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Round 3
There was some
important clashes today and not without some drama again involving myself.
Just when I thought I had the time thing under control and thought I would
be arriving on time today I got it wrong again but by my standards I was
early as I arrived about 45 minutes late and at least made it to Greystones on the Dart as opposed to just Bray. Anyway it turned out not so bad as I
made all the time back and even had a time advantage later in the game-although
I squandered that as the position got messy. The game followed well known
theory for some time in the Ruy Lopez but Philllip seemed less familar with it and he ended
up much worse out of the opening. Thereafter I got too ambitious in looking for something big too early and started to go wrong. Then position was very unclear for a while. We both failed to play the best
moves and failed to take what chances there were in the position. Then came
an amazing twist,the game moved into positional phase again and I gained
a pawn in a bishops of opposite colour middle/endgame. The pawn was not
all that important though and Phillip had lots of activity and attacking
chances. However with correct play the position should have been level.
Instead I embarked on a line that forced the play [43 a7] and however complicated
the position was going to be, it was just crazy. The end had to be seen to be believed.
In the critical line I had given up my queen for a pawn and rook to stop his attack and further my own play with my advanced passed. All sort of tricks and counter tricks were present but ultimately a simple win for Black is what it should have been.
At the critical moment Phillip played a real lemon that I still can hardly believe. He threatened mate in one (which was a mistake- instead a threat of mate in a few moves would have been a killer punch) and attacked my rook at the same time. This however allowed me to give up my rook with check and promote a new queen, so ending the game in a surreal way. I figured I have had all my luck for the tournament in this one game. Or as someone said to me later."I see you done a Sam Collins on Phillip"! Well I guess? Hey didn't he go on to win it last year?
The other critical games saw Mark Orr outplay Stephen Brady and emerge a pawn up in an endgame. However good defense and resolve from Stephen showed that he could hold the position anyway. In the Opening phase Stephen had thought he was better but found himself actually worse and Mark might have missed some chances along the way. Mel O Cinnedie continued his quest for the title with a fairly straight forward but impressive crushing of Gerry O Connell. While Karl Phillips also continued with another good result after he beat Eamon Keogh who by now has lost any shine or spark he had earlier when he seemed to be playing quite well. Plenty of time left to get it bqack though.
| Stephen Brady |
D |
D |
Mark Orr |
| Colm Daly |
1 |
0 |
Phillip Short |
| Gerry O Connell |
0 |
1 |
Mel O Cinneide |
| Karl McPhilips |
1 |
0 |
Eamon Keogh |
| Simon Jeffares |
D |
D |
Gordon Freeman |
| Brian Beckett |
? |
? |
Martin Crichton |
| Eric Bennett |
? |
? |
John Loughran |
| ? |
? |
? |
? |
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