The “Chess for Life” tour continued at the Casual Chess Café on 17th June. The Casual Chess Café meets in the lobby of the British Film Institute near Tottenham Court Road which is a truly lovely venue. Comfortable chairs, nice food and plenty of drinks from the bar!
After a little blitz to warm up, things got serious at 19:30 with an hour of lectures from “Chess for Life”! For a change, both Natasha and I showed games taken from the book itself. Natasha demonstrated Keith Arkell’s game against Stuart Conquest at the British Championship at Hove in 1997, an impressively smooth and instructive win in Keith’s favourite Carlsbad structure. Matthew enjoyed himself by demonstrating Judit Polgar’s fantastic win against Vishy Anand at Dos Hermanas in 1999, a game which Judit nominated as her favourite game of her career!
After a brief interlude for drinks and a spot of book-buying it was blitz all the way as Matthew and Natasha joined in the normal Casual Chess Café fun. Matthew tested his nerves and reflexes by taking on all-comers at 1 min vs 5 min!
Many thanks to Amanda Ross for organising everything so wonderfully and for creating a relaxed, friendly atmosphere in which it was a pleasure to talk about and play chess!
Just to round off, a selection of games from the blitz!
Casual Chess Café – Sadler,Matthew
17.06.2016
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 b6 7.Qe2 a5 8.f4 Ba6 9.Ngf3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 Qc8 11.f5 Qa6 12.Qc2 Nc6 13.fxe6 fxe6 14.Ng5 Nd8 15.Rf1 Be7 16.Ndf3 cxd4 17.Nxd4 Nxe5
18.Qe2 Nd3+ 19.Kd1 Nxc1 20.Ngxe6 Nxe2 21.Nc7+ Kd7 22.Nxa6 Nxd4 23.cxd4 Rxa6
and 26 seconds was more than enough to finish off the game!
0–1
Sadler,Matthew – Casual Chess Café
17.06.2016
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Be7 6.Bxf6 Bxf6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.Qd2 0–0 9.0–0–0 Be7 10.Bd3 g6 11.h4 c5 12.h5 cxd4 13.hxg6 fxg6 14.Qh6 Rf7 15.Nfg5 Bf8 16.Qh3
16…Nc5 17.Nxf7 Nxd3+ 18.Rxd3 Kxf7 19.Qxh7+ Ke8 20.Rf3
1–0
Casual Chess Café – Sadler,Matthew
17.06.2016
1.e4 e6 2.b3 d5 3.Bb2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Qg4 c5 6.f4 Nc6 7.Nf3 g6 8.Nc3 a6 9.0–0–0 b5 10.Nxd5 exd5 11.e6 Nf6 12.Qg5 Be7 13.Ne5 Nxe5 14.fxe5 Ne4
15.exf7+ Kxf7 16.Qf4+ Ke8 17.e6 Rf8 18.Qh6 Bxe6 19.Qxh7 Bf7 20.Qh4 Bxh4
0–1
Sadler,Matthew D – Casual Chess Café
17.06.2016
1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.d5 Ne5 6.f4 Nd7 7.Nf3 Ngf6 8.Bd3 Nc5 9.Bc2 e6 10.0–0 exd5 11.cxd5 0–0 12.Be3 b6 13.Kh1 Ba6 14.Re1 Re8 15.Bd4 Ng4 16.Qd2 Bxd4 17.Qxd4 Qf6 18.Qd2 Bc4 19.h3 Nh6 20.b3 Ba6 21.b4 Nd7 22.Ba4 Rad8 23.e5 Qg7 24.Ne4
24…Nf5 25.Bxd7 Rxd7 26.Nf6+ Kh8 27.Nxe8 Qh6 28.Nf6 Rd8 29.Kh2 dxe5 30.Nxe5 Kg7 31.Nfg4 Qh4 32.Qc3 Qg3+ 33.Qxg3 Nxg3 34.Kxg3 Rxd5 35.Rad1 Bb7 36.Rxd5 Bxd5 37.Rd1 Be6 38.Rd8
and 20 seconds was enough to finish off the game!
1–0