Michael Yeo and
David Cordner had a very interesting ending arising, where Michael was
left with two Knights and David had a pawn. In certain circumstances this
is a win for the player with the Knights, as he can avoid the stalemate,
due to the pawn having to move. Not this time though, as the pawn was too
far advanced.
If you are
interested in seeing a position where this was achieved, I found the
following game
where GM M.Gurevich mates GM Ian Rogers. I would hate to get this with a
lot of time, let along having no time at all, which is the situation
Michael Yeo was in. Mind you, at least you know you can't lose from this
position.
On the lower boards it seemed that
Dominic Tunks chance of retaining his title was over, as he drew
with Les Allen, certainly a good result for Les though.
Fraser McLeod played the same
opening as White against Sherif Gonem, as I had faced from Jeremy
Fraser-Mitchell in round one. Sherif succumbed even quicker than me,
as he was overwhelmed on the Kingside. In the position in the
diagram Fraser
played 18.Bxf6 and Sherif replied by taking
the Knight on c3, which allowed Fraser to play 19.Qh4 and achieve a
mating attack.
In fact, if Sherif had played
18...Bh6, rather than taking the Knight straight away the forced variation 19.Bg5 Bxg5 20.Qxg5
bxc3 would have left him in a worse position but by no means losing.
I had a narrow escape, from a much
worse position against Peter Byre where his two Bishops dominated
the board. He then won the exchange, but at least this was for one
of his Bishops. I managed to win in the
quickplay finish, when Peter dropped the exchange back, leaving me
with a won ending - a very lucky escape.
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