Monday 2 February 2009

Alan Byron at Gibraltar

Hi,

Just to mention that Alan Byron has been playing in the Challengers tournament at Gibraltar, and had a good result with 4/5, giving him 5th position in a strong competition.

After the third round, he was on the top board and got his picture on the tournament website:

[Alan looking pensive at the start of the 4th round at Gibraltar, his opponent is the eventual winner of the tournament, Nicolai Getz from Norway].

Now the chess played in these international tournaments is different to the chess you and I play, and I don't necessarily understand much of what is going on, but here are a couple of simple combinations from Alan's game which I did understand and enjoy, and hope you enjoy them too:

[ Hagen - Byron, Rd 5]


[Black to play and win].












This is from Alan's last round game, and in what I imagine was fanatic time trouble, White had moved his queen to threaten Alan's rook and mate. What was Alan's convincing reply? (easy).


[Horton-Kitchlew - Byron, Rd3]
[Black to play].


White has just taken the pawn on e5 (King's 5) and Alan would like to recapture with his knight, but this would lose his d5 (Queen's 4) pawn. So what did Alan play instead? (average).
Have fun!
Well done, Alan!
Phil.