British update - the Cox's have a tough first round but Paul starts well

Thanks to David for sharing his thoughts:

Sunday saw the start of the 7-round junior sections. Ben (Under 16 section), Toby (Under 14) and Lucian (Under 12), were all in the bottom half of their respective draws. Their first round opponents had FIDE ratings in the range 195 and 314 higher than the Cox brothers.

Ben started well and was ahead in the middle game, but could not hold onto it and lost the match.

Toby had a tactical game, were he sacrificed a couple of pawns for an attack in the centre of the board. However his opposition’s counter-attacking play led to Toby’s eventual demise in a Queen and Pawn end-game.

Lucian attacked early in his game but failed, allowing his Queen to be chased and fatally losing material.

.. and Paul:

“I’m ranked 12th of 54 players and as usual the top half played the bottom half, so I was expected to win. I was playing the only woman in the tournament and I was somewhat fortunate to win. She kept on finding good moves (don’t they always!?) but I managed to grind out the endgame.”

   [Event "British Over-65 Ch'ship, Hull"]  [Date "2018.07.29"]  [Round "1"]  [White "Habershon, Paul"]  [Black "Moore, Gillian"]  [Result "1-0"]  [PlyCount "105"]   1. e4 Nf6 {Oh no! She's playing my opening - don't like that.} 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4  d6 4. Nf3 dxe5 5. Nxe5 c6 {I'd never seen this before. The most popular moves  are 5...Nd7 and 5...g6.} 6. c4 $2 Nb4 {and now the threat of 7...Qxd4! means  I'm already grovelling slightly. Not the way I wanted to start the tournament,  especially with White.} 7. Nd3 Nxd3+ 8. Qxd3 g6 9. Be3 Bg7 10. Nc3 O-O 11. Be2  f5 {Rather committal. 11...Bf5 looks natural, but after 12 Qd2 White threatens  to gain a tempo with g4 followed by O-O-O and h4 to attack the K-side. 11...  Nd7 is preferable.} 12. f4 Nd7 13. O-O {Timid. I should probably go for the  Black king with h4 and O-O-O.} Nf6 14. h3 Ne4 $5 15. Rfd1 ({I didn't like the  look of} 15. Nxe4 fxe4 16. Qxe4 Bf5 17. Qf3 Bxd4 18. Rad1 Bxe3+ 19. Qxe3 {but  White is more than OK.}) 15... Nxc3 16. bxc3 Qa5 17. Bf3 Bd7 18. Rab1 Rab8 19.  Rb2 Rfd8 20. Qe2 $2 {Played too quickly, carelessly hanging the c3 pawn.} Kf8  $2 {and she doesn't take it! A huge slice of patzer's luck.} 21. Bd2 Bf6 22. c5  {Wanting to prevent 22...c5 liberating the d7 bishop and attacking the centre.}  Qc7 23. Qc4 b5 24. cxb6 Rxb6 25. Rdb1 Rdb8 26. Rb4 Rxb4 {Fritz favours 26...  Qd6 with the idea of Be6.} 27. Rxb4 Rxb4 28. Qxb4 Qb6 {Offering a draw.} 29.  Qb3 {Draw declined, though the position is equal. I was optimistically hoping  that the rating difference might tell in the ending. My conduct of the game so  far gave few grounds for that.} Qxb3 30. axb3 Be6 31. Bd1 {I've got two pawn  islands, she's got three.} Bd5 32. Bc2 Kf7 33. Kf1 {Trying to play c4 without  Bxd4 being check.} a5 34. g3 ({I now saw that} 34. c4 Be6 35. Be3 a4 {wasn't  such a good idea after all.}) 34... Ke6 35. Kf2 Kd6 36. Ke3 c5 37. dxc5+ Kxc5  38. c4 Bd4+ ({Even here Fritz claims a minuscule advantage for Black with}  38... Bg2 39. h4 a4 40. bxa4 Bf1 41. Kf2 Bxc4 42. h5 Bb2) 39. Ke2 Bg2 40. h4 a4  {Advantage over, as the rugby ref. says. 40...Kb6 is preferred.} 41. bxa4 Kxc4  42. Bd3+ {It's now difficult for Black to cope with the passed a pawn.} Kd5 43.  a5 e5 44. fxe5 Bxe5 45. Bf4 Bc3 46. a6 Bd4 47. Be3 Be5 48. a7 Kd6 49. Kf2 Ba8  50. Bc4 {going for the kingside pawns.} Ke7 {Allowing a devastating change of  plan, but Black was lost anyway.} 51. Bf1 $1 Bg7 52. Bg2 f4 53. gxf4 1-0