Round 5

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Scotland v Wales
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Bd1. FM Graham Morrison (2353)..- FM Richard Jones (2321)....0-1
Bd2. IM Andrew Muir (2327)......- FM Ioan Rees (2336).....1/2 - 1/2
Bd3. Alan Tate (2175).......... - Richard Dineley (2270) 1/2 - 1/2
Bd4. James Stevenson (2089).... - Tim Kett. (2238)........1/2 - 1/2

Games here


Bd1. Graham Morrison v Richard Jones

Tim's report

We celebrated long into the night last night toasting the two Richards who had brought us victory over our biggest rivals here in Serbia.

Richard J always looked confident after Morrison's somewhat bizarre Kg1-g2-g3 manoeuvre in the Kings Indian (cue lots of jokes in the bar about former Scottish Kings leading their troops into battle). He kept some tension on both sides of the board and used the Q-side distraction to break through with doubled rooks on f3. Hopefully this will get his head back together for the rest of the tournament after the unfortunate loss of his computer to a spilt bottle of beer a couple of days ago.

Ioan's game was, as usual, full of some heavyweight modern theory as he grabbed a pawn but then had to avoid a perpetual attack on his queen. Unfortunately Mr Muir was up to the task though.

My game was also a short draw after my early attacking intent with g4-g5 started to look like fizzling out into what could have been a worse ending. Very wimpy though - I promise a bit more action in the last few rounds !

But that all set the stage for the heroic rearguard action of the tournament so far as Richard D battled away for 87 moves to save a slightly worse endgame against a tenacious and determined opponent. Just when all finally seemed completely lost he conjured a miraculous stalemate with just K&P vs K,B&P. This was in fact the last game of the whole round to finish so there were quite a few spectators crowded round. The gasps of admiration and chattered explanation from many other (non-Welsh) chess fans were clearly audible as everyone gradually realised what was going on.