Blast from the Past: Portsmouth 1992

One of my favourite events for many years was the tournament played at Portsmouth Grammar School every February. I first entered the event in 1992 in my last year at school, but I really made a habit of it from 2000 to 2006, when I played in it every year.

My first time was memorable for it being both my first good performance in an adult event (2nd equal) and also the first tournament I had managed to go through undefeated.

After a slightly ropey start, with a fortunate draw in round one and a rather dull draw in round two, I won three games in a row, including one against a very young Simon Williams in round five. Unfortunately, I was unable to win in the last round and therefore snatch first prize, but it was still a satisfying tournament performance.

I give all the games below with notes. My play was erratic, and in some cases I lost the thread of the game for a while. However, I managed to avoid any really gross blunders, and there was plenty of good chess in there too.

This entry was posted in Blast from the Past, Games, Miscellaneous Queen's Gambit, Opening Analysis, The French Defence, The Gruenfeld Defence, The King's Indian Defence, The Ruy Lopez, The Symmetrical English. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *