Archive for 2016
Page 2 of 2
Best for the match that Karjakin held out against Magnus. A win for Magnus would end it I think.
→ posted on November 16, 2016microposts
Munster League Division 1. Rounds 5, 6 and 7.
After our great start it was back down to earth with a wallop for the Cork B team in the last three rounds of the Munster League. First a 5-0 hammering at the hands of Cork A (our top scoring team member Walkover didn't show up for this match). Then a 4-1 loss to CCYMS followed by another 5-0 beating to Limerick A. We're in a bit of a precarious position after the first half of the league but hopefully can grab a few more points after the Christmas break.
For me personally it was a very mixed bag of results. I had a good position in my game against Cork A. After twenty moves I was thinking that this was the best I'd ever played against a higher rated opponent - I actually understood the ideas in the position and what I could do. Then I missed a move to grab a pawn or two and it all fell to pieces after that :) No margin for error against 1700-1800ish opponents.
Still I took positives from that game into my next game against a similarly rated opponent. I was a bit fortunate here as he achieved a really good position against me. Then however I think he pressed to much for an attack and his pieces became uncoordinated. I was lucky to trap his rook and ended up winning.
My last game was against someone slightly higher rated than me and we reached a level enough endgame with a slight edge for white due to more centralised pieces. I think I could have repeated the position or offered a draw here but instead I kept going. Whenever I see Magnus Carlsen he always presses in positions where he has a slight advantage with little chance for him to lose - playing for two results. So I decided to try that approach, committed an absolute howler and lost! Still the only way for me to learn about endgames is to play them and I certainly learned a great deal in that loss.
Back to club action for the next few weeks and the leagues resume for us in February.
→ posted on November 13, 2016chess
Cork Club Ladder Round 1
Last Friday saw the inaugural round of the new Cork Chess Club Ladder tournament. This is designed to give the option of a serious game instead of blitz at the weekly club nights. It was a good start to the tournament with 5 matches being played. Hopefully this can increase over time.
I hope it continues as I think these long games are much more beneficial to my chess in the long run than blitz. This is for a number of reasons - you can analyse these games whereas blitz is just throwaway really. You learn about time management and can develop a proper thought process for your games. The pressure of playing a long game is far different and the only way to get used to it is practice. So this should prove useful for dealing with Munster League and Club Championship games.
But even if this didn't improve my chess one iota, it's still much more enjoyable to play these games than 10 or so blitz games in the same time period. You get much more invested in the game and are able to properly plan moves rather than playing random stuff with two second increments.
Unfortunately these games cannot be rated as the ICU doesn't have the software to handle this format. This is a pity really and hopefully something can be sorted out in future.
As for my game, I got off to a winning start. I thought it was all going smoothly and then my opponent threw in f5 and g5 and it all took off from there.
→ posted on November 7, 2016chess
Munster League Division 1. Rounds 3 and 4.
We were back in action for rounds 3 and 4 of the Munster League Division 1 at the weekend and Cork B had a great day out. We picked up a win and a draw in our two matches.
First up we had a draw against Adare. I managed to hold a draw against my higher rated opponent with black which I was very happy with.
Next up we beat Sarsfields who we drew with last week. I was the beneficiary of probably a fortunate draw offer. The post mortem seemed to indicate that my opponent would probably have won the game. That's a win and a draw for me against Sarsfields when really I should have had two losses. If you can't be good, be lucky :)
We're in a good position now in the table with 50%. And even the A team managed to get out of bed this weekend and win their games!
→ posted on October 23, 2016chess
Munster League Division 1. Rounds 1 and 2.
The Munster League kicked off again yesterday and Cork B were in division 1. I played two games with mixed results.
First up was a match against Cork A. Clearly the partying from their title win last season was still ongoing as they only managed to field three team members!. So we started the match with a 2-0 lead ... and then lost our three games to lose the match 3-2. I have to credit my opponent with playing a fine game. I missed one move and that was it.
Second was a match against Sarsfields. I was completely lost in my game here and was unbelievely lucky to get a win. Still they all count and we drew the match in the end so I partially atoned for my earlier loss.
→ posted on October 2, 2016chess
Munster League Division 2 Champions 2015/2016
Cork B are the Munster League Division 2 Champions! Needed to win both of our matches against Charleville on the last day and we just about did it - came down to the last game!
I was only able to play one of the three days for this but luckily enough it was the day that we won the division, so I get into the photos of the winning lineup! I pulled a similar stunt last year with the Division 1 team.
I've posted the two games I played in this year's competition. Here are the reports on the Cork Chess site and the Munster League Site. Here's to next year and Division 1.
→ posted on May 22, 2016chess
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