Two games against members of the Scottish team

In 2010 I changed back to the Danish Federation after some disappointments with Chess Scotland (though certainly not the players). Federations are imperfect everywhere, but it did allow me to play the Danish Championship with a lot of friends from my early years with good conditions. And it did not stop me from becoming Scottish Champion in 2012!

Last week I played in two local team matches against members of the Scottish Team. On Tuesday I was sitting next to my good friend and colleague Andrew Greet, facing the 2013 Scottish Champion, who was a very strong player around the time I was born! Luckily I have developed more in the last 40 years and recently I have had a good score against Roddy.

Jacob Aagaard – Roddy McKay
Glasgow League, 20.01.2015

1.e4 c5 2.b3

Roddy’s theoretical knowledge ends somewhere in the 1980s, and I just wanted a game.

2…a6 3.Bb2 Nc6 4.f4?

This is an appalling move!

4.Nf3 e6 5.c4 would have made sense.

4…e6?!

4…e5! and White will have to sacrifice a pawn under suspicious circumstances.

5.Nf3 Nge7 6.d4 cxd4?!

6…d5! would have been good.  7.dxc5 Qa5+ 8.Qd2 dxe4 9.Qxa5 Nxa5 10.Nfd2 f5 11.b4 Nac6 12.a3 with an interesting game.

7.Nxd4 Nxd4

7…d5 still equalised.

8.Qxd4 Nc6 9.Qe3

From this point I liked my position.

9…Bb4+

I hoped for this. The bishop has no task here and I wanted my knight on c3 anyway.

10.Nc3 0–0 11.0–0–0 Qa5

12.h4!

Not sure what the engines are saying. But I wanted to attack g7. Ideally we would get into an ending where his bishop would be entirely useless on c8. Probably White’s advantage is not so big according to Komodo, but I really did not like Black’s position. How is he going to include the rest of the pieces?

12…d6 13.h5 Bd7 14.Kb1 Rac8 15.Na4!

A nice tactic.

15…Be8 16.a3 Bc5 17.Qg3 f6 18.Bc4 Nd8 19.Nxc5 Qxc5 20.f5

20.h6 g6 21.Qg4 is a computer idea. Black looks busted. But what I played was useful as well.

20…b5 21.h6 Rc7

22.Rxd6! bxc4 23.b4 Qa7 24.Rxd8 e5 25.Rhd1 Qb7 26.R1d5

Preventing …a5 and …Qxe4. I was also hoping for the move he played in the game.

The computer said something about 26.Bxe5! fxe5 27.f6 g6 28.Qxe5 and wins. Well, at least it is clear that I was not cheating!

26…Bc6?!

Loses by force, but the position was abysmal.

27.Rxf8+ Kxf8 28.Rd8+ Be8

29.Bxe5! fxe5 30.Qxe5 Qc6

30…Re7 31.hxg7+ Kf7 32.Rxe8 and White wins his piece back with interest.

31.Rxe8+

This was enough to cause resignation, but Komodo said that 31.Rc8! was rather pretty!

1–0

Then on the Saturday, the Glasgow League was exchanged for the Richardson Cup – the Scottish Team Championship – which is played as a knock-out. The two possibly strongest teams in the tournament were picked for a quarterfinal kick-off. Edinburgh Chess Club against Polytechnic of Glasgow.

In the Edinburgh Team we had myself on board 1 and Danny McGowan on board 8 (first to win!). Also from Quality Chess we had Board 1-3 from Polytechnic: 1. Andrew Greet, 2.Colin McNab and 3.John Shaw.

The match looked very difficult for Polytechnic for a long time. Andrew and Colin were winning, John and board 4 were worse and boards 5-8 were lost or had already resigned. But things usually happen in time trouble. The worst of it all was on board 1.

Jacob Aagaard – Andrew Greet
Richardson Cup, 24.01.2015

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.Ngf3 cxd4 5.exd5 Qxd5 6.Bc4 Qd6 7.0–0 Nf6 8.Nb3 Nc6 9.Nbxd4 Nxd4 10.Nxd4 Be7 11.b3 0–0 12.Bb2 Qf4!

Andrew as usual knows more theory than I.

13.g3 Qc7 14.Qf3 Bd7 15.Rfd1 Rad8 16.Bf1 Bc8 17.c4 a6 18.Rac1 Nd7

19.c5??

19.Bg2 is a bit better for White. Black could have played the opening better I am sure.

19…Nxc5 20.Qc3

20.b4 was of course the original idea, but I had not really checked if Black could take the pawn and thus not seen 20…Qb6, though I did see it just after I had made my move of course…

20…e5

21.Ne2??

I had originally thought (in panic) that I could put the knight on b5, but the tactics are all ridiculous. So, I went here without really thinking straight…

21.Nc2 Bf6 22.Ne3 would give decent counterplay.

21…Rxd1 22.Rxd1 f6

Black is a pawn up.

23.f4 e4 24.Rc1 Qd6 25.Nd4 Rd8 26.Qc4+!

The making of a turnaround.

26…Kf8

The corner made more sense to be, but objectively this is fine.

27.b4

This was just a trap. As I did not for a second believe that Andrew, with only a minute or two on his clock would fall for it, I did not check it carefully before playing it.

27…Na4??

27…Nd3 28.Bxd3 exd3 29.a3 is apparently just deeply uncomfortable, while 27…Ne6! is all over on account of 28.Nf5 Qb6+ 29.Kh1 Bxb4 and so on…

28.Qxc8!

And suddenly White wins.

28…Rxc8

28…Re8 29.Ne6+ Kf7 30.Ng5+ fxg5 31.Bc4+ Kf8 32.Bxg7+ Kxg7 33.Qxe8 and wins.

29.Rxc8+ Kf7

29…Bd8 30.Rxd8+! and wins.

30.Bc4+ Kg6 31.f5+ Kg5 32.Bc1+ Kg4 33.Be2+ Kh3 34.Ne6 Qb6+ 35.Kh1 Bd6 36.Rh8 Bxg3

36…h6 37.Bxh6

37.Rxh7+ Bh4 38.Nf4#

2 thoughts on “Two games against members of the Scottish team”

  1. In that Roddy game, I feel I should defend the move f2-f4 out of King’s Gambit-related loyalty. So after 4.f4 e5 5.Nf3 exf4 6.Bc4 I will claim compensation.

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