"Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you." - Arnold Palmer

Tuesday 27 August 2013

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. 




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