SCT AYR Platinum Jubilee Congress – The player I once knew?
AYR CONGRESS – A hackers tale!
Fri 3rd to Sun 5th June 2022 – 6 round Swiss
The story of a hacker who bites the dust! This is a true story from one who knows!
HISTORY
Due to the COVID pandemic, the chess landscape has changed forever especially for someone like me. Not being the most talented chess player in the world, I was never under any illusions of what I could achieve. I made the most of what I had with hard work and sticking manly to the main elements in chess, Space, Time, Material, Development, Pawn structure, Opening principles (more loosely!), etc. Emanuel Lasker world champion from 1894 to 1901, said he could teach anybody to play chess up to master level. After that you may have needed some talent to go higher!
My ability to calculate is almost non-existent which has always held me back. I play more on intuition and experience from playing the same positions over and over again and often fall by accident into a winning position before I had seen it! I also play a lot of attacking gambit lines which of course makes me in chess terms a hacker! I have hundreds of chess books and DVD`s some of which have never been looked at or watched! The ones I have read or watched often go over my head!
Having said that I have enjoyed some success with this style even beating players in the 1900+, drawing with 2000`s and in general holding my own at about 1657 – 1700 with a few hic-cups along the way with players graded 1100 and less! I think I have fooled a lot of players into thinking I was a good chess player. I have won congresses on more than one occasion and have some chess records (in club) to my name. The most important thing is, I enjoy playing chess, the battle, even the history of chess!
ONLINE CHESS
After a long spell with no OTB chess due to the pandemic, a lot of players and clubs went online which was a handy resource. There were plenty of online sites which trebled their membership during the pandemic. They struggled for a while but have done a good job keeping chess alive. They were not geared to chess club competitions like Swiss events and other formats, but they have adapted to accommodate those elements into their systems now. In the last year or so a lot of new players have been contacting chess clubs asking to join after they took up the game online for the first time, so all in all online chess has been a positive move forward. Every cloud has a silver lining after all!
A NEW BEGINNING
Now things are opening up and OTB chess is back all be it a bit slow in it`s roll out and take up. Having not played OTB chess in over 2 years and due to illness I knew I would be rusty but boy was I in for a shock when I travelled to the Ayr Congress running from 3rd June to 5th June 22.
Not only was I out played by everyone including the juniors, it felt like I had lost my core ability to remember almost all the opening lines in openings I have played for years, while others seemed to look at the board and just play without a thought, and always good moves as well. But one of the biggest things is how players handle my surprise opening variations. Because of online chess and time-controls under 2 minutes etc, players have come across my obscure lines more often as other players used them in this format. It turns out the surprise element is no longer there and they have the answers to the opening already! With all of the above in mind here is my Ayr congress story…
Ayr was a 6 round Swiss competition with 90 minutes + 30 seconds. I was playing in the Major and was 6th seed with an old published grade of 1591.
I was really looking forward to it.
Friday 3rd June 22 11am
Round 1: I had the black pieces against a 1336 that opened with 1e4. I replied with c5 (Sicilian). He then plays 2.c3, the Alapin used by non other than Russian GM Eveny Sveshnikov. Faced with it I could not remember anything about it and was just staring at the board in panic! I knew I normally play Nf6 but the last time I did that I got hammered so I thought I would take him out of opening knowledge and played a Maroczy bind type position with 2…e5? I ended up in a cramped position and knew I had to exchange pieces to give me more space for my pieces. Thankfully my opponent obliged, did not have a plan and could not find a way through and I got an undeserved draw after move 25…Nd6! Fighting chess once I was in trouble!
Friday 3rd June 22 4pm
Round Two: I was white against a 1282 and he played the Caro-Kann an opening I used to play when I first started chess until a certain man of the cloth beat me in a 6 move smothered mate! I now like playing against it but I moved my Knight on f3 to e5 one move earlier than I should have and got nothing out of the position but a draw. I did get to sack my Bishop oh h7 which is always fun but to no avail, a draw it was.
My assessment of my first two games was not good. I did not see anything to work with, I could not even drag up anything from my past games, it was all gone! How I got two draws I will never know.
Saturday 4th June 22 10am
Round 3: After two draws I was expecting a lower graded player but ended up playing the number 2 seed Keith Aitchison (1701)! I had black and we ended up in a Kalashnikov Sicilian but with a move order I could not remember. This turned out to be the deciding factor as I played a line which I liked but it turned out not from this move order! Having said that I was after 19 moves in an equal position according to trusty old Fritz 12!
It did not feel that way to me, I felt under the cosh all the time! Maybe that is why on move 24 I blundered and that was that. I suppose I did play better this game and my opponent played better, so something to work on.
Saturday 4th June 22 3pm
Round 4: I had white with my opponent graded 1534. It was another Caro-Kann and this time I remembered my mistake in my round 2 match and improved on it. I suddenly got the urge to attack on the Kingside all be it a move or two early! Thankfully my opponent was panicking a bit over my attack and missed the chance for a clear winning advantage. In the end my attack did succeed but not because it was a good plan! My opponent played 24…Ncd5? which allowed Rf7!! The mating net starts closing in!
Victory at last and some hope for me yet.
Round 5: My worst game ever I think. No excuses, I was very tired but it was a complete disaster. I was black against a junior graded 1110 and he must have wondered “What the hell is going on”! It was the same Kalashnikov Sicilian as before and in trying to avoid the position I got myself into the last time (even though Fritz said I was equal!), I completely played the wrong line. I did set a few traps along the way (it`s amazing what comes into your head when you are in trouble!) but credit to the young man, he saw all of them! (*&^”!). To top it off I just gave away a Bishop for nothing and resigned. The first question he asked, “Was that a gambit line?” Should I say yes but you played well or be honest and say, “No it was just rubbish!” I opted for the truth and then left the building with my tail between my legs! The worst thing is out of the 5 games so far, 4 of them were on the live boards including this one. Anybody watching must have thought it was a comedy show but at least they got a laugh at my expense! I thought it was time to call it a day and give up playing chess for good as I could not compete anymore at any level. The young lad would never have believed me if I told him I had won the Ayr Major and other tournaments in the past!
Round 6 (last) The torture was nearly over as I faced my last opponent. I was white and played 1.e4 with my opponent playing 1…..Nf6! It is an opening I have never liked playing against and after all this time I could not think of the best line against it so I opted for what I thought was a safe bet and played 2.Nc3? I got into trouble early and thought of resigning (I am not a chess player, get me out of here!). But I have always had a fighting spirit and I just went for the attack again and it began to pay off as I gained more space while attacking his queen and advancing on the queenside. I just moved quickly as if I had a plan which I did not and it seemed to put him into full retreat! By move 27 I was in full control of the game but did not see the finish.
On move 27 I played Qf3!! In my mind it set two problems for my opponent; A check (Nf6+) winning the queen, but at the same time, if the queen moved I would win his Bishop for a pawn!
Give credit when it’s due he saw all of this and played 27…Bishop to c8? protecting his Queen and saving his Bishop but that was a mistake! He should have paid the price but for the fact I did not see the winning move! Very disappointing and the final nail in the coffin for me and chess!
Can you see the right winning combination of moves?
After that my game just went downhill very quickly and I lost the game I should have won!
I finished up on 2 points out of 6 but I was more disappointed the way I played and how much I had forgotten during the lockdown. Would I ever be able to compete at this level again given the standard now from the up and coming juniors who all seem to have high graded coaches! I will give it one more year and if no improvement I may give up playing competitive chess altogether and stick to organising! Can I really improve my game again at my age?
That was my story from the Ayr congress, not a pretty one but an honest one from a hacker who has been hacked!
Daniel Coleman was the only other Castlehill player in Ayr and he was playing in the Minor. He was doing well but just fell away at the end. Given his grade his performance was very good and he seems to be improving which is always good!
Until the next time I cross swords OTB and hopefully get “Back to the Future!”
For all the results and standings from the Ayr congress, click the links below.