Wednesday 4 January 2012

Australian Reserves Day 8

Another day, another ordinary game ... although this time I managed to squeeze out a win from a fairly drawn rook & knight ending. Although I tried to be a bit more enterprising early in the game, it really didn't amount to much & my attempts to confuse the position by sacrificing the exchange were both optimistic (Fritz thinks I have an edge after 26.Nb2 rather than my 26.exd6) and ultimately misguided after the poor follow-up. When the central pawns were liquidated, I had little choice but to go into the drawish ending, where I managed to create a few small concessions in the black position (such as 48...h6), when Fritz began to like my position more, until it gives me a deifnite edge after 56.Rb7. Ultimately Shanon's time trouble compounded the difficulty of his defense, and with only a few minutes on his clock (in addition to the 30 second increment), his position fell apart & I took the point.

This puts me on 4.5/8, which is hardly a score to crow about, although a day off from chess is probably a good thing for me for tomorrow (albeit that I have the ACF National Conference to attend in the morning). I'll see what I can do the for the rest of the tournament ... 7/11 or better would almost save face!

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