The answer to my previous trivia question was 300 🙂
I left you after round two when I had had rather a slow start. I’m afraid the chess I played in round three wasn’t of the highest quality – after trying out the Big Clamp (1.e4 c5 2.d3) again I managed a pleasant edge but messed around with the wrong plan for too long and in the time scramble I was actually worse. By the time the dust settled we had reached what really should have been a drawn endgame but I kept on pressing and in the end managed to convert the rook, opposite coloured bishop and two pawn endgame (!) in a mere 67 moves.
The organisers seem to have decided that I’m playing in a women’s event and in round four I was given Black against the young Georgian WGM Nazi Paikidze (yes really Nazi, don’t as me why!). Apparently she has been doing some work with the Russian chess school and has been improving fast. I chose a new opening which seemed to surprise her but she found the right moves and I decided to accept the repetition after 22 moves as otherwise felt I was worse.
Today was a double round which was another good reason to accept the draw and recharge my batteries for the afternoon game. Round five I played Vlad Tomescu, an IM from Romania who I believe lives in Italy these days. Looking him up before the round I noticed he has been really inactive recently but I actually played him back in 2004 in another tournament in Rome (that time a draw). I returned to my beloved Grand Prix for this one and was finally happy with a game of mine. After 14.e5 the position was very messy but Tomescu consumed too much time. I think 16…Qc6 was probably a better bet when it’s very difficult to assess who’s better. As it was I managed to pick up a pawn and kept him passive enough and finally converted the endgame.
###pgn###[Event “Barclays Open A”] [Site “Sheffield ENG”] [Date “2011.09.07”] [Round “5”] [White “Jones, G.”] [Black “Tomescu, V.”] [Result “1-0”] [ECO “B23”] [WhiteElo “2624”] [BlackElo “2422”] [PlyCount “79”] [EventDate “2011.07.25”] [EventType “swiss”] [EventRounds “11”] [EventCountry “ENG”] 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bb5 Nd4 6. O-O Nxb5 7. Nxb5 d6 8. d3 a6 9. Nc3 e6 10. Qe1 Ne7 11. Be3 b6 12. d4 O-O 13. Rd1 Qc7 14. e5 dxe5 15. dxc5 exf4 16. cxb6 Qb8 17. Bc5 Nf5 18. Nh4 Ne3 19. Bxe3 fxe3 20. Qxe3 Bb7 21. Rd7 a5 22. Nf3 Ra6 23. Ng5 Bc6 24. Rdxf7 Rxf7 25. Rxf7 Qxb6 26. Qxb6 Rxb6 27. Rc7 Bxc3 28. bxc3 Ba4 29. Nxh7 Rb2 30. Nf6+ Kf8 31. a3 Rxc2 32. h4 Bb3 33. g4 Bd5 34. h5 gxh5 35. gxh5 Rg2+ 36. Kf1 Rh2 37. c4 Bf3 38. c5 Bxh5 39. Kg1 Rh3 40. Kg2 1-0%%%pgn%%%
By the way, for anyone who hasn’t seen it, ChessVibes has a new design and my blog is now incorporated into a section of the site. It’s definitely worth checking out. And to everyone who has come across this site from ChessVibes, welcome! I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts and feel free to contact me with any suggestions or queries.