Coventry International Chess Tournament

Easter 2005

Credits

The tournament took place due to the energy and hard work of Mark Hogarth, who is better known as the team manager of Hilsmark Kingfisher 4NCL. The tournament director was Roy Woodcock and the control tean were John Robinson, Lara Barnes and Alex Macfarlane. Accommodation was provided by the Britannia Hotel with special rate rooms for players and their families and special meal arrangements. Of course a vital contribution to the success of the tournament was the 137 players from all over the world who came along to take part.

Full details of the tournament along with prize lists and games can be found at the official website.

Thursday 24 March 05

Made it up here but not thanks to Bristol's bus service. I'm going cool on the idea of taking trains from Parkway, though it does avoid a long walk. (For those not in the know, there are not direct buses to Temple Meads from most areas of Bristol, so you have to walk the last mile).

The first thing I noticed about Coventry is that the urban designers have been at work since I lived here briefly in 1988. There is an almost continuous pedestrian route through parks and precincts to the far side of the centre where the Britannia is, adjacent to the cathedral. Almost all the traffic is contained by a ring road that is largely buried or hidden behind concrete walls. It ever so slightly beats walking from Temple Meads to Old Market to wait half an hour for a bus. I also saw my first bendybus though I still can't work out what they are for, since they have fewer seats than a double decker. Maybe they are useful at rush hours when there are a lot of standing passengers. I would not want to be the first one to try and get off though.

Noticed that our hotel has an environmentally aware policy of not washing your towels if you hang them on the rack. I get my chance to help to beat global warming.

Had time for some food and a quick nap before my first round game at 5.30. Not that it did much good. My game was against Adam Ashton and not really too great - I reached an equal position from the opening then failed to do anything while he launched an attack. It was all over quite quickly. View this game David had the most interesting game of the three of us - he was Black against Efimenko.

Friday 25 March

Woke up about 4 o'clock. Finally dragged myself out of bed about 6.30 and went out for a paper. Then tried the shower, carefully replacing all the towels on the rack in the prescribed manner. Breakfast was the standard buffet type, as in the Moat House. Found myself paired against Neil Graham, more renowned as a director of the BCF than for his 128 grade. I sacrificed a knight for some reason. Well, not really for a reason. I may as well have started without it. At some point Neil decided to repeat moves but then quite correctly played for a win; however he missed some cracking opportunities and allowed me to end up with a pawn for the exchange. I never got the exchange back but there were plenty more pawns to come so another scabby victory for the sin bin. View this game

In the afternoon I had an ungraded player. This is often difficult as you do not have any idea who you are up against. I held the game level for a long time then gave him a chance to go wrong, which he grabbed with as much alacrity as if I had offered a draw. He still had plenty of defence but decided to allow me to mate him instead. View this game

A couple of old men were talking in the bar. I was bored waiting for the pairings to be posted so I earwigged their conversation. They were talking about town planning. The grumpy one was moaning that planners were incapable of making cities as good as they were in the Middle Ages. He probably had a good memory. He then complained that Coventry was all precincts. I was tempted to suggest that we might put a motorway through the centre to make it more interesting.

Had dinner with Martyn my clubmate from Bristol. The hotel had laid on a cafeteria style dinner for a fiver, and it was pretty reasonable. As usual I ate too fast and ended up with hiccups.

Back in my room to discover that the towels had been replaced by fresh ones. Watch out for that global warming!

Saturday 26 March

The lifts seem to have a grudge against me. The doors close when I enter then open again when I ask for the 6th floor. Then they stop on the third and when I get out and jump back in after realising my mistake, down they go to the ground again. Had breakfast with someone called Ron. We talked about net curtains. That was the interesting bit.

Put my towels on the rack and put the Do not disturb sign up on the door to foil the chambermaids in their quest to increase the Earth's temperature.

Played Andrew Stone who is 193. Could not find any previous games in my database except to know that he plays 1. d4. Had a nightmare in the opening when he played the Bg5 Grunfeld and forced me into a very sharp variation. Managed to survive the attack but found myself in a position with reduced material and nothing developed. By the time I had everything out he was well on top of me. View this game

Went out to Coventry for consolation. Had a look around the cathedral precinct, which is huge and unlike many cities does not really dominate the centre but has its own private quarter. Next to the ruins is the official cathedral, which I hated as a teenager because it was too modern. I had a cathedral service every day at school and have my own ideas about what they should look like. Nowadays I am pretty neutral towards it, but it does seem a little dated. But plenty of people seem to like it. Maybe I'll come back in a few centuries and see if it has survived.

The one at the back is part of the cathedral shell. The front is Trinity Church.

There weren't actually many people in the cathedral area. Coventry does not seem really to attract many tourists. Most activity was in the modern arena of worship, the shopping malls.

Was paired against Charles Tippleston. The tournament has by now pretty well been sorted into two halves, and as they are physically on opposite sides of the room it looks like an Open and Challengers with a few of us shuttling between the two. My opponent seemed a bit unwell - in any case he unleashed a reply to the a4 line against the Pelikan which I had not seen before, but then made a simple blunder and lost the exchange. The last time I won the exchange in the opening was against Charlie Linford at the Major Open, and he ended up winning. This time there was no mistake and it was all over quickly. View this game

In the evening my friend Rob who lives in Coventry came out for dinner, and David and Steve the friend he was staying with joined us. We went to a cafe bar called Browns which had an excellent and reasonably priced menu, somewhat reminiscent of the Watershed. I recommend the Mediterranean vegetable bake.

Got back to my room to discover that they had sneaked in and changed the towels anyway. And they had thrown out the bar of soap that I had used once and replaced it with a new one.

One of Coventry's new shopping malls. Prefer Cribbs? I don't think so.

Sunday 27 March

Read in the Independent that the greatest growth in jobs in the UK over the last ten years has been in the sector of ... town planning! I wonder if they included me in the stats. (Technically I am in the Highways department. You always wanted to know that.)

We started half an hour later today, which was actually half an hour earlier as it was the day the clocks changed. I had an interesting game against Jovanka Houska. For once I found a decent way to treat the Closed Sicilian. But my 23rd move was poor and denied me any chance of holding on. This may well be my sole excursion into the 'top' part of the tournament. View this game

The top tournament	The 'bottom' tournament

Was bored after the short game so went back to my room and made sure the chambermaids saw me put the Do not disturb sign up, so they couldn't annoy me. They ostentatiously left a bag outside the door marked 'fresh towels' so I ostentatiously left it there all day and all night.

In the afternoon I played another ungraded player. He was pretty tough, and tried hard to beat me but I had an extra pawn. Just as I thought I was winning he swapped off into an opposite coloured bishop ending, which he managed to hold for a draw. My first of the tournament, which is probably some kind of record. But then half my opponents have been under 140 and the other half over 180 so it's probably not that surprising. View this game

Had dinner with Martyn at an almost empty Indian. Has to be done. Prawn Madras, in case you're wondering.

Monday 28 March

Looking forward to going home by now. Playing a 133 which should be easy but there are never easy games in this tournament, as Martyn has been finding out ever since he conceded a draw with queen and pawn for 3 pieces. Sure enough from a promising position with many weaknesses the opponent finds enough counterplay with his bishop pair. By poor play just as he is shepherding the draw home he goes a pawn down, to R v R+P. I thought I should test his technique and it was reasonable but he was letting me make a lot of progress. Still a draw but I went round the loop once, blocking his third rank defence, then went to the same position again but with a slightly different rook move. Bingo! A very disappointed player slopes off to the analysis room. View this game

Tried to watch part of David's game but it looked as if someone had taken a box of knights and bishops and thrown them onto the board. It hurt my head to look at it and no doubt it hurt his too as he lost the game.

Not a lot to do in the interval, with everyone tired and I don't even have a hotel room to retire to, having checked out this morning. So find a cosy corner a try for a nap. Pairings posted a little late this round, which was not too worrying to me as my opponent is someone I have never heard of. Some of the pros moaned a bit of course. My opponent was obviously gung-ho to win and played a Sicilian system I have never seen or even dreamt of. I offered a draw after my initiative petered out but he was keen to beat me so I kept the position tight. Then he seemed to blunder, allowing me to win a pawn, but to my amazement he sacrificed a piece and offered a draw. It was a bit of a flier but unable to work out the complications I simply accepted. Probably I was winning. Final score 5/9 which is exactly my expected score on ratings. View this game

Walked back to the station to take a last look at Coventry's ring road system, buried and culverted alongside the city centre, and crossed over on a handy pedestrian footbridge. Why are Bristol taking these down? An uneventful train journey, just the type I like. Back to jolly old work tomorrow. And I can look forward to not washing my towels for three weeks.

Jerry Humphreys
28 March 2005