Here are rounds 3 and 4 of my games with the introduction and first two here.

Round Three

Bob Mitchell NZL 1527 – Ben Mulder NLD 1461 London

1.d4 d5 2.Bf4.Nc6 3.e3 Nf6 4.Nf3 e6 5.Nbd2 a6 6.c3 Be7

7.Bd3 00.  Black has played passive chess and has failed to punish White’s opening inaccuracies.  White has therefor managed to develop as he should have and is ready to continue with a sound line. 8.Ne5 g6  9.Ndf3 Nh5 10.Nxc6 bc6 The Bishop can find safety on h6 but White has plans to win a pawn on c6.  In the event it was not required.   11.Bh6 Re8 12.Ne5 Qd6 13. Qf3 Bf6!   Nice Move! I thought about 14.g4 but after 14…Bxe5 15. de5 Qe5 Black is able to retreat the Knight. 14.Ng4 Bd8 15.Ne5 Bf6 16.Bf4 Nxf4 17. Qxf4 Bxe5 18. de5 Qe7 19. h4 h5 20.000 Rb8  21.g4 hg4  22.Qxg5 Qc5.  23.Bxg6 and Black resigned. 1-0 

With 2.5/3 I was awash with confidence and thought that I might do better than my ranking. At this point I had no idea that the games would be unrated.  I was enjoying the food and also the odd wee dram.

Round Four

Petra Stolz GER 1460 – Bob Mitchell NZL 1527  Reti

1.Nf3 e5 2.g3 b6 3.Bg2 Bb7 4.00 Nf6 5.d3 e6 6.Nbd2 Be7

At this point I had no real idea of what I was doing.   Although the Reti is the most often played opening at high levels, it was all a bit strange to me.  7.Re1 c5 8. c4 00 9.b3 d4 10.Bb2 Qc7 11.Rc1 Nbd7 12.e3 de3 13.Rxe3 Rad8 14.d4 Ba8  15, d5 Qd6 16.Ne4 Nxe4  17.Rxe4 ed5 18.Rg4 Nf6 19.Be5 Qd7 20.Rh4 Ne8  21.Rxh7 Kxh7  This was a bit of a shock.  I thought that I must have miscalculated, but it turned out the White had not taken my next moves into account.  22.Ng5+ Bxg5  23.Qh5+ Bh6_.   A piece up but under pressure I was reasonably happy with events on the board._   24.Rd1 Qe7 25.Bf4 Qf6 26.Bxd5 Bxd5  27.Rxd5 Rxd5 28.cd5 Nd6 29. Be3 Qf5  30.g4 Qxh4 1-0

Next Friday, I will show you the next two rounds.

Bob Mitchell