can then be repositioned on a better square (I read about it somewhere, but I'm not sure where) ... and by move 12 I had already made two such 'undeveloping' moves. I managed to somehow survive the initial onslaught and found myself in a tricky middlegame. I managed to steal a pawn and swap off into an ending as Manoj was heading into time trouble. Unfortunately for him, he blundered a piece, which gave me a not-so-well-deserved win.

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c6 4.Be3 d5 5.f3 h5 6.Qd2 Nh6 7.h3 e6 8.0-0-0 Nd7 9.Be2 b6 10.g4 Ng8 11.gxh5 Rxh5 12.f4 Rh8 13.f5 gxf5 14.exf5 (D1)

14...Ndf6 15.Nf3 exf5 16.Ne5 Qc7 17.Rdg1 Bh6 18.Bxh6 Nxh6 19.Nxc6 Ne4 20.Qe3 Be6 21.Ne5 a6 22.Bf3 0-0-0 23.Be2 Kb7 24.Nd1 Rc8 25.Bd3 Ng8 26.Qe2 Ra8 27.Ne3 Ne7 28.Nd1 Nc6 29.Nxc6 Qxc6 30.h4 Qa4 31.Kb1 Qxd4 32.h5 Rh6 33.c3 Qh8 34.Ne3 Nc5 35.Bxf5 Qe5 36.Bc2 Re8 37.Qd2 Rxh5 38.Rxh5 Qxh5 39.Bd1 Qe5 40.Bf3 Ne4 41.Qd3 f5 42.Nc2 Re7 (D2)

43.Nb4 b5 44.Re1 Qg3 45.Rd1 Qe5 46.Re1 Rc7 47.a4 Rc4 48.Rc1 a5 49.Nc2 Nc5 50.Qe2 Qxe2 51.Bxe2 Rxa4 52.Bxb5 Re4 53.Nd4 Kb6 54.b4 (D3)

54...axb4 55.cxb4 Rxd4 0-1

Round 9

White v FM Greg Canfell (2327)

This was an interesting, although rather flawed, last round game. Obviously I would have preferred an easier pairing for the last round, however I have had a few decent results against Greg in the past, so a win was not entirely out of the question. I got what I thought was a reasonable opening position, until it occurred to me that my bishops really didn't do much at all in the position. Greg sacrificed an exchange to increase the power of his bishop pair and give himself some dangerous central pawns. I thought I might have been winning at one point in the rook & bishop v bishop pair ending, though Fritz disagrees. I almost missed the mating net Greg was trying to set up near the end, but found that I could give the exchange back for a drawn ending. However, the silicon monster also thinks that the final position is better for black, rather than simply the clear draw it actually is.

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bc4 d6 6.0-0 Nf6 7.d3 0-0 8.a4 Nd4 9.Nxd4 cxd4 10.Nd5 Nxd5 11.Bxd5 e6 12.Bb3 Bd7 13.Bd2 Kh8 14.Qe2 f5 15.Bb4 Qb6 16.Ba3 Rfe8 17.a5 Qc7 18.Rae1 Rad8 (D1)

19.e5 dxe5 20.fxe5 Qxa5 21.Bd6 Bc6 22.Ra1 Qb6 23.Qd2 a6 24.Qg5 Rd7 25.h4 Qd8 26.Qf4 Rxd6 27.exd6 e5 28.Qh2 Qxd6 29.h5 Rf8 30.hxg6 Qxg6 31.c3 dxc3 32.bxc3 f4 33.Bc2 f3 34.Rae1 Rf4 35.Rf2 Qg5 36.Qh3 Qg4 37.Qxg4 Rxg4 38.Bd1 Rxg2+ 39.Rxg2 fxg2 40.Bg4 Bf8 41.d4 exd4 42.cxd4 Kg7 43.Be6 Bb4 44.Re2 Bf3 45.Re3 Kf6 46.Bg8 Bc6 47.Bxh7 a5 48.Bb1 a4 49.Ba2 Kf5 50.Re2 Bf3 51.Rf2 Ke4 (D2)

52.Rxf3 Kxf3 53.Bd5+ Kf4 54.Kxg2 b5 55.Kf2 Bc3 56.Ke2 Bxd4 57.Kd3 Ke5 58.Bf7 b4 59.Be8 a3 60.Bf7 1/2-1/2

Overall, a reasonable performance, winning against two untitled players under 2000, losing to two IMs, drawing with two FMs (one from a better position), beating two CMs ... and the topsy-turvy draw with Tristan Stevens!