A cool otb win with the 150 Attack

At last weekend's Airdrie Congress (11th-12th Feb 2012) I won my first two games which meant i played Round 3 on one of the top boards, which were being broadcast live on the web by Chess Scotland!

Keen to make a good impression in my first ever live game in front of the watching millions (give or take a few million) I was severely disappointed when it turned out I was ground down in a worse endgame and eventually lost.

Having requested a bye in round 4, I was eager to redeem myself in the last round by scoring a win, which I secured with this nice game.

The opening is the 150 Attack, a one-size-fits-all weapon against the Pirc/Modern and Kings Indian. If you are wondering about the strange name, it comes from the fact that the opening was first popularised by English club players of around 150 BCF (ELO 1800) strength, before being taken up by English GMs like Mark Hebden and Micky Adams and subsequently by Morozevich, Kramnik and others. A very rare example of a theoretically sound opening that was first introduced by club players!

So with this win I finished the tournament with 3.5/5, or if you disregard the half point bye, 3 wins out of 4. I was reasonably satisfied with that, despite the disappointment of losing the live game