Bradford Congress 2018 : playing after the summer break!

After the Edinburgh Congress, I was feeling pretty good about my chess in general. However, it turned out to be the last serious chess I played until September of that year! I like in general to take at least a couple of months off playing in the summer to do other things, and I was fairly busy besides - travelled to the US to present at a conference, and took a few weeks afterwards to explore, including a fantastic camping/road trip around 6 national parks in 15 days with my friend Ian.

Anyway, by the autumn I was starting to miss playing, and so I planned to enter a series of 3 weekend tournaments to get back into the groove of things. The first of those, mid-way through September, that I decided to travel to was in Bradford, just across the Pennines from my Lancaster perch and somewhere I hadn't been before, which quite appealed.

Bradford is a city that these days seems to have a bad reputation. Situated in West Yorkshire, it has a rich industrial heritage centred around the wool/textile trade. As with many northern cities, its fortunes declined with the industry - and it perhaps hasn't seen as much regeneration/investment as the "trendier" cities of Leeds/Manchester, leading to Bradford having a lot of deprived areas. Walking around the city centre and admiring the grand buildings, and imagining the history, I've got to say I think the reputation is not well-deserved - it's well worth a visit. Food/drinks/hotel were also EXTREMELY cheap - I was able to stay in a nicer hotel than I would usually in other places. Give me Bradford over a "run-of-the-mill" medium sized town with 60s architecture and a bland high street - any day!

Right, on to the chess! The event was held in the Latvian Welfare Club and was a reasonably nice playing hall. The Open section (where I was playing, with my new rating of 189 ECF (roughly 2117 FIDE), slightly down from my 190 in the first half of the year) was fairly poorly attended, with only 18 entries - a surprisingly low number. Perhaps the prizes weren't great, or the lack of FIDE rating put off some players - I don't remember.

Anyway, the first round was on the Friday night, and I had Black, against Chris Wright. The game was thus:

I though this game was quite a neat example of playing against this line with Nh3 and then the f3-e4 plan, where White really has to take some care if Black responds precisely. It was also a nice energetic victory, which always feels good!

Saturday morning, the second round. I had White against Mike Surtees, a strong local player known for his taste in unique openings. For instance, he likes 1.e4 c5 2.Nh3 against the Sicilian Defence. We ended up in my usual sideline of the French.

This was the kind of game where I didn't really play too badly, but the enterprise just didn't pay off. It happens sometimes and so you just have to accept it. Of course, I could have improved my play in a few areas - but overall, not a "bad" loss.

The third round, I had Black against John Holliday, who was a bit lower rated but playing in the Open nonetheless. You've always got to watch out for these players, as they can be dangerous!

 John played well for the first 20 moves and I was feeling a little frustrated - but fortunately it unravelled after the unfortunate c3 move and mostly it was not blundering from then on. No real complaints about this one!

So far, so good. By Sunday, I was still feeling optimistic about my play in general and my chances in the event. However, I didn't really play very well in either of the Sunday games, which was disappointing.

I played Gerald Cohen with White in Round 4 - here it is:

The oddest game of the tournament - I was obviously much better out of the opening but played rashly and allowed my opponent to get the upper hand. I think I do deserve credit for deciding on the perpetual - and accepting that the game was a draw, which I find hard sometimes to do. Especially given the spoiled opening advantage, I wasn't in a completely clear frame of mind to play on and ultimately I think there was more risk than reward there.

In the final round (5), I still had the chance to make a good finish, but sadly my play became a bit tired and culminated in a blunder. I was White again, vs. Peter Shaw:

I think I lost confidence in this game and, by the time of the blunder, was already expecting to lose. In these days I tended to build my opponents up a bit too much in my mind which contributed towards a lack of resilience. Really a bit of a sad ending to the tournament.

Overall, the story was similar to Edinburgh - full score with the Black pieces, fairly dismal with White (opponent's ratings not accounted for!) We will see if I can change that around at the next tournament. Thanks for reading!