FM Steve Giddins reports on round 1 of the Blackpool Open

Welcome to the 2008 Blackpool Chess Conference, being held as usual at the Winter Gardens. This year's even sees the strongest Open section for several years, with four GMs and one IM. As well as Mark Hebden and Nigel Davies, we also have Igors Rausis, formerly of Latvia, but now boasting a Czech Republic registration, plus the Belgian-resident Alexandre Dgebuadze, orginally from Georgia, and beloved of tongue-twister fans the world over. Completing the line-up of titled players is Nicolai Pedersen of Denmark.

Looking at the listing, immediately after arriving at the venue, Mark Hebden commented ruefully, "They don't just give the prize money away, do they?". His words proved truer than he realised, as he provided the round one headlines by losing as White against Roger Williamson. A Slav Defence soon transposed into a position more reminiscent of the Tarrasch QGD, with White having the structural advantage on the queenside, and Black some compensating initiative on the other wing. Hebden underestimated the danger, and Williamson crashed through in style, to record a memorable win:

Blackpool Open (1.1), 07.03.2008

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.e3 a6 5.Bd2 e6 6.Nc3 c5 7.cxd5 exd5 8.dxc5 Bxc5 9.g3 Nc6 10.Bg2 0–0 11.0–0 Bg4 12.h3 Bf5 13.Rc1 Qe7 14.Na4 Ba7 15.Bc3 Rad8 16.Nd4 Be4 17.Nxc6 bxc6 18.Bd4 Rd6 19.Bxa7 Qxa7 20.Qd4 Qe7 21.Nc5 Bxg2 22.Kxg2 Ne4 23.Rfd1 f5 24.Nxa6 Rg6 25.Nb4 Qh4 26.Rc2

26... f4 27.exf4 Nxg3 28.Kh2 Rh6 29.fxg3 Qxh3+ 30.Kg1 Qh1+ 31.Kf2 Rh2+ 32.Ke3 Re8+ 33.Kd3 Qf3+ 0–1

Second seed Rausis had no such problems, comfortably refuting his opponent's all-out attempt to refute the Caro-Kann. As White hunted down the enemy h-pawn, the grandmaster replied with the classic counterattack in the centre, and the white position was soon in tatters:

Blackpool Open (1.2), 07.03.2008

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Ne2 e6 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h5 7.Be2 c5 8.Bxh5 Bxh5 9.Nxh5 cxd4 10.Bg5 Qc7 11.0–0 Nc6 12.f4 Nge7 13.c4 0–0–0 14.Na3 dxc4 15.Nb5

15...Qa5 16.Nd6+ Rxd6 17.Bxe7 Bxe7 18.exd6 Bxd6 19.Nxg7 Rxh4 20.g3 Rh7 21.Qg4 Qd5 22.Rf3 Rxg7 23.Qxg7 Qxf3 24.Qg8+ Nd8 0–1

Most of the other favourites also won, although Dgebuadze had a hard fight against Ben Purton. Nicolai Pedersen's chances took a severe blow, when the vagaries of the UK public transport system led to his arriving too late and being defaulted. Thus, today's second round sees an IM and a GM on boards 21 and 22 respectively!