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Round 3
Meet the coaches (2): Neil McDonald
Neil McDonald, a grand master (GM), has been a professional chess player since 1990. A graduate of University College London, Neil has established a reputation as a prolific writer of books on chess, having published 28 since 1993. His most recently published book is Starting out with 1e4. A regular coach for the England squad, we asked Neil what he enjoys most about coaching the juniors. “It is tremendous to watch their level of understanding increase. It is particularly satisfying always to show a new idea which then comes up in a game. On a personal level, meeting players of all different standards helps me when I write books.” What advice does Neil have for young players? “They should try to play 50 games a year, get Chessbase on their computer…and buy my books.” And impressions of tournaments such as these? “When players of so many countries come together it seems a missed opportunity if they do not get together outside the playing hall.”
GM Neil McDonald
Neil with fellow coaches Robert Bellin, Andrew Greet, Jovanka Houska, and Thomas Rendle have given their thoughts on the Round 3 games..
Round
3 games
It
was a disappointing day of results for many of the players. Cumulatively
over the first three days the squad still has over half marks.
Radha had the better out of the opening before falling for a little trick and losing a piece, then could not quite recover. Marcus bounced back from yesterday’s loss with a fine attacking victory. Samuel capitalised on a good position from the opening and convincingly outplayed his opponent. The game is reproduced below with annotations by Thomas Rendle. Saravanan achieved a slight advantage, not quite able to convert this to the full points. Yang-Fan put up a tough resistance, but eventually succumbed to some strong play from his opponent.
Sheila was confronted with “a chess player’s nightmare” – a surprise from the word go. She responded with composure and maturity; thought carefully; used general principles of development. Momentarily there was a chance to win, but the game was a well deserved draw against the seventh seeded player. Amisha had a generally good game with opportunities for victory. As she pushed for a win, the WFM-titled opponent narrowly escaped defeat. Jessica fell into a bind, but defended tenaciously to secure the draw.
Callum had a very smooth win playing really well. His opponent made a slight opening inaccuracy, which Callum exploited ruthlessly. This game is reproduced with annotations by Mathew Pert. Subin successfully guessed the system his opponent was going to play, but then went astray and had to defend carefully before eventually holding the draw.
Selina came up against a very good opponent and lost what was a tough game. Chantal had an exciting game in which she fought hard to get a draw. James’s game went extremely well with everything working virtually perfectly until a very well hidden tactical blow put an end to the game. Ankush, true to himself, played a “weird sharp opening” as black, following his own intuition, which once again worked. He outplayed his opponent tactically and was material up after winning the exchange, although he was not able to convert this to a win, the game ending in a draw.
Thomas had an exciting game with an excellent version of the preparation and was winning towards the end, but missed his opponent’s mating attack. Simon had a full-blooded encounter against a Polish IM. Confronted with a well prepared novelty in the early middle game he found a spirited counter, leading to a mutually unclear position with chances for both sides, but in the end Simon lost as he came under time trouble. Li played against an IM in a game which led to a complex blocked position, with both players having to maneuver pieces around. Li found a way to complicate the game and was close to salvaging something until his opponent found the key moves to win.
Franklin,S
- Bizovi,M (1764) [E65]
European Youth U12, 2006
[Annotated by Thomas Rendle]
Play the game here
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.0-0 d6 6.Nc3 c5 7.d4 Nbd7 8.e4 [ 8.h3!? Karpov - Hoffman, 2001.] 8...cxd4 9.Nxd4 a6 10.h3 Planning to play Be3 without having to worry about ...Ng4. 10...Qc7 11.b3 b5 [ 11...Nc5 looks more solid] 12.Nd5 [ 12.e5!? dxe5 13.Ne6! fxe6 14.Bxa8 bxc4 15.Be3+/-] 12...Nxd5 13.cxd5 Ne5 maybe Nc5 was better as the Knight just proves to be a target on e5. 14.Be3 e6? This weakens the d6 and e6 pawns, a mistake which Samuel is quick to punish! 15.f4 [ 15.Rc1!? Qe7 16.f4 Nd7 17.dxe6 fxe6 18.Nc6] 15...Qc3 16.Qc1! Nf3+?! [ 16...Qxc1 17.Raxc1 Nd3 18.Rc3 Nc5 19.e5+/-] 17.Nxf3 Qxa1 18.Qxa1 Bxa1 19.Rxa1 exd5 20.exd5 Samuel has won two pieces for a Rook and to now proceeds stop any counterplay for his opponent. 20...Re8 21.Kf2 Bf5 22.Nd4 Rac8 23.Nc6! blocking any play down the c-file. 23...h5 24.Rc1 Rc7 [ 24...Be4? 25.Bxe4 Rxe4 26.Ne7+] 25.Re1 Rcc8 26.Bd2 Kf8 27.Bb4 Rxe1 28.Bxd6+ Ke8 29.Kxe1 Kd7 30.Bb4 f6 31.Kd2 Re8 32.d6 Be4? The final mistake, but Black's position was hopeless anyway. 33.Bxe4 Rxe4 34.Nb8+ and now the d-pawn cannot be stopped! 34...Kd8 [ e.g. 34...Ke6 35.Bc5 Kf7 36.d7] 35.Ba5+ 1-0
Kilpatrick,C
(2071) - Ozianiashvili,G [B10]
B U14 (3), 12.09.2006
[Annotated by Andrew Greet]
Play the
game here
1.e4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Ne5!? A very interesting move which must have come as a big surprise for Black. 4...Nf6 5.d4 Bf5 6.Bb5+ Nbd7 A risky defence. 7.Qf3! Be6 Now Black will have trouble completing development. 8.0-0 a6 9.Ba4 b5 10.Bb3 g6 11.a4! Callum wastes no time in opening the queenside, exploiting Black's lagging development. 11...Nb6 [ 11...b4 12.a5 is also very bad for Black.] 12.axb5 axb5 13.Rxa8 Nxa8 14.Nc3 Nc7 15.Nxb5! This clever trick wins a pawn. 15...Bg7 [ 15...Nxb5 16.Ba4 Qb8 17.Qe2 regains the piece.] 16.Nxc7+ Qxc7 17.Ba4+ Kf8 Even after losing a pawn Black has still not been able to castle, and Callum easily converts his advantage with some accurate technique. 18.Bf4 Qb6 19.Qb3 Qxb3 20.Bxb3 Ne4 21.Ra1 Bxe5 22.Bh6+! Ke8 [ 22...Bg7 23.Ra8+ mates.] 23.dxe5 Kd7 24.Ra7+ Kc6 25.Ba4+ Kc5 26.f3 1-0
Subin
(right) explains to the others at the F9 meeting point
MonRoi
Selina and Amisha both played their Round Three games using MonRoi.
The MonRoi gadgets have become a regular feature of international chess
tournaments, particularly on the top boards. Players enter their moves
directly into the hand-held device rather than filling in a score sheet.
Selina used MonRoi courtesy of being on board two; Amisha is trying
it out for a cost of €35 for the tournament. New Monroi Personal
Chess Managers (PCMs) are being sold at €280.
The name (“my king” in French) has come to be pronounced “monroy” by English speakers. It is a Canadian company and the two girls received their tuition from the sister of the founder. Opinions were divided – one said “It’s easy to use!”, the other declared “It’s really fiddly”. Two people who were glad this was happening were the mums, who could watch the moves on a big screen in the analysis room. The games were indeed live on the internet.
Mathew Pert is all in favour. “It saves some poor schmuck from having to sit with piles of sheets to enter the games on a database, and it is accurate.” After the game the girls got a print out of their games “The problem was they made you wait fifteen minutes”. One thing worth waiting for is a note of the exact time it took to make the moves, helping players analyse their time control.
So what was the conclusion? “It slowed me down”, “It would be better when they add more functions…like Fritz!”
Krishna (left) and Rosie (right) enjoy watching their daughters’
games live on the big screen
Selina
(left) and Amisha (right) with their kings
The MonRoi print-out
The
hotel environment
It is so hot during the day that our players are generally sticking
to the comfort of the hotel, with the occasional short promenade along
the sea front giving a chance to enjoy the spectacular views and tropical
plants. There is a pretty harbour and beaches (with relaxed dress code!).
There is also a lot of construction work going on, the thumping of machinery
starting up at daybreak. It is too hot to coach outside, too public
and busy in the lobby areas, so mostly players and coaches are perching
on beds in the rooms with furniture rearranged accordingly.
Tropical tree…
…and flowers
The new Montenegro is built
View of Plaza Hotel from the sea side with some of old Herceg Novi
in the background
Country
codes
Confused by the difference between MKD, MDA and MNE? Here is a complete
table of the country codes to help follow the nationality of the opponents
listed in the results tables.
Country
Code |
Country |
ALB ARM AUT AZE BEL BIH BLR BUL CRO CZE DEN ENG ESP EST FIN FRA GEO GER GRE HUN IRL ISR ITA LAT LTU LUX MDA MKD MNE NED NOR POL ROM RUS SCO SLO SRB SUI SVK SWE TUR UKR WLS |
Albania |
