Guernsey 2016

NICK HAWKINS

It was 4.45am when I arrived at Lime Street station, and there was no sign of Ian. Doubtless he was having his usual travel issues! He duly arrived (moderately displeased) at just after 5am, and we set off to Manchester Airport on another Guernsey adventure. For the more senior in age (or old as Ian would put it!) Guernsey is great whatever the weather. I like the fresh air, magnificent views, the hotel the tournament is played in, and the peace and quiet. Younger players prefer Jersey with its more obvious attractions.

The outbound flight was preceded by a delicious bowl of porridge at the airport, and the trip was very smooth. We settled in and had until the following day to relax before the first round. How would we play? What openings to play? (Ian does not have this problem!) Should we have an overall strategy for the event? The truth is that once we are there it is a most wonderful holiday with some chess games thrown in, and the results are secondary to the overall pleasure and enjoyment being there gives us. It is great to see groups of chess players of a certain age brandishing their plastic bags returning to the hotel for their games after another visit to the capital or Herm island. So much for intense preparation! I will leave it to Ian to describe how much we love our visits to Herm. Ian decided he was an Indian spin bowler, and I supplied impressions of Michael Caine, Richie Benaud, and Field Marshall Montgomery as accompaniments to our walks. Ian particularly “enjoyed” (not at all) being portrayed as a contestant on Take Me Out with me as Paddy the host! It all happens on Herm.

Ian and I are still very competitive in that we prefer not to lose when possible. Our methods of achieving this are radically different. Ian likes to have repetitive quiet positions he knows well and can play quickly, whilst I do like a more varied diet, and am not averse to a drop of the sharp stuff! Put bluntly, I have a lot more opening theory to remember and engage with, so studying the games of my opponents is rather important in this information saturated age. Ian goes his own way! (Often for a long walk!)

In round 1 I was up against a Dutch player I have played before. A former 2300 (He did not pay for the title of FM so cannot claim it) he is now below 2100. He is crafty though so I was on my guard after our draw last time. I blitzed out some sharp moves against his Najdorf, (I was ready to go all in!) but he had other ideas steering the game into a much drier scenario, at the cost of a slight disadvantage in position. The computer later showed this was -0.25 for him overall so nothing special. I offered him a draw and he offered me a pint! The perfect recipe. A splendid conversation and analysis session followed, and I then went for a long walk by the seafront in the sunshine. Marvellously relaxing stuff. We had good rather weather all week which is unusual.
Round 2 saw me black in a Ruy Lopez in which my opponent (down from 2250 to 2034, but still 190 ecf) played a very slow line of the sort seen in the world Championship match. He had one of those faces and personalities that would cause a riot on the Marie Celeste, and this was a motivator for me. Notwithstanding this, after a queen exchange he had a small but clear advantage (the computer agreed with me at + 0.35 for him, whilst he felt his advantage was “huge”. In the post-mortem I called this delusional, and Ian later called him something shorter and more accurate!! I put my head down, and took over an hour for my next 6 moves, but they were very good moves. Some diabolical tactical consequences thwarted his obvious plan if he employed it. The result was 5 moves in over 1 hour and 15 minutes for him, and his advantage at about 0.2 according to the computer. Further moves followed, until I had about 12 minutes for 7 moves until the time control and he had about 5 minutes. I needed to do one of two things: 1 Find a cogent plan to improve the position of my worst pieces or 2 Do nothing (well) and see what he did (This was Ian’s choice when he looked at the position). I am not great at 2 as like the Sundance Kid I am better when moving, so I thought about 1. This was hard, so I saw something obvious and did it. This entailed a three-move journey with my rook which forced him to swop it off for his rather less well placed rook. Oh dear, that was pointless and bad so why did I do it? I was tired after my earlier calculative exertions, and did fancy any more. This roused him and gave him new energy, when he was palpably having a battle (no smugness now). He played well and eventually I had to lose material in a lost position so resigned. Not a great feeling, but you must keep going. I would expect to score about 45-50% from the position and clock times before my pointless rook exchange. You must keep playing good moves it is that simple.  
 The food was good, and I was enjoying the odd pint of Stella along the way. Another long walk allowed me to get this loss out of my system. Round 3 was a quick and rather strange affair against some blighter called Campbell!! Yes, once again we had been computer paired. Ian insisted that as black he wanted to play a mutual English, and we blitzed out about 15 moves of this, whilst keeping an eye on the clock for the bus that would take us to the capital and a day off. A very fast draw indeed. We had a marvellous time strolling about, and finding a magnificent secluded garden to sit and contemplate life and nature. Chess seems insignificant in the wider scheme of things, but having learned the moves at 5, it has been a really important part of my life.
Round 4 saw me accept an early draw offer from a Dutch player slightly lower rated than myself in a Torre Attack in which I was black. We had morphed into a slightly crazy position in which I found a couple of nice (sneaky even) moves that kept the position very unclear. Several pints followed accompanied by a good post mortem.

Round 5 saw me white in a game against another Dutch player rated in the 1700’s. I checked him out, and not so long ago he was in the 2100’s and had some very good wins indeed in previous Guernsey tournaments, including against my round 1 and 2 opponents. Whatever had been happening to him, he could certainly play and it was not going to be easy. This was the most determined I have ever been to win any game at Guernsey against a normally rated player, as I usually find it hard to find the same competitive spirit against this type of opponent as I do against the 2200’s/FM’s. I had to accept that I was going to have to grind away as he was very solid. In a Colle opening I did indeed grind away, but played rather well. I was threatening a massive attack on his king, and he was consuming time. Several years older than me, this was a real struggle for him. He tried his only chance, which was to jettison a pawn to swop off two sets of pieces, but I felt the position was winnable so ground on turning down a draw. It was difficult to win, and the computer later confirmed it could not be won with best play. My queen, rooks and bishop faced his queen, rooks, and knight, but his knight was proving to be an annoying blockader in many lines. I ploughed on into a rook and bishop v rook and knight endgame and felt I was getting there. My opponent seemed to be having a near death experience navigating some vicious tactical threats, but with immense skill, courage, and determination, he finally reached a position in which I said “draw”. His reply was “Thank God, that was too much”!! Beer followed. A splendid fellow. I used to play like this in every game at my peak! I was murderous against lower rated opposition 35 years ago, but it is harder now. 5.5 hours of hell had brought only another draw.

Round 6 brought me the black pieces against an almost fanatically determined 2080 rated Dutch opponent the same age as me. I felt up for this game as well, as I hone in on this kind of player….it is the stodgers I fall asleep against now! A queen’s Indian defence brought me a solid position, and a small time advantage. When my opponent turned down my draw offer my thoughts turned to possible victory. “This guy could push himself over the top” was my thought. I was in no mood whatsoever to be beaten. The game ploughed on and it became a poker game in which I outsmarted him by achieving some favourable exchanges to bring it down to a queen and knight each with level pawns. I then took provocation further by letting him have a passed b pawn at the cost of giving me a potentially powerful rolling centre eventually. He tried to penetrate and I beat him back. He began to give some queen checks in his time pressure, and I covered these with my central pawns. He made stabbing pawn moves in the centre designed to loosen me up and penetrate with his queen. Then I counterattacked at a good time. He was looking stressed but he had a passed pawn. I won two pawns by force, but had to swop off the knights to do it (a real pity). At first I felt I had a simple win, but I calculated that he had some diabolical counter play if I played the obvious moves. I was in time pressure now.  The computer later confirmed that the position was indeed a draw, not because of his passed b pawn (which I could blockade), but since he could round up my h pawn on h6 and push his h pawn on h5 (The line I noticed). Reluctantly I offered him a draw (I could not risk losing this game) and he grabbed my hand. “You nearly lost it” I said” “Ja” was the reply. No beer this time, just a long walk. I was tired. I had put a hell of a lot in to the last two long games, and they had only brought draws. When you play as little competitive chess as I do now this is what happens. League chess has little comparison to competitive tournament chess, as league games are glorified quick play games in comparison.

Round 7 saw me against a Guernsey player I have drawn with before on the island. He is a true Dragon fan and so I knew what to expect. I also knew that he caught me out in the opening last time, and that I had to play very accurately in the opening to combat his extensive theoretical knowledge. It was a beautiful day, I wanted a walk before flying home, and I liked my opponent. A 16-move draw followed in which we decided not to test each other out. We had a great discussion about the Dragon and I told him about a draw in the Dragon with black I had in 2003 at the Hastings Challengers with WGM and IM Joanna Dworakowska (2390). Afterwards, her boyfriend Peter Hein Neilson, who was in the Masters, (now the trainer of Magnus Carlsen!) quizzed me about my moves and where I found them. I told him I found them myself at the board, and he replied “Then you must be a lot stronger than 2100.” I nearly won that game, but the computer rated it as an almost perfect draw. It gave all my moves as the best moves, and most of my opponents as the best moves, and 0.00= at the end! Those were the days!

7 games, 6 draws, and the loss of a few Fide rating points. Not great, but I played better than that. I could have had an extra point or even another point and a half on another occasion. I never had a lost position in any game, and I was solid as a rock with white, and ok with black. The brutal cutting edge needs to be sharpened with more tournament play, and I must find more intensity of competitive spirit. One year, if God spares me, I am going to play well, and very productively, in this wonderful place.

The flight back saw me introduce the topic of A street cat named Bob to Ian as the plane was taking off. Ian hates flying, but he hates cats more, so this seemed appropriate! “I hate cats” he said trying to stop any banter. “Bob has a personal Bobby guard to protect him”, I said, and his owner has two more cats he can make money from if Bob dies or gets stolen I threw into the mix. Ian intimated what he would personally like to do to Bob and his owner, and let me just say neither of them would like it very much!! As we neared Manchester there was a slight noise “The wheels are down” said Ian relaxing slightly. Then there was a much greater thrusting noise….” The pilot has aborted the landing” I said knowingly having faced this situation on 14 occasions. There had been a collision on the ground and we had a nervous 15 minutes circling in the dark before finally landing. We made it for our train connection, and that was it for this time. Over to Ian...
 

IAN CAMPBELL