Round 5

Well this was a long and painful day for me, not to mention highly embarrasing Otherwise the few notable things from this round included Mark Orr playing some impressive chess. Yet I do not understand what happened, as a draw was agreed to in a position which looked much better for Black? After having done the hard work, it seemed a pity not to try make more of the position. Maybe he was in time trouble because otherwise I dont understand why he didnt make much more of the position he got.

Peter Cafolla tried a new move against Stephen Brady on move seven with 7 Be2. The problem was that it wasnt much good and Black was better thereafter. Phillip Short blundered and got his knight trapped in a position that looked like it held out the promise of a draw. Gavin Wall showed his attacking skill in an advance French where he pulled apart Blacks game with ease. Brian Kelly had one of those Grandmaster draws against Nick Pert in a game that barely lasted 15 moves. Eduard Rozentalias had little trouble grinding down Simon Jeffares whose passive opening resulted in a passive endgame devoid of prospects for Black.

So back to my own game and the drama that unfolded. Well I have to admit I don’t want to be spoiling the reports by making these pages about me. Rather these pages are more about giving some impressions and perspective from the point of view of just one of the participants, that happens to be me! Of course I can't claim to be totally objective but can merely attempt to be so.

On the other hand, in the case of this round, there was understandably a lot of interest and attention bound to surround this game on account of the result and the various mini dramas and incidents. Especially when you see a young unknown player defeat a player several hundred points higher than him, and the game itself go on for ninety two moves and last for seven hours.

The story of the game was essentially that I reacted very badly in a situation and deservedly lost a game I could and should have won and drawn many times over. The explanation for this loss is not a valid excuse for me and how I reacted, because I should be well able to compose myself and get on with things as I would otherwise do most of the time.

Basically I got a very comfortable position early on and soon after my young opponent suddenly informed me that I was not allowed to write down my moves before playing them. I reacted by simply saying he was right and stopped doing it. It was a new rule change and as this has been the habit of a lifetime I found it hard to get used to the new rule. Still, the rules are the rules and so when it was pointed out to me I paid more attention to curbing my habit and stopped it.

What occurred to me is that the young player could have been more polite about asserting the rules – but that’s ok too as he is only a young boy of 15 so we can make allowances.

The next thing to happen was just after having had a look at some of the other games in progress I return to the board and find my opponent is having his dinner at the board! Chips and something else I couldn’t quite make out. Anyway hot food that is simply not appropriate or acceptable at the board. I am quite amazed and incredulous.

Instead of saying anything to my opponent as he had done with me earlier I go to the arbiter and ask that he deal with this minor issue. As I am going back into the playing hall I see my opponents ever present mother leaving the playing hall and in an indignant tone she remarks to the arbiter that the “offending item has been removed” to which I simply remark, good!

Now I am the one feeling like the baddie in a minor soap! I only know the lady to say hello to and she always seemed like a nice lady to me so I feel a little bit bad that she clearly is now a bit upset, but hey I am the one playing in the tournament etc etc.

Anyway play continues and my opponent offers me three draws within the space of about 20 moves none of which are appropriate and the last of which is done in a manner contrary to the rules of both chess and etiquette (see 9.1) and which I don’t mind saying infuriates me. I have seconds to make move forty and I know full well that the position is winning for me yet my opponent just after he makes move forty and presses his clock, offers me a draw.

I then actually miss a very simple win of trapping my opponents queen by ... Qd8 but this is to no avail really, and having made the time control I know it is going to be a win anyway.

Anyway I make my move and go looking for the arbiter to protest at my opponents behaviour and in particular the fact that he has offered me a draw once, twice and a third time while I am considering my fortieth move after he has pressed the clock and I have only seconds to move. The arbiter explains to my opponent that he cant continue to behave this way. So we get back to the game and I play the winning move Qg5 after which my opponent plays Qxd6 (what else) ...Nf3, Kh1 follows, but in retrospect the game is arguably in a sense lost at this very moment.

Clearly ... Rc2 wins on the spot for Black now, and yes I did see it during the game. I actually told my opponent this after the game as he was trying to inform me that the position was fine for him!

Anyway I hate having to involve an arbiter in a game at all and am disgusted at the game generally. All I want now is for the game to be over and I can go home and be done with the game. My mood is foul and inside I am sick of chess and having to go through all this, for what in the end will be zero satisfaction and not even a rating point gain.

In other words I just switched off now and instead of just wrapping things up, was sort of going through the motions and being so lazy as to not even bother double checking to actually workout the details. a mistake which in normal circumstances may have lead me to not winning this game, and only drawing, but here leads to me obstinately refusing draw options and then taking the ultimate stupid gamble and losing!

Still such sentiments and whining from me are doubtless partly as a result of my previous loss the day before and being in cranky form generally, but then the whole series of mini dramas have left me questioning what the hell I am doing playing in this event at all and generally fed up! Which all amounts to nothing that matters because that rightfully is just tough and too bad for me!So in the end of the day I was a complete fool and in allowing myself get so wound up and angry, first at the behaviour of my young opponent, and then my own stupidity, I got exactly what I deserved and should not be blaming anyone but myself.

Rather than just being a grumpy old fool I was hoping that by involving the arbiter I would at least be helping my young opponent in future as he would be learning something useful. The question as to if anything was learned seems unfortunately to have been answered in the negative as two rounds later when playing against Stephen Brady he offered this five time Irish champion a draw when a full pawn down?

Anybody who thinks its s ok to offer such draws won’t be persuaded by me and in any event are likely to know or understand very little about chess. You simply do not offer draws to far stronger players unless you have a big advantage or there are accenuating factors. Otherwise it serves no purpose but to try agitating or distracting the opponent. For one thing there is no chance of the draw offer being accepted (thus it is a waste of time) and secondly it is insulting and disrespectful.

In the case of a young player much can be forgiven and overlooked as they simply may not know any better? But then in the case of my game it seems he learned very little? Still it was a nice scalp for him and a bit of a sensation for the event. Hopefully that will give him some encouragement and motivation to improve his chess and who knowns, maybe he will be beating me again in a few years?

As to how this game went? Well Ill include the following diagrams which chart the way things went at key moments.

In this position ...Rb7 would most likely have won as it is hard to see any good lines for White that offer much hope [If for example White plays D6 and then d7 d8 Black can play Rxb3, Rb8, Rxd8 and Rxc4]

Having misplayed the ending Black still has some advantage here, while being able to draw easily is not in doubt either. Ideas like F4 and or a timely Kd4 were well worth considering.

This was a critical moment as I had gone wrong in the previous few moves and now had a choice between again drawing or taking a chance with giving back the exchange in order to complicate things. The main idea was for me to have the move a4 in reserve and keep the kingside attack with rook king and pawns going if I could. After...Kg4, Bd7 Rxd7, Rd7 I should and could have bailed out with a4 but when this occurred on the board I had the feeling my opponent would go wrong and so chanced delaying a4 for one more move. After which it actually just doesn’t work and so I end up in a totally lost pawn race.

To his credit my opponent saw the key idea and played it. Thereafter I was in a hopeless position. Though as will be seen from the next diagram not without still more drama and incident.

Of course Black is lost here but having little time left it seemed worthwhile to play on and make my opponent show how it is done. Well he now played Qh1 check and then after Kf2 he played Rh2 gxh2 Qxh2 and declared checkmate! How funny is that? What could I do or say? Well not very much actually! I just said I dont think so and moved! Soon after I offered a draw on the basis that he may be very unsure of himself now and maybe it was not so easy to win the position now. However my opponent showed good recovery skills and won very soon after. Overall a long and tiresome day but not without its funnyside.