The Finale of the 2008 British Chess Championships

[njerzynek]

but I may be wrong, hehe

[njerzynek]

i thought the games were 25 mins

[karenmatthews69]

why is it so quiet?

[eisaatappaa]

I can't hear a thing /sob

[Atomrod]

It's a real bummer though that this shite rapid game gets published everywhere,while the serious tournament games get completely ignored.o well,c'est la vie..Keith. Nick, Merry Xmas and all that to you all-I might be back in Blighty for a bit around 3 Jan-maybe meet up,kill lots of your wine then see if I can defend the position after ...g6 against you :o)

[FatAndMad]

cheers, keith. To be fair though, I did do Ledger v Jones as well in another vid. Good to to see you can still hack it at 4 am though!

[Atomrod]

Hi Nick! Just saw this for the 1st time,and your posting.Yea couldn't have played that rapid game worse.Awful opening letting his Q get to h4. To be fair to me I was out on the tiles the night b4,downing the ole rosies 'till 4am.A little daft really,but I was celebrating jointly winning the tournament,which meant we shared the prize money and the English Championship title.I've got the cup with me now in Manhattan.Stu gets most of the glory,but hey he's a nice guy and that's fine by me.

[amirpaca]

I see, that makes a lot of sense. I found this video to be very instructive on the whole. Thank you very much.

[amirpaca]

Therefore, I think black's move is perfectly justified (in fact, it's probably the best move he's got given the position), and given what follows from the game after g6 is played I think it can be safely said that in the starting position black is not solid by any stretch of the imagination; his position is dire already. I would be more interested in seeing how the opening went so badly.

[FatAndMad]

Amir, thank you for your numerous comments. g6 is definitely not the best move in the position. Re8, as I mention in the narrative, is the only move that keeps black afloat. You seem to have missed that this moves protects the bishop on e7.

[amirpaca]

The only move here is N-f6, and black has lost the pawn, weakened his kingside, and restored the pinned knight on f6, White has an overwhelming initiative at this poin, in addition to numerous mating threats.

[amirpaca]

Incedentally, there  are only two ways to prevent this: to play g6 or h6 immediately (h5 and the pawn is still hanging for the same principle). h6 is probably bad because white has the bishop sacrifice: Bxh6, and black is in dire trouble (gxh, Qxh, and black's king safety is nonexistant; or N-h7, B-g5, and white is threatening both Qxh7 mate and again, Bxe7, winning the exchange.

[amirpaca]

Unless I'm mistaken Black's h-pawn is hanging in the starting position, after B-g5, eg: Bxh7, Nxh7, Bxd7, and white's fork is winning the exchange, plus adequate positional compensation (the knight pair looks dangerous next to black's kingside.

[nickaseed]

Flippin heck bruv, whats that G6 move about, you wouldn't have done that playin a 1 minute game against me, even with a bottle of my homemade to help you think! well played anyway gettin that far. most people won't know you've hardly played in the last 3 years so maybe next year. Well done Stuart, Nick A.

[darkteknical]

Looks like a nice video, too bad I can't hear anything...

[keithbcook]

...but who is the commentator?

[ambe9oo2]

I hear every word even if it isnt that clear : ) , but nice analysis! and great with some chessnews from britain aswell

[FatAndMad]

sorry chaps who are having problems with the audio quality, see my comments on priapus's post below. I will fix this for the next video

[grumour]

cant hear it

[number94]

I am sure I would enjoy this if I could hear it.

[Nimzomyth68]

Well done Stuart. Thank you for an excellent commentary. Very enjoyable.

[furrer08]

In the start you said white had more space, even thought his pawns arent advanced? DOesnt you mean more activity? Space is a long term advantage, activity is short term, and you said black would be fine if he just managed to develop his pieces, so!?

[FatAndMad]

This is a very interesting point. More space is usually associated with further advanced pawns. However, I think that space is attached to the terrain controlled by your pieces. White's pieces controlled large swathes of the board while black's were huddled on the first two ranks. I think it's correct to say white has more space, but I would think of it as a temporary space advantage rather than a permanent one afforded by pawns. Make sense?

[furrer08]

Yeah, makes sense´s. Perhaps its just because I play openings like french / KID where the center is closed, so thats where I know the terms space from!?

[dontwheynoeko]

at 7:15 wouldn t it better to play knight h8 first??

[FatAndMad]

Yes, you're right, Nh8 is stronger than Be5 although White is still winning easily after this move. Perhaps white found it hard to see that after 25.Nh8+ kf8 26.Be5 Qe7 the strongest move is 27.Ng6+ - not an easy move to find even with all the time in the world - let alone a rapid play game! Thank you for your feedback!

[priapus]

Another nicely done video... if I may suggest

so, please try boosting the audio on your

end, because even with my volume cranked to 11

your commentary still sounds sotto voce

[FatAndMad]

Judging by the positive votes your post has received, you're not the only one to notice this priapus! I changed recording media from a headset to a handheld mic in an attempt to get better audio quality, but in doing so I seem to have lost some beef. The irony is because I listen to my videos using a headset, I didn't spot this until the video had been posted. I will play about with it and see if i can put it right.

[vesper8]

oh meh... I just saw it.. moving the rook creates that escape route for the king.. still this continuation would bring the king into the middle and into an ackward position.

[vesper8]

nice video! I have a question for you if you don't mind. Around 1:48 in your video you're describing the position before you show us the first move of this video. You're saying that normally black should play something like rook to E8 to give room for the knight to come defend his king. But in this position.. if rook to E8.. then why can't bishop take the knight on F6, threatening mate on H7 and thus winning a piece right there? Wouldn't that be crushing? Unless I'm missing something.. am i ?

[bicyclethief]

The d7 knight can recapture back on f6, still protecting the h7 square. And after FatAndMad's defensive suggestion, the knight on f8 would still be protecting h7 even if the f6 knight is taken.

[lovetowatchvids]

Nice game and commentary