I thought this game deserved it’s own post!
It’s always interesting to witness a game first hand and then hear what the competitors thought about it afterwards.
I was sat next to Qais and thought he looked to be in some difficulty early on but as he said “… James tried to attack but there was no serious threat … to put me under pressure … I was 2 pawns up and had more chances of winning but could not make it …”.
James observed “All in all it was a very speculative pawn sac by me which was basically a blunder but wanted to play some interesting chess rather than heading for more of a bog standard position. The move of the game would have been a queen sac on move 24 if Qais had found it, leading to check mate with two bishops if the queen is taken! After that was missed, swapping the dark squared bishop for my knight was the decisive blunder by Qais which blew his advantage and after that the game was just dead drawn and played fairly accurately by both of us. ”
The Queen sac was indeed a big miss and James’s early activity flattered to deceive. Nevertheless, a very entertaining game from both combatants.
James annotates the game as follows:-