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The British Chess Championship was an 11-round Swiss event that took place from July 25 to August 5 and featured, among others, twelve GMs, including such renowned stars as Michael Adams (2715) and Nigel Short (2687) & promising juniors like Howell (2625) and Jones (2606). Nigel and Michael shared first at 8.5/11, and then GM Adams clinched the title by winning the play-off match 1.5-0.5.
IM Houska (2418) finished 14th with 7 points and was declared the British Women's Chess Champion.
The prizes at the event were, to put it mildly, modest: £8,000 for the winner, £4,000 for the runner-up, etc., and just £500 for the best-placed woman.
Candidate master Peter Zhdanov's column at Pogonina.com
The previous episode finished rather abruptly after the second round of the Saratov open tournament. In the 3rd round I was to face another young underrated player. After having misplayed the French with White I ended up in the following position:
After a piece sacrifice (Na2!) Black got a dangerous attack, while White was sentenced to a long and tiresome passive defence. In a few moves the following position occurred:
Black wants to play Ba4-Bb3 and checkmate White. What can be done about it? I have considered both Ne5 and b4 & c4. I couldn't combine these ideas in my head and went for 19.b4 cb 20.c4.
A better continuation was: 19.Ne5 Na4 (if Ba4 then White has a decisive advantage b4 and c4) 20.Nd7 Rb2 21.Qb2 Nb2 22.Nf8 Nd1 23.Rd1 Qc3 24.Rd2 Qe3 25.d7 Qb3 26.Kc1 Qa3 27.Kd1 Qf8 with an unclear position).
By hanging on and defending stubbornly I managed to get my opponent into time trouble, where he blundered while trying to wrap up the game:
Of course, the right way to play was 27...Qg2 28.Nd7 Qd2 -+
In round 4 I was paired against a solid positional player rated 2012. During the middlegame he had some advantage, but not much. Nonetheless, at a certain point I was on the verge of losing:
After 21.f4 Black loses a knight since Ng4 is refuted by 22.Qg7! Kg7 23.Nb5 Qf6 24.Bf6 Kf6 25.Nc7+-, but my opponent played a positional move instead.
In the end I succeeded in obtaining counterplay after sacrificing a pawn:
25...Ng4 26.Bg7 Qg7 27.Rd7 Qh6 28.h3 Nf6 29.Rd6 Ne4 30.Rd7 Nf6 with a draw
Another epic story is my game against international correspondence master Fedukin, who believes that "1.c4 is winning, while 1...e6 is not losing". At some point he was rated 2273 FIDE, but has lost a lot of points since then, so I was aimed at beating him. In the Rubinshtein system of the French defense (which "guarantees at least a draw" according to my opponent) the maestro blundered a pawn:
18.Qe5
Then he decided to sacrifice an exchange and announced out loud "I hung a rook" after playing b6 in the following position:
Players sitting next to us lol-ed over this confession and started telling each other during subsequent rounds that they blundered something. Alas for my opponent, he indeed blundered the exchange since after 22.Ba8 Ra8 23.Rd1 Black could win back the exchange with 23...Ne8 24.Nd4 Bc4, but played 23...Be7 and found himself in a totally hopeless instead of simply hopeless position.
While converting the advantage I blundered a pawn, so this process took a long time.
The final position looked quite telling:
At this point Fedukin left the playing hall and was absent for a few minutes. All the arbiters and participants had to wait for him since this was the last game of the round. I suggested putting the pawn on h6 so that he could claim stalemate upon returning. Anyway, finally my opponent resigned and said that "he continued playing since he was hoping for a mistake on my part". While I was busy copying the moves into my notebook, Fedukin kept playing an imaginary game against himself and telling me how badly I play, that this opening shouldn't be treated like that, and that I should definitely attend a local park where people play blitz so that he could take on me in the same line again.
At this point this will be the final article of this little cycle on psychology in chess, but I will return to that topic in the future. After all, chess psychology is a very large field, and one of almost universal interest. Today we are going to talk about the important issue of keeping your emotions under control before the game.
People say many games are lost before they are started. Some players act as if they are doomed. All the events of our life are interconnected, even if they seem to be unrelated. For example, if you were in a bad mood before the game for some reason, or someone frustrated you or made you nervous, then even if you switch back to your normal psychological shape before the game, there is still a fair chance of a mistake caused by the emotional imbalance. Have you ever looked into the eyes of the players before the tournament? Sometimes its an easy way to predict how each will fare. During the event the situation might change (especially when the competition takes a lot of time), a person might start looking more confident, but still lose. When you allow fear and other negative emotions dwell in you before the game, you are preparing yourself for the upcoming mistakes. Of course, this can be mitigated.
If you find out the reasons of your psychological problems and eliminate them before the game, the mistake might not happen. However, this is playing with fire. Its better to deal with your psychology well in advance. This holds for chess, as well as for many other activities. When you know that everything in life is interconnected, and your negative emotions wont go anywhere, you will be thinking twice before reacting that way.
Our performance is strongly affected by emotions. Here and there we hear that one shouldnt be disappointed after a loss. This is correct, but its much harder to follow the advice than to offer it. If a loss stirs negative emotions inside you, they will probably affect the next game, thus decreasing your chances for success. Surprisingly, euphoria is also harmful. Sometimes people are so happy celebrating a win, the next day they dont have enough energy to fight on. Overreacting in the case of losses or victories is the wrong way to go. One should be delighted in a reserved way about wins, and treat losses as a means of improving in chess and stepping stones to future victories. Naturally, I am not trying to imply that one should become an emotionless robot. Its about the golden middle and being the master of your emotions.
The following game was played at the 11 Polugaevsky Memorial. Before that, in round 2, I drew a lower-rated player with White, and had a worse position during the match. This did not inspire any negative emotions in me. I became more concentrated and won the next game without any troublesome adventures.
White misplayed the opening, so I got a comfortable position. At some point my opponent should have sacrificed a pawn, but when he failed to do so, his position became really bad. The game was decided by Blacks strong center and the advantage in the mobility of the pieces.
The 1st stage of the 2011-2012 Grand Prix will take place in Rostov, Russia from August 1 (arrival) to 15 (departure). August 6 and 11 are rest days. The tournament features many top female players (including the reigning Women's World Chess Champion and runner-up, as well as two ex-World champions), and has a fantastic average rating of 2526.
