FM Steve Giddins reports on round 2 of the Blackpool Open

Nigel Davies became the latest grandmaster casualty of this year's Blackpool Open, after a bizarre time loss against Darryl Wolstencroft. After a hard fight, the following position was reached after White's 52nd move:

At this point, Wolstencroft pointed out that Davies' clock was showing a minus amount of time (we are using digital clocks). Davies responded that this was just because they had reached the first time control (the time limit here is 40 moves in 100 minutes, then 20 minutes more to finish), and that a further 20 minutes were due on his clock. Slowly, though, he realised something was wrong, and the awful truth dawned - he had already passed the first time control at move 40, had already had his extra 20 minutes, and therefore had lost on time. An extremely unlucky way to lose a game.

Meanwhile, Igor Rausis was paired with local player Mike Surtees. Those of us familiar with Mike's highly personal approach to the opening were not at all surprised when the game opened 1.d4 c6 2.c4 f6, but Rausis' face was a picture. Notwithstanding his shock, however, he set to work, and nailed his opponent to the floor. After the game, I told Igor about Mike's theories, which he calls Revolutionary Opening Theory, or ROT for short. Igor was highly relieved to have won, fearing that had the result been otherwise, he would have been immortalised by appearing on the ROT website - "I would have been shamed forever!".

Blackpool Open (2.1), 08.03.2008

1.d4 c6 2.c4 f6 3.e4 g6 4.h4 e5 5.h5 g5 6.dxe5 fxe5 7.h6 Bb4+ 8.Bd2 Bxd2+ 9.Qxd2 Qf6 10.c5 b6 11.Na3 Ba6 12.Nc4 Bxc4 13.Bxc4 b5 14.Be2 a5 15.Nh3 Nxh6 16.Qxg5 Rf8 17.Rd1 Ng8 18.Bh5+ Ke7 19.Qg3 Kd8 20.Ng5 Qe7 21.Rd6 Kc8 22.Bg4 Nf6 23.Bf5 h5

24.Ne6 Nxe4 25.Bxe4 dxe6 26.Qxe5 Qf6 27.Qxf6 Rxf6 28.Rxh5 Ra7 29.Rh8+ Kb7 30.Rdd8 Na6 31.Rh7+ Nc7 32.Rd6 1–0

Dgebuadze won a model Winawer French against Callum Kilpatrick, but David Eggleston was upset by Peter Poobalasingham. Lower down the lists, Mark Hebden won, but Nicolai Peredsen could only draw, after his first round no-show. Also from the lower boards, I was very impressed by Robert Mycroft's sparkling tactical effort against Amisha Parmar:

Blackpool Open (2.25), 08.03.2008

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c6 4.Be3 d5 5.Qd2 dxe4 6.Nxe4 Nd7 7.Bc4 Ngf6 8.Ng5 0–0 9.h4 h5 10.N1h3 Nd5 11.Nf4 N7f6 12.0–0–0 b5 13.Be2 b4 14.Nxd5 Nxd5 15.Bc4 Qa5 16.Kb1 Rb8 17.Bb3 Bf5 18.f3 Bh6 19.Rdg1

 19...Nc3+ 20.bxc3 bxc3 21.Qc1 Bxg5 22.Ka1 Bxe3 23.Qxe3 Bxc2 24.Bxc2 Qa3 25.Rb1 Rb2 26.Bb3 Rb8 27.Qxc3 Rxa2+ 0–1