The e2e4 Coventry - A Success for Grantham Players

The tour of e2e4 tournaments has continued last extended weekend in Holiday Inn at Coventry. Two Grantham players, Claudio Mangione and I, took part in this competition. Claudio in Open and I in Major (U1950) section; and the tournament was successful for both of us. In very tough competition in the Open section Claudio finished on the 6th place with fantastic result 4½ out of 7, and I myself somehow won the Major section with the result 5½/7 after the start which is better to forget.
All results in details as well as all games in pgn you can find on the website of e2e4.

Just to give you flavour of our performance I would like to present here two games only. First is an amazing fight between Claudio and Russian International Master Alex Slavin (2362) where both players fought like a hell. Positions arising from this game are really unconventional, very sharp and no wonder that under time constraint it was not always easy to find out the best moves. Both players were enjoying the game very much and after the game IM Slavin admitted  that this is one of the most interesting battles from his several recent tournaments.

The second game is my performance from the last round. After not very lucky beginning of the tournament I manage somehow to stay in  touch with the tournament leader 12-year-old up-and-coming star Pavel Asenov who was half a point ahead of me, so there was still a chance to catch him on condition that would draw in the last round.
I faced with White pieces to the highest rated player in this section - local guy - David J Ireland of Coventry Chess Club, who is rated 178 ECF/1941 FIDE. He is well known for his aggressive style of play and in his opening repertoire for Black you can find very sharp openings like the Benko gambit as well as the Sicilian Dragon which speaks volumes. And I had to win come what may.
I decided to restrict my opponent a bit... and with the advantage of hindsight I am sure he did not enjoy the game whatsoever. 
I managed to win and Asenov had agreed with draw before my game finished. 

Dortmund: And the Winner Is: Mickey Adams!

"And the winner of Sparkassen Chess-Meeting in Dortmund is the Englishman Mickey Adams", says the official tournament website.
41-year-old English grandmaster won with 7 points out of 9 games, half point clear of the runner-up, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. 
Congratulations!


Games Round 7 & 8

Dortmunder Sparkassen Chess Tournament in Full Swing

The chess tournament in Dortmund, Germany, has already started on 26th July. Several top level grandmasters are participating on this event, Michael Adams is the person who attracts our attention. Games in pgn can be download from here.

Round 1




Round 2



Round 3



Round 4



Round 5




Round 6




After 6 rounds Adams and Kramnik are leading the tournament with 5 points each.

100th British Chess Championship Has Started

The 100th British Chess Championship has already started on 28th of July and will continue till 10th August. The venue is Riviera International Centre, Torquay. 
There is lot of information on the website of English Chess Federation, you can download games in pgn format here, and you can follow live game here.
In the main competition there are 106 players and besides 12 GM and 11 IM you can see among them several familiar faces from Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire chess competitions like Peter Mercs, Peter Batchelor, Mike Surtees, Jim Burnett and David Coates.
Because the weather is so lovely I did not pay too much time to go through all the games, but one game hit me very quickly. Peter Mercs faced to 12 year old Akshaya Kalaiyalahan. I've already had a pleasure to play against both of these players and I lost to Peter in the same line he played in this game. I also met Akshaya in Brighton 2012. The result was draw, but I did not enjoy the game too much. And I think that the same thing had happened to Peter. Let's have a look at this game.
Dragon line was played by Akshaya and Peter who is well known for his likings in attacking chess is perhaps a surprisingly not a big fan of the Yugoslav variation. He believes in classics.