European Youth

[George Murphy]

Bf5, occupying the strong square, instead of Bd5...?

Anyway, I can hear my house manager calling... Good luck to both our girls.

[robin moore]

Oh flip. If Anna had put her bishop on f5 instead of d5, I couldn't see any way her opponent could have stopped her bringing her rooks on to the a-file to get to work on those queenside pawns.

[Andy Howie]

Worked out how I can follow the game. Bf5 is surely winning? Still playing well and don't count her out just yet!

[Adam Bremner]

Bf5 is surely winning?

Not winning, but better. The problem now is, if all the pieces come off, black wins due to the queenside pawns. The more bits on the better for Anna. Let's hope she realises this and gets something out of this game. It is still fairly level at the moment, but personally I would rather be black.

Oh, and p.s. Good luck to everyone there! Just as long as they ignore Hugh they will do fine.

[robin moore]

Adam,

Can you give us a basic plan on what Anna should be doing here to try and get something out of the game which she totally deserves?

[Adam Bremner]

King to the middle and keep the rooks on. Ideally I want the white king on c3, but the only way to do that is to play something like Rd2 and slide the king under: I think that is too slow. Maybe even sac the pawn at some stage to get the rooks invading. I don't think white can realistically win this, but 2 active rooks, even for the cost of a pawn is probably enough for half a point. Quite hard to give anything concrete though. If black starts rolling the queenside pawns, the rooks will have to do something about this. It is all about reacting here imo.

[robin moore]

What a nuisance that Anna's game seems to have frozen. Andy, get oot there and fix it!

[Calum MacQueen]

Anna played pretty well (and I'm quite a hard person to please!) so it would be a shame if she didn't get something from this game.
Bf5 looked pretty killing as the rooks become huge very quickly. 21...Rd8 would be met by Rxd8 and black has an issue with taking either way: the king takes then Rd1-d7 and if Rx then h7 hangs.

After the bishops have come off things are pertty difficult now, the d pawn is pretty weak and that g pawn isn't going anywhere soon. I'm not convinced by a4 from her opponent though, if Anna can land her king on b4 then suddenly black is in a world of pain. Guess black is in time though, black is quick with Kc5 and b4.
Some rough line is Rd-a6 Ke3 Kd6 h4 Kc5 Rc1 (else b4) then black might have Re8 Re4 and after chopping those queenside pawns are faster than Anna's on the kingside.

Overall, looks lost but she's a wee fighter so you never know.

Come on Anna!!!

[Calum MacQueen]

Oh, and p.s. Good luck to everyone there! Just as long as they ignore Hugh they will do fine.

Quality

[robin moore]

She is outgraded by her opponent, the Euroyouth number 4 seed by nearly 400 points and I think she has been terrific this afternoon. Hoping she can get something from the game