Reflections on Hastings

 Hastings this year was a bit of a disaster. 😯


I recall it being very stormy, and on one of the first days I was there I braved the strong breezes and slowly walked down the seafront. Sitting on a bench gazing out to the sea, I pondered on how many years I had been playing Hastings. It seemed to frame my entire life. All those years wasted, propping up bars, when I should have been working on my chess and getting after it. And now I felt old and was getting old. Mid-life crisis, par excellence.


The first real test was against Gasanov and it was one I failed dismally.


Under pressure I had to find ... Qc7! when according to the engine Black is still ok. But in a negative frame of mind and dismally out of form mainly because I haven't played chess recently, I failed to find this and lost quickly.

I then went out on New Years eve with a few others, like Keith Arkell, Ameet Ghasi and Tom Villiers to the local Weatherspoons, ended up drinking too much and regretted it the next day when I had a tough game against an underrated 2100 player who had an excellent tournament. 


I like to think that a more "warmed up" Gormally would find the best practical chance ... f5! here, mainly because the Bishop on b7 also feels rather cold and needs warming up. Black needs to play ... e4 which will either liberate the Bishop, or allow the Knight to stake out a square on d3. Instead I played the rather pointless ... h5, which didn't really help my cause at all.

This was a tough pairing for a number of reasons. Firstly I was coming off a quick loss and when you have just lost quickly with Black, you don't want to play another game with Black but I had already had a double White earlier in the tournament. I also felt the conditions in the tournament hall were not great. My own chair seemed stuck to the surface, which was perhaps predictable as it was a sports hall. 

If Juknis was underrated, this was as of nothing compared to some of the juniors playing in the event and the whole rating system seems a bit messed up now, in the sense that you can lose to players that in the past you wouldn't have considered a threat, if you simply looked at their rating. 

One of the juniors who impressed during the tournament was Freddie Gordon and I faced him in the final round. Freddie spent a lot of time in the commentary room and like Jack Rudd, was pointing out any important tactics that the commentators had missed. He really seems like an enormous talent. 



The crucial moment in the early middlegame and I should have gone for ... b4! Nce2 .. c5 Nf5 Bh2 Kh1 ... Ne5! when the computer prefers Black.

Lacking experience in this opening, I failed to find this sequence and Freddie played an excellent game. I did miss a chance to draw right at the end, but didn't spend enough time to work out the details of the position. Another issue that I have noticed of late- when I start getting anxious, concrete calculation and analysis goes out the window, and I tend to play more and more impulsively. 


Anyone interested in more thoughts on this tournament could check out the video below:






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