Gothenburg 2005 Round 9 Games We only managed to scrape one grovelly draw against Sweden 3 which, if it shows anything, shows just how much chess-playing depth there is other European countries 1 IM Hall Jesper 2487 1 : 0 FM Jones Richard 2325 2 Ong Kezli 2371 ½ : ½ Kett Tim 2192 3 Tikkanen Hans 2316 1 : 0 Trevelyan John 2196 4 FM Olsson Linus 2352 1 : 0 Spice Alan 2175
Richard looked OK for a while against a Veresov Attack where White castled Q-side and went for the hack on the other wing. Rich looked to be getting his counterplay in in time but then White found a way to close that all off at the cost of just one pawn. Richard's Queen was suddenly stranded out on a5 and could only watch as his other bits tried in vain to defend his king.
I played the Vienna and tried to stir up trouble in what should be just a level position. I very nearly found some - for myself - but managed to steer things into a R & opp. colour B a pawn down. Active play rather than just looking to exchange rooks was the best way to draw and in the end there weren't any problems.
John started with 1d4 ...Nc6 which soon transposed into a sort of Ruy Lopez. White played well, sacrificing a pawn for the 2 B's in a position he saw he could open up to their advantage. It didn't last long after that as multiple threats rained in.
Alan also got his QN out on move 1 and had a levellish position till about move 12 before he got tempted into a rash N-sortie looking to exploit Black's weakened Q-side dark squares. Unfortunately the plan had a major tactical flaw and he was shortly shedding substantial amounts of material himself.
So, not a great end, but overall a pretty satisfactory tournament. We won two matches which was great - and 11 points out of 36 altogether, double what we got in Plovdiv - but didn't manage to finish higher than 39th out of 40; our seeded position.
Individually we all had our moments:
Richard (1½/8) had a tough time on board 1 but worked his socks off all the time and learned an awful lot. His enthusiasm was undimmed right to the end, he did about 5 hours prep for the last round game ! And he's still got that draw with Korchnoi to remember.
David (2½/7) played very solidly and did especially well to keep his head up and remain unbeaten after a tough start (0/3) against the GM's. He looked stronger and stronger as it went on and I really benefitted from his experience and good sense alongside me.
I (Tim) was patchy (2½/7) with a couple of poor games but some other good ones. Outplaying Scotland's John Shaw with Black was a highlight but I've got to develop the technique and nerve to finish those positions off.
John (1/6) didn't have a great tournament but did suffer from a surfeit of Blacks without any complaint and came back brilliantly to play the starring role in the match against Scotland.
Alan (3½/8) was our highest scorer and for a while entertained hopes of a norm. Apart from Cyprus he had a another fine win against a higher rated team (Finland) and numerous draws. He's got an excellent attitude for these events, where others get nervous or down after a defeat he's always positive, optimistic and ready for more.
There you have it. Holland (van Wely, Sokolov, Tiviakov, Timman, Van den Doel) won the tournament with 7½/9 match points which was interesting and closely fought. Russia and Ukraine both bombed out after failing to bring their strongest teams.
We had a great time and must dash now to the closing party to see if any of us made the prizelist.
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