Ilkley Major (U1900) 2025 day 1

Ilkley has a great chess club that I'd definitely join if I lived there (and/or if I didn't have a local club). They organise a lot of events around Yorkshire and Ilkley Festival is the closest to me so I've played in it each year, 4 times now.

This year I joined the U1900 section again. I placed 2nd in this section last year with a 4/5 score but my rating has if anything drifted a little (bang on 1800 in the current list) and I was right in the middle of the pack so didn't feel any need to play up in the rather small and tough open. In fact due to some byes I was in the bottom half of the draw for the first round, so my game was black on board 1 against the 1898-rated top seed! It turns out he'd barely played in years and that rating was highly provisional, but based on his performance it was probably about right (I've just checked and his performance rating over the weekend was 1951, so his provisional rating next month will be well over 1900).

We had a good game, I just about equalised but always felt to be under just a bit of pressure. Eventually I cracked and he ran out the deserved winner, though we both missed a couple of chances in time trouble at the end.

Ah well, I started off last year with a loss and that turned out ok in the end. Onwards, and at least I'll be playing someone weaker next round!

Sure enough I was on one of the bottom boards playing white against one of the lower-rated players. He didn't play the opening very well and I made short work of him:

I do like games where my opponent goes out of book early and I can find an effective refutation. Almost makes up for the times I miss the refutation at the board only for the engine to later tell me that there was one!

Third game of the day and I was back in black, against a local I've played once before. The game went roughly the same way too. I really don't feel I deserve to be 2-0 against him!

So 2-1 was a satisfactory end to the day, especially after how it started.

Last year had gone the same way, I was able to clean up 2-0 on Sunday for a share of 2nd prize. Could I do it again? Watch this space!