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The top board in the last round featured the champion from 2003 and 2002, with Michael Yeo needing to defeat Tony Corkett to take the crown back. From the opening Michael got a slender edge but in the end decided that he could only push so far and settled for a draw and second place. Update 1st Jan 2005 Michael Yeo disagrees with my comments and I am sure he has looked at this far more than me! His comments are In round 6, I think my edge against Tony Corkett was substantially more than "slender", and hence I also disagree with your statement that he "did not seem to have a bad position in any of his games". I think my worst mistake was on move 19 where, instead of the immediate 19.Ra5, I should play 19.Rc5. If 19....Bd7 20. Ra5 Ra8 21. Ba6 Rb8 22. Nc3 kf8 23. Be2 Rb7 24. Ne4 Ke7 25. Nc5 Rc7 26. f4 so better is probably 19....Bb7 20. Ra5 Ra8 21. Ba6 Rb8 22. Ne3 but in both cases White has what I would describe as a significant advantage. There were a number of other minor errors. Rather than the comfortable draw your report implies, he stood worse for almost the entire game and was extremely fortunate to draw! - Michael Yeo Update 3rd Jan 2005 Tony Corkett has replied to Michael Yeo's comments. The position after 14 moves has been played many times before, and Black's overall results are okay. My idea of 15.Bc8 wasn't very good and it provided Michael with a window of opportunity to apply some pressure. As it was, Michael didn't see the significance of 19.Rc5 before Ra5 until I pointed it out to him after the game. From this you may glean that Michael's (Fritz's?) lines of analysis shown above weren't seen by him at the board - which if I'm not mistaken is quite important in OTB chess! I only had a few more moves where I was concerned, and I gradually improved my position. At the end when Michael offered the draw, I thought I was doing fine, and Michael agreed that at this point he thought his safe edge had disappeared. I hope that this provides a slightly different and significantly more accurate picture to Michael's portrayal of my being worse for almost the entire game and being extremely fortunate to draw!! So Tony Corkett was the champion for the second year in a row and sixth time in total. He was a deserving winner and did not seem to have a bad position in any of his games (but see above). Michael Yeo was on his own in second place, as Gavin Lock and John Wheeler drew their game. Third place was shared between these two players, Dave Cordner and Khaled Esmat who beat Les Alllen and myself respectively.
The highlighted game this round is from the two female competitors who light the board with a series of sacrifices. Selina Khoo delivers the final blow, which is a mate in six. Congratulations to both players though, as it's a real gem of a game.
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Khoo,Selina (148) - Klein,Cornelia (139) [C25] 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Nc3 Bc5 4.Qg4 Qf6 [4...g6 5.Qf3 Nf6 is a better line. Playing the Queen to f6 just seems to get Cornelia into a difficult position] 5.Nd5 Qxf2+ 6.Kd1 Bb6 [6...Kf8 This is much better, Black cannot afford to let White take on g7] 7.Qxg7 d6 8.Nf3 Bh3 9.Nf6+ Nxf6 10.Bxf7+ Ke7 11.Be6+ It's mate in 6 1-0 |
