Success! Black against Aaron Summerscale was always going to be difficult. He’s a very solid player and has a fairly low rating simply due to drawing with too many lower rated players (and full time coaching in schools tires one out). Last time we played he defeated me in the British Rapidplay after I overpressed in a drawn endgame and the time before I lost in an e2e4 weekend tournament in Sunningdale after forgetting my theory in the French. However I overpowered him in a very complicated Classical Kings Indian where my mating net trumped his queenside play. I’ve added that game in below
###pgn###[Event “British Championships”] [Site “?”] [Date “2009.07.??”] [Round “5”] [White “Summerscale, Aaron”] [Black “Jones, Gawain C”] [Result “0-1”] [ECO “E99”] [WhiteElo “2454”] [BlackElo “2554”] [Annotator “,Gawain”] [PlyCount “64”] [TimeControl “300”] {1500MB, INSPIRON6400} 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. d4 O-O 5. e4 d6 6. Be2 e5 7. O-O Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. Ne1 Nd7 10. Be3 f5 11. f3 f4 12. Bf2 g5 13. a4 Rf6 14. a5 Rh6 15. Kh1 Nf6 16. c5 Qe8 17. Ra3 (17. cxd6 Qh5 18. Bg1 cxd6 19. a6 b6 20. Rc1 Qh4 21. Bb5 Nh5 22. Ne2 Ng3+ 23. Nxg3 fxg3 24. Nd3 Ng6 25. Rc7 Nf4 26. Qc2 Bf8 27. Nxf4 Qxf4) 17… Qh5 18. Bg1 Qh4 19. Bb5 Nh5 20. Ne2 Ng3+ 21. Nxg3 fxg3 22. Nd3 (22. a6 Qf4) 22… Ng6 23. c6 Nf4 24. Nxf4 Qxf4 25. Qe1 (25. cxb7 Rxh2+) 25… bxc6 26. Bc4 (26. Bxc6 Rb8 27. b4 Rxb4 $19) 26… c5 27. Rb3 Bd7 28. Qe3 (28. Rb7 Rf8 29. Rxc7 Rff6 30. Rxd7 Rxh2+ 31. Bxh2 Rh6 $19) 28… Rxh2+ 29. Bxh2 Qh4 30. Qg1 Rf8 31. Rb7 Rf4 32. Rxc7 Qh6 0-1%%%pgn%%%
There weren’t so many fireworks in today’s game. I reacted to 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 with b6!? for the first time in my life and after 3.d4 I’d been move ordered into a Queens Indian. The position was quite solid but I found a way to sacrifice a pawn (that probably shouldn’t really have been taken) and my light squared bishop came to life. He found he had to give up the exchange to castle but I managed to convert my extra exchange just after the time control.
###pgn###[Event “British Championships”] [Site “Johannesburg”] [Date “2011.08.04”] [Round “10”] [White “Summerscale, Aaron”] [Black “Jones, G.”] [Result “0-1”] [ECO “E12”] [WhiteElo “2415”] [BlackElo “2606”] [PlyCount “92”] 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 b6 3. d4 Bb7 4. Nc3 e6 5. a3 d5 6. cxd5 exd5 7. Bg5 Be7 8. Qa4+ c6 9. e3 O-O 10. Rc1 Nbd7 11. Bd3 Ne4 12. Bxe4 dxe4 13. Nxe4 c5 14. Bxe7 Qxe7 15. Ned2 cxd4 16. O-O Nc5 17. Qxd4 Ba6 18. Qb4 Bxf1 19. Rxf1 Qf6 20. Nd4 Rac8 21. h3 Rfd8 22. N2f3 h6 23. Qb5 Ne6 24. Qa6 Rc7 25. Qe2 Rdc8 26. Qd2 Nc5 27. Qe2 Ne4 28. Qd3 Nd6 29. Qb1 Qe7 30. Nd2 a5 31. Rd1 a4 32. N2f3 Qe4 33. Ne2 Qxb1 34. Rxb1 Nc4 35. Kf1 Rc5 36. Ned4 Nd6 37. Ne2 Nc4 38. Ned4 f6 39. Ke1 Ne5 40. Nxe5 fxe5 41. Ne2 Rb5 42. Kd2 Rd5+ 43. Ke1 Rc2 44. Nc3 Rdd2 45. Nd1 b5 46. b3 Rd3 0-1%%%pgn%%%
Nick held Mickey to a draw on top board while Nigel beat Pete to rejoin him in the lead on 8/10. Meanwhile David overpressed and lost against Hawkins, gifting him his third (and probably final although I’m not sure about the regulations as he hasn’t played a tournament overseas) Grandmaster norm. Tomorrow’s the last round and hopefully I can finish on a high!
Final round pairings:
Adams (8) – Zhou (6.5)
Gordon (6.5) – Short (8)
Jones (7.5) – Pert (7)
Wells (6.5) – Hawkins (7.5)
P.S. Sue’s back!