Euroyouth Bulgaria 2011

[Andrew McHarg]

Unlucky Hamish, you deserved to win that game. You had many opportunities to nail him to the wall. =)

[hamish olson]

Kai Pannwitz(SC0) - Parlos Parlidis(GRE)(1361)[pgn]Nf3 d5 d4 e6 c4 Nf6 g3 Be7 Bg2 b6 Nc3 Bb7 0-0 dxc4 Qa4 Nbd7 Qxc4 0-0 Bf4 c5 dxc5 Nxc5 Rfd1 Qc8 Nd4?! (white has a wee pull after Rac1 instead) Bxg2 Kxg2 Qb7 Nf3 Rc8 Rc1 Nce4? (missing g5 which is good for black) (g5 Bxg5 Nce4!) Qb3 Nxc3 Rxc3 Rxc3 Qxc3 Rc8 Qd3 Nd5 Bd2 h6 a3 Bf6 e4 Nc7 e5 (an interesting pawn sac) Bxe5 Qd7 Qa8 Be3 Bf6 (Bxb2 is strong) Rc1 Qb7 Bf4 Bd8? (way too passive - g5 is just equal) Kg1! (and white is dominating positionally and will soon win material almost as he pleases) f6 Nd4 e5 Nf5 Ne6? Qxb7 Rxc1+ Bxc1 (1-0)[/pgn]

[hamish olson]

[pgn]e4 c5 Nc3 Nc6 f4 g6 Nf3 Bg7 Bb5 Nd4 O-O Nxb5 Nxb5 d6?! (7. ... d6 is slightly less accurate than d5, which should be just equal but interesting.) d3 Nf6 Nc3!? ( 9.Qe1 is the main move, but it should transpose.) O-O Qe1 Bg4 Qh4 Qd7 a4 Bxf3?! (12. ... Bxf3 only helps white's attack as I would probably play h3 to induce the exchange anyway, which would render h3 useless for my rook) Rxf3 d5 f5! dxe4 dxe4 gxf5? Rxf5 Qd4+ (After 16. ... Qd4+ I was afraid of getting back rank mated, and wasted a lot of time on ghost threats. This becomes noticeable later on when we are both short of time.) Kh1 e6? (Black's pawn moves gxf5 and e6 just weaken the king's shelter and invite the pieces to join the attack.) Rf3 Kh8 Rh3 h5 Bg5 Kg8 Rf1?! ( I had the killing Rd1! 1-0 (due to Bf4 winning the queen)) Ng4 Qxh5 f5 Qh7+ Kf7 Qh5+?! (exf5! is terminal) Kg8 Rhf3? Ne5?! Be3 Qc4 R3f2?? (my fatal error - I could still have won with the pretty b3! e.g. Qxc3 28.Rh3 Rf7 29.Qh7+ Kf8 30.Bh6 Qxc2 31.Qh8+ Ke7 32.Qxa8 +- as pointed out by my electronic chum. It might have been a little tricky to find this over the board, with 5 minutes on the clock for both sides.)
Ng4 Rf4? Nxe3 exf5 Rxf5[/pgn] (Round 1) Hamish Olson (SCO) 1988 - Nikita Meskovs (LAT) 2302 0-1



Hopefully there will be a couple more games from the Euros put up soon.

Thanks Gerard - this looks much tidier

[hamish olson]

[pgn]1.d4 c5 2. c3 $6 cxd4 3. cxd4 g6 4. b3 Bg7 5. Bb2 e6 6. e3 Ne7 7. Nc3 O-O 8.
Rc1 a6 9. a4 Nbc6 10. Nf3 Qb6 $6 11. Rb1 $6 Re8 $6 12. Be2 Nb4 13. Qd2 Nbd5 14.
O-O Nxc3 (14... Qxb3 15. Ne4 Qxa4 16. Nd6 Rd8 17. e4 Qb4 {only move} (17... Nf6 18. Ng5
$1 $18) 18. Nxc8 Rdxc8 19. exd5 Qxd2 20. Nxd2 $14) 15. Bxc3 Nd5 16. Rfc1 d6 $6
17. Ba5 $1 Qa7 18. Ra1 $6 b6 19. Bc3 Nxc3 20. Rxc3 e5 21. Rac1 Bg4 22. Ng5 (22.
Nxe5 dxe5 (22... Bxe2 23. Nc6) 23. Bxg4 exd4 24. Rc7 Qb8 25. exd4 Bxd4 26. Qf4
$1 $18 (26. Qxd4 Qxc7 $19)) 22... Bxe2 23. Qxe2 exd4 24. Rc6 $6 (24. Rc7 $1 $18
) 24... dxe3 (24... Qb7 $1 $17) 25. Rc7 Qb8 26. Rxf7 Ra7 27. Rxa7 Qxa7 28. Qc4+
Kf8 29. Nxh7+ Ke7 30. fxe3 Rh8 31. Qc7+ Qxc7 32. Rxc7+ *[/pgn]1-0

Monica Espinosa (SCO) - Nadezhda Petkova (BUL) 1683

The program automatically changed the advantage symbols into words.

[robin moore]

Round 6- 7 points. Hamish got a bye but everything's getting counted ! A really good day here but confidence is growing all round and no real surprises for us. Murad completely dominates white side of a sicilian winning in under 2 hours. Anna- always solid, won in a minor piece and pawn endgame. She is showing us a lot of very good signs. Kai- narrowly squeezed out after dropping the exchange but battling on till the end, his overall play and fantastic attitude deserves more points. Jamie, gaining in confidence, traded off to draw with a perpetual after his opponent had a spatial advantage. Cristina, usual dreadful time trouble, blunders, well beaten, until her opponent inexplicably offers a draw. Andrew- Wild game, very double edged. Once the smoke cleared and things settled down, draw agreed. Carl, another whose confidence has grown considerably, always holding blocked bishop and pawn engame a pawn down, draw. Ali, In control throughout against what turned out to be a very aggressive opponent, takes command and finishes her off in 3 hours. Monica, ok I give in, please tell me how someone can improve as much as this in a week ! She is in time trouble on the black side of our prepared najdorf, when her opponent decides to sac her knight for the usual 3 queenside pawns. Monica doesn't panic, consolidates, then uses her extra piece in tactics to win material and win in an easy endgame. We are delighted with our whole setup here. Alan and I are basically working from dawn to dusk and all parents are helping out in any way they can. This squad size is managable as it is but would be pushing it if their were more juniors. We think we have the makings both here and at home of a very good future squad.

Robin.

[Angus McDonald]

Some really good results!

Well done to all.

[David G Congalton]

'

[robin moore]

Round 7- 2 points. A very disappointing day pointswise but we knew that as we had done so well in round 7, we would get some tough draws and we duly did. Andrew- Early exchanges, levellish ending, blunders rook. Murad. Black side of a dragon, opponent took defensive approach and just sat solid, draw agreed. Kai- Opponent squeezed Kai's Dragadorf position until he was trapped in his castled corner, dropped material, lost in 3 hours. Monica, Solid game but way behind on clock, sensibly accepted draw. Carl- Pawn down, ropey position, counter attacks as in previous games, opponent offers draw when still clearly better, accepted. Ali- Solid game throughout but edged out in an inferior minor piece and pawn ending against what looked like a very good player. Hamish, got caught by opening surprise, using up a lot of time, missed tactic, lost in 3 hours. Jamie- Always in control and solid, couldn't quite win an opposite coloured bishop ending a pawn up. His confidence is growing daily and it's a shame he got off to such a bad start. Cristina, same again, solid position, bad time trouble, blunders. Anna, Always defending in bad position and in later desperate time trouble. She had to make her last 12 moves in the 30 sec Fischer system but no surprise to us that she dug in and made it although couldn't hold on in a bad position. Her opponent was the best girl I have seen playing any of ours in that section so far. We know we can score better and are going for a big push today and tomorrow for as many points as possible. Some teams have got their cases packed ready to go home. Anyone that knows me will know we haven't and every effort is being made here for a good finish.

Robin.

[robin moore]

Oh, one weird thing, a lot of us here haven't received any texts on our phone for 4 or 5 days so there must be some kind of problem. If anyone wants to get in touch with me can they please send an email asap,

Thanks

Robin.

[Donald Wilson]

In reply to David Congalton's post last night about Junior teams in the SNCL, I haven't consulted Glynis or Andy but I think I can safely say the National League would be very happy to accept such teams - we wouldn't let the technicality that teams are supposed to represent clubs get in the way.

There are, however, a couple of points that need to be made.

First, teams in the SNCL consist of 5 players, not 4 as David assumes. That is to say, they equate to a car load, including the driver. This has implications for teams consisting entirely of juniors - getting 5 children to the league venue requires two standard cars or one larger vehicle; not insurmountable, but it adds to the cost of participation. And obviously because not every player will be available for every match day a pool of six or seven players will be needed for each team.

Second, it is the fixed policy of the SNCL that all new teams must enter in the lowest division and fight their way up to their "proper" level. We won't break that rule for a club, no matter how strong, so we can't break it for junior squads whose membership (and therefore, potentially, strength) may differ substantially from one season to the next. We would love to help our juniors to develop, but we also have responsibilities to our existing teams - we cannot relegate a team or deny a team promotion just so that we can slot a favoured new team into the league above them.

On the subject of training days for juniors, that has to be separate from the SNCL. I would like (in my new role as Chess Scotland's Junior Home Director) to revive the semi-regular training days for juniors that stopped about four years ago, but whether the Saturdays immediately preceding SNCL fixtures are the right days on which to hold training events is open to question - one of the attractions of the SNCL is that for most of the people involved it takes up only one day of each of the four weekends when it is held, leaving the Saturdays free for non-chess activity. I would prefer to hold training days during weekends where there is no other chess activity.

But returning to the main point, I would love to see a Girls' team and a Boys' team kicking the adults aside as they battle for the SNCL Fourth Division championship this season, and then for the Third Division championship next season. The kids we've got could do that.