Disaster at London Chess Classic.

So I know I have not blogged for a long time and its crazy I have not as I have had an amazing time since I last blogged with some brilliant wins and some beautiful games. I have won a few tournaments and got a few 2nd places and some grading prozes so it proves I dont blow my own trumphet when things are going well.

This blog is to hopefully re focus my efforts and concentration for the coming months which are the most busy for me and most Chess players. Their is a Chess tournament each week over the next few Months and I may be playing in all!  ;) 

So to briefly mention how things have gone over the past few Months. Well firstly I have played 54 games since my last blog! That was 4 months ago. And I have missed quite a few tournaments I would normally go to, but due to work, illness, rest looking after mum I have been alot more inactive. But things should be back to normal over the next few months.

My last blog was about my 2nd best win ever. Well I think I have topped that game by 2 already ;)  Beating a 152(this season) In fide thats about 1900. And then a 149 who has been as high as 150 and a very experienced player and I was 2 pieces down so this game will always be very special. ;) 

But tournaments wise I had a poor British and then a poor Crawley event. Then I went to my home club Coulsdon for a tournament and did very well performing at 135. My current rating being 113. I played 8 games winning 4 drawing 1 and losing 3. But all 3 losses were too much higher rated opponents. And in 2 of the games due to the rating gap I went for some crazy complications eg Dutch and some very fancy attack with white. I won both grading prizes in both the tournaments.

Then I went onto my best ever tournament. Paignton! What a shame it will never be at the same venue. I entered the u125 (1650 fide) and the u180 event! (2090 fide)  I started horrible in the u125 event drawing with a 95 ecf. I am 113. So was very dissapointed. But this spurred me on. I really gave myself a talkign to and came back with my best run of games ever. I won 9 of my next 11 games! And remember I was in an u180 event! I was 1 round away from winning the u180 event. In the last round I had to play a 174 Ecf who just proved to experienced for me. I will do a blog about this tournament soon.

I then played 3 games at a High Wycombe event and won 1 and lost to 2 higher rated opponents. I then went to scarborough and finished 2nd out of a field of 64 I think it was. I took a bye in the first round whihc cost me and in one of the games I went a Queen down and managed a draw so finished on 4/5 and was actually disappointed with this. Along way to travel for finishing 2nd ;( 

I then had a poor tournament at Brighton where I just could not find my form and played horrible only getting 2/5. But the 3 I lost once again all to higher rated opponents as it was a u135 event. Then I had the tournament I am about to blog about and go through the games. The London Chess classic. I had not really prepared at all. I have been so busy coaching etc and preparring players homeworks and sorting out my lesson plans and I just felt all I have to do is focus and play like I did at Scarborough and Paignton. My perf at Paignton btw was over 150! (1900 fide) Not counting that 1st round draw v the 95 ;) 

But at this Classic I think I got carried away with being a high seed for one of the first times ever. Since I have been 113 I have only played 1 u120 event at Scarborough. The rest have been sectioned or much higher graded ones. So this was only my 2nd time as a top seed and I felt over confident and played way too fast and made blunders only a playing rushing would make.

Here are the games.

1st round I was black v Tim McCullugh. This guy was way better than hes low grade of 87. 1346 Fide. And he tryed an opening v me that I hate. I dont think I have a game where I have beat this opening. I think its only been on 3/4 occations and 2 of those I think were in rapids but Its what I used to play as a kid and I cant play v it as Black ;) But I finally found a win and I tryed a new move to counter it ;)

So a nice 1st round win and I think my over confidence of finally beating the Smith Mora gets the better of me. My next opponent was only a 99. Although I checked hes rapid grade and it was 130 odd!! Thats is way above me and shows hes probably as good as a 130. But I recently finished above him at a recent tournament and was feeling confident. This guy managed to beat me and go on and win the whole tournament with 5/5! I only have myself to blame and he ever told me I had him in trouble till my blunder. So me v Peter Watts.  A game that will haunt me a for a bit as I had him ;(

So at this point in a plus 36 field 1 loss is enough to be out the tournament. Well the chance of 1st place is anyway. If I now had won my last 3 it would of only got me joint 3rd! With a cash prize of about £30. Winning it was £200. Such big differences and you cant afford 1 slip up.

So onto my 3rd round game and my 3rd of the day. I win a nice game as black v someone I had beat twice before. She made things inmteresting but I found some strong moves to win it ;)

So onto my 4th round game. On 2/3 I was White v a 98. This game is awful. I swap off way too many pieces just to get the small advantage of an isolated D pawn. I end up winning that pawn after he blunders and have a winning end game but miss an important pawn move to nullify hes knight. Once again just rushing without thinking 1st.

So out of even 3rd place., This last game I blitzed out the moves for the 1st 15 odd moves lol. I used no time and was up about 40 mins at one point in this game. We start with 1 hour 20.

I was Black v a 87.

So a very poor 3/5 and I decided to punish myself by doing this long blog to make me wake up and play like I did at Paignton. This is a big time for me and finacially I need to do well in the next few weeks. I am currently the number 1 player in the country for my grade and I want it to stay that way. Its called the Grand prix and I am number 1 out of thousands all over the UK. And I am totally clear. But if I play like this over the next few weeks it could effect if I win this prestigious trophy and award ;) Heres the link if anyone wanted to check. 

Just scroll down or click on the u120 section.

http://www.englishchess.org.uk/?page_id=12642#gpu120

Anyway folkes comments and thoughts welcome and I will try and post over the nxt few weeks on some past games and tournaments that went well and I will I am sure be posting about my games and tournaments over the next few weeks. Its the London Chess classic B event this weekend. And then I have Northwick Park event and my club event at Coulsdon. Then its off to one of my fav events Hastings ;) Where I will play 4 tournaments ;)  

Then its some rapids and another one of my fav tournaments Kidlington ;) I did awful last year but I just liked the venue and set up so look forward to showing what I can do this time ;)