Harrogate Congress - My First Tournament as a Mum

Introduction

Last weekend I played my first over the board chess tournament since I played for England in the European Team Championships in October 2019! I had my first child February 2020 and had planned to start playing again shortly after. Unfortunately, the pandemic was upon us and with various lockdowns and restrictions the possibility of playing over the board chess was non-existent. In September 2021 our second child was born.

Despite the challenges of having two under twos I was determined to play a competition. After all I truly love chess and have missed playing competitions. With childcare in place I set out to Harrogate for the 4NCL congress. I have played blitz online and of course a lot of junior coaching over the past two years – but no serious over the board chess. Previously I was playing maybe six big tournaments a year. Rusty would be an under-statement!

I find it hard to be motivated by chess work with no tournaments on the horizon – so I was certainly very excited to be back playing again. The venue was the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate – the venue where Agatha Christie went into hiding for 10 days in 1926 sparking a nationwide man hunt. The hotel is right in the heart of the lovely spa town of Harrogate so Alex was able to have a nice weekend away as well – which isn’t always the case with some venues being in out of the way conference centres.

Anyway – onto the chess!

Round 1

My first round play was littered with self doubt and oversights. I was playing a young player who had clearly improved a lot playing online during he pandemic but I wasn't really sure what to expect. After some adventures in the opening I allowed myself to be pushed into a passive endgame and my opponent showed good technique to win - though I could have put up much more resistance.

Round 2

Round 2 was very topsy turvy. At one point I was dreaming about showing this model attacking game to my students only to be completely disillusioned when it became clear I'd missed an important defensive resource. Thankfully I was able to hold the draw with some accurate play (and mistakes from my opponent) as otherwise 0 / 2 would have been a tough pill to swallow.

Round 3

A win! A long game with lots of errors but some interesting and instructive moments. It felt good to get a win under my belt. Afterwards we went for a nice Thai meal with our friend Nigel Livesey from Marple chess club who was playing in the Major.

Round 4

Another round another talented junior! This time however things went like a dream. I won a pawn in the opening and managed to convert a nice technical endgame. More like it!

Round 5

My final round pairing was versus Paul Townsend, a strong player I have a poor record against. I played a nice game and at some point was on the verge of victory before blundering badly with 29.Ng5+. The cause of this mistake is complicated but it's the sort of error I need to stamp out to progress.

Conclusion

I feel as the tournament went on I got my form back and progressively played better. Although a little disappointed in the final result there are so many things I can learn from this experience and try and apply for next time:

• I will continue to thoroughly analyse the games and pick out model games to play through to understand concepts that I found challenging.
• I will make sure my opening files are up to date and fresh
• I will work on affirmations for how to cope when I am in time trouble and starting to doubt myself
• I will try to play some league chess to be fresh! I am excited for the next 4NCL congress at Easter!