Final Weekend
Report, 3-5 May 2014
by the Man in Room 503
a.k.a. John Saunders
Little did I expect
when I drove up to Hinckley Island on the
Saturday how much drama I was to meet with
that day. Even before the chess got
underway, as it happened.
My previous visits to
Hinckley Island had been trouble-free as
regards hotel arrangements but this one was
more colourful. For starters, they had no
record of my booking. This had been made for
me by Dave Welch so I had to check with him
that it had been done, and of course it had.
It transpired that the hotel, in its
infinite wisdom, had decided that all the
various official 4NCL people had duly
arrived on the Friday and that nobody could
possibly be coming on Saturday (despite this
being clearly signalled in my booking) so my
reservation had been re-routed to the
digital wastebasket.
So they had then had to
register me all over again and find me a
room – thankfully, not a problem, the
receptionist told me. Or was it? I was
allocated room 503. I went to where she told
me room 503 was located, and found myself
looking at a blank wall between rooms 502
and 504. Did the numbers alternate with
those on the opposite side of the corridor,
maybe? No, there was a large laundry room
there and no sign of a room 503. I briefly
contemplated bedding down in the laundry
room, which did look quite cosy with all
those fluffy towels. I also considered
putting my faith in the existence of room
503 and driving my wheeled suitcase in
determined fashion at the wall between 502
and 504 but that sort of thing only works in
children’s stories.
I traipsed back to
reception. Interestingly, two callow hotel
staff tried to persuade me that there really
was a room 503 but a third (evidently more
knowledgable) ruefully agreed with me and
proceeded to allocate a room number that
came with a door and a physical space
beyond. I later learnt that this same room
had earlier been rejected by other 4NCL
guests as it had a defective window through
which a gale-force draught had blown
through. But I don’t care about draughts as
I’m a chessplayer.
Enough of the
perpendicular pronoun, you cry – what about
the chess? Oh alright, then...
Round 9, Saturday 3
May
Division 1,
Championship Pool: Piling Up Game Points
4NCL pairings are of
course rigged to keep the really big
pairings to the very end, so part of the fun
is finding out which super-GMs the big
battalions – these days Guildford 1 and Wood
Green 1 – are going to deploy on the final
weekend. There can be a fair amount of
industrial espionage, with the weapon of
chessboard destruction is kept back for the
final round but may still be spotted lurking
somewhere in the hotel.
|
|
|
|
|
Alexei Shirov |
|
Luke McShane |
|
Maxime
Vachier-Lagrave |
This year the two team
managers, Roger Emerson of Guildford and
Brian Smith of Wood Green, seemed fairly
relaxed about the names in their frames. It
was known from the start of the weekend that
Wood Green would later be deploying Alexei
Shirov (who could be seen about the hotel)
and Luke McShane (who came later). However,
I think we were in the dark about the
imminent arrival of MVL – as Maxime
Vachier-Lagrave is generally known. Of
course, it could have all have been a bluff:
for all I or anybody else knew there could
really have been a secret room 503 somewhere
with Magnus Carlsen or Vishy Anand in it.
Although both major
teams heavily outrated their round nine
opposition, it was of course vital to pile
up as many game points as possible in order
to secure draw odds for the round 11
show-down. As we left things last time, both
leaders were on a maximum 8 match points but
Wood Green edged Guildford by a single game
point.
Let’s consider each
match in turn.
Wood Green 1 6-2
Grantham Sharks: Guildford 1 had finished
their match in advance of this one, and Wood
Green 1 needed to match their score as
closely as possible in order to maintain
their slender game point lead. David
Howell’s was the last game to finish as he
endeavoured to eke out a win against Ameet
Ghasi. He didn't quite succeed but a draw
was enough to give Wood Green a half game
point edge over Guildford. The costliest
result in this match for Wood Green was Pia
Cramling’s calamitous loss against the
18-year-old English player Peter Batchelor,
who did very well to exploit the Swedish
GM’s time trouble by posing her a few
tactical puzzles in ascending order of
difficulty.
4NCL Division 1, Round 9, 2014
Peter Batchelor (Grantham Sharks)
Pia Cramling (Wood Green 1)
23.Bf1! White used around 9 of his
remaining 15 minutes on this move but it is
probably the right choice. 23...dxe3
24.fxe3 Bf3 25.Rb5 Qa7 After the queen
move, Black’s time was down to 13 minutes
for the final 15 moves. 25...Rxe3!? 26.Qxc5
Re8 27.Ra5 Qd8 might have held out more
winning chances for Black, though
objectively it’s not much more than level.
26.Qc3 Qc7 Black soaked up a further
9 minutes which she could ill afford on this
move. 27.Qa5!? The position is level
as far as the computer is concerned but
White can line up a few back-rank cheapo
threats to push Black further into time
trouble. 27...Qd6 28.Qa6!? Bc6 One of
five adequate moves but it used up a further
2 minutes, leaving just 2 minutes 11 seconds
(plus increments) to play with. 29.Rb6!
This doesn’t win but restricts Black’s
choice to just one safe move, which probably
requires more than two minutes’ worth of
calculation and checking, even for an
experienced GM. 29...Re6?? 29...Qd2!
holds, somewhat improbably. If White then
tries to exploit Black’s time pressure with
30.Qa8+!? Black can dodge the cheapo with
30...Be8! and actually White could be in a
bit of trouble. 30.Qc8+! 1-0
Jon Speelman dealt
severely with Veronica Foisor.
|
Jon Speelman |
4NCL Division 1, Round 9, 2014
Jon Speelman (Wood Green 1)
Veronica Foisor (Grantham Sharks)
English Opening
1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 g6 4.e3 Bg7 5.d4
cxd4 This seems to give White a free
game. 5...d6 has more of a track record
amongst leading players. 6.exd4 d6 7.d5
Database stats show Black taking a major
hammering (80:20), wherever the knight goes.
7...Ne5 8.Nxe5 Bxe5 9.Be2 Bg7 Rather
than lose a tempo with the bishop, perhaps
Black could consider playing 9...h5 and then
10...Nh6. 10.Be3 Nf6 11.0-0 0-0 12.Qd2
Bd7 13.Rfe1 a6 Black has rather a
cramped game as she can’t get a ...b7-b5 or
...e7-e6 counter in. 14.f3 Rc8 15.Rad1
Qa5
16.a3 16.b4!? is also playable as
16...Qxb4?? 17.Rb1 Qa5 18.Bb6 and Black has
to give up a piece to save her queen.
16...Rfd8 The rook is a liability on
this square. 17.Bf1 Bf5? 18.Qf2! Now
we can see why White preferred the sneaky
16.a3 to 16.b4. The black queen is in danger
of being trapped with Bb6. 18...Qc7
18...Nd7 stops Bb6 but allows 19.g4, winning
a piece. 19.Bb6 Qd7 19...Qb8 20.Bxd8
Rxd8 21.Rxe7 is no better. 20.g4 Re8
21.gxf5 Qxf5 22.Ne4 Nd7 23.Ng3 Qg5 24.Bd4
1-0
Overall this was a
pretty effective job by a team with an
average rating of 2606 up against one
averaging 2310, but the London side could
have done with something nearer a maximum
8-0 to maximise their edge over Guildford.
As it turned out, their game point advantage
was cut to just a half game point.
|
|
|
Anish Giri
on board 1 |
|
Robin van Kampen on board 6 |
Guildford 1 6½-1½ White
Rose: Guildford bolstered their team with
two Dutchmen, Anish Giri on top board and
Robin van Kampen on board six, and it gave
them enough firepower to score a big win
against White Rose. As always, the interest
came on the boards where the more fancied
team did not win. Sue Maroroa, playing
against her hubby Gawain’s team and
following in the distinguished footsteps of
Bob Wade and Murray Chandler in becoming a
Kiwi-turned-Brit, played extremely well to
defeat GM Mark Hebden. It was her first GM
scalp.
4NCL Division 1, Round 9, 2014
Sue Maroroa (White Rose)
Mark Hebden (Guildford 1)
Two Knight’s Defence
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d4 exd4
5.e5 Ne4 Hebden generally favours the
more usual move 5...d5 here but the text is
perfectly respectable. 6.Qe2 Nc5 7.Ng5!?
This is known but a bit unusual.
7...Ne6 8.Nxe6 dxe6 9.0-0 Now we are out
of the book and the players are on their
own. Black has an extra pawn but his
position is slightly cramped and
undeveloped, which I suppose constitutes a
degree of compensation for White. 9...Qh4
10.Nd2 Bd7 11.Nf3 Qh5 12.c3!? Playing
someone rated more than 400 points above you
can be a daunting experience but White has
decided she is going to take a positive
course of action, targeting Black’s
vulnerability along the d-file. 12...dxc3
13.bxc3 Bc5 14.Rd1 0-0-0
The king proves to be too vulnerable on the
queenside, though it takes a truly inspired
sequence of moves by White to prove the
point. Instead (and with the wonderful
benefit of hindsight), one is tempted to
recommend 14...a6 or perhaps 14...h6, to
stop the white bishops coming to what prove
to be strong squares. 15.Bg5! Ne7
Here 15...Be7 runs into the devastating
16.Ba6!! and I’ll leave the reader’s
computer to fill in the tactical details.
The computer suggestion is to play 15...Rdg8
but then White is liable to get a forceful
attack against the bishop on d7, either by
playing Qd2 immediately or possibly the
preparatory Bb5. 16.Bb5! c6 Not
16...Bxb5 17.Qxb5 when Black has to prop up
his position with the awkward 17...b6 and
suffer some horribly weak light squares
around his king. But something of the sort
happens anyway. 17.Qc4! b6 Again,
Black’s dark-squared bishop can’t afford to
move away from the g1-a7 diagonal: 17...Ba3?
18.Ba6!! and it is game over. 18.Bxe7
cxb5 19.Qe4! Kb8 19...Bxe7 20.Qa8+ Kc7
21.Qxa7+ Kc8 22.Rd6!! is a gorgeous finish.
The king would last longer if it goes to c6
instead of c8, but the result would still be
the same after 22.a4, etc. 20.Bxd8 Rxd8
Black has bought off White’s brilliant
attack at the expense of the exchange for a
pawn so White still has to maintain the
momentum. 21.a4 bxa4 22.Rxa4 Qf5
White threatens a mating attack with Rxa7,
while 22...Bxa4 is answered by 23.Rxd8+ Kc7
24.Qa8 winning. 23.Qh4 Rc8 24.Raa1 Bc6
25.Nd4 Qxe5 26.Nxc6+ Rxc6 27.Qxh7 Qf6
27...Qxc3 28.Qg8+ Rc8 29.Qxf7 brings the win
a bit closer for White. 28.Rd7! White
puts her trust in her powerful triumvirate
of heavy pieces. 28...Bxf2+ 29.Kh1 Qxc3
30.Rad1
30...Qf6? The computer finds
30...b5!, which is a better way to fortify
Black’s position, with the bishop defending
a7: 31.Qg8+ Rc8 32.Qxf7 Bb6 33.Qxe6 Qc4 and
Black might yet frustrate White’s winning
chances. 31.Qe4! For the second time
in the game the queen lands on this square
with devastating effect. At this stage White
still had around 17 minutes with increments
to move 40 and Black around 54 minutes.
31...Rc7 32.Rd8+ Rc8 33.R8d7 Rc7 34.Rd8+
White wasn’t in time trouble but every
little helps. 34...Rc8 35.Rxc8+ Kxc8
36.Qa8+ Kc7 37.Qxa7+ Kc6 37...Kc8 38.Rd7
is terminal. 38.Qd7+ Kc5 39.Qd6+ Kb5
40.Qd3+ Kc6 41.Qd7+ Kc5 42.Rc1+ Kb4 43.Qd2+
Ka4 44.Rb1 1-0
Guildford 2 4-4 Cheddleton: this was an
important match for the minor places, with
Cheddleton managing to edge past Grantham
Sharks 1 into fourth position. On top board
for Guildford 2, Spanish FM Alberto Suarez
Real was (according to his team manager)
content to cruise to an IM norm with three
draws if need be, but he was up against
Jonathan Hawkins who needed a win for a GM
norm. Consequently the Spaniard’s early
peace offer was declined. However, as so
often where one side is straining too hard
to win, it was the player offering the pipe
of peace who triumphed, and rather
beautifully.
|
Jonathan Hawkins |
4NCL Division 1, Round 9, 2014
Alberto Suarez Real (Guildford 2)
Jonathan Hawkins (Cheddleton)
Caro-Kann
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7
5.Ng5 Ngf6 6.Bd3 e6 7.N1f3 Bd6 8.Qe2 h6
9.Ne4 Nxe4 10.Qxe4 Qc7 11.0-0 b6 12.Qg4 Kf8
13.b3 Bb7 14.Bb2 Nf6 15.Qh3 Nd5 16.g3 Nb4
17.Be4 f5 It’s starting to look hairy
but we’re still in known territory.
18.Ng5 Qe7 19.Nxe6+!? Qxe6 20.Bxf5 It’s
fairly obvious that White has some play for
the piece but exactly how much is hard to
judge. 20...Qf7 21.Rae1 Re8 22.Re6!
This looks like a distinct improvement on
22.c4 h5 23.a3 Na6 24.Be6 Rxe6 25.Qxe6 Rh6,
which was played in Aabling Thomsen-Palo,
Danish Team Championship, in March 2014,
which Black went on to win. 22...Rxe6
23.Bxe6
23...Qf6? This costs Black the game
and a GM norm: 23...Qe7!? would prevent
White’s next move and also give Black a
modicum of control along the e-file: 24.Re1
Nd5 25.c4 Nf6 26.Qf5, etc, though it would
be by no means a comfortable defence.
24.Bc8! Effectively buying a tempo to
take control of the e-file. 24...Ba8
Alternatives aren’t much better: 24...Qe7
25.Bxb7 Qxb7 26.Re1! is also very
unpleasant, for example 26...Be7 27.Qf5+ Kg8
28.Qe6+ Kf8 29.c4 and Black is powerless to
hold back White’s attack. 25.Re1 Nd5
25...Be7 26.Qd7 Qd6 27.Qxa7 is hopeless.
26.Re6 Qd8 27.Qf5+ Nf6 27...Kg8 28.Rxd6!
Qxd6 29.Be6+ is a simple win. 28.d5!
Intensifies pressure on f6 to screaming
point. There is nothing to be done.
28...Kf7 After 28...Qxc8, either rook or
bishop capture on f6 wins. 29.Rxf6+
The computer finds more immediate ways to
win but this is perhaps the way that most
appeals to the human brain for its lack of
complexity. 29...gxf6 30.Be6+ Kg7 31.Qg4+
Kf8 32.Qg6 Qe7 33.Bxf6 Qh7 34.Qg4 cxd5
34...Rg8 leads to a mopping-up exercise:
35.Bxg8 Qxg8 36.Qc8+ Kf7 37.Qe6+ Kf8
38.Qxd6+ Kf7 39.Qe6+ and wins. 35.Bxh8
1-0
There was an interesting clash between
England’s most successful junior and senior
players of the moment on the third board.
Youth triumphed over experience in a very
tense encounter. This win left Yang-Fan
needing a win against a 2380+ opponent in
round ten for a ten-round GM norm.
|
Keith Arkell |
4NCL Division 1, Round 9, 2014
Yang-Fan Zhou (Guildford 2)
Keith Arkell (Cheddleton)
37...N8h7? Black might have been
better had he found Hiarcs’s sneaky
37...Nd5!, threatening ...f7-f6, thus
forcing 38.Rg3 and now 38...Nd7!, exploiting
the pin along the h2-b8 diagonal. 38.Rg3
Ng4 39.Bf4 c5 40.Nxg6! fxg6 41.Bxd6 cxd4
42.Rb3! Now White’s rook and bishop pair
work well together. 42...e5 43.Rb7+ Kh6
44.Re7 Rc8 45.Rc7 Re8 46.Re7 Rc8
Amusingly, England’s most famous
rook-handler refuses the exchange of his
most treasured piece no fewer than four
times on consecutive moves. Of course, the
decision was based not on sentiment but hard
logic: after 46...Rxe7 47.Bxe7, it seems
almost certain that the two bishops will
shepherd home one of the queenside passed
pawns before the slow-moving knights can
emerge from their stables. 47.Rc7 Re8
48.b4 Even with the rooks on, Black has
a hard job to stop the pawns. 48...Nhf6
49.b5 Nd5 49...Ne3 changes nothing:
50.b6! Nxc2 51.b7! and White wins.
50.Rf7! Nf4 51.b6 d3 52.Bxd3 Nxd3 53.b7 1-0
e2e4.org.uk 6½-1½ Barbican 2: perhaps
feeling lonely in the Championship section
without their first team, Barbican lost by
rather a large margin. Their two bottom
boards gave them a degree of respectability,
with 15-year-old English girl player Naomi
Wei winning against Lithuanian-registered
but long-time English resident Rasa
Norinkeviciute.
Division 1,
Championship Pool after Round 9
Wood Green 1 10 (32),
Guildford 1 10 (31½), White Rose 6 (20), Cheddleton 5 (18½), Grantham Sharks 1 4 (18),
e2e4.org.uk 3 (15), Guildford 2 2 (14½),
Barbican 2 0 (10½).
Division 1, Demotion
Pool, Round 9
Grantham Sharks 2 and
King’s Head came into the weekend with
demotion a virtual certainty but only
Barbican 1 could be entirely confident of
not being one of the two teams which joined
them on the way down. King’s Head defaulted
two boards so that was a head start for 3Cs
on their way to a 6½-0 victory. Oxford also
defaulted a board and were soundly drubbed
by Barbican 1 to the tune of 7-½, one plus
factor for Oxford being the draw against GM
Turner achieved by Justin Tan on top board,
thus keeping him chugging along on his way
to a norm. Grantham Sharks 2 turned up with
their full complement of players but may as
well have stayed at home as they were wiped
out 0-8 by Blackthorne Russia, who, in
seeking to ensure that they did not drop a
division, were significantly strengthened by
the inclusion in their side of experienced
Russian GM Konstantin Landa.
That meant that the
only closely contested match of the round in
this pool was Wood Green 2 versus Cambridge
University, which ended 4½-3½ in the
first-named team’s favour.
Division 1, Demotion
Pool after Round 9
Barbican 1 10 (29), Wood
Green 2 8 (24), Oxford 6(18½), 3Cs 6 (25), Blackthorne Russia 6 (24½), Cambridge
University (18), Kings Head 0 (19½),
Grantham Sharks 2 0 (9).
Round 10, Sunday 4
May
Division 1,
Championship Pool: Keeping Up With the
Joneses
Once again, all eyes
were on the game points of the two big
battalions, with Wood Green 1 still holding
a minimal half (game) point lead at the
start of the round. The Wood Green side,
with fire on board two in the shape of
Alexei Shirov, faced a Cheddleton side with
three GMs and an average rating of 2418,
while Guildford 1, now equipped with
stylish, go-faster stripes on the top board
in the shape of French GM
va-va-Vachier-Lagrave, would probably hope
to score more points against an e2e4.org.uk
line-up averaging 2288 and with just the one
GM.
Cheddleton 1½-6½ Wood
Green 1: there were no full-point accidents
this time but Wood Green conceded three
draws to their opponents, with Jonathan
Hawkins, now out of the norm hunt, holding
Mickey Adams to a draw on top board. Alexei
Shirov against English firebrand Simon
Williams was a mouth-watering prospect and
did not disappoint. After the game I was
able to quench the fire on board by buying
Alexei a pint of beer. He opted for
Carlsberg but, when he saw my delicious pint
of Tetley’s, rather wished he’d gone for
that instead. It was perhaps his one false
move of the afternoon.
|
Alexei Shirov (Wood Green 1) v
Simon Williams (Cheddleton) |
4NCL Division 1, Round 10, 2014
Alexei Shirov (Wood Green 1)
Simon Williams (Cheddleton)
Sicilian Defence
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6
5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.Be2 Be7 8.f4 0-0 9.g4!?
The first major game in which this
aggressive advance was played here was
Shirov-Kasparov, Linares 2001, which ended
in a draw. Nigel Short has also played it a
few times. 9...b5 Kasparov played
9...d5 in this position. 10.g5 Nfd7 11.a3
Bb7 12.Rg1 Nc6 12...Nc5 13.f5 Kh8 14.Bd3
Nc6 15.Qh5 g6 was played in the Reykjavik
rapidplay game Short-Kasparov in 2004, which
Black won, but White got a very promising
attack along the way. 13.f5 Nxd4 14.Qxd4
d5 15.fxe6 fxe6 15...Bc5!? looks
tempting but it’s always easy sacrificing
other people’s pawns. Even so, 16.exf7+ Rxf7
17.Qd2 Qb6 looks better than the game for
Black. 16.exd5 Bc5 17.Qd2 Qb6 18.Bxc5
Nxc5 18...Qxc5 19.0-0-0 exd5 20.Nxd5
just looks like Black is a pawn down for not
very much. 19.0-0-0 Rad8 19...exd5
20.Nxd5 Qe6 21.Bg4 also seems better for
White. 20.b4
20...Bxd5!? Black, typically, opts
for active defence via a sacrifice. If
20...Na4 21.Nxa4 bxa4 22.d6 leads to a solid
advantage for White. 21.bxc5 Qxc5 22.Nxd5
Rxd5 22...Qxa3+ 23.Kb1 Rxd5 24.Bd3
transposes. 23.Bd3 Qxa3+ 24.Kb1 Rc8
24...Rd4 would be a great move but for the
annoying 25.Bxh7+, picking up the rook.
25.Qe1 Qd6 26.Bxh7+!? Interesting:
computers opt to grind out a win with the
extra bishop for pawns, but Shirov prefers
to give back the piece for the pawns and a
powerful initiative. 26...Kxh7 27.Rxd5
Qxd5 28.g6+ Kg8 29.Qh4 Rc4 After
29...Qd2 30.Qh7+ Kf8 31.Qh8+ Ke7 32.Qxg7+
Kd6 33.Qb2, White is probably winning
eventually, though it’s not easy. 30.Qh7+
Kf8 31.Qh8+ Ke7 32.Qxg7+ Kd6 33.Qf8+ Kc7
34.g7 Qd4! Making White’s task as hard
as possible. 35.Qe7+ Kb6 36.g8Q Rb4+
37.Qxb4 Forced, otherwise it is mate in
two. 37...Qxb4+ 38.Kc1 Qf4+ 39.Kd1 Qf3+
40.Kd2 Qf2+ 40...Qf4+ makes things a
little harder. 41.Kc3 Qe3+ 42.Kb2 Qd4+
43.c3 Qd2+ 44.Kb3 Qd5+ 45.Kc2 Qa2+ 46.Kc1
Qa3+ 47.Kd2 1-0 The checks run dry after
47...Qd6+ 48.Ke1 Qe5+ 49.Kd1 Qd6+ 50.Kc2
Qxh2+ 51.Rg2, etc.
Guildford 1 8-0
e2e4.org.uk: with the score at 5-0 and three
games left, Guildford 1 needed 2½/3 to
ensure their game points tally put them
ahead of Wood Green, thus providing them
with draw odds for the final round. They
went one (or rather, one half) better,
scoring 3/3, with MVL beating Stuart
Conquest, Antoaneta Stefanova winning
against Rasa Norinkeviciute and Matthew
Sadler outwitting Iliyan Mladenov in a
tricky encounter.
4NCL Division 1, Round 10, 2014
Gawain Jones (Guildford 1)
Daniel Fernandez
(e2e4.org.uk)
Modern Defence
1.d4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.Nc3 a6 4.h4 b5
Most practitioners of this offbeat Modern
Defence line opt to stop White’s pawn
advance with 4...h5 here, as played by Simon
Ansell against Gawain Jones’s wife Sue
Maroroa in Bunratty a couple of years ago.
5.h5 Bb7 6.Bg5 d6 If 6...h6, White
has time for 7.hxg6, the point being that
7...hxg5? loses to 8.Rxh8 Bxh8 9.Qh5!,
regaining the piece with interest. 7.Nf3
Nd7 8.a4 b4 9.Nd5 Ngf6 At first glance,
it’s not obvious why Black can’t play
9...Bxd5 10.exd5 Nb6 but after 11.Qd3 Nxd5
12.Qc4 Nb6 13.Qxb4, White regains his pawn
with a positional edge. 10.h6 Bf8 11.Bxf6
Nxf6 12.Nxf6+ exf6 13.d5 Be7 Black has
two bishops but they are currently blocked
behind pawns, so White stands slightly
better. However, the light-squared bishop
soon gets into the game. 14.Qd4 c5
15.dxc6 Bxc6 16.Bc4 0-0 17.a5 Qc7 18.0-0 Bd7
19.Qd3 Qc5 It looks better to play
19...Rfc8!? first as 20.Bxa6 Qxc2 equalises.
Instead of capturing on a6, White could
support the bishop with 20.b3 but it doesn’t
look like much of an advantage. 20.Rfd1
f5 Black can still consider 20...Rfc8!?.
White could now capture the a6 pawn with
impunity, 21.Bxa6, but after 21...Rc7! Black
has some play for the pawn. 21.e5!
After this, White seems to get the edge.
21...Bc6 22.exd6 Bf6 23.Bxa6 Be4
23...Bxf3 24.gxf3 Bxb2 25.Ra2 Bf6 26.Qb5
gives White a viable material advantage;
23...Bxb2 24.Ra2 Ba3 25.Bc4 Be4 26.Qe2 is
also good for White. 24.Qc4 Qa7 25.Bb5
Rfc8 26.Qxb4 Bxf3 27.gxf3 Rxc2 28.Rd2
28...Bc3? It’s tempting to try this
tactic but sadly for Black it loses by
force. Instead, 28...Qc5 29.Qxc5 Rxc5 and
now it’s interesting to see what the
computer finds - 30.Ba6!! - which I would be
surprised if any human would venture in
practical play, all the way up to Carlsen
and Kasparov. I leave the reader to look in
wonder upon it. 29.Qxc3! Rxc3 30.bxc3
Now it’s just Space Invaders, with the black
queen and rook vainly trying to beat off the
advancing pawns. 30...Qb7 31.Bf1 Rd8
31...Qd7 puts off the evil hour but can’t
save Black. 32.a6 Qxf3 33.a7 1-0
Barbican 2 3½-4½ White
Rose: this was a significant match for White
Rose as it secured them third place in the
league with a round to spare. Well done to
them. Once again, they owed much to Sue
Maroroa, who beat Natasha Regan on bottom
board with a finish which was not unlike
that of her husband in an adjoining room. I
asked her about this but Sue was oblivious
to her husband’s rooks versus queen
denouement, so it was just a coincidence.
Jim Plaskett has been informed.
|
Sue Maroroa (White Rose)
v Natasha
Regan (Barbican 2) |
4NCL Division 1, Round 10, 2014
Sue Maroroa (White Rose)
Natasha Regan (Barbican 2)
26.Qxc8+! Other moves also win but
sacrificing a queen is a more attractive
proposition here. 26...Rxc8 27.d7 Qxe6
28.d8Q Rxd8 29.Rxd8+ Bb8 30.Rc1! a5 31.Rcc8
Qh3 32.Rxb8+ Ka7 33.Nd6! 1-0
Grantham Sharks 1 2-6
Guildford 2: the extra firepower in the
Guildford first team trickled down to
Guildford 2, and Mark Hebden bounced back
from his round nine loss to beat Sam
Williams. Alberto Suarez Real took a giant
stride towards his IM norm with a quick draw
against Tom Rendle, the latter being happy
to take the day off after suffering an Adams
grind in round nine. I noticed afterwards
that Aussie GM Dave Smerdon was having a
good-natured whinge on Facebook about being
allocated three Blacks over the weekend but
he seemed to do pretty well as an All-Black,
drawing very effectively with Simon
Williams.
But there was a real
calamity for Yang-Fan Zhou, whose GM norm
chances waxed and waned a number of times in
a game of four halves (I was never
mathematically inclined). In the end he lost
and the opportunity evaporated. However, the
cloud had a silver lining as his opponent,
Peter Roberson, had his own IM norm chances
suitably enhanced. He showed good technique
to finish the game off.
|
Yang-Fan Zhou (Guildford 2)
v Peter
Roberson (Grantham Sharks) |
4NCL Division 1, Round 10, 2014
Yang-Fan Zhou (Guildford 2)
Peter Roberson (Grantham Sharks)
35.Qc4? One of those ‘what if’
moments. Had White played 35.Qd6!, he might
well have gone on to a GM norm. The a-pawn
cannot be taken: 35...Nxa5 36.Qxe6+ Kh7
37.Nf3! and the queen doesn’t have any good
squares. 35...Rxd2! 36.Rxd2 Qxd2 37.Qxc6
37.Qxe6+ seems more natural but 37...Kh7
38.Qxc6 Qe1+ 39.Ka2 Qxa5+ 40.Kb1 h3 also
looks bleak. 37...Qe1+ 38.Ka2 Qxa5+
39.Kb1 Qe5! Defending e6 and also
shielding the advance of the h-pawn. It
takes time but now everything is flowing in
Black’s direction. 40.Qd7 Kh7 41.Qd3 Qg3
42.Qd1 Kg6 43.Qd7 Qg4 44.b4 h3 45.Qd6 Kh7
46.Qe5 Qh4 47.Qh2 g5 48.Ka2 Kg6 49.b5 Qxe4
50.Qxh3 Qa4+ 51.Kb2 Qxb5+ 52.Kc1 Qc4 53.Kd2
Qd4+ 54.Ke2 Qe4+ 55.Kd2 g4 56.Qh4 Qf4+
57.Ke2 Qf3+ 58.Kd2 g3 59.Qh8 Qf2+ 60.Kd3
Qf3+ 61.Kd2 Qd5+ 0-1
Division 1,
Championship Pool after Round 10
Guildford 1 12 (39½),
Wood Green 1 12 (38½), White Rose 8 (24½), Cheddleton 5 (20), Guildford 2 4 (20½),
Grantham Sharks 1 4 (20), e2e4.org.uk 3 (15),
Barbican 2 0 (14).
DIVISION 1, DEMOTION
POOL
Barbican 1 2-6
Blackthorne Russia: Barbican 1 had been
leaders with a 100% score to date but their
lead was cut to game points over Wood Green
2 after their heavy defeat at the hands of
super-charged relegation-dodgers Blackthorne
Russia, with their genuine Russian GM on
board one beating Matthew Turner. Other full
points were delivered by Andrew Ledger,
Simon Ansell and Richard Bates.
3Cs 3½-4½ Wood Green 2:
Wood Green 2 moved closer to the top of the
division but 3Cs’s relegation worries became
more serious after this nail-biting result.
Stephen Gordon seemed to be pressing against
Jon Speelman and may have let him off the
hook at one point. Another 3Cs man, Adam
Ashton, might have been better against
Richard Pert but couldn’t convert. As
compensation, 3Cs could look to Sophie
Milliet’s somewhat fortunate point against
Andrew Greet.
4NCL Division 1, Round 10, 2014
Sophie Milliet (3Cs)
Andrew Greet (Wood Green 2)
A long manoeuvring game led to this
situation, which can best be described as
‘unclear’: 33.f5!? Jettisoning her
backward pawn and hoping for a breakthrough.
33...Nxf5 34.Nxf5 Now Black has three
ways to recapture, but he chooses far and
away the worst. 34...Rxf5??
34...exf5? 35.Qxd5 wouldn’t be great either,
it has to be said; 34...gxf5 leaves the
g-file looking a bit breezy but there
appears to be no tactical means of
exploiting it. Black would have an extra
pawn and, more importantly, a rook on f8 to
stop the white knight monkeying about on f7.
35.Rxf5 gxf5 35...exf5 36.Qxd5 is
also terminal. 36.Nf7+! Kg8 37.Rg1+! Kxf7
38.Rg7 mate 1-0
Jovanka Houska produced a brutal finish
involving two knights.
|
Jovanka Houska (Wood Green 2)
alongside team colleague and
Scottish GM John Shaw |
4NCL Division 1, Round 10, 2014
Qiu Tong (3Cs)
Jovanka Houska (Wood Green 2)
32...Ne4! 33.Kc2 33.Qxe4 Re8 34.Qc4
Rxe2! regains the piece and effects a
powerful breakthrough. 33...Ndc3 34.g5
There’s nothing better. 34...Qd7
35.Ne3 35.Nxc3 Nxc3 36.Nh4 keeps the
game going but it’s pretty hopeless anyway.
35...Qd2+! 36.Bxd2 Rxd2+ 37.Kc1 Nxe2+
38.Qxe2 38.Kb1 Rb2+ 39.Ka1 N4c3 takes a
bit longer but is still mate. 38...Bb2+
0-1 39.Kb1 Nc3 mate.
Grantham Sharks 2 3½-4½
Oxford: Grantham Sharks 2 came close to
scoring their first match point of the
season but it wasn’t to be as three of
Oxford’s higher boards scored wins to put
them two points ahead of the demotion places
but still not safe. In truth, Oxford might
have won by a more comfortable had Zoe
Varney not spoilt a clear win against Claire
Summerscale.
Cambridge University 1
6½-1½ King’s Head: the London pub team was
also still seeking its first match point of
the season after being beaten comfortably by
Cambridge University 1. Despite the win, the
university still found itself in the
demotion zone going into their final match.
Division 1, Demotion
Pool after Round 10
Barbican 1 10 (31), Wood
Green 2 10 (28½), Blackthorne Russia 8(30½),
Oxford 8 (23), 3Cs 6 (28½), Cambridge
University 6 (24½), Kings Head 0 (11),
Grantham Sharks 2 0 (12½).
THE PRELUDE TO THE
FINAL ROUND: DRESSED TO KILL
Whilst walking round
the venue towards the end of Round 10 on the
Sunday, I was surprised to come across the
Guildford team manager, Roger Emerson,
dressed in a Japanese kimono and carrying a
samurai sword. Seeing me carrying my camera,
he invited me to an impromptu photo session
in a room upstairs from the main corridor.
|
Samurai warrior Roger Emerson |
Thus it was I found
myself in a large conference room, alone
with a man carrying a dangerous weapon which
he proceeded to draw from its scabbard. Had
he been captain of the relentlessly
unsuccessful Grantham 2 or King’s Head
teams, still pointless after ten rounds of
chess, I might have expected him to perform
hara-kiri: a ritual Japanese suicide by
disembowelment. However, this was clearly
not the time for the highly successful
Guildford captain to do so (a loss to Wood
Green on the following day would be the
appropriate time in his case). Roger must
have seen my look of alarm so reassured me:
“don’t worry, it’s completely blunt.”
The reason Roger was
dressing up was his forthcoming address to
his Guildford troops at a private dinner on
the night before the show-down with Wood
Green 1. I didn’t attend this dinner and am
not privy to all of its secrets, but events
the next day seem to indicate that it was
every bit as successful as Henry V’s
rallying of his troops before Agincourt
(perhaps not the most apt parallel since two
of Roger’s warriors were Frenchmen, but you
get my drift). Next day Roger explained to
Malcolm Pein and me that he showed his
players the film ‘Yojimbo’, directed by
Kurosawa. I’m not familiar with that movie
but apparently ‘A Fistful of Dollars’ was a
westernised remake of it – which, in a
roundabout way, hints at a more plausible
motivation for his team’s performance on the
morrow.
Round 11 (Final),
Monday 5 May 2014
Championship Pool
So the denouement, and
the showdown between the holders Guildford 1
and Wood Green 1. The one personnel change
to the two line-ups subsequent to round 10
was the inclusion of Luke McShane in the
Wood Green team in place of Nick Pert, with
some adjustments made to board order.
Guildford’s average rating was 2656 and Wood
Green’s 2647, with Guildford players
out-rating their opponents on five of the
eight boards (by as much as 61 points in the
case of Giri and McShane). Remember also
that a 4-4 draw would be good enough for
Guildford to take the championship on
tie-break. Nine nations were represented
amongst the 16 GMs on both sides: there were
six Englishmen, two Frenchmen, two Dutchmen,
one player from each of the Czech Republic,
Scotland, Norway and Latvia, plus women
players from Bulgaria and Sweden.
Wood Green 1 2-6
Guildford 1: the scoreline suggests an
overwhelming win for the champions but it
did look fairly close – maybe even better
for Wood Green – about halfway into the
first session.
Rapidly improving
French GM Romain Edouard set the tone for
his team with an adventurous display of
counterattacking chess against Jon-Ludvig
Hammer.
|
Jon Ludvig
Hammer (Wood Green 1) and Romain
Edouard (Guildford 1) |
4NCL Division 1, Round 11, 2014
Jon Ludvig Hammer
(Wood Green 1)
Romain Edouard
(Guildford 1)
Queen’s Gambit Accepted
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4
3.e4 Jon Ludvig also has to be given
credit for playing enterprising chess. This
move is often the precursor to some
fisticuffs. 3...b5 Now it’s a real
gambit. 4.a4 c6 5.axb5 cxb5 6.Nc3
On his Facebook page,
Roger Emerson set this position as a puzzle
for his readers (knowing full well that
Romain Edouard and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
would see it and proceed to tease each
other). He posed the question: “how should
Black defend his b-pawn?” MVL shot back an
answer: “Black’s position is hopeless no
matter what. But let’s say there is only one
move giving some practical chances.” Romain
Edouard retorted: “Too deep for you, Maxime
Vachier-Lagrave #NoCreativityAround”.
6...a6!? Sokolov played 6...Bd7 against
Ponomariov in 2007 but eventually lost. The
text move only pretends to defend the b5
pawn. 7.Nxb5 axb5 Black gives up the
exchange. A few people have tried 7...Bb7
but most of them have lost as White will
soon be a pawn up. 8.Rxa8 Bb7 9.Ra1 e6
10.Be2 Defending the e4 pawn with 10.f3
seems logical but perhaps White was worried
it would cramp his kingside development, or
expose him to threats from a queen and
bishop battery on the h2–b8 diagonal.
10...Nf6 11.Nf3 Nxe4 12.0-0 Qd5 13.Ne1
Perhaps White’s needs to react a bit quicker
here with 13.b3!?, when 13...Nc3 may be
answered by 14.bxc4, etc.13...Nc6 14.Nc2
14.Be3 Bd6 15.Bf3 0-0 16.g3 f5 was
played in Genzling-Donchenko in France last
March and also won by Black. 14...Bd6
15.Bf3 Bb8 16.Re1 f5 17.Bxe4 fxe4 18.Qg4 0-0
19.Qxe4 Qxe4 20.Rxe4 e5 21.dxe5 Bxe5
White has done a pretty
good job of liquidating down to a position
where his exchange should be worth its true
value but he now misses his best shot.
22.Rb1 22.Re1!, with the idea of
transferring the rook to the open d-file, is
better. If 22...Rd8, White can play 23.Bg5
with gain of tempo and then defend the
b2–pawn next move. 22...Bf6 23.Re2 Bc8
24.b3 Bg4! 25.Kf1? White seems to have
been bluffed out of playing the natural
25.f3, which is better than the text. Then
25...Bf5 26.Be3 Bd3 (26...Nb4 27.Nxb4 Bxb1
28.bxc4 bxc4 29.Nd5 c3 30.Bc5 Rc8 31.Nxf6+
gxf6 32.Ba3 looks tenable for White) 27.Rd2
Re8 could pose a few problems for White but
should ultimately be tenable. 25...c3
26.Be3 Ra8!? Not wanting to release the
pressure by taking on e2.27.Bc5 27.f3
Bf5 28.Rd1 is OK according to computers but
looks a little hard to defend for a human.
27...Ra2 28.f3? When White finally
plays the move it turns out to be a blunder.
Instead 28.Re8+ Kf7 29.Rf8+ Kg6 30.Rc1 seems
to be safe enough, in the short term anyway.
28...Bf5 29.Rc1 Bd3
30.b4 Moves such
as 30.Kf2 lose to 30...Bxe2 31.Kxe2 Na5!
when the threat of Nxb3 forking rook and
bishop is decisive. 30...Bg5! 0-1 The
cluster of pins and overloaded defences
spells doom for White.
Jones-Laznicka was a
very interesting game and a good example of
why you shouldn’t always put your faith in
digital engines. Fortunately for me, I had
one of the all-time great organic engines at
my disposal at an important juncture during
the game. Speelman version 1 (a.k.a. Spess
or Speelwolf), sitting close to my left
elbow and looking over my shoulder at the
game on my laptop, took nanoseconds to
assess Gawain’s position as close to winning
at a stage when his electronic rivals still
seemed to think Black was either OK or even
better.
|
Foreground: Gawain Jones (Guildford
1) v Viktor Laznicka (Wood Green 1) |
4NCL Division 1, Round 11, 2014
Gawain Jones (Guildford 1)
Viktor Laznicka (Wood Green 1)
Caro-Kann Defence
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5
5.Ng3 Bg6 6.Nf3 Nd7 7.h4 h6 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3
Bxd3 10.Qxd3 e6 11.Bd2 Ngf6 12.0-0-0 Be7
13.Kb1 0-0 14.Ne4 c5 15.g4 Poignantly,
this aggressive thrust was first played at
the top level by the late, great Vugar
Gashimov back in 2002. It’s become very
fashionable in recent years and is of course
very sharp. 15...Nxg4 16.Qe2 Qb6 17.Ne5
In last year’s Indian Championship,
Parimarjan Negi tried 17.Nh4 f5 18.Ng6 Rf7
19.f3 fxe4 20.fxg4 against Thejkumar. The
game ended in a draw. Otherwise, players
have nearly always opted for the text.
17...Ndxe5 17...Ngxe5 has seen three
white wins out of three after 18.dxe5 Nxe5
19.Rhg1 and the kingside attack proves too
formidable. 18.dxe5 f5
19.Nc3!? New move. The four previous
GM games to reach this position continued
19.exf6 Nxf6 20.Rdg1 Nxe4 21.Qxe4 Bf6 when
Black was in the game. 19...Qa6 Black
is obliged to offer this queen exchange as
otherwise White plays f3 and the knight is
embarrassed. 20.Nb5 White offers a
second pawn to be rid of the black knight
and open up the g-file to heavy piece play.
20...Nxf2 20...Nxe5 is the only
alternative but then 21.Qxe5 Qxb5 22.Bxh6!.
Although Black can hang in there with
22...Bf6! 23.Qxe6+ Kh8 24.Bc1 Rae8 25.Qd6
Rd8 26.Qg3 Rxd1 27.Rxd1, White still has a
solid plus. 21.Qxf2 Qxb5 22.Qg3!
22.Rhg1 runs into 22...f4! and a secure
blocking square for the bishop on g5.
22...Kh8 The Speelman v1 engine was now
in full flow and suggested something like
22...Rad8 23.Rdg1 g5! 24.hxg6 Rxd2 25.Rxh6
Rfd8 26.Rh8+ Kg7! 27.Rh7+ Kg8, which seems
to hold, but he was dismissive of the move
played. 23.Rhg1 Rf7 24.Qg6 Qe8 25.Bf4
25.Qxe6? allows Black to relieve the siege
with 25...Bg5!, securing the better game.
25...Bf8 26.Bxh6 Rd7 27.Rxd7 27.Qxe8
Rxd1+ 28.Rxd1 Rxe8 29.Bf4 Kh7 gets Black out
of gaol. 27...Qxd7 28.Bg5 Qe8 Else
29.h6 is strong. 29.c4! A subtle
move, further cramping Black’s position,
particularly the bishop, which is trapped
behind the c5-pawn. Hereabouts, Jon Speelman
was talking in terms of this being close to
winning for White, while engines give it as
equal. 29...a6 29...Qxg6 30.hxg6 is
similar to the game, with the white rook
able to progress to d7 without impediment
and Black unable to get his pieces to active
posts. 30.Rd1 b5 31.Qxe8 Rxe8 32.Rd7
Engines still tend to say ‘equal’ here, or
‘slightly better for White’ once given a bit
more time, perhaps balancing White’s pawn
minus against his superior piece
configuration, but it’s much more serious
than that for Black. The organic engine at
my elbow was now firmly in the ‘win for
White’ camp, though as a Wood Green player
he was hoping he was wrong. 32...bxc4
33.Kc2 Ra8 Black was now down to
8 minutes, while White still had 48 minutes
at his disposal. 34.a4 Kg8 35.Rb7 f4
I shouldn’t be too dismissive of digital
engines as they come up with ingenious ideas
in apparently dead positions. Here Hiarcs
suggests 35...c3!? 36.Kxc3 c4!? to give the
bishop a bit of breathing space. But that
wouldn’t end the torture, of course. Instead
Black tries to break out with his rook.
36.Bxf4 Rd8 37.a5 Rd4 38.Bd2 Rh4 39.Rb6 Rxh5
40.Rxa6 g5 40...Rxe5 41.Ra8 Rf5 42.a6
Rf7 43.a7 Kh7 44.Kc3 takes slightly longer
but Black’s position is still hopeless. The
bishop can’t move because of Rh8+ and a8Q.
41.Rxe6 g4 42.a6 Rh1 43.Re8 c3 44.Kxc3
Rh7 45.e6 g3 1-0
Of the six English
players involved in the match, Gawain Jones
was the only one to record a win. Nigel
Short and David Howell played out a tense
draw, with the older player pressing a
little harder for much of its duration. Luke
McShane was perhaps Wood Green’s best hope
of a win but his edge gradually dissipated
and was turned round completely by Anish
Giri. Mickey Adams was also ground down by
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who is becoming
stronger and stronger all the time,
comparable to a young Adams, or Petrosian in
his prime. The other games were drawn,
leaving Guildford the winners by a
comfortable margin.
|
Wood Green HK 1 |
2647 |
|
Guildford 1 |
2656 |
111 |
w |
Adams, Michael |
g |
2753 |
0 - 1 |
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime |
g |
2758 |
112 |
b |
McShane, Luke J |
g |
2674 |
0 - 1 |
Giri, Anish |
g |
2745 |
113 |
w |
Shirov, Alexei |
g |
2702 |
½ - ½ |
Sadler, Matthew D |
g |
2649 |
114 |
b |
Laznicka, Viktor |
g |
2673 |
0 - 1 |
Jones, Gawain CB |
g |
2650 |
115 |
w |
Hammer, Jon Ludvig |
g |
2647 |
0 - 1 |
Edouard, Romain |
g |
2670 |
116 |
b |
Howell, David WL |
g |
2654 |
½ - ½ |
Short, Nigel D |
g |
2661 |
117 |
w |
Rowson, Jonathan W |
g |
2569 |
½ - ½ |
Van Kampen, Robin |
g |
2630 |
118 |
b |
Cramling, Pia |
g |
2507 |
½ - ½ |
Stefanova, Antoaneta |
g |
2489 |
|
2 - 6 |
|
Congratulations are due
to Guildford and their genial manager, Roger
Emerson, who clearly engenders a relaxed and
friendly atmosphere in his squad, and in
this way he is not unlike his Wood Green
rival, the equally affable Brian Smith. One
of the pleasures of a 4NCL weekend is to
chat with team managers and captains, and
this is perhaps a good time to pass on my
thanks to all of them for helpfully
answering my questions and feeding me
stories and info. The league appears to be
in rude health and much of this is down to
the enthusiasts who give so much time to
running teams.
White Rose 4-4 Grantham
Sharks 1: not too much was at stake here,
with White Rose having wrapped up third
place in the penultimate round, and Grantham
just playing for the honour of finishing
fifth or sixth. Having said that, there was
a tangible achievement in the match, with
James Adair winning a game against Tom
Rendle, thereby completing his requirements
for the IM title (subject to confirmation,
as the officials always insist on me
adding). Very well done to him.
e2e4.org.uk 1-6½
Cheddleton: the latter team finished a
creditable fourth in the table after a
comfortable victory over Sean Hewitt’s
domain name club, who defaulted a board.
Guildford 2 6-2
Barbican 2: the Guildford side had the third
highest rating average on the day and
cruised to a big win. Alberto Suarez Real
completed his requirements for an IM norm
with a smooth victory over Jonathan Rogers
(he obviously likes playing Jonathans,
having defeated Jonathan Hawkins in round
9).
Division 1,
Championship Pool, Final Scores
Demotion Pool
Wood Green 2 5-3
Barbican 1: the honour of finishing first in
this pool went to Wood Green 2, thereby
displacing their opponents from the head of
the table. There wasn’t a big differential
in the ratings of the teams and this was
reflected in the fairly close score. Two of
the Wood Green side won, with Nick Pert
defeating Matthew Turner, while Juan Manuel
Bellon Lopez beat Isaac Sanders.
Incidentally, the Spanish GM’s colourful
scoresheet filling-in caused a flutter of
interest when I published a photo of one on
social media.
|
|
|
Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez's colourful
scoresheet |
|
|
Blackthorne Russia
4½-3½ 3Cs: as things stood at the close of
round 10, all the other teams in the
division were either already relegated (the
pointless pair King’s Head and Grantham
Sharks 2) or else still in with a
mathematical chance of going down. It was
3Cs’ misfortune that they met the Russians
at the zenith of their playing strength.
Even so, they only lost by one point when
they really needed both match points to save
themselves. My commiserations and good
wishes to this well-organised club; I’m sure
they will bounce back soon. Konstantin Landa
proved a godsend to the Blackthorne club,
beating Stephen Gordon and completing 3/3 on
the weekend. Danny Gormally and Adam Hunt
also provided full points for the side,
whilst Alan Walton and Daniel Abbas beat
much higher rated opposition for 3Cs. Adam
Ashton suffered a lengthy loss to Gormally
but his consolation was knowing that he had
scored an IM norm as he sat down to play –
congratulations to him.
The battle to avoid the
Division’s wooden spoon was won by King’s
Head, despite conceding yet another default.
That brought them their first match points
of the season, while Grantham Sharks 2’s
fate was to leave with nothing (as Anne
Robinson used to say on The Weakest Link).
They were a bit unlucky, with their fate
turning on a couple of transitions into a
king and pawn endgame, which are never easy.
Half a point more in either of the games
would have reversed the match result.
4NCL Division 1, Round 11, 2014
Jochem Snuverink (King’s Head)
Martin Burrows (Grantham Sharks 2)
Black to play - to exchange or not to
exchange? 36...Rh1?! Not an easy
choice, especially a handful of moves before
the time control, but he should have gone
for it, if only to make subsequent play less
complex: 36...Rxg3+! 37.Kxg3 c5! 38.dxc5
Kxe5 39.d4+ Kxf6 40.Kf4 and it leads to a
draw, with the black king tied to defending
against a c-pawn advance while the white
king has to dodge back and forth to keep the
f- and h-pawns from promoting. 37.Rg8!
Rf1+ 37...Rc1 could still be defensible
but 38.Rc8! Rxc3? 39.Kf4! is a sneaky trick,
e.g. 39...Rxd3 40.Re8+ Kd7 41.Re7+ Kc6
42.e6! and White wins. 38.Ke3 Ra1
38...h5! 39.Kf4 Rf1+ 40.Ke3 Ra1 41.Rb8 h5
42.Kf4! Now it’s starting to look
terminal. 42...Rf1+ 43.Kg5 Rf5+ 44.Kh4
Rf3 45.Kg5 Rf5+ 46.Kh6! It looks
dangerous to put the king this side of
Black’s passed pawn but White has calculated
accurately. 46...h4 47.Re8+ Kd7 48.Re7+
Kd8 49.Rxf7 h3 50.Rh7 h2 51.Kg6 Rf2 52.e6
1-0
4NCL Division 1, Round 11, 2014
David Okike (King’s Head)
Claire Summerscale (Grantham Sharks
2)
Black to play - capture or not?
43...Bxd2? This time it is better to opt
out and play 43...Kf8 44.Nc4 Ke7 45.Kf3 Kd7
when it seems unlikely that White could make
progress. 44.Kxd2 Kf7 45.c3! By
simple Holmesian deduction, you can work out
that this is the only move to make progress,
and it does. 45...bxc3+ 45...Ke7
46.cxb4 cxb4 47.Kd3 Kd7 48.Kc4 Kc7 49.Kxb4
Kb6 50.a5+ Kc7 51.Kc4 and it’s simple to see
that the b-pawn advances to b5 and
eventually the a-pawn will be used as a
decoy to win the d- and e-pawns. 46.Kxc3
Ke7 47.b4! Kd7 48.bxc5 dxc5 49.Kc4 1-0
49...Kd6 50.a5 and zugzwang consigns
Grantham Sharks 2 to the basement.
Oxford 3-5 Cambridge University: the tensest
match of the pool was a sort of unofficial
Varsity match (though Oxford don’t carry the
‘university’ handle to their name, and the
4NCL very sensibly eschews anachronistic
eligibility rules about who can play for
which team). Oxford started the day two
match points clear of their opponents but a
loss would send them into Division 2 on game
points and save the Cantab bacon. When I
went to watch the match, it getting towards
the sixth hour of play and boards 4-6 were
still in progress and the match all square
at 2½-2½. Long before, first blood had gone
to Oxford when Justin Tan won and clinched
his IM norm (actually I think he did it with
a point to spare, but of course the point
was vital to his team).
4NCL Division 1, Round 11, 2014
Justin Tan (Oxford)
Gabor Pinter (Cambridge University)
Sicilian Defence
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6
5.Bd3 Nc6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.0-0 d5 8.Nd2 Nf6
9.b3 Be7 10.Bb2 0-0 11.Qf3 Bb7 12.Rae1 Qa5
Forking the knight and a-pawn. 13.Re2
Qxa2? Too greedy. 13...h6 14.e5 Nh7
doesn’t look too bad. 14.Bc3 Qa3
Black has to expend another tempo on a queen
move because of the threat of Ra1 winning
the queen. 15.e5
15...Ne4? An attempt to blunt the
effect of White’s light-squared bishop but
it only succeeds in making things much
worse. Black should sweat it out with
15...Ne8 when 16.Ra1 Qc5 17.Ra4 is perhaps
not as scary as it looks. 16.Bxe4
16.Rxe4 dxe4 17.Nxe4 also wins. 16...dxe4
17.Nxe4 Bd8 A desperate throw such as
17...f5 loses to 18.exf6 gxf6 19.Qg4+ and a
routine attack; 17...Rad8 at least has the
merit of setting a cheapo but 18.Re3
(18.Ra1?? Qxa1+ 19.Bxa1 Rd1+ and mate next
move) 18...Qa2 19.Qe2 completes the
encirclement of the black queen. 18.Rd2
18.Nd6 Rb8 19.Qe3 is another way to trap
the queen; while 18.Ra1 Qe7 19.Nf6+! wins
much as in the game. 18...Qe7 19.Nf6+!
1-0 19...Kh8 20.Qh5 h6 (20...gxf6
21.exf6 Qe8 22.Rd4 followed by Rh4 and Qxh7
mate) 21.Rd7 Qc5 22.Rxf7 wins.
But thereafter things swung back in
Cambridge’s favour, with Karl Mah beating
David Zakarian and the last three games to
finish being won 2½-½ by the Light Blues.
The Eckersley-Waites twins were playing on
opposite sides, with the impressively-named
French FM Guillaume Camus de Solliers
playing an existentialist endgame to beat
Tom of Oxford (though careful not to allow
him any outsider passed pawns), while Adam
the Cantab twin drew an arid minor piece
endgame. Dickenson-Bisby was the key game of
the match, with both players having chances
but the Cambridge finally imposing himself.
But there was a curious and well-hidden
opportunity for the Oxford man which went
begging not far from the end.
4NCL Division 1, Round 11,
2014
Neil Dickenson
(Oxford)
Daniel Bisby
(Cambridge University)
Though White is a pawn up, Black might
consider he has adequate compensation. But
has he? 45.Na3? It’s not easy to spot
but the computer identifies 45.Rf3! as a
real chance to win. The threat is simply to
take on f6 with the rook and there is no
obvious defence. 45...Kg8 (After 45...Bxg4??
46.Rxf6 wins instantly) 46.Rxf6 Qb5
(46...Bb5 allows mate in two after 47.Qe6+)
47.Rg6+! hxg6 48.Qxg6+ Kh8 49.h7 Ng7 50.Nd6
Be8 51.Bxb5 Bxg6 ... OK, a horrendous line
for a human to calculate but technically a
missed chance. 45...Nd6 46.Rf3 Now
it’s not so effective. 46...Rf8 47.Nc4
Nxe4 48.Bd3? Now Black finds a neat
tactic to win. 48.Ne3, to block the g1-a7
diagonal, was needed. 48...Nxf2! 49.Rxf2
e4!! A killer move, opening the b8–h2
diagonal for a queen invasion whilst at the
same time providing another defender for f6.
50.Rg2 exd3 51.Qd6 Qe8+ 52.Kd2 52.Kd1
Bxg4+ 53.Kd2 Bf3 54.Rh2 Bg1 is one way to
win. 52...Bb5! 0-1 Ensuring a queen
invasion on either e2 or e3.
Division 1, Demotion
Pool, Final Scores
Title Norms
James Adair and Peter
Roberson, both England, scored final IM
norms and already achieved their rating
threshold, so they should get their titles
at the next FIDE meeting.
Other IM norms: Alberto
Suarez Real (Spain), Sue Maroroa (England –
also a WGM norm), Adam Ashton (England),
Justin Tan (Australia) and Guillaume Camus
de Solliers (France). These are subject to
official confirmation by FIDE.
Division 2,
Championship Pool, Final Table
This was about as tight
a competition as can be imagined, with seven
teams still in with a shout of promotion as
they sat down to play the final round. The
first four named are promoted to next year’s
Division 1, with the tie-split for third and
fourth places based on the game points over
the whole season (rather than just the final
pool). Commiserations to the four teams who
missed out, all of whom could point to the
odd extra half a point here or there that
might have seen them promoted.
Division 2, Demotion
Pool, Final Table
Another very tight
finish, and West Country club Brown Jack
will probably be a deep shade of blue after
being demoted on account of a second
tie-breaker (fewer points over the entire
season). The top four live to fight again in
Division 2, while the other four drop into
the vast expanses of Division 3.
Division 3, Top Four
Placings
|
|
P |
W |
D |
L |
GP |
SOS |
Pts |
1 |
Guildford 3 |
11 |
10 |
1 |
0 |
49 |
144 |
21 |
2 |
Spirit of Atticus A |
11 |
7 |
2 |
2 |
40½ |
154 |
16 |
3 |
MK Phoenix 1 |
11 |
7 |
2 |
2 |
39 |
147 |
16 |
4 |
Sussex Smart Survivors 1 |
11 |
7 |
2 |
2 |
39½ |
145 |
16 |
Epilogue
If you’re still with
me, 8,000 words on from my preamble, you’ll
recall I had a spot of bother registering at
the hotel on the Saturday. There was a minor
hassle on the way out, too, as the hotel
presented me with a bill for twice the 4NCL
discount rate. Actually, it was 100% more
than I was expecting as a bill for a lesser
amount should have gone directly to the
league’s man with the cheque book. Tempted
though I was to re-enact a scene from
Fischer’s notorious exit from the 1967
Sousse Interzonal (tearing up the bill for
extras that the hotel unwisely presented to
him), I passed this on to our genial
tournament director who has no doubt sorted
the problem out in his usual unflustered and
efficient manner.
I think that’s it from
me this year. Lastly, I must thank all the
league officials who were unfailingly
helpful to me and made my time in the back
room an enjoyable one.
All the best, and try
not to get checkmated too often,
John Saunders
Photos ©
John Saunders |
More here
Annotated games from the
above report |
Download
in PGN |
|