Last weekend’s Ennis Congress featured live boards for the top two games in the Open and the top board in the Under 1400. The 18 games have now been added to the games archive here.
There were several interesting games, but the most interesting of all must be the Kalinins-Daly marathon in round 5, eventually won by Kalinins. It will be interesting to see Colm Daly’s analysis of this game. A curosry look indicates that Black had his chances throughout.
A critical moment was reached after White’s 51st move (Bb3xe6), resulting in the diagram at left.
Instead of 51. … Qe7 as played, what about 51. … Qxg3 52. Qxg3 fxe6, reaching a Q + P v. 2N + 3P ending? It’s not completely clear but it seems that Black should be able to draw comfortably.
[Click to replay the full game.]
[Update, May 22, 2015: on further reflection, I’ll have to withdraw the word “comfortably” above. I’m still not sure whether it’s a draw or not.]