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This weekend I played in the Coulsdon Winter Chess congress. It's a great event in South London (just inside the M25). The set up is in a church hall that is full time shared with the chess club, great equipment, refreshments available and fairly easy to get to on the train. The only draw back would be the town center doesn't have many hotels and we had to stay a fair distance away at a local golf club. The pairings are FIDE based and all games are FIDE + ECF rated. They are great at posting pairings on time but I feel it would be better if this was also online so you can track your progress more easily.
Not my best performance. Arrived tired after a busy week in work and struggled on the Saturday afternoon session. Sharing my experince to give people an idea how events work and hopefully learn from some of the mistakes I made. I played in the Major U1750, aiming to secure a few wins or draws after a recent poor performance in the Minors at the Hampshire Chess Congress.
Game 1: Draw
White: David Lightfoot 1470K ECF
Black: Ethan Bogerd 1323K
Interesrting first game against Ethan, 8YO. Ethan made some unusual moves going into the middle game that I didn't fully appreciate and ultimatly we decided on a draw.
Game 2: Loss
White: Thomas Ewart 1237A
Black: David Lightfoot 1470K ECF
Another strong young player in game 2, also 8YO. I made an unforgivable blunder by attacking his Queen with a bishop I'd mistakenly assumed was covered. Blaming that on being tired and a bit over aggressive. The move was recoverable though as it allowed me to fork a Knight and Queen. I played this but failed to secure the other Bishop so still ended up a piece down and quickly lost.
Game 3:
I took a bye. Which was the right call with the 3rd game of the day at 7pm and my previous blunder in game 2.
Game 4: Draw
White: Philip Clarkson 1600P ECF
Black: David Lightfoot 1470K ECF
Phil was a stong online player with little recent experience in OTB rated games. I decided to play an obscure off the book opening with black with the goal to make him think early and not give him much pattern recognition or opportunity to attack. Seemed to work OK, I had a brief chance to go ahead on move 14 but missed it. I found myself in a very unusual set up with both Knights on the back rank like some sort of reserve calvalry. Eventually settling for a trade out and draw at a dead even position after 3 hours, I prefered the idea of lunch over risking a tricky end game against a strong player. Maybe one I should have pressed for a win but have had this in the past and ended up losing.
Game 5:
White: David Lightfoot 1470K ECF
Black: Dominnic Warner 1603A ECF
The final game I lost again on one key error after a strong start. Foolishly I was playing quite fast and carefree trying to catch an earlier train, my main goal was to trade out early and get a better position, I failed to capitilise on this in the middlegame. My opponent took advantage of my miscalucalating the main exchange on move 30. Taking me from a 0.5+ winning posision to a certain defeat. Good one to learn from, don't rush against strong players (I should know that already)!
That's all! Overall, another disappointing performance for me, but very enjoyable. Lot's of lessons learned and will continue to wok towards my 1600 rating target through 2024. Main lessons, don't play tired, don't arrive tired. Don't rush moves, don't underestimate 8 year olds!!!!