Christmas comes early.

Hastings at home against Maidstone, in the (average under 2005) Kent League.

36 moves in 90 minutes, followed by a fifteen minutes quick-play finish.

Wooden sets, digital timers.

Feel free to make suggestions, improve my play or generally harangue me.

That's a whole harem of queens at th end

Yes, it caused quite a stir. People were crowding in for a look and smiling broadly.

I hadn't reached for any extra Queens, instead turning the captured Rooks upside-down. When I promoted the second pawn to another upside-down Rook, I said to my opponent "Don't make me Queen another, I've run out of Rooks"... he laughed and stopped the clock.

I've rarely had my hand shaken so warmly or my back patted so often. A Filipino member from our team even tried to high-five me!

I'm 3/4 for the rating period (W2 D2 L0), giving a performance of 2130 over the four games. However, there's always another game.... in my case, next Sunday at home to Rainham.

Interesting game, enjoyed the annotations.

Does the Kent League now use FIDE ratings rather than ECF?

I try not to overly burden the reader with long variations, if anyone wants to know a "what if?", then I'm happy to supply some light analysis.

No, the Kent League uses ECF gradings but I've made the official conversion calculation for a wider audience.

In old money, I'm 169, the Other Guy is 155 and my performance for the rating period is 185.

Your opponents move 11.Ne1 is a bit puzzling, what do you think was the rationale?

I'm rather better at explaining my own moves but we did have a post-mortem:

Do you have an improvement for White?

I would have played 11.a4, but perhaps I'm using the benefit of hindsight!

I asked him about this myself. I think I had him intimidated from the start.... he wouldn't eyeball me, even at introduction. It continued in a similar vein, when his side's most senior player said something (about me) along the lines of "Watch him, he's a bully". I sat bolt-upright the entire game (poker face) whilst my opponent's head was barely six inches from the playing surface.

Being an old hand, I ladled the misery on for my opponent, even before the clocks had started. I intimated that we had played before, he disagreed but when I mentioned Thanet Congress 2007 he conceded that he might be mistaken. No, I don't have some special memory, I just do a little homework. I didn't tell him that he drew that game.... a hanging thread, just to annoy.

4 queens at the end...

I think I'll avoid you if I ever make an eagerly awaited return to Pelton House

nice one dog

Bully.

Wow, that title is terrifying. :-p

What about the game?

For the sake of completion, a not particularly inspired game against a player who seemed content to draw:

Board 3/6 in the average under 2005 Kent League.

36 moves in 90 minutes followed by 15 minute quick-play finish.

Sorry, no annotations but I'm happy to field questions accompanied by move numbers.

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