The new season starts: BBC v. Shell

As well as the usual dives, I've played chess in various flash company HQs and the important thing is not to let the fact that the foyer is the size of a large department store intimidate you. Experience tells you you're just as likely to lose to an ungraded player in the damp basement of a church as you are to a guy in a sharp suit in an all glass building. This one has the huge building with the company flag on the roof and a foyer that takes five minutes to cross. So far so standard. What makes this one special is in the basement.

Lift doors open on the basement where we're playing. 
Me: There's a strange smell of chlorine.
The other guy: That'd be the swimming pool.
Me: You've got a swimming pool?
The other guy doesn't say anything but gives me a "doesn't-everyone-look".

The other team were pretty nice but you could tell they wanted to win. I guess you get to work for Shell that way. Anyway the team won and I won so it was a good start to the season.

[Event "LCCL, 2010-11 season"]
[Date "2010.10.05"]
[White "Paul Murphy, BBC"]
[Black "Joel Morales, Shell"]
[ECO "C24"]
[Opening "Bishop's Opening"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. Nc3 d6 4. d3 Nc6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 Be7 7. a3 a6 8. Nge2 Na5 9. Ba2 Bg4 10. f3 Be6 11. Qd2 Nc6 12. O-O-O Nd4 13. Bxe6 Nxe6 14. Bf2 c6 15. Kb1 b5 16. f4 Ng4 17. Bg3 O-O 18. h3 exf4 19. Nxf4 Ne5 20. Nxe6 fxe6 21. Qe2 Bf6 22. Rhf1 c5 23. Rf2 Nc6 24. Rdf1 b4 25. Na2 bxa3 26. b3 Qa5 27. Qg4 Bd4 28. Qxe6 Kh7 29. Rxf8 Rxf8 30. Rxf8 Ne5 31. Qf5 Ng6 32. h4 Qd2 33. Bf4 Qe1 34. Bc1 Qxh4 35. Ra8 Qh1 36. Rxa6 Bb2 37. Rxd6 Qxg2 38. Bxb2 axb2 39. Kxb2 Qg1 40. e5
Qh2 41. Qxg6 *
1-0

Chess on Twitter: ChessTweets, the never-ending saga

The game that I've been playing on Twitter continues. My poor opponent has been waiting a few days for me to move. Basically the position has started to get trickier - I'm not sure who stands better, if I've over-extended my position and what I thought was a forcing pawn centre is about to collapse. This is the current position, black to move:

I've looked at a number of moves for black and rejected them:
...d4 [fxe4]
...Ned6
...Bd4+
...Be5
which leaves me with ...cxb with the possible (I mean optimistic continuation) cxd Qxd5; Rbd1 QxN

Mostly I worry that the collapsing pawn centre will bring the g2 bishop to life  pinning the knight on b7.

If I had two moves I'd be happy. Like after a foul shot in pool.

You can download the PGN here: http://chesstweets.com/games/pgn/2051 and see the game on ChessTweets.

Chess tweets: He's just played Rb1

My continuing game on Chess Tweets.

Am I better? My initial thoughts are Qxe6 or a6. More later.

Chess Flash: chess game viewer

This is the Chess Flash viewer for PGNs. You copy your game in, generate some code and add it to your page. It could look better and fit on the page better but hey, it's better than anything else I've found so far. There's a list of sites that use it on the Chess Flash homepage including the Guardian's chess column where I first saw it.

So what have I learnt so far?

One of the ideas behind this blog was to provide a structure for improving my chess. One of the problems I'd encountered before was the lack of structure in any of the time I could devote to chess. Over the summer I haven't fared a great deal better.

What is focussing my mind at the moment is the arrival of not one, but both ficture lists for the two clubs I play for and a request to let them know my availability.

Now is not the time for learning I suspect. I'd probably be much better off immersing myself in some "find the mate/combination/fork/trap" puzzle book.

Appendix 1: BBC Chess Club fixtures

Tuesday October 5 -- Shell v BBC
Tuesday October 12 -- BBC v Railways
Tuesday October 19 -- BBC v GLCC (friendly)
Monday October 25 -- Met Police v BBC
Thursday November 11 -- Home Office v BBC
Tuesday November 30 -- BBC v HMC

Tuesday January 11 -- BBC v Railways (John Lewis Cup)
Thursday February 3 -- Railways v BBC
Tuesday March 1 -- BBC v Shell
Tuesday March 15 -- BBC v Met Police
Tuesday March 22 -- BBC v Home Office
Tuesday May 3 -- BBC v HMC

Appendix 2: Hackney Chess Club, Division 4 fixtures

Wed 13 Oct ATHENAUM 4 v HACKNEY 3
Thu 21 Oct METROPOLITAN 3 v HACKNEY 3
Mon 8 Nov WILLESDEN & BRENT v HACKNEY 3
Mon 22 Nov WANSTEAD 2 v HACKNEY 3
Fri 14 Jan MORLEY COLLEGE 2 v HACKNEY 3
Wed 26 Jan KINGS HEAD 4 v HACKNEY 3
Mon 7 Feb ALBANY v HACKNEY 3
Mon 21 Feb HACKNEY 3 v DHSS
Mon 14 Mar HACKNEY 3 v METROPOLITAN 4
Mon 11 Apr HACKNEY 3 v STREATHAM 3
Tue 3 May GLCC 2 v HACKNEY 3

Losing in 24 moves...

I thought it started quite well...

[Event "Game Without Clock"]
[Site "Fritz Chess for iPhone/iPod Touch"]
[Date "2010.09.02"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Player"]
[Black "Fritz"]
[Result "0-1"]
1.e4 c6
2.c4 d5
3.exd5 cxd5
4.d4 Nf6
5.Nc3 Nc6
6.c5 Bd7
7.Bg5 e6
8.Nf3 b6
9.Na4 bxc5
10.dxc5 Bxc5
11.Nxc5 Qa5+
12.Bd2 Qxc5
13.a3 Qb6
14.Bc3 Ne4
15.Qc2 Nxc3
16.Qxc3 O-O
17.Rd1 Rac8
18.g3 e5
19.Bg2 Nd4
20.Qd2 Bb5
21.Nxd4 exd4
22.f4 Rfe8+
23.Kf2 d3+
24.Kf1 Re2
0-1
Doh!

Chess on Twitter: ChessTweets

I've been playing a game on ChessTweets that I thought I would share. I'm black and it's started out as a standard King's Indian defence with white fianchettoing their white squared bishop. Having closed the centre (8. d5) white then advanced on the queenside with a3 and b4 which the Batsford book I have on the King's Indian doesn't think is the best idea for white as it messes up their queenside pawns. Naturally I didn't capture the b4 pawn but played ...Nb7 to support the pawn and withdraw the attacked knight. I'm happy with the arrangement of my queenside pieces: the knight is supporting d6 and c5 and the bishop is happy on the h3/c8 diagonal supporting ...f5 which is planned. The fact that the bishop is blocking the rook on the a file doesn't matter as the position is fairly closed and the rooks don't have much scope at the moment. My plan is based on ...f5 and following white's exf and my ...gxf pushing the e pawn to e4 bringing my black squared bishop on the long diagonal to life.

Conclusion: at the moment I'm happy with my position and the arrangement of my pieces. White has more space but the closed centre minimises any advantage and my pieces are well placed for a kingside advance, especially as white's bishop is misplaced on f3. Of course, I may have misjudged this all terribly.