Chess a bit more!

Chessabit are a new London outfit, who are about to run their second one-day rapid-play tournament. The event is this Saturday - December 2nd 2006 - in East London. First prize is £500, no less - and best of all, it's not to late to enter. Click the link above for more details.

I took part in their first event over the summer, and I was lucky enough to scrape my way to second place and a prize of £250 - plus a few goodies thrown in from their sponsor. It was a nicely organised event in a novel setting (that time, the Salvador & Amanda bar/club/restaurant in central London.) I'm sure they will have learnt a lot from it too - especially how to deal with cantankerous old timers - and so this next event promises to be even better.

The diagram position is taken from one of my wins that day, and should tell you something about the standard of play required in this kind of tournament. That is, the standard required when the time-limit is all your moves in fifteen minutes, and the grading limit is 175ECF and under.

Black, my opponent, was to move, and he tempted me with 1. ... f6. I decided upon: 2. Nxg6 hxg6 3. Qxg6 White's attack doesn't make that much sense - and 2. Nf3, 2. Bxg6 and 3. Bxg6 were all probably better choices - but real precision is required to defend here, and thus I reasonned the position would gain me 'five minutes of compensation from the clock.' In fact, I got even more from it. After 3. ... Kf8 4. h4 Bf7 5. Qh7 Ne6?? 6. Bf5 Bg8 we reached the second diagram position, below. I just had to spot one of those tactics that are key in blitz, and I'm sure you'll spot it too.

Yep - after 7. Qxg8+! Kxg8 8. Bxe6+ Qxe6 9. Rxe6, the endgame was easily winning for white. Hope to see you Saturday.