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European Team Championships
#11
Interesting fact:
All five members of the Scottish squad have played for Shettleston Chess Club
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#12
Round 4 Scotland 1.5 - Norway 2.5

Alan had a nice win against a GM, Graham lost a close game against an opponent called Frodo, i drew an endgame where there would have been some winning chances and Martin lost in a reversed benoni. Tomorrow we play finland and just need to play Sweden to have met all the scandinavian countries...
Andy is recovering well and should be in line for selection tomorrow.
Here's my game from today....


White - P.Roberts 2222
Black - L.E.Johanneseen 2515 GM
Closed Catalan / Dutch Stonewall
European Team Championship Round 4

1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.g3 Bb4+

This was a slight surprise as my opponent recently played a delayed Open Catalan with 4...Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4

5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 0-0 7.0-0 c6 8.Qc2 Nbd7 9.Bf4

Now 9...Nh5 10.Bc1 Nhf6 transposes back into a standard closed Catalan where white can play either 11.Bf4 and allow a repetition or something like 11.b3 or 11.Rd1. It's good practice to repeat the position twice then to play on...

9...b6 10.Rd1 Bb7 11.Nc3 Nh5 12.Bc1 f5

Black decides to take the game into a kind of Dutch Stonewall. The key differences from a standard stonewall are (1) the bishop is on e7 and not d6 (2) the QB has already committed itself to b7. It is not necessarily bad there after an eventual liquidation of the centre with c6-c5 (3) the horse is on h5 and may have to stay there for a while to prevent Bf4

13.Rb1

I thought this move made sense as the standard reply ...Qe7 slowing down b4 is not available

13...Rc8 14.b4 Ba6

Now a major decision, to play 15.b5 or 15.c5. After 15.b5 cxb5 16.cxd5 b4! wins for black. In the game I thought 16.cxb5 Bb7 was comfortable for black as there is the useful c4 square available for the rook. In fact (as GM Aagaard later pointed out) black's pieces are very passive and white should be clearly better. I decided to play 15.c5 as 15...b5 16.a4 is good for white and, at the right moment cxb6 will leave a backward c-pawn and further scope to open up the queenside with b5

15.c5 Qc7 16.a4 Bb7

16...bxc5 was tempting as 17.bxc5 is good for black as the pawn break ...e5 is rather unpleasant. Fortunately I had 17.dxc5! Bb7 18.Nd4 attacking e6 followed by 19.Nb3 and 20.Na5

17.Bg5 Rce8

After 18...Bf6 19.Bxf6 gxf6 20.cxb6 it will be harder to play ...e5

18.Bxe7 Rxe7 19.cxb6

Otherwise black plays bxc5 with a comfortable position

19...axb6 20.Rdc1 Nhf6 21.Ra1

Normally it's more prudent to play e3 to prevent f5-f4. Here I got away with allowing this as there is sufficient counterplay on the queenside. The key is to go after the bishop on b7 which is black's worst piece.

21...f4 22.a5 fxg3 23.hxg3 bxa5 24.Rxa5 Qb8 25.b5 c5 26.dxc5 Nxc5 27.Nxd5 exd5 28.Qxc5 Rxe2 29.Qc7

Quite an important move as black was planning on attacking f2. Now the threat is Qxb8 followed by Rc7 and Ra7

29...Qxc7 30.Rxc7 Rf7 31. Rxf7

Now 31...Kxf7 32.Ra7 Re7 33.Nd4 Bc8 34.b6 Rxa7 35.bxa7 Bb7 36.Bf1 Ke7 should be a draw, though white does have an initiative.

1/2-1/2
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#13
Enjoyed playing through the game above. Thanks for taking the time to post it. If time can be found, please can we have some more?

Good luck for the game against Finland.

DGC
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#14
Thanks for the annotated game Paul. I think you should definitely torture him for a while in the final position, there is no risk of losing and you can be sure he would do the same against you!
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#15
Scotland 1 - 3 Finland
A closer match than the scoreline suggests. Andy got in trouble in the opening, mixing a move-order, and never recovered. However, both Paul and Martin had solid positions but were eventually ground down, perhaps nerves playing a part. I managed to win after some loss of time by my opponent in an opposite sides castling position, but did my best to throw it all away at the end allowing a draw. Fortunately he missed it!

Tomorrow we have Wales who are slight underdogs to us so we will do our best to get some points!
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#16
Wales 0.5 - 3.5 Scotland
Our first win of the tournament was somewhat fortunate as 3 of the Welsh blundered from equal or better positions! All players of the squad now have a win, which is great for morale for the last 3 games. Time to push on now and maybe even leave this corner of the room if we are lucky.
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#17
Here's my game from yesterday. I had huge problems after a bad decision in the opening and was lucky to scrape a draw. Today we play lithuania...

White: T Kett 2184
Black: P Roberts 2222
European Team Championship Round 6

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.c3 Bg7 4.d4 cxd4 5.cxd4 d5 6.exd5 Nf6 7.Nc3 Nxd5 8.Bc4 Nxc3

Looking back on it now, this was the start of all my problems in the game! This exchange gives white a better pawn structure and chances of attacking down the half open b-file. Better was 8...Nb6 9.Bb3 0-0 when white can play either 10.h3 or 10.0-0

9.bxc3 0-0 10.0-0 Nc6 11.Re1 Qa5

11...Na5 was tempting to go after the bishop and control the c4 square, though white has 12.Bd3 Be6 13.Bg5 Re8 14.Qa4 Bd7 15.Qa3 with some pressure

12.Bd2 Bg4

12...Rd8 with the idea of e5 and meeting 13.d5 with 13...Qc5. Unfortunately 13.Rb1 a6 14.Qb3 e6 15.Bg5 Rf8 16.Bf4 Rd8 17.Ne5 gives white an edge. Exchanging all the pieces doesn't help either, eg 17...Nxe5 18.Bxe5 Bxe5 19.Rxe5

13.Rb1 Bxf3

13...e6 with the idea of preventing Rxe7 after taking on f3 and d4 still allows white to invade with 14.Rxb7 Bxf3 15.Qxf3 Nxd4 16.cxd4 Qxd2 17.Rd1 Qa5 18.Rxf7! (spotted by Alan Tate during post mortem analysis. 18.d5 exd5 19.Bxd5 was also clearly better for white, but not as incisive) and white is close to winning

Also possible was 14.a4 Bxf3 15.Qxf3 Nxd4 16.Qxb7 Nf5 17.Qb4 with an edge

14.Qxf3 Nxd4 15.cxd4 Qxd2 16.Rxe7 Rac8 17.Rxf7

17.Rd1 Qxd1+ (only move, otherwise white keeps the d-pawn and should start hoovering up pawns on the seventh) 18.Qxd1 Rxc4 19.g3 Rxd4 20.Qb3 b6 21.Rxa7 Rd6 with Bd4 to follow. Black has rook and bishop for the queen and has good drawing chances.

17...Rxf7 18.Qxf7+ Kh8 19.Rxb7 Qxd4

19...Qd1+ 20.Bf1 Qxd4 21.Re7 Qf6 22.Qxf6 Rxf6 23.Rxa7 with good winning chances. In the game the bishop is en prise which gives black time to defend the a-pawn

20.Re7 Qf6 21.Qxf6 Rxf6 22.Re4 Rd8 23.g3 Rd4 24.Re8+ Kg7 25.Rc8 Bd8 26.Bb3 Rd2 27.h4 Kf6 28.Kg2 Ke7 29.Rc4 Rd6 30.Re4+ Kf8 31.Ra4 Rd7 32.Kf3 Bb6 33.Rf4+ Kg7 34.g4 h6 35.g5 hxg5 36.hxg5

White has made some progress as there is now a lone g6 pawn which is vulerable to attack from the rook and bishop. The main method of defence is to keep the rook on the second and to cover c2 or any other square where the bishop can attack g6. Once the pawn advances to f4 a last ditch defence would be for the rook and bishop to attack f4 if the g-pawn is about to be taken. This is a very unpleasant endgame and white can play on for a long time. Luckily for me my opponent only had a couple of minutes left to make the time control and allows the rooks to be exchanged!

36...Bd8 37.Kg4 Bb6 38.Rf6 Bd4 39.Rf3 Bb2 40.Rf4 Rd4 41.Rxd4 1/2-1/2
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#18
Good luck to Scotland today and for the remaining Rounds. You're into the home straight now. You have all been a credit to yourselves as well as to us. Walk tall.
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#19
I want to wish the very best to two of my good friends from our wonderful chess world who meet today. Alan and Sarunas.....get right stuck in!!

Robin.
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#20
pablo Wrote:“Now 9...Nh5 10.Bc1 Nhf6 transposes back into a standard closed Catalan where white can play either 11.Bf4 and allow a repetition or something like 11.b3 or 11.Rd1. It's good practice to repeat the position twice then to play on...”

“Normally it's more prudent to play e3 to prevent f5-f4. Here I got away with allowing this as there is sufficient counterplay on the queenside. The key is to go after the bishop on b7 which is black's worst piece.”

“The main method of defence is to keep the rook on the second and to cover c2 or any other square where the bishop can attack g6. Once the pawn advances to f4 a last ditch defence would be for the rook and bishop to attack f4 if the g-pawn is about to be taken.”

Top tips for lower graded players like myself. Thanks. Gives me an idea of the sort of strategy and thought process I should be trying to implement in my own games to try and improve my performance.

Spooky choice of games, for me, as I'm developing my understanding of the Catalan this season and am a firm devotee of the Sicilian in reply to e4 but have been struggling to come up with a plan to counteract c3. Both games have been useful in giving a greater understanding of the two openings (and the pitfalls).

Looking for a good result tomorrow, although at this level every opponent is a decent player. Play well.

DGC
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