Doubtless, most people reading this will be aware that an extremely strong chess tournament - the London Chess Classic - took place earlier this month in Olympia. Of course, I felt obliged to play in something, and so I found myself in the English Junior Rapidplay. Usually, I and most juniors above about 14-15 are wary of entering tournaments advertised as specifically junior, as many are very weak. This was an exception, with the top 3 seeds all above 190. I found myself seeded 11th with my 138 rapid grade. Nonetheless, there were a lot of less strong opponents, and with 75 people playing, it was unsurprising that I started against a young opponent graded 73.
I was always amused last year, when I was often playing in the lower divisions of the Briant Poulter schools league, that most of my opponents had apparently never seen the Sicilian Defence before. My opponent here apparently had not, so perhaps it is not surprising that after only 5 moves I was able to play what is arguably the most thematic tactic in the Sicilian player's arsenal:
As the title of this post suggests, this game was clearly decided by a few tactical shots - 5... Qa5+ and 6... d4 is the most obvious of these, but 12... Ne4 is a cute way to force exchanges, 16... Qd4 forcing Queens off is a fork of sorts, and matters are concluded by white's weak back rank. So my unusual approach to preparation, which was admittedly limited time-wise, concentrating solely on tactics rather than openings, paid off.
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