Chess On Prince Edward Island

I just returned from vacation with my family on PEI, which is where I grew up. We had a wonderful time plus I did get some chess activities in. First, I was looking through my parents attic hoping to find my old scorebooks with all my games from the 80’s and early 90’s but unfortunately they were all thrown out the same way my old hockey cards and comic books had been thrown out years earlier. At least this time the monetary value was not as much, but there was some sentimental value of these old games for me. I know I had some good games against Peter MacKean, Joe Horton and others that I hoped to analyse now with Fritz. I did find my old chess set and three old books. “An Experts Guide to Chess Strategy”, “Grandmaster Chess (Lone Pine 1975)”, and “Learn Chess Quickly”, which gave me something to read during the vacation. “Learn Chess Quickly” was actually an unreturned library book from my old High School. Oops, I wonder what the late fee is now? Reminds me of a Seinfield episode.

Also while on vacation, I decided to play a few rounds in the UPEI Open. I knew that IM Tom O'Donnell was playing and with only a dozen or so players registered I figured my chance to play him was good. There was a good mix of masters, experts and A players plus a few young kids.

Round 1
Game 1 was Friday night and my opponent was none other then IM Tom O'Donnell. Here is the game

O'Donnell,Tom (2458) - Chaisson,Terry (1822) [C42]
UPEI Open PEI (1), 25.07.2008
C42: Petroff Defence: 3 Nxe5 and unusual White 3rd moves
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 I have been playing the petroff against all my higher rated opponents mainly because it annoys many players and I know it as good as any of my other opening but my results have been horrible 0–7 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Nxc3 6.dxc3 Be7 7.Bf4 last book move 7...Be6 my opening knowledge in this line is now over as my last move shows [normal is 7...0–0 8.Qd2 Nd7 9.0–0–0 Nc5] 8.Nd4 0–0 offering the bishop for a knight and a strong center 9.Bd3 [9.Nxe6 fxe6 10.Qg4 Nd7±] 9...g6 protects the diagonal and makes room for the B at g7 [9...Nd7!?² is interesting] 10.Nxe6± fxe6


11.Bh6 Rf6 [11...Rf7 12.Qg4 Bf8 13.Be3±] 12.Qg4 [12.h4 c6 13.h5 g5 14.Bxg5 Rf7+-] 12...Nd7± 13.f4 Nc5 14.0–0–0 [14.h4 Nxd3+ 15.cxd3 e5±] 14...Nxd3+² 15.Rxd3 [15.cxd3 Rf5 16.h4²] 15...Qd7 [15...Rf5 16.h4 Bf8 17.Bxf8 Qxf8 18.h5²] 16.Re1 now the e6 pawn becomes a point for attack [¹16.h4!?±] 16...Bf8 17.Bg5 Rf5 the only way to protect e6 18.Qh3 [18.Rh3 Re8²] 18...Re8 [18...h6 19.Bh4³ (‹19.Bxh6 Rh5 20.Qg4 Rxh6µ) ] 19.g4 Rf7 20.Rde3 Bg7 finally develop my bishop to a useful diagonal but it won't be around much longer to be any benefit 21.Bh6 Ree7 At this point white has 60 min and black has 52 min until the time control at move 40 22.Qh4 Bxh6 23.Qxh6



23...Rf6 [I thought about 23...Qa4 but was worried about an attack on the open king 24.f5 e5 25.Kb1 (25.fxg6 the move that scared me but then I would have 25...Rf2! after this move I think all white has is a draw) 25...gxf5 26.gxf5 Rxf5 27.Qh3=] 24.h4 [24.f5 e5²] 24...Ref7 Tom said that after I doubled my rooks on the f file he didn't see much of an advantage for white. Still [¹24...Qa4!? must definitely be considered 25.Rf3 Qxa2=] 25.h5 gxh5 26.Qxh5 Rxf4 [26...Qa4 27.f5 Qf4 28.Kb1± (28.fxe6 Rxe6 29.Kd2 d5–+) ] 27.Qg5+ Kh8 28.Rxe6 Rf1! only move 29.R6e2 [29.Qh6 Rf8²] 29...Rxe1+ [Fritz still suggests 29...Qa4!?² ] 30.Rxe1± Rg7 31.Qf6 Qf7 32.Qd4 b6 33.b3 creates a nice spot to place the king and be safe from any checks



33...Kg8 [should have played 33...a5 and solidified my queenside 34.a4±] 34.Kb2 Qd7 35.Qd5+ Kh8 36.g5 this move was stronger than I had anticipated 36...Qf7 Now was the last chance for a5 37.Qd2 Qg6 Both of us have 14 min to make 3 more moves 38.Rf1 Rf7 [38...Rg8 39.Rg1±] 39.Qd4++- Kg8 40.Re1 Rg7 1st time control reached with 9 min to spare for white and 3 min for black. Next time control is remainder of game in 1 hour with no increments. [40...c6 41.Qc4 d5 42.Re8+ Rf8 43.Rxf8+ Kxf8 44.Qf4+ Qf7 45.Qd6+ Kg8 46.Qxc6±] 41.Qd5+ [41.Qg4!? Kh8 42.Qc8+ Rg8 43.Qxc7 Qxg5+-] 41...Kh8 42.Qa8+ too late for a5 now 42...Rg8 43.Qxa7 Qf7 44.Rg1 h6 I thought this solved my problems but [44...d5 45.Qa4+-] 45.Rh1 h5 [45...Rxg5 46.Rxh6+ Kg7 47.Rh4+-] 46.g6 Rxg6 [46...Qxg6 47.Qxc7 b5+-] 47.Rxh5+ Kg7 48.Qa8 Rh6 49.Qg2+ Kh7 50.Qe4+ Kg7 51.Qg4+ [¹51.Rf5 and White can already relax 51...Qe6 52.Rg5+ Kf7+-] 51...Kh7 52.Qf5+?? hands over the advantage to the opponent [¹52.Rg5 and White wins 52...c5 53.a3+-] 52...Qxf5± 53.Rxf5 Kg6 54.Rf2 Rh5 55.a4


55...Rf5?? This is where I quickly decided that I had to get my king over to the queenside even if it allowed him to exchange rooks otherwise he was just going to cut off my king from the action while he improved his queenside position. Plus with a SD time control I was worried about running out of time. In the two minute review I had with Tom after the game I think he agreed with me. [Fritz recomends ¹55...Rh7± ] 56.Rxf5+- Kxf5 57.b4 Ke5 58.c4 Ke6 59.c3 Kd7 [59...d5 does not save the day 60.a5 bxa5 61.bxa5+-] 60.Kc2 Kc6 61.Kd3 d5 [61...Kd7 is not the saving move 62.Ke4+-] 62.Kd4 dxc4 63.Kxc4 Kb7 64.Kd5 Kc8 If Black now would get b5 in, he might survive 65.Kc6 Kb8 66.c4 Kc8 67.a5 bxa5 68.bxa5 Kb8 69.a6 Ka7 70.Kxc7 Kxa6 71.c5 Black resigns. I think I played reasonably well but what do you guys think? The game didn't finish until after 12:30 and I didn't have a chance to go over it with Tom unfortunately.[71.c5 Kb5 72.c6+-] 1–0


Round 2
I was paired against one of the young kids and took him way too lightly. I knew he was rated 1613 and beat a master in round one but the master said he hung a piece. Just before the game started I noticed that the pairings were wrong because another player had joined the tournament and that should have affected who my opponent was. The TD said he knew that but he didn’t want to change it because he wanted to allow my young opponent to have tougher competition during this tournament. I didn’t argue the point and I won’t complain now just because my result was not good. I played foolishly in the opening and was down two pawns for nothing before I settled down and couldn't recover. This is my first loss against a lower rated opponent and as I expected it happened against a junior – they always seem to be under-rated. I found out after the game that he had only just completed grade 4!!! and has won the Canadian scholastic championship every year. I guess I need to say "I am not smarter than a Fifth Grader." He was an extremely sharp kid and more importantly he was nice and polite and did not seem to suffer from some of the ego problems some other child prodigys seem to have. He had an outstanding tournament beating a master, then beating me, losing to IM O’Donnell, and he was winning against a 1950 junior when I left during round four. If I had beat him, I’m sure in 15 years I would be telling everyone how I beat “GM Dorrance” without mentioning that he was 10 at the time.
Position after 12...Nc6

13. Qb2?? Completely the wrong idea in this position and totally forgeting about the hanging pawn on e5. 13. Qe3 was necessary. From then on I was able to win back one pawn but young Adam made great decisions and was deserving of the win.

Round 3
This was a planned bye as I had some partying to do.

Round 4.
I only had 0.5 points and was expecting a very low rated opponent but was happy to find out I was paired against a 1785 player. By move 15 we both had 50 min left to the time control at move 40 but then he started taking alot of time to make his moves.
Chaisson,Terry (1822) - Enman,Jim (1783)

Chaisson - Enman2.pgn


Round 5.
I could see that I would probably be playing someone lower rated and it was a beautiful sunny day. I decided that I would rather spend the afternoon on the beach and I know that's what my wife wanted, so I withdrew. Overall 1/3 with 2 good games and one bad/humiliating game. Rp = 1818 but I lost 11 points to drop to 1811.