P Richmond v Nick Noden
The decisive game from the National Club which took us through to the final!
G Vasco v J Wilby
A long-term piece sac in a Closed Sicilian from this year's Naumann Cup.
G Free v Nick Noden
An exciting game from the first round of this year's National Club Championship.
R Hanson v McAllen
Rob's first win over a 150 - with a move-by-move insight into what he was thinking through the game.
L Crane v Nick Noden
White's chooses a slow set-up against the Sicilian, but its defects are shown up in style.
Nick Noden v Kieran Murphy
An instructive quick win from the Met 1 vs Met 2 match.
J Radavanovic v Nick Noden
A difficult game. Nick sacrifices a centre pawn and is well rewarded.
Robert Kruszynski v Y Hernandez
Rob in a more positional mode, keeping his opponent's two bishops locked up.
Robert Kruszynski v Colin Roberts
A very well annotated and instructive game from Rob, played at the 4NCL.
Nick Noden v Norman Oliver
Nick makes his opponent swear out loud (see notes).
Colin MacKenzie v Norbert Fogarasi
Sharp tactics arise sometimes from the quietest openings.
Earl Jones v Norbert Fogarasi
A wild and fun game with a cheeky finish
Nick Noden v Ron Watson
Nick proves he can play the French Advance.
A.Kikoyo v Ian Calvert
Tactics abound in the 4NCL as Ian gambits a pawn in the opening for a big lead in development. A very elegent
finish ensues.
A.Price v Norbert Fogarasi
An impressive win by Norbert in this summer's Monmouth Open, the half-open g-file
proves to be decisive.
A.N.Other v Nick Noden
A gruesome minature from the king-exposed-in-centre department.
Chris Bennett v J.McVicar (Kings Head I)
Half hour down on the clock and massively outgraded, Chris pulls off the upset of the year.
George Dickson v A.Cherniaev (Hackney I)
Another IM fails to get the better of George!
John Kitchen v Collins Young
A rare loss for Collins in the 2002 Club Championship.
Aronis Gedvilas v Kathy Griffiths
First round of the 2002 summer championship. Three queens on the board and Kathy gives up both of hers to avoid mate!
Zafer Djabri v M. Smith (Streatham II)
Both sides take a turn at attacking on an open board, but in the end Zafer calculates one move further..
R Garrett v Stuart Pink
A young Stuart playing in the BCF U14 squad championship sacrifices piece after piece to tear his opponent's kingside to shreds in 3 moves.
Nick Noden v Geoff Keeling
A rare win for Metropolitan in the 4ncl qualification tournament. Nick slowly turns the screw on his opponent.
Open
Norbert sends us all his games, with notes, from the Open section.
Rd 1. J.Macrae v George Dickson
George starts with a win as Black, taking advantage of his opponent's unambitious opening play.
Rd 2. George Dickson v D.W. Anderton
A dynamic draw with the highest rated competitor in the tournament.
Rd 3. P. Hempson v George Dickson
Another win propels George into the lead...
Rd 4. George Dickson v Stuart Reuben
And a careful draw, after some strong play by Black, maintains it
Rd 5. J. Toothill v George Dickson
Drawn, although George points out the beautiful combination which he sadly noticed only after the game.
Rd 6. Neville Gill v George Dickson
A third draw leaves George a half point behind the leader going into the last round
Rd 7. George Dickson v George Ellison
Black tries too hard to win an equal position, and ends up losing it. George ends up in a three-way tie for first with Anderton and Stephenson.
The following games are from the Bled Olympiad 2002 where Kathy represented the Welsh ladies team. These games were played at the 'novel' time control of 90mins + 30sec per move. This certainly gave all the players trouble initially, with Kathy in severe time trouble (probably for the first time!) in the first game. A steady start to the tournament was followed by a quick sprint with 4.5/5 at the end.
Full Report
Rd 1. Zeinab Mamedjarova (WIM, AZERBAIJAN) v Kathy Griffiths
Kathy generated some play with active pieces after losing a pawn but
missed a few winning chances in time trouble. Her opponent went on to win the
Silver medal for board 3 with 10/13 and gain a WGM title.
Rd 2. Anna Stolarcyk (IBCA) v Kathy Griffiths - An abysmal opening by Kathy left her a pawn down in a hopeless position. In desperation she threw the kingside pawns forward. Her opponent started seeing phantom threats and went on the defensive and eventually fell into a mating net. Unfortunately this game was lost both by Kathy and the Olympiad database.
Rd 3. Aliris Sanchez (WIM, VENEZUELA) v Kathy Griffiths
A couple of slight inaccuracies by Kathy changed the course of this game as it swung on
a lost tempo.
Rd 5. Pauline Glewis (NIGERIA) v Kathy Griffiths
The value of preparation pays off, although it didn't help with the opening,
Kathy did find out that her opponent was
a very passive style of player. This certainly helped with some of the decision
making in the game.
Rd 6. Kathy Griffiths Joy Sherrie Lomibao (PHILLIPINES)
Under pressure for most of the game, Kathy's king finally found some safety
in the centre of the board though it treaded the line of being mated in the process...
Rd 7. Kathy Griffiths v Leili Piarnpuu (WIM, ESTONIA)
Again the value of preparation. Kathy shakes her WIM opponent by blitzing
out the first 15 moves and gaining herself 4 mins on the clock (very important with the new time limit). After that the game deteriorated into a tactical swamp. The
WIM obviously still shaken by the opening chose the safe path rather than the best path through the complications and a draw was agreed. Leili didn't stay shaken
for too long as she went on to take the Silver medal for board 2 with 9.5/13
Rd 8. Claire Bleazard (SOUTH AFRICA) v Kathy Griffiths
Worst game of the tournament for Kathy. Concentration at zero percent. Less said the better.
Rd 9. Kathy Griffiths v Khatozen Muhamed (IRAQ)
A display of patience rarely shown by Kathy as she used her
space advantage to slowly squeeze her opponent down the 'a' file
before checkmating the queen.
Rd 10. Kathy Griffiths v Maria Horvath (WFM, AUSTRIA)
Kathy bores her opponent into a draw with an exchange French, but it saved
the whitewash for Wales
Rd 12. Sonia Sirletti (ITALY) v Kathy Griffiths
Typical Kings Indian position, white takes over the queenside , black
throws everything down the kingside. Fortunately the
black attack was underestimated by white and a nice Knight sac nets a rook.
Rd 13. Kathy Griffiths v Amanda Benggawan (WFM, CANADA)
Lots of pieces swapped early, a neat little queen diversion trick in the
endgame gave Kathy the point.
Rd 14. Kathy Griffiths v Lucianna Morales (PERU)
An early pawn sac in a closed Sicilian led to lots of play for white
and she eventually broke through the black defences with a cheeky mate at the end.
Nick Noden v Jovanka Houska (WGM)
Nick scores the "best result of his career" beating WGM Houska in the 2nd round of the Metropolitan Open
Nick Noden v Colin Crouch (IM)
Just to show we have no favourites we've also included this rather embarassing loss for Nick in
the 3rd round. Sounds like Crouch is a bit of a bogeyman for Nick!
Justin Horton v Zafer Djabri
Zafer gets his tournament off to a flying start with a fine win as Black.
A great example of how to keep your oppenents king from castling, finished off with a devastating queen sacrifice. Anderssen v Dufresne
Universally known as the 'Immortal Game', "Every amateur should know it" said Steiniz. Anderssen v Kiereritzky
Sir George's most famous loss, Edward Lasker forces this former Met champion's king to the first rank by move 18! Ed Lasker v Thomas
A warning to all Vienna players of the double edged nature of the Frankenstein-Dracula variation. Evans v Santasiere
Tal in a hurry against Tringov Tal v Tringov
A fantastic bishop sacrifice by Tal rips Spassky's position to shreds Spassky v Tal
The following games and comments have kindly been provided by Ian Calvert
The first game was played on Board 1 of the Rest of the World v USSR match in Belgrade 1970. It will doubtless remain one of the most fondly remembered games with a Baby Orang-Utan opening for centuries to come. When the game was played Spassky was World Champion and Larsen was arguably the best in the West. Larsen v Spassky
Euwe (1901-81) was a mathematics teacher. He lived his entire life in Holland. He popularised chess there, a popularity which persists today and which forms a lasting memorial. He was World Champion from 1935 to 1937 and President of the World Chess Federation from 1970 to 1978. He tried too hard to win the following game which has an elegant finish after a slow start. Euwe v Keres