Chess: The Rookie, Part 39

Last week I boasted that, with a little help from former world champion Emanuel Lasker, I felt my play was improving. This may not, in fact, be strictly true. The evidence is mixed. On the plus side, I have won my first cash prize as a chess player - £1.50 at Surbiton chess club for coming second in a handicap competition in which the time you got on the clock was adjusted according to your grade. The handicap worked in my favour - I was given a putative grade of 80, whereas I'm probably around 110, so I got more time than I should have had - but, hey, I needed the encouragement. The winnings probably make me a professional chess player, but since the entry fee for the competition was £2, I was still 50p down on the night. Making a living from chess is not easy.

This, though, was one bright spot in a dark period in which my FICS rating has been in decline, I was whitewashed in a blitz tournament at Surbiton, and came a sorry eighth out of 12 in a competition I play in each year - a worse placing than I achieved in my pre-rookie existence. I was close to despair until, a couple of Sundays ago, playing internet blitz, I managed this very pleasing win against a player whose rating suggested that, while no Lasker, he wasn't a total duffer either.

AlecHyne v Chakrala 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Be7 6. Bd3 0-0 7. 0-0 c5 8. Nf5 Bxf5 9. exf5 Nc6 10. Ne4 Nxe4 11. Bxe4 Rb8 12. Qh5 Bf6 13. g4 h6 14. f4 Nd4 15. Kh1 Ne2 16. g5 Nxc1 17. gxf6 Ne2 18. fxg7 Re8 19. Qxh6 f6 20. Bd5+ 1-0. Black resigns with mate inevitable.

This game more or less played itself. The attack seemed to flow naturally and, for once, my pawn push didn't expose me to a horrific counterattack. Admittedly, Black's approach was bizarre, letting his knight go for a stroll when it should have been rushing to the aid of his beleaguered monarch. Nevertheless the win buoyed me up at a time when I'd been playing too much crappy chess, and I sent it to the doc in the hope that he wouldn't find a gaping hole in my strategy.

I can't say his praise was effusive - he has had a tiring month playing for England in the Olympiad in Turin and coming to terms with the disappointment of the FIDE election. Being exposed to one of my games was probably not balm to the soul. But I like to think he was quietly impressed. He queried my eighth move, suggesting that Nde2 was better, and seems to have a lower opinion of my opponent than I do. It was essential, he says, for black to play d5 at some point to force back my white-squared bishop; exchanging knights was an error; and his reaction to black's knight excursion was a simple "Oh dear". His conclusion? "Nice play against inept defence."