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Cotswold
Open 2015
by
Asen Asenov
27.5.15 - A few words on Pavel's really
top performance at the 47th Cotswold Chess
Congress.
To start with Pavel was
looking for a FIDE rated tournament somewhere
close by and didn’t even consider this congress
until Alan (special thanks as he also gave him a
lift to the venue the first two days!) mentioned
it at the Witney Chess Club annual dinner.
After little consideration we
decided to enter very last minute and it turn
out to be a very good decision – Pavel went on
to win it out-right! What a top performance and
everyone at the event was impressed by the way
he took challenge after challenge.
This was Pavel’s first OPEN
tournament title since he started playing in
open tournaments some less than year and a half
ago – I hope it is just the beginning! Please
join me in wishing him more success in his
future endeavours!
Here is a brief report Pavel
wrote himself:
1. Russell
Campbell-160-black-first round of tournament
just trying to start of well.
2. Carl Gartside-162-white-he
beat a 190 first round, but outplayed him.
3. Ian
Robson-white-195-strong player, I was playing on
board one as the two top seeds were on one and a
half and the third seed on 1. So it was me and
the fourth seed. I had a double white and
managed to outplay him in a long but interesting
game finishing in a nice attack and queen trap.
4. Michael
Ashworth-186-black, strong junior, only a year
or two older than me and very solid. He deviated
from a precious sharp encounter and chose a slow
kings Indian attack formation as white. I
eventually managed to outplay him in a slightly
better endgame.
5. Joey Stewart-208-white,
interestingly I was on 4/4 and one point clear
of the field. If I won this game it would secure
me first place in the tournament although I
wasn't trying to win the game from the very
start. I just decided to play my best and see
what happens. In an uncommon variation of the
modern defence we reached an original position
where I had the positional upper edge dominating
the whole queenside and D file stopping
development of his QB and QR. By attacking on
the kingside he was too vulnerable to open the
position and closed the kingside off. In a
semi-closed position he decided to give up an
exchange for nothing thinking it would be hard
for me to break through. The game finished with
a decisive attack against the black king winning
a piece and ending a rook up, he lost on time.
6. Chris Beaumont-218-black,
top seed and also 2300 IM. He had drawn the
previous round and was on 3 and a half points.
Me being on five I had already secured clear
first place so as far as the tournament went I
had nothing to play for although 6/6 would have
been nice. It seemed unlikely to win with black
against such a strong player and early into the
middle game my opponent had to trade off all the
minor pieces to stop my attack. With me
dominating the E file my opponent tried to
threaten some pawns on the queenside. Instead of
defending them I countered on the kingside
attacking a weak f2 pawn. He had to a rook on
the second file to protect and I missed a nice
queen sacrifice that would lead to mate. My
opponent relieved that he didn't lose traded off
another pair of rooks and we agreed a draw in a
symmetrical dead drawn position. :
Some photos from the venue and the tournament
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Cotswold Congress website
- Asen Asenov
Photos provided
by Asen
Asenov
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