Hampshire
Chess
Association
Round Two
The second round saw all the participants playing and there were some attractive pairings on show. The top seeds showed their class, with the top three boards winning well. Tony Corkett's win was particularly impressive, as Khaled did not seem to play any bad moves, but was just outplayed.
I had a bit more time to look at the games being played in round two, as my game did not last that long (a reasonably short draw). As one of the lower graded players in the tournament (the average grade at this year's Hampshire Open Congress was just over 160) it's important to get on the scoreboard as soon as possible.
This is for two reasons, one the games don't seem to get any easier despite your score, as can be seen by Martin Buckley being paired with Gavin Lock this round. Two, if there is an odd number of players, the lower graded player will normally get the 1 point bye. So as well as not playing a game, you then get an inflated score and a tough game in the following round! And you think it's tough being one of the top players!
Anyway, the shortness of my game allowed me to look at some of the other games that were being played in a bit more detail than normal...
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A.Chahine's estimated grade had been amended from 138 to a more realistic 183, which saw him paired against Fraser McLeod on board four. In a King's Indian's Fraser as White got the attack in first and had an overwhelming position. The problem was time, which Fraser did not have a huge amount of! In the diagramed position Fraser played 24.Bxf5 rather than 24.Qe7 and although there were other chances, this was probably the move which cost Fraser the game.
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Another interesting position was seen in Tom Anderson's game against Joe Coburn. The following position was reached with Tom playing Black.
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