Yesterday, Sussex defeated Somerset 11-5 in the Quarter Finals of the Minor Counties competition. The match was staged at the Memorial Hall in Newton Tony, a picturesque village in Wiltshire near to Salisbury. The venue was nice and spacious, with the atmosphere reasonably cool despite the warm weather. I was playing Black on board seven, and managed to score a convincing victory.
My opponent started in unorthodox fashion with 1 h3, a move which I had never faced in a serious. While his first four moves were reasonable enough, he went wrong on move five, giving me a large advantage. While I played one inaccurate move in what followed, my opponent didn’t take the chance to restrict his disadvantage, but instead went pawn grabbing. This backfired as I was able to build up a dominating position with more than enough for the pawn. Some accurate calculated allowed me to convert my advantage effectively, and following my 25th move, my opponent conceded defeat.
I give the game below with some notes.