MORNINGTON CRESCENT JOURNAL
Here legendary MC grandmaster Gregory Topov presents some annotations of a four-player game that he presided over as judge in the final of the 1993 British Imperial Cup, in the under 1100 rating Novice Level category. To make the game simple, play was restricted to to the congestion charge zone only, and in the spirit of fair play all players were required to explain their moves, as is commonly the case for games at the novice-level. Other novices to the game may find the following transcript of the game educational.
Graeme: The traditional opener, like the King’s pawn opening in chess really: Oxford Circus. It is well in the zone, and gives you limited access to Northern parallels. But I suppose it is technically laying an off-side trap there. It could force the next player into Knip if he is not very careful.
Tim: So I have to play Vauxhall. Basically, things have changed slightly since the Millennium Bridge was put there, so you can back double. So it is actually a Reverse move.
Barry: I’m going Regents Street, because that is bridging Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus. So it is an absolute definitive Lateral, which you can reverse on if the situation is right, so you have a double value. It is a Bridger, and it is a Lateral, a very useful one early on.
Ross: Mornington Crescent!
Comment: Ross wins the game and earns a triple bonus point for premature exit while in red mode. It will be obvious even to novices that Barry overlooked the fact that aquatic zones are wild during the first turn, and so allowed Ross to use the river crossing for early development and force a comfortable and quick win.
Grandmaster Gregory Topov
Credits:
http://www.isihac.co.uk/games/mcvariations/novice.html (Ross Noble's Annotated Novice Game)
Posted Friday - 2004-11-27 - 18:56:32 EST
by Staff Reporter Verdra H. Ciretop in Toronto
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