disinformator 41 - oxford 4ncl.pdf · disinformator 41 the oxford city chess club magazine december...

Disinformator 41The Oxford City Chess Club Magazine

December 2011

RECESSION SPECIAL Exclusive rates for titled

players on request

Table of contents

Christmas Quiz 2

Editorial 3

OCA league Div 1 race, 2010-11 4

Frank Wood shield 2010-11 8

Kidlington 2011 11

Blunder and … or … Brilliancy 13

All together now – simultaneous exhibs, 2011 15

The New Gambit repertoire 17

Burt Watch 18

Boys & Girls in 2011 20

Hacking the French …. Justin Hadi 21

Revisiting Anderssen … Mark Hannon 22

Top Tactics 23

Blunderama Dramas™ 24

The Answers postcard 25

The partridge 26

Games 27

Notes 38

Oh Anatoly … – we hardly knew ya

[In his autobiography] Other people are interesting only to the extent that they have a role to play in the struggle. Karpov presents a large number of chess players but only to state that they agreed (which was the case most often) or disagreed with him. Then, having served their purpose, they disappear from the book. His first wife Irina is also described in this brusque way: “When Furman died, I became more and more restless. The possibility of a marriage began to take ever-clearer shape. Irina was a suitable candidate: she was pleasant, patient, and sweet; she understood me and had proven she could wait.” Unfortunately, in spite of all these good qualities, the marriage didn’t work out: “Irina was becoming more and more unreasonable … she even expected me to court her. I may have become a bit too businesslike over the years, but this was too much to expect. In 1983 we split up for good”. Understandably, Karpov doesn’t go into much detail about his marriage. But then again, who would? It’s none of our business anyway. But what he does tell us is remarkable: it is the same thing he says about all his opponents, namely that they were completely wrong in every respect.

The Human Comedy of Chess – a Grandmaster’s Chronicles: Hans Ree (1999)

“never knew Karpov was such an old romantic.” – Jon Manley

Front cover shows, clockwise from bottom left, some scenes from the 2011 chess tableau: Rod Nixon and then Will (on a rare enough visit in 2010-11) at the 4NCL, Kevin and Rich trying to work out where the next beer is coming from, post Simul, in mid-November; Sarah Hegarty, ignoring the posters in the Rich Mix theatre at the launch of the documentary, to draw her game against Nigel Short, while the sign evidencing the effect of the recession on our senior professional colleagues is to be found on the Magdalen Road, in Oxford, just beside the Regal (or: the Old Bingo Hall)

Christmas Quiz time

Haldane – Tan

Oxford Rapids (30 Oct) 1. Estimate the final mating destination for the

Black king

English – Mercer Frank Wood Shield (21 Nov)

2. White (to play) rejected the draw offer, continued 39. Kg4, and rapidly generated a

winning ending – how? 3. Mastermind special - … you have 2 minutes, starting … now: 1. When playing Fischer in Belgrade … :

(a) after what move did the football fans start whistling (b) why didn’t it affect Petrosian that much? (c) What was the result of the footie match?

2. Botvinnik once described Petrosian as a basically intuitive player, but later qualified this by saying that he was the

only great player whose style of play had not been totally decoded yet. While we await this de-encryption, please whistle the first 10 bars of the Enigma Variation which most closely echoes these reflections.

3. What better anagrams of Tigran Vartanovic Petrosian than “A Paranoiac Vet Striving North” can you provide in the

remaining 10 seconds? (no passing allowed)

The picture amalgam above is reproduced from the episode first screened on Friday 9 December 2011

Keith Bate, Supply Teacher

Disinformator 41 2 December 2011

Editorial

Welcome to Disinformator the 41st, the annual review of the life and times of Oxford chess, kickstarted this year by the arrival of Christmas lights in East Oxford housing as early as mid November, and published in the wake of the discovery that the world’s population has reached 7 billion, the speed of light may be slower than its marketing agents (Einstein & Co) suggested, and the Higg’s boson may be alive and well and twittering with scientists in an underground cave, thus prompting headlines asking whether “the world of science is closing in on God” – though not specifying whether this is the God scientists mostly don’t believe in, or not. Oh dear. And they say that chess is a difficult game…

Chess players in Oxford don’t need much fancy scientific equipment to detect another shift in local demographics, viz. the disappearance of players from the chess scene this year. For City, while the lower sides remain stable in numbers, the first team has lost 5 or 6 regulars – strong players who remain in town but aren’t available any more, for one reason or another. We lost one game at Banbury, with only 4 players in the team, conceding defaults.

County-wide, the problems are similar. Witney 1 sought a postponement of our match in November – one we were more than ready to allow! – and in our most recent match, Bicester could only muster 4 players. Cowley, too have lost players – although in their case they have a strong youth element and policy, whereas City’s line-up is ageing – to put it mildly. Nor are there any new players, or – most worrying of all – many young players joining the game (except through the schools programmes).

We have become, in short, a club that plays league matches, but doesn’t have a regular club night otherwise – attendances are low to the point of non-existence.

So, what is to be done? Long-term, the club seems to me to be unsustainable as it is currently constituted, and – as such, some thing (or things) need be done. The first step though is to get a fuller, more accurate picture of the position – it might not be as bad as painted! – and then to consider options. The first available slot for this is Monday 2 January, 2012 – when, coincidentally, the club is holding its AGM. Between now and then it would be good to note and note down any views you have about any aspect of the problem – and bring them to the meeting.

In the meantime, my best wishes for the holiday season to you all. The next mag is for March, when we hope to have games promised from Peter McLeod (5/5 and counting so far this year) and Tim King – as well as the usual reports. Kidlington is the plan, for February… see you there! Sean Terry, 92a Church Way. Iffley OX4 4EF Email: [email protected]

STOP PRESS NEWS FROM LONDON STOP FRENCH MASSACRED IN LOCAL CLUB STOP ALWAYS CONSIDERED UNSOUND AND NOW

PATIENT IN HOSPITAL STOP SUSPECT AWAITS NEWS BY PHONE STOP POLICE HAVE ADJOURNED AND AWAITING

ANALYSIS STOP EU TREATY STILL IN A PILE ON THE GROUND STOP GAME FOLLOWS Jones Vs Jones. London leagues, somewhere in London, sometime in 2011 In other news: we wanted to provide an exciting and unsound game sent in from a London correspondent, but since the game had been adjourned, we weren’t sure of the protocol. Adjournments - … a novel experience if you’re from Oxford, and a distant, pleasing memory. Our Legal Team met and resolved that we could provide this position, left, with an ending from the Oxford City Derby (12 December), right offered as partial compensation.

Jones Vs Jones

London leagues, 2011

Biswas v Riley

OCA 2 – City derby (W)

13.Qc8+ ¾b6 14.Qxf8 Qxh3 15.âa4+ ¾a6 16.âc5+ ¾b6 17.a4 a5 18.Qd8+ ¾a7 when Kelly stopped the clocks……so your initial quiz question is why? I thought incidentally that Karl played 20 Qxa5+ -which doesn’t seem like the most decisive route.

OCA 1 – the league run-in 2010-11 Welcome back to the highlights of the 2nd half of the 2010-11 season – the first half had ended with Witney 1 having a commanding advantage, having lost no games, and only conceded a draw to City 1 in their encounter in early December. City 1 had blotted their competitive escutcheon with a loss to Univ in October, while Cowley 1 and 2, both doing well, were less likely to threaten the leaders as their club strength was split between the teams. In January, City continued to win, with the exception of this dropped point to a strong Cowley 1 contingent on Valentine’s night:

Dave Scott’s annotations on his loss appear at the end of this article, and Jon’s win is in the games section. The Witney machine continued to churn out match wins, until they were caught on the hop by Oxford in mid-March in the return fixture:

The wins on top and bottom boards do feature in the pgn file, but aren’t all that crowd-worthy. (That said, we did crowd top board to see how Rose – Richmond quickplay ended - stodge no objection to enjoying some else’s zeitnot… ). Dave Hackett agreed a draw early on against Mike Marlow, a little curiously I felt, but the other two draws were worth a peek.

Mark and Dave have been tussling in a closet Fianchetto position, which (diagram ) has opened up quite favourably for White, whose plans include an invasion of d7 after f4 kicks the knight away. In the meantime, the White bishop is looking hungrily at the c6-b7 pawns, and Dave has taken a while to settle on a proper defensive line-up.

Hannon – Scott B (25)

25. ... g5 A natural enough move which while it weakens the king’s position has the plus point of opening up the White king to possible tactics.

26. f4 gxf4 27. gxf4 Nf7 28.¼d7 ¼d8! This sacrifices a pawn while liberating the black rook for a 7th rank scavenging exercise. 29.¼xe7 ¼xd2 30.¼xb7 a5 31.¼a7 ¼xc2 32.¼xa5 ¾g7

33.¼a6 âh6 34.a4 A natural enough plan – though Fritz lite does wonder about simply re-deploying the King to a more useful (and less vulnerable) square. 34 ... c5 35.a5? concedes the draw immediately, as the King can’t escape the bind imposed by the R and N ... âf5 36.¾g1 ¼c1+ 37.¾h2 ¼c2 38.¾g1 ¼c1+ ½-½


OCA 1 – the league run-in 2010-11

On board 2 , the sense of crisis for the visitors to Ducklington has emerged a little earlier. With White to move, a simple 0-0 brings an unusual, if not unfamiliar, Sicilian structure arising out of a 3. Bb5 opening. Instead, Jon opted for the very much riskier – probably downright blunderful

Manley – Headlong

11.d3? âxf2! And a sense of ouch! descends on proceedings. (11...Bb4+ is considered too) 12.âxe6 12.Kxf2 Qh4+ 13.Ke3 Bc5 14.c3 e5 15.Qe1 Qxe1+ 16.Rxe1 0-0 is another possible grovel 12 ... dxe6 I sort of prefer fxe6, opening the f-file against the king. 12...fxe6 13.Kxf2 Bc5+ 14.Ke1 0-0 seems to be comfortable enough without having to do much

calculation. (The rest of the game does serve as a caution against a failure to calculate concrete lines, however.) 13.¾xf2 ºc5+ 14.¾e1 Qh4+ 15.g3 Qh3 16.Qe2 0-0 17.¼f1 ºb7 and gradually, while Fritz still assesses in favour of Black, White has been busy digging a possible escape route. 18.¼f4 Qg2 19.Qxg2 ºxg2 20.d4 ºd6 21.¼f2 ºe4 22.ºf4

Parity is in sight… … ¼fd8 23.c3 ¼bc8 24.ºxd6 ¼xd6 25.¼d1 ºd5 ½-½

… let the par(i)ty begin

This 4-pointer win revived City’s chances of the title, but we were still depending on Witney to drop points., and that draw against a strong Cowley on Feb 14 wasn’t fantasic, either. So, come the final round of games, we needed to beat Cowley 2 while relying on Cowley 1 to beat Witney. Some quick administrative scrambling - fair play to Mike Truran and Cowley - allowed both matches to be played at Cowley CC, a good innovation and for making the arrangements. The results worked all in favour of Witney, who never looked like they were going to lose.

Peter Wells arrived for the game meaning business, avoided time trouble, and did the business in some style in a game against David Z that I didn’t get to transcribe. On bottom board Dave Hackett produced another tight, taut performance in a French to finish (I think) mating his opponent in an ending that was quite logically related to the structures and strictures of that particular opening. One moment Dave Robson was in the game, the next – not. So, well done to Witney – the more consistent team over the season got their reward – and (see stats) there were some excellent individual performances from Mark Hannon, Dave Hackett and Peter Richmond. Titles aren’t won on the top boards – you drive for show, but you putt for dough... For City 1, it would have been nice had we kept pace with the Champions on the last night: having had a +2 = 1 -0 record against them in competition over the season, we could have maintained some bragging rights - but over the season we


OCA 1 – the league run-in 2010-11 dropped points in careless fashion, and our title plans became contingent on Witney’s failing from early on – and they didn’t. Our ration of cat’s lives dissipated, resulting in blunders amounting to points in someone else’s bag. On the night, Karlmarx did escape a losing position having been outplayed against Maria Wang, the two Matts blundered in distinctive ways, as captured in the Blunderama™, and Jon D’Souza-Eva finally got a full point against Weisin, his adventurous play generating the mistake in the diagram position below, where Weisin seems to be doing fine. My own game saw me win two pawns by move 9, then dribbling them back, and while regaining control in the early endgame then some committed acts of seasonal self-immolation resulted in a mutual agreed handshake on move 43. Scott,Dave - Nixon,Rod [A44] OCA - cow 1, 14.02.2011 Notes by Dave Scott. Briefly, a speculative opening by Black – an early f4 is generally a positional mistake in the Czech Benoni, but here I saved a tempo (and avoided d4 weakness) by not playing c4, and I hoped to blow open the center with e4-e5 before he had a chance to sink in to e5 with his knights. 8...b6 and 9...Bb7 are too slow - he has to play more efficiently if he wants to stay in the game. The idea was to prevent e4-e5 by putting enough pressure on d5, but this is time consuming, and I ignored it in any case by playing 10.e5 anyway. The justification is that if he ever takes on d5 with a knight, I simply play Bf3, and his knight is pinned (and he doesn't have the pieces to protect it, e.g. 10...dxe5 11.Nxe5 Nxd5 12.Bf3 or 11...Bxd5 12.Nxd5 Nxd5 13.Bf3). In retrospect, his development was so slow that I could have waited, and bolstered d5 first, but I didn't want to allow ...Nd7-e5. Over the next few moves, neither of us found the most precise moves, but my advantage starts to become obvious. 16.d6 is a huge problem for him. 18...Bxb2 looks suicidal, but it is the CPU-approved move unsurprisingly. Still, I am way ahead. Unfortunately, I threw it all away with 21.Ne7+ (diagram) , turning a win into a loss, and there was no way back. 21.d7 looks extremely uncomfortable for him (Fritz will show the details), and I could have probably made him suffer even more by playing Bd3 on move 18 or 20 setting up a kingside attack against his naked kingside. During the game, I thought 21.Ne7+ was going to win, envisioning 21...Nxe7 22.Bxb7, but I somehow missed 22...Qb6+ and 23...Qxb7, leaving me two pawns down in all variations. I was worried about him getting his bishop back into the game, but in reality, it doesn't do much even after ...c4 and ...Bc5+, there are too many dark-squared weak points to cover with one bishop. Oh well, maybe I'll win the next one. 1.d4 c5

2.d5 e5

3.e4 d6

4.âc3 ºe7

5.f4 exf4

6.ºxf4 âf6

7.ºe2 0-0

8.âf3 b6

9.0-0 ºb7

10.e5 âe8

11.Qd2 dxe5

12.âxe5 âd6

13.¼ad1 ºf6

14.âc4 âxc4

15.ºxc4 a6

16.d6 âc6

17.âd5 b5

18.ºe2 ºxb2

19.c3 ºa3

20.ºf3 c4

21.âe7+ âxe7

22.dxe7 Qxe7

23.¼fe1 Qc5+

24.ºe3 Qc8

25.¾h1 ºxf3

26.gxf3 Qh3

27.Qf2 ¼fe8

28.¼g1 ºf8

29.ºd4 ¼e6

30.¼g3 Qf5

31.ºxg7 ºxg7

32.Qd4 ¼g6

0-1

Tan,Weisin - D'Souza-Eva,Jon [C04] OCA Cow 2, 04.04.2011 Weisin tries the recipe that succeeded earlier in the season against Nigel Moyse (2Rs v Q) but the medicine doesn’t have quite the same result. 1.e4 e6

2.d4 d5

3.âd2 âc6

4.âgf3 âf6

5.e5 âd7

6.ºe2 f6

7.exf6 Qxf6

8.âf1 ºd6

9.âe3 0-0

10.0-0 âb6

11.c3 h6

12.h3 e5

13.âxd5 âxd5

14.dxe5 âxe5

15.Qxd5+ ºe6

16.Qe4 âxf3+

17.ºxf3 ºxh3

18.Qxb7 ¾h8

19.Qxa8 ¼xa8

20.ºxa8 Qe5

21.f4 ºc5+

22.¾h2 Qe2

23.ºe3 ºxe3

24.¼ae1 ºxf4+

25.¾h1 ºxg2+

26.ºxg2 Qh5+

27.¾g1 Qh2+

28.¾f2 ºg3+

29.¾f3 ºxe1

30.¼xe1 g5

31.¾f2 h5 0-1

W (19)W (19)W (19)W (19)


Division 1 Club Played Points %Mark Hannon Witney 13 12 92.31Dave Hackett Witney 12 10 83.33Chris Smith Oxford Univ 13 9.5 73.08Karl Marx Rajangam Oxford City 11 8 72.73Peter Richmond Witney 14 10 71.43Will Burt Cowley 12 8.5 70.83Matt Rose Oxford City 14 9.5 67.86Gerard O'Reilly Cowley 13 8.5 65.38Andrew Walden Wantage 8 5 62.50Gary Jackson Banbury 14 8 57.14

Division 2 Club Played Points %Marcus Harvey Bicester 13 11 84.62John Yates Oxford City 14 11 78.57Gordon Brown Wantage 7 5.5 78.57Ian Morton Bicester 9 7 77.78Mike March Oxford City 12 9 75.00Anco van Velsen Witney 9 6.5 72.22Matthew Daggitt MCS 12 8.5 70.83Kelly Riley Oxford City 9 6 66.67Kevin Henbest Univ 14 7.5 53.57

Division 3 Club Played Points %John Taylor Cowley 10 10 100.00Mal Waddell Banbury 9 8 88.89Ruby Marsden Cowley 9 7 77.78Alan Richardson Didcot 11 8 72.73Edward O'Brien Oxford City 7 5 71.43

Division 4 Club Played Points %James Cole MCS 12 10 83.33Roger Turner Witney 12 10 83.33Graham Cole MCS 11 8.5 77.27Agustin Bachiller Rodriguez Oxford City 11 8 72.73Liam Glenn Cumnor 11 7 63.64Roger Smalley Wantage 11 7 63.64Casper da Costa-Luis St Clares 12 7 58.33

Frank Wood Shield 2010

The final was an all-City affair, with City 1 having to hurdle past first Witney 1, then Witney 2 – while City 2 had a fantastic win in the semi-Final against Univ 1. Here are the two key clashes for the teams before the final:

Games from the Witney – City clash are dotted around the place (Mark’s annotated his loss, while boards 2 and 4 are in the games. My loss features in blunderama – a tame example that was quite embarrassing!). I’ve added the board 1 clash below, where Matt grinds through a win from a position not much better than equal (for either side) for much of the game, but where at the diagram stage Peter is already down to his last 10 minutes. For City 2 , snatches from most games are presented (boards 1 and 2 in blunderama, and 4 in Games) so here’s an ending from Dave Godfrey that helped to secure the win (when a match draw was more than sufficient to progress):

Jackson,M – Godfrey ( B)

White has rescued a completely lost middlegame to end up with draw-swindling chances in the end, and has just played 39. h6. Dave pragmatically, and correctly, reduces the ending to an opposite bishop ending where the h- and d-pawns will stretch the resources of the K + B to defend: 39. ... gxh6 40.gxf6 âxf6 41.ºxf6 ºc8 42.ºg7 ºxf5 43.ºxh6

¾d4 44.ºe3+ ¾e4 45.ºh6 ¾f3 46.¾e1 ¾g4 47.¾f2 ¾h5 48.ºf4

¾g6 49.¾g3 h5 50.ºd2 ºg4 51.¾f4 ºe2 52.¾g3 ¾f5 53.ºe3

¾e4 54.¾f2 h4 55.ºd2 ºg4 56.¾g2 h3+ 57.¾f2 ¾d4 58.¾g3

¾c4 59.ºf4 ¾b3 60.¾f2 ¾c2 61.¾g1 d2 62.ºxd2 ¾xd2 63.¾f2

¾d3 64.¾g3 ¾e3 65.¾h2 ¾f2 66.¾h1 ¾g3 67.¾g1 h2+ 0-1

Which took us to the final, and a match on 19 April in the club, and a 5-aside scrap was what we were left with, when one side – I suspect City 1, but memory doesn’t completely confirm this – couldn’t twirl out a sixth player. So “we” were left needing a further 3.5 points (if City 1) or 2.0 points (if City 2) to secure the possession of the coveted trophy. (Or is it a plate?)

And what a nail biter it was, right down to the last board. For long periods it was doubtful whether anyone had a clear advantage – except, that is, on board 5 where I was doing comfortably better at 3 distinct phases of the game. On top board Matt had sacrificed a pawn but was meeting stout resistance from Phil, and Matt Brown on board 2 eventually ground down Simon King’s closed Sicilian.

Final rites in Rose - Hayward



On board 5 , John Yates was following up his excellent (80%) league form to hold a spatial advantage against Karlmarx:

White, to move, doesn’t have an immediate breakthrough, and the black Qa7 does prevent rapid redeployments of major pieces to the h-file for a typical hack, while h5 – h6 might simply be giving away two pawns for an uncertain initiative. John looked ath this for a while and both sides opted for closure (hahahaha) with 29. h6 g6 and it was hard to see any other result than a draw – the only surprise being that it was agreed as late as move 42. More action on board 4, where the slight pawn imbalances result in a small edge for White, particularly after b5 imprisons the Black queen side.

Scott – Biswas (W) 22.b5 âb4 23.d4 ¼xc1 24.¼xc1 ¼c8 25.¼c4 ¼xc4 26.Qxc4 âd5 27.e4 Qc7 a key moment

28.âe3? White misses 28. Qc6! Qxc6 29.bxc6 Nc7 30.Ne3 which will result in two passed pawns each for both players, and the prospect of a dynamic equality – a draw might result, but the result is in the balance.

But now, Black can now reduce to a N+ P ending where he first picks up a pawn, before consolidating his advantage by establishing two passed pawns on the queenside. 28 ... Qxc4 29.âxc4 âc3 30.âd6 âe2+ 31.¾f1 âxd4 32.f4 e5 33.¾f2 ¾f8 34.fxe5 fxe5 35.âc4 âxb5 36.âxe5 ¾e7 37.¾e3 ¾e6 38.âf3 h6 39.¾d3 a5 40.¾c4

Now it seems the win is plain, and the method is a bit brutal. Nd6+ followed by the Kelly push-pawn™ method. This will draw the king away to that arena, and leave large holes on the king-side – as well as a weak e-pawn. Despite this, the tick-tock clock was beginning to affect perceptions, so … **

… âd6+ 41.¾d4 âb5+ ½-½

** this note was written in advance of trying to work out the N+P ending in Hackman - Harvey (see just after the Kidlington report) which suggests that N+P endings are as “plain” as R+P endings are “drawn” .

Terry - Brooke

So this leaves just two boards to play and the 6-board score is 2 ½ - 1 ½, with City 1 needing 1 ½ of the remaining two. Both games were dodgy, but mine was by far the worse, and – as we join it now – quite lost. To date, play has seen Ian lose the initiative, then the will to record his moves, but although I’ve already had 2 clear, winning positions (see elsewhere), I’ve returned the initiative to Ian (who handed it back) only for me to return the gesture – but now I’m back in the saddle. Victory beckons…. but not for long… 40.¼xa6 ???? (Rh2! ) ¼xa6 41.¼xa6 Qh5+ 42.¾g2? ?? ?? ?? ? (now it’s lost – white had to exchange queens when he could) Qg4+ 43.¾h2 Qxg1+? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ? (… Qh4+ would win the queen – Ian overlooks that the Be3, can recapture backwards) 44.ºxg1 (finally, a position I find actually winnable) ºxb4 45.¼xc6 ¾g7 46.¾h3 ºd2 47.¾g4 âh6+ 48.¾f3 âf5 49.ºf2 âe7 50.¼c7 ¾f8 51.¾g4 ºa5 52.¼d7 ¾e8 53.e6 ºc3 54.ºh4 âf5 55.¼d8# 1-0



Rose - Hayward is in the Games section… and this was the half-point needed to secure the Shield for City 1.

2 views of Yates – Rajangam … the second with Kelly in attendance (“the chess was fierce, we had to put them in cages…”)

Rose,Matt - Wells,Peter [C29] FWS - Witney 2010-11, 13.01.2011 1.e4 e5

2.âc3 âf6

3.f4 d5

4.fxe5 âxe4

5.Qf3 âxc3

6.bxc3 ºe7

7.d4 c5

8.ºb5+ âc6

9.âe2 0-0

10.0-0 cxd4

11.ºxc6 bxc6

12.âxd4 ºd7

13.¼b1 ¾h8

14.ºe3 Qc8

15.Qg3 c5

16.âb5 ºxb5

17.¼xb5 ¼b8

18.¼b3 ¼b6

19.¼f4 Qe6

20.¼g4 g6

21.¼a4 a6

22.h3 ¾g8

23.Qf2 ¼c8

24.Qf4 ¼bc6

25.¼b7 ºf8

26.Qf2 ¼6c7

27.¼xc7 ¼xc7

28.Qf6 ¼b7

29.¼xa6 Qxf6

30.exf6 ¼b8

31.¼c6 h5

32.ºxc5 ºxc5+

33.¼xc5 ¼b2

34.¼xd5 ¼xc2

35.¼d8+ ¾h7

36.¼f8 g5

37.¼xf7+ ¾g6

38.¼c7 ¾xf6

39.a4 ¼a2

40.¼c4 ¾e5

41.¾h2 ¾d5

42.¼d4+ ¾e5

43.¼b4 ¾f5

44.¾g3 ¼a3

45.¼c4 ¾e5

46.¼c5+ ¾f6

47.a5 1-0

(B, 16)(B, 16)(B, 16)(B, 16)

Rajangam,Karlmarx - Wang,Maria [C05] OCA Cow 2, 04.04.2011 While there’s space, here’s a game from the last night of the OCA league season. Maria has built up a dominating position, and for the moment it looks like it’s not possible for Karl to force an opening against the king. Having got so close to invading via the b-file, she lets slip and allows a tactic to open up the g-file, which – once opened – makes all those bunched pieces on the king-side look like a crouching tiger, rather than a caged lion … 1.e4 e6

2.d4 d5

3.âd2 âf6

4.e5 âfd7

5.f4 c5

6.c3 âc6

7.âdf3 ºe7

8.ºd3 f5

9.âe2 âb6

10.0-0 0-0

11.ºe3 c4

12.ºb1 ºd7

13.Qc2 ºe8

14.g4 ºg6

15.g5 âd7

16.âg3 b5

17.h4 Qe8

18.Qh2 ºh5

19.ºc2 b4

20.ºa4 ¼c8

21.Qg2 âb6

22.ºd1 ¼b8

23.¼b1 âa5

24.¾f2 ºxf3

25.ºxf3 Qa4

26.âe2 âc6

27.cxb4 âxb4

28.a3 âd3+

29.¾g1 Qd7

30.b4 âa4

31.¾h1 ¼bc8

32.¼g1 ¼b8

33.âg3 âc3

34.¼bf1 a5

35.âh5 ºd8

36.âf6+ ºxf6

37.gxf6 g6

38.h5 ¼f7

39.hxg6 hxg6

40.Qxg6+ ¾h8

41.¼g2 ¼h7+

42.ºh5 ¼f8

43.¼fg1 Qe8

44.Qg7+ ¼xg7

45.fxg7+ ¾h7

46.ºxe8 ¼xe8

47.¼h2+ ¾g8

48.¼h8+ ¾f7

49.¼xe8 1-0

B (34)B (34)B (34)B (34)


Kidlington 2011

An appointment with the surgeon’s knife meant I missed Kidlington 2011, which was a resounding success for local players, headed by Marcus Harvey 100% performance in the u225. Matthew Daggitt tied first in the u-180 tournament with Nick Gough (4 ½ / 5), while Ruby Marsden was joint top with Phil Foley (4 ½ / 5) in the u-145. Matt’s Oxford Times column has given the last round game which saw Marcus beat Brandon Clarke – and in the absence of other games, I’ll provide some scenes those played by congress visitor and friend, Adam Raoof.

Raoof - Rajesh (W, 20) Clarke – Raoof (W,30) Cumbers – Raoof (B)

Raoof,A - Rajesh,G [C77] Kidlington 2011, 05.02.2011 “My young opponent helped me along with a piece sac that just failed to work.” 1.e4 e5 2.âf3 âc6 3.ºb5 a6 4.ºa4 âf6 5.d3 b5 6.ºb3 ºc5

7.c3 d6 8.h3 h6 9.âbd2 0-0 10.âf1 ºe6 11.g4 ºxg4 12.hxg4 âxg4

13.âe3 âxe3 14.ºxe3 ºxe3 15.fxe3 âe7 16.âh4 ¾h7 17.Qh5 f5 18.âxf5 âxf5

19.exf5 d5 20.Qg6+ ¾h8 21.¼xh6+ gxh6 22.Qxh6+ ¾g8 23.0-0-0 Qd6

24.¼g1+ ¾f7 25.¼g6 Qc5 26.¼g7+ ¾e8 27.Qe6+ ¾d8 28.Qd7# 1-0

Clarke,B - Raoof,A [B06] Kidlington 2011, 05.02.2011 “I helped my young opponent with 21..d5, which just did not work.” 1.e4 g6 2.d4 ºg7 3.âc3 d6 4.ºe3 a6 5.h4 h6 6.Qd2 b5 7.h5 g5 8.a4 b4

9.âce2 a5 10.c4 âd7 11.âg3 e6 12.ºd3 c5 13.â1e2 âe7 14.b3 âc6 15.ºc2 Qc7

16.¼d1 cxd4 17.âxd4 âxd4 18.ºxd4 âe5 19.0-0 ºb7 20.ºe3 ¼d8 21.âe2 d5 22.exd5 exd5

23.âd4 âg4 24.g3 âxe3 25.Qxe3+ ¾f8 26.¼fe1 ºf6 27.c5 ºc6 28.âf5 Qb8 29.Qf3 Qc7

30.âd6 ¼xd6 31.cxd6 Qxd6 32.ºe4 ¾g7 33.ºxd5 ¼c8 34.ºxc6 Qxc6 35.Qxc6 ¼xc6 36.¼d5 1-0

Shortage of space means we can’t provide the full Cumbers – Raoof game, but here’s Adam’s description: Castling and then ...d5 just about worked. … (later on) in what was clearly a winning position white drifted, then lost a rook in an ending in front of a large and unbelieving crowd. I offered him a draw, but probably had enough time to win it.” [Nothing quite like some crowd trouble in the Kidlington area, with demands for return of entry fees perhaps explaining the prevalence of helicopters in the sky.] The game scoresheet ends with … Qg3 32.¼f4 Qg2 33.¼ff1 h3 34.Qb4+ ¾e8 35.Qf4 ¼d8 36.ºxh3 Qe4+ with Adam clearly the worse OTB but a lot better OTC. Raoof,A - Baruch,A [B02] Kidlington 2011, 06.02.2011 “Obviously 3 f4 is clearly better for white.” We invite readers’ comments…

1.e4 âf6 2.d3 e5 ½-½


A quick look at an ending Marcus had in November ...

A hard ending to evaluate at the time – a Chilterns match in December 2011 – and not that much easier with my computer! Black has just won the a4 pawn, is two pawns up but how easy is it to wrap it up?!

�� + + + +� �+ +�+�+�� + + �� +� �� +�+ + � ��+�� + �� ! + " # + + + +$ %+ + + + & '()*+,-./0

43...Nb6? This natural move seems to lose any advantage in the position. It looks normal to defend the pawn and rely on the a-pawn to decide the game, but appearances are deceptive. Houdini suggests 43...Kc6 44.Nxd5 Nb2 45.Ne3 Kb5 and evaluates –0.39, only to revalue at –0.26 after time set aside for a yoghurt (for me). Fritz waits for me to get dressed to go out for Sunday breakfast, and it's more confident (–0.59). 46.g5 a4 47.Nc2 looks a bit like zugzwang (or retreat - ... Kb6) unless 47...Nd3 48.f5 fxg5 49.hxg5 Nf4 50.Na3+ Kc6 51.Nxc4 Nh3 52.Ne5+ Kb5 when it's getting a bit nervous in the magazine analysis department but Black is still (we think) in control of the result. 53.Nxf7 a3 54.g6 hxg6 55.fxg6 Nf4 56.g7 Ne6+ (analysis diagram)

�� + + + +� �+ + +!�� + +�+ +� �+�+ + + � � + �� + +� �� + + " # + + + +$ %+ + + + & '()*+,-./0

57.Kd3 Nxg7 58.Kc2 Ka4 59.Ne5. At which point it’s time to abandon attempts to make authoritative assessments based on computer numbers and carry on with the game continuation, making a note to return later, and look a little more at the position, and less at the computer… 44.Nxd5 Nxd5 45.Kxd5

Black’s a pawn up – a passed a-pawn - but is lost as the White king position is deadly. Marcus thinks a long time – a sure sign that all is not that clear…

�� + + + +� �+ +�+�+�� + + �� +� �� +�+ + � � +�+ �� + �� + + " # + + + +$ %+ + + + & '()*+,-./0

45...Kc7 45...f5 loses (a) 46.gxf5 a4 47.Kxc4 Ke7 48.Kb4

a3 49.Kxa3 Kf6 when the c-pawn queens first, although 46. g5

loses much as in the game.

46.Kc5! [46.Kxc4? f5 could well be drawn: 47.g5 Kc6 48.h5

Kb6 49.Kd5 a4 50.Kc4 a3 51.Kb3 Kc5 52.Kxa3 Kc4 53.Kb2

Kd3 54.Kb3 Ke3 55.c4 Kxf4 56.c5 Ke5 57.Kc4 f4 58.Kd3 Kd5

59.Ke2 Kxc5 60.Kf3 Kd5 61.Kxf4] 46...f5 [last chance

saloon] �� + + + +� �+ �� +�+�� + + + +� �� +�+ � � +�+ �� + �� + + " # + + + +$ %+ + + + & '()*+,-./0

47.g5? 47.gxf5 is the way to win 47...Kd7 48.Kb5! (and not

48.Kxc4 Kc6 49.f6 h5 wins for Black as White can't eliminate

the a-pawn 50.f5 Kb6

47...Kd7 all of a sudden Fritz registers 0.00 (which is bad

news for White 48.Kd5 Fritz –0.54 [48.h5 Kc7 49.h6 (or

49.Kxc4 Kc6 as in the game) 49...Kd7 50.Kd5 a4 51.Kxc4 Ke6

52.Kb4 Kd5 53.c4+] and etc 0-1 (67)

Hackman,P - Harvey,M [C01] Chilterns, Hants Basingstoke (2), 26.11.2011 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.âc3 âf6 4.exd5 exd5 5.ºg5 c6 6.ºd3 ºd6 7.Qe2+ ºe6 8.ºf5 Qe7 9.ºxe6 Qxe6 10.ºxf6 gxf6 11.0-0-0 Qxe2 12.âgxe2 ¼g8 13.g3 âd7 14.¼he1 0-0-0 15.âg1 ¼de8 16.¼xe8+ ¼xe8 17.âf3 ºb4

18.¼e1 ¼xe1+ 19.âxe1 ºxc3 20.bxc3 âb6 21.âd3 âc4 22.¾d1 b6 23.¾e2 âa3 24.âe1 ¾d7 25.¾d2 c5 26.dxc5 bxc5 27.âg2 ¾d6 28.f4 âb1+ 29.¾d3 c4+ 30.¾d4 âa3 31.¾e3 âxc2+ 32.¾d2 âa3 33.âe3 âb5 34.a4 âc7

35.âf5+ ¾c5 36.¾e3 âe6 37.h3 a5 38.g4 ¾c6 39.âe7+ ¾d6 40.âf5+ ¾d7 41.h4 âc5 42.¾d4 âxa4 43.âe3 âb6 44.âxd5 âxd5 45.¾xd5 ¾c7 46.¾c5 f5 47.g5 ¾d7 48.¾d5 a4 49.¾xc4 ¾c6 50.¾b4 ¾d5 51.c4+ ¾d4

52.c5 a3 53.c6 a2 54.c7 a1Q 55.c8½Qb2+ 56.¾a4 Qa2+ 57.¾b4 ¾e4 58.Qc1 Qe6 59.Qc7 ¾f3 60.Qc3+ ¾xf4 61.Qd2+ ¾g4 62.Qg2+ ¾xh4 63.¾c3 Qe3+ 64.¾b2 f4 65.Qh2+ ¾xg5 66.Qxh7 Qe5+ 67.¾c1 0-1

(W) 22


Blunder and (or) Brilliancy

Zakarian – Rose (W)

Terry – Iyengar (W)

Burt – Brown (B)

Welcome to the darker innards of this year’s magazine, where we hang out the dirtier washing in fuller view. This year the crop is larger than previous years – mostly because we invested in an iPad, so it’s a lot easier to collect games from the scene. Of course, one man’s blunder may be the fruit of another man’s brilliancy – how many games are won by the force of intellect, or the quality of ideas, alone? Not as many as we’d like to think, is my guess, a view that Fritz tends to confirm (if only by showing how many different ways the game can be played – and now is played, by the likes of Carlsen & Co at the top level). So, looking at the examples on this page, in Zakarian – Rose 23.Qf4? isn’t the best move, but the play by Matt to that point put David under sufficient pressure to miss the tactic that followed: … Qxc2 24.Na1 Qxb2 (0-1, 45). Because of this, though interesting it’s not quite up to the Blunderama standard. Good play forces error – not much of a headline. At the other end of the scale is Terry – Iyenga r, which ended rather abruptly after 15.c3 Qg4 – a pretty lame example only interesting for the speed it takes the assessment to fly from -1 to -3.5 : White can’t defend g2 (and that matters). Quite cute, but not obvious enough. (Then again, read through the full game below and yit will show that WhiteI wasn’t quite at the races from about move 7 – my head got out of the wrong side of the pillow that morning). Blunderama sort of implies a temporary, catastrophic fall from a standard previously in evidence – here, I set the standard quite low from early on, so the final error wasn’t that vast. Burt – Brown is a lot closer the mark: it’s the last match of the season, and Matt finds himself on the verge of a compensatory win against Will. The position is cloudy but in the last few moves, and at the witching hour very close to last orders, things seem to have clarified: (a) that h-pawn is a winner; but more importantly (b) there’s no play on the queenside. Play “therefore” continued 42. … dxe4 43.Qxe5+ 1-0 Finally there’s a position from the FW Shield final, featuring me trying to close out on Ian Brooke to secure a much needed point. I’ve just played Rh2, and after 25…. f5 26.Qh1 Bxd3 my simple plan is to play Rxh6, which scoops the jackpot [27.Rxh6 Bxh6 28.Qxh6 Rf7 29.Nxf7 fxg4 30.Kg2 Kxf7 31.Qh7+ Kf8 32.Nxd3]. Instead, and following some earlier decision-making algorithm in operation that evening (reported elsewhere) I go through the mental motions, hedge my bets and play 27.Nxd3 . All this suggests indecision, and poor play at a key moment, but not the overwhelming and revolutionary sensation that follows a true Blunderama moment – although what happens later – more moderate high error-strewn waves of blunder – merely preceded the final tsunami that decided the game. In the next section is a selection of games along with the blunderful continuations. In a subsequent section will follow puzzles where you need to look for tactical stroke, or heart attack, that the player discovered… on, or shortly after, playing their move.

Terry – Brooke (W)

Terry,S - Iyengar,I [A45] Chilterns - Bucks, 29.01.2011 1.d4 âf6 2.ºg5 âe4 3.ºf4 e6 4.f3 ºd6 5.ºxd6 âxd6 6.e4 f5 7.ºd3 fxe4 8.fxe4 âxe4 9.Qh5+ g6 10.Qh6 Qg5

11.Qg7 ¼f8 12.ºxe4 Qh4+ 13.¾d2 Qxe4 14.âf3 âc6 15.c3 Qg4 0-1


Blunder and (or) Brilliancy

Coburn – Terry (B)

OCA (28 Mar) 18…. Qf6 19.Rdf1 Bxf3 …

b. James – Chapman (B) Chilterns (5 Nov)

10…. Bd6 11.Nf5 Bf8 …

Wadsworth – Terry (B) Chilterns (1 Oct)

11…. g5 12.Nxd3 …

Atkinson – Hepworth (W)

Chilterns (5 Nov) 20.Rfd1 Rxe4 21.Qxe4 Qxf2+ (1-0)

Tavares – D’Souza-Eva (W) Chilterns (1 Oct)

46.Qg2+ Kh7 47.Qe4+ Kg7 48.Qe8 Qf5+ ...

Brown – Terry (B) Chilterns (5 Mar)

11…. Ng4 12.hxg4 hxg4 13.g3 …

Brown – Terry (B) Chilterns (5 Mar)

17.Rh1 Rxd2 18.Rxh8 Qxf2+

Tilston – March (B) Chilterns (5 Nov)

22.cxb4 Ra4 23.Qc3 Ra3 24.Bxc4

Brindley - Bailey (B) OCA (7 Mar)

12…. Na5 13.Ne5 Qd6 14.Qc2


Simuls in 2011

Nigel Short , London, 5 July A day in London to see the launch of the Bobby Fischer documentary (by Liz Garbus) at the Rich Mix theatre in Bethnal Green. For Nigel Short, not-so-fresh off a plane from winning the Commonwealth championships in South Africa (with an impressive 9/10), this meant a gentle simul against children and duffers – at least some of the entrants had won an online prize, which meant they were virtually clueless (see below). Fortunately the occasional strong player (Sarah Hegarty), and celebrity (Steve Davis, Daniel Johnson) were also there to provide some opposition – while the school children there all had some chess experience. The current president of the ECF (CJ de Moii) gave some gentle, not always irritating, microphone commentary.

N Short – Victim 1 N Short – Victim 2 N Short – P Thompson

11.hxg7 fxg5 12.gxh8Q Ng7 etc 7…. Bc5 8.Qxg7 Bd4 9.Qxd4 Nf6 10.Bg5 etc

31…. Na5 32.Rxb6 Qxb6 33.Rxb6 Rxc3 34.Qxc3 Kxb6 35.Qc5+ Ka6

36.Qb5+ 1-0 Richard Palliser , Oxford Univ (St Johns), 22 November A more relaxed occasion for Richard’s return visit to Oxford, where we went for a pre-chess chinese (Sojo, Hythe Bridge St – nice), before settling down to a 22-board simul display in a back quod. Richard ended up with + 16 = 5 – 1 after about 3 hours; not quite enough time to get to the St John’s bar for a quick cheap pint, but the King’s Arms was open, though noisily so, until midnight. (Just as well – Oxford seemed closed otherwise.) Richard’s style of play encourages open, lively play (other masters aim to stifle the conversation) and some lively positions resulted – my own included. His one loss resulted from a miscalculation v Raffael Singer – his 3-pieces-for-a-queen calculation sac / swap ended up one piece short of a full compensation picnic.

R Palliser – Thornblad R Palliser - Marshall R Palliser - Singer

19.e6 fxe6 20.Ne5 Ra7 21.Ne4 1-0 32.Bc6 e5+ 33.Kd5 Nb6+ 34.Kc5 Na4+ 35.Kb4 Nxb2 36.Bb7 Kf5

37.Bxa6 … 1-0

17…. Ng4 18.Qf3 Bxf2+ 19.Qxf2 Nxf2 20.Kxf2 Qh2+ and 0-1


Simuls in 2011

Short,N - Victim,No 1 [C00] simul, London, 05.07.2011 1.e4 e6 2.d4 âc6 3.âf3 d5 4.e5 b6

5.c3 a5 6.h4 ºa6 7.ºxa6 ¼xa6 8.h5 âge7

9.h6 âf5 10.ºg5 f6 11.hxg7 fxg5

12.gxh8½âg7 13.¼xh7 ¾f7 14.âh2 ¼a8

15.Qh5+ ¾e7 16.¼xg7+ ºxg7 17.Qxg7# 1-0

Short,N - Victim ,No 2 [B32] simul, London, 05.07.2011 1.e4 c5 2.âf3 âc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.âxd4 âxd4

5.Qxd4 e6 6.âc3 b6 7.ºf4 ºc5 8.Qxg7 ºd4

9.Qxd4 âf6 10.ºg5 ¼g8 11.ºxf6 Qc7 12.âb5 Qc6

13.âd6+ ¾f8 14.Qd2 ¼g6 15.e5 a6

16.ºd3 ¾g8 17.ºxg6 ºb7 18.Qh6 1-0

Short,N - Thompson,P [B12] simul, London, 05.07.2011 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 ºf5 4.h4 h6 5.c4 e6 6.âc3 âd7 7.cxd5 exd5 8.ºd3 ºxd3

9.Qxd3 ºb4 10.âge2 Qc7 11.0-0 0-0-0 12.ºd2 ¾b8 13.¼ac1 Qa5 14.a3 ºxc3 15.¼xc3 Qc7

16.f4 âb6 17.b3 Qe7 18.a4 Qd7 19.f5 âe7 20.h5 ¼df8 21.g4 f6 22.e6 Qe8

23.ºf4+ ¾a8 24.ºc7 Qc8 25.ºxb6 axb6 26.b4 Qc7 27.b5 ¼c8 28.bxc6 âxc6 29.¼b1 Qd8

30.¼cb3 ¾a7 31.âc3 âa5 32.¼xb6 Qxb6 33.¼xb6 ¼xc3 34.Qxc3 ¾xb6 35.Qc5+ ¾a6 36.Qb5+ 1-0

Palliser,R - Thornblad,E [B07] Simul, Oxford, 22.11.2011 1.e4 d6 2.d4 âf6 3.âc3 g6 4.ºe3 ºg7 5.Qd2 c6

6.âf3 0-0 7.ºd3 b5 8.e5 âfd7 9.ºh6 a6

10.h4 dxe5 11.ºxg7 ¾xg7 12.h5 ¼h8 13.dxe5 âc5

14.h6+ ¾f8 15.0-0-0 âxd3+ 16.Qxd3 Qxd3 17.¼xd3 ¾e8

18.¼hd1 ºd7 19.e6 fxe6 20.âe5 ¼a7 21.âe4 1-0

* Palliser,R - Marshall,W [B80] simul, Oxford, 22.11.2011 1.e4 c5 2.âf3 e6 3.âc3 a6 4.d4 cxd4 5.âxd4 d6 6.ºe3 âf6 7.f3 ºe7 8.Qd2 b5

9.g4 e5 10.âf5 ºxf5 11.exf5 d5 12.g5 d4 13.gxf6 ºxf6 14.0-0-0 dxe3 15.Qxe3 Qe7 16.âd5 ºg5

17.f4 ºxf4 18.âxf4 exf4 19.Qxf4 0-0 20.ºg2 ¼a7 21.f6 Qxf6 22.Qxf6 gxf6 23.¼d6 ¼d7

24.¼xf6 ¼e8 25.¼d1 ¼xd1+ 26.¾xd1 ¼e6 27.¼xe6 fxe6 28.¾d2 ¾f7 29.¾e3 ¾f6 30.ºe4 h6

31.¾d4 âd7 32.ºc6 e5+ 33.¾d5 âb6+ 34.¾c5 âa4+ 35.¾b4 âxb2 36.ºb7 ¾f5 37.ºxa6 1-0

Palliser,R - Singer,R [C50] Simul, Oxford, 22.11.2011 1.e4 e5 2.ºc4 âf6 3.d3 ºc5 4.âf3 âc6 5.0-0 0-0 6.âbd2 ¼e8

7.h3 h6 8.c3 ºb6 9.ºb3 d6 10.¼e1 ºe6 11.ºc2 d5 12.Qe2 a6

13.âf1 Qd7 14.âg3 ¼ad8 15.âh4 ºxh3 16.gxh3 Qxh3 17.âhf5 âg4 18.Qf3 ºxf2+

19.Qxf2 âxf2 20.¾xf2 Qh2+ 21.¾f3 Qxc2 22.ºe3 d4 23.¼ac1 Qxb2

24.¼e2 Qa3 25.ºd2 dxc3 26.ºxh6 ¼xd3+ 27.¾g4 ¼e6 28.ºg5 ¼g6 0-1

Clockwise from top left : Steve Davis, Nigel Short obscures the view of a GM, Richard Palliser simul (Ivo Panayatov, Nicole Miranda),

and the view from my board (visible at left – Kevin Henbest, Marcus

Harvey)


The New Gambit repertoire – The English im-Patient

An interesting episode at the club on 21 November, in the FW Shield match against Cowley 3. On bottom board a game (see below) was heading its merry way towards what seemed (from a distance) to be a clear enough draw. I heard a draw offer from John Mercer in a position subsequently confirmed to be this one (after … Kg5xh6):

English – Mercer ( W)

I heard a clock being started, a “no” (from Andrew), and life carried on. So, it was normal to suppose that the position was materially different, because otherwise, it’s fairly drawn. And over the next few minutes, it was clear that I was mistaken, as the White king had penetrated to f5 and was well on its way to devour the c7 pawn – at which point, in this position:

with Black to move – the game was agreed drawn.

From a quick look it seemed like the draw was agreed because after 48.Kc7 Ke7 49.Kb7 Kd7 50.Kxa7 Kc7 , the White king is entombed forever on a7 and condemned forever to commute to and commune with, the a8 square. Now, as it happens, this last part isn’t quite right, because in this diagram:

with White to move, he can break this blockade. We leave it with the reader to work out the exact details over a glass of port, or other equivalent measure of Yuletide beverage.

And so it was time to wander off home, after a long and exasperating day, with a 5-1 win in our pockets – we only needed to win 4 – 2 in any event. I stopped off at a coffee shop to input the games from the match onto the iPad, and found that this game didn’t quite “scan” – there was a half a move missing, around the time of the diagram.

“Typical” – I thought – end of a rubbish day stuff…

At about midnight, I get the following email, from Andrew:

When I tried going through my game on Fritz this evening, I discovered, I think, that my opponent and I must have both got muddled at around

the time he made a formal draw offer. I think what happened is this. I played 39. Kg4 and after I had pressed the clock but before I had

written down my move, John Mercer offered me a draw. I declined the draw and then without making a move himself John started my clock. I

then played Kf5 and wrote down 39. Kf5. So, John illegally passed and I then illegally made a second move 39. Neither of us realised at the

time what had just happened. Fortunately the game ended in a draw. John, if he had realised his mistake, would I am sure have played 39. ...

Kg6 to draw after my 39. Kg4.

… at which point I felt my day was already looking a lot more cheerful. A bad day, but another page for the mag… …another first for the club … and against Cowley! We will await the judgement from the Court of Arbiters (Pres. Tim Dickinson) in due course. English,Andrew - Mercer,John [A24] FWS 2 - Cow 3, 21.11.2011 1.c4 e5 2.âc3 d6 3.g3 âf6 4.ºg2 g6 5.âf3 ºg7 6.0-0 0-0 7.d3 âbd7 8.¼b1 âc5 9.b4 âe6 10.a4 âd4

11.b5 âxf3+ 12.exf3 ¼b8 13.ºd2 âd7 14.a5 âc5 15.ºe3 b6 16.a6 ºf5 17.âe4 âxe4 18.fxe4 ºe6 19.Qd2 ¼e8 20.ºh6 Qd7

21.ºxg7 ¾xg7 22.f4 f6 23.¼f2 ºh3 24.¼bf1 ºxg2 25.¾xg2 ¼f8 26.fxe5 fxe5 27.Qg5 ¼xf2+ 28.¼xf2 ¼f8 29.¼xf8 ¾xf8

30.Qf6+ Qf7 31.Qxf7+ ¾xf7 32.¾f3 ¾f6 33.h4 h5 34.g4 g5 35.gxh5 gxh4 36.¾g4 h3 37.¾xh3 ¾g5 38.h6 ¾xh6

39. ¾g4 PASS 40.¾f5 ¾g7 41.¾e6 ¾f8 42.¾d7 ¾f7 43.¾xc7 ¾e7 44.¾c6 ¾e6 45.¾c7 ¾e7 46.¾c6 ¾e6

47.¾c7 ½-½


Burt Watch 2011

It’s time to catch up on our chess colleagues who have migrated eastward from the shores of Disinformator

10 January – Cowley 2 – City 1 sees Will return to familiar ground. He’s already sacrificed a piece, to get to this point, but there’s worse to come:

Brown - Burt

Matt sees a way of blockading with a view to quenching the attack: 14.f6 Rxf6 15.f5 Rxf5! (but to no avail, as Will sacrifices another) 16.Rxf5 Bxf5 17.Qd5+ Kh8 18.Qxf5 Qh4

29 January – a Chiltern Saturday match

Borrowdale – Burt

In a familiar enough idea, 8…. Qg5 constrains the two minor pieces on the 5th while aiming at g2. 9.Qa4 is sensible enough but Will’s Bd6 (which seems to fail to Bxc6+) induces an error 10.Nxc6? and after Qxg2 White’s defences are permanently holed. 8 February – at Kidlington, Will announces a mate in 5, … against himself. See Top Tactics Meantime, at the Seacourt Arms…

Will finds variation on a familiar theme against Kelly: 10…. Ne5 11.Nxe5 Bxd1 12.Bxf7+ Ke7 13.Nf5# 5 March

Redmond - Burt , Chilterns Berks

White doesn’t take a pawn and Will later shows why: 11.Bxb7 Rc2 12.e3 Bb4+ 13.Kf1 Bxd3+ 14.Kg2 Qxf2+ 15.Kh3 Bf1+ 16.Kh4 Nf5+ 17.Kg5 f6+ 18.Kh5 g6+ 19.Kg4 h5# nice… (OTB, a different sort of carnage ensues) 2 April

Burt – Esmat

Surprisingly, Will fails to convert this position. 4 April – It’s that man Matt Brown again (see Blunderama) 1 October

Burt – Bullock (W)

A previous victim to Will’s aggressive methods tries to exchange queens (… Qc5) and is met with 16.f5 Bd7 17.e5 b4 18.Nxe6 Bxe6 19.fxe6 (etc)


Burt Watch 2011

Borrowdale,G - Burt,W [A28] Chilterns - Bucks, 29.01.2011 1.c4 e5 2.âc3 âf6 3.âf3 âc6 4.e3 d5

5.cxd5 âxd5 6.ºb5 âxc3 7.bxc3 e4 8.âe5 Qg5

9.Qa4 ºd6 10.âxc6 Qxg2 11.âd4+ c6 12.ºxc6+ bxc6

13.¾d1 Qxh1+ 14.¾c2 0-0 15.Qxc6 Qf1 16.ºb2 Qd3+

17.¾c1 ºa6 18.Qxd6 ¼ab8 19.c4 Qxc4+ 0-1

Burt,W - Riley,K [B15] pub chess , 2011 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.âc3 dxe4

4.f3 e5 5.fxe4 exd4 6.âce2 c5

7.âg3 âc6 8.âf3 âf6 9.ºc4 ºg4

10.0-0 âe5 11.âxe5 ºxd1

12.ºxf7+ ¾e7 13.âf5# 1-0

Redmond,M - Burt,W [A23] Chilterns - Berks, 05.03.2011 1.g3 e5 2.ºg2 d5 3.c4 c6 4.cxd5 cxd5 5.Qb3 âf6 6.âc3 âc6

7.âxd5 âd4 8.âxf6+ Qxf6 9.Qd1 ºf5 10.d3 ¼c8 11.¾f1 ºd6

12.âf3 âe6 13.Qa4+ ¾e7 14.ºe3 h6 15.Qxa7 ¼hd8 16.âh4 ºh7

17.Qxb7+ ¾f8 18.Qf3 âf4 19.ºb6 e4 20.Qe3 exd3 21.exd3 ºxd3+

22.¾g1 ¼e8 23.Qd2 âe2+ 24.¾f1 âxg3+ 25.¾g1 âe2+ 26.¾f1 âf4+ 0-1

Burt,W - Esmat,K [B96] Ox-Hants, 02.04.2011 1.e4 c5 2.âf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.âxd4 âf6 5.âc3 a6

6.ºg5 e6 7.f4 âbd7 8.ºc4 ºe7 9.ºxe6 fxe6 10.âxe6 Qa5

11.âxg7+ ¾f7 12.âf5 Qc5 13.Qe2 ¼e8 14.0-0-0 ºf8

15.¼he1 b5 16.Qd3 b4 17.âd5 âxd5 18.exd5 ¼xe1

19.¼xe1 âf6 20.âe7 Qf2 21.¼e2 Qf1+ 22.¾d2 ºg4 0-1

Burt,W - Brown,M [B99] OCA Cowley 2, 04.04.2011 1.e4 c5 2.âf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.âxd4 âf6 5.âc3 a6 6.ºg5 e6 7.f4 ºe7 8.Qf3 Qc7 9.0-0-0 âbd7

10.ºd3 h6 11.ºh4 g5 12.fxg5 âe5 13.Qe2 âfg4 14.âf3 âxf3 15.Qxf3 hxg5 16.ºg3 âe5 17.Qe2 ºd7 18.¼hf1 f6

19.Qf2 0-0-0 20.ºe2 ¾b8 21.h4 Qa5 22.ºh2 gxh4 23.ºg1 Qc5 24.Qf4 Qa5 25.Qe3 Qc5 26.Qd2 Qa5 27.ºd4 ¼c8

28.Qe3 ¼c6 29.Qh3 b5 30.ºxe5 fxe5 31.¼f7 ºg5+ 32.¾b1 ºc8 33.a3 b4 34.axb4 Qxb4 35.âa2 Qc5

36.Qb3+ ¼b6 37.Qa4 d5 38.b4 Qe3 39.Qa5 ºd8 40.ºd3 Qg3 41.¾a1 Qxg2 42.¼b1 dxe4 43.Qxe5+ 1-0

Burt,W - Bullock,C [B99] Chilterns 2011, 01.10.2011 1.e4 c5 2.âf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.âxd4 âf6 5.âc3 a6

6.ºg5 e6 7.f4 ºe7 8.Qf3 âbd7 9.0-0-0 h6

10.ºh4 Qc7 11.ºd3 âc5 12.¼he1 b5 13.ºxf6 gxf6

14.Qh5 âxd3+ 15.¼xd3 Qc5 16.f5 ºd7 17.e5 b4

18.âxe6 ºxe6 19.fxe6 bxc3 20.Qxf7+ ¾d8 21.¼xd6+ 1-0

Mark Hannon, Daniel Johnson (L) & other, cut price GM dealsMark Hannon, Daniel Johnson (L) & other, cut price GM deals


Boys and Girls in 2011 …

A chance conversation with Simon King put me wise to the very old news that City 4 is in fact an Abingdon School team, and has been for a while now. It plays its home matches most usually in the school. An average 2010 (and that’s not my rating, either) probably accounts for the oversight. I’ve asked for some material for publication, and while waiting for that it’s time for a quick look at the performances by the girls in the last year. (I had noticed the girls, incidentally – but what with one thing and another I’d not noticed how much they’d improved…)

Let’s start with this bright performance from Ruby Marsden at the October Chilterns match. In the diagram position she’s not got the best position (clue: that Nb4, the Qh3) but she’s thought through a plan of which my Fritz seems to approve: 17.âxh5! âxc2+ 18.¾d2 ¼xh5! 19.Qxh5 (19...Nf2 20.Rf1 Nxa1 21.Rxf2 Qa4 gets a nod from the Boss) âge3 20.âe1 âxa1 21.¾xe3 Qa4 22.e5 dxe5

23.fxe5 ºe7 24.Qe2???? 0-0-0???? (both sides miss that … Bg5+ wins the bishop behind the king)25.b3 ºg5+ 26.¾f2 Qd4+ 27.ºe3 and after the queens come off Ruby is a pawn down in an ending – but uses her strengths to restrain the Black e-f pawns, and preys on her opponents mistakes. Excellent combat skills.

And here is Anna Wang’s draw on the same day – 31.Qf6 ºe4+ 32.¾a1 d3 33.ºxa6 Qd5 34.ºc4 Qb7 35.ºa6 ½-½ as 35...Qxa6 36.Rc7 Rf8 37.Rh1 Bxh1 38. Qg5+ is a perpetual In the pub afterwards we (Will, Mike M, Jon D’S-E) looked at lines where Black threatened to mate but I can’t reconstruct them – it was a hot day, and I’d been idle all afternoon with the fruits of my Blunderama. (The mate motifs involved a Qa6 taking on a2 in circs where Ra8+, Kb1 d2+ was decisive.)

Marsden,Ruby - Birch,G [B00] Chilterns 2011, 01.10.2011 1.e4 g5 2.d4 h6 3.âc3 ºg7 4.ºc4 d6 5.âf3 g4 6.âh4 e6 7.Qxg4 ºxd4 8.âe2 âf6 9.Qf3 âc6 10.ºb5 ºe5 11.Qd3 ºd7 12.f4 âg4 13.Qh3 ºf6 14.âf3 h5

15.âg3 âb4 16.ºxd7+ Qxd7 17.âxh5 âxc2+ 18.¾d2 ¼xh5 19.Qxh5 âge3 20.âe1 âxa1 21.¾xe3 Qa4 22.e5 dxe5 23.fxe5 ºe7 24.Qe2 0-0-0 25.b3 ºg5+ 26.¾f2 Qd4+ 27.ºe3 Qxe5 28.âf3 ºxe3+

29.Qxe3 Qxe3+ 30.¾xe3 âc2+ 31.¾f4 f6 32.g4 âd4 33.âd2 e5+ 34.¾e4 âc2 35.âc4 ¼d4+ 36.¾f5 ¼f4+ 37.¾e6 âd4+ 38.¾f7 ¼xg4 39.¾xf6 e4 40.¼e1 âf3 41.¼e2 ¾d7 42.âe5+ âxe5

43.¾xe5 c6 44.a4 b6 45.¼xe4 ¼g5+ 46.¾f6 ¼g2 47.h4 ¼f2+ 48.¾g5 ¼g2+ 49.¼g4 ¼h2 50.h5 ¾d6 51.h6 ¼e2 52.¾h5 ¼h2+ 53.¼h4 ¼e2 54.h7 ¼e5+ 55.¾g4 ¼e4+ 56.¾g3 1-0

B (34)B (34)B (34)B (34)

Lyme,C - Wang,Anna [B77] Chilterns 2011, 01.10.2011 1.e4 c5 2.âf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.âxd4 âf6 5.âc3 g6 6.ºe3 ºg7 7.f3 0-0 8.Qd2 âc6 9.ºc4 ºd7 10.h4 h5 11.0-0-0 ¼b8 12.¾b1 b5

13.âdxb5 âa5 14.ºe2 a6 15.âd4 Qb6 16.âb3 âxb3 17.cxb3 Qb7 18.ºc4 ¼fc8 19.¼c1 ºc6 20.¼hd1 ¼d8 21.âd5 e6 22.âxf6+ ºxf6 23.ºg5 ºxg5 24.Qxg5 ¾g7

25.e5 d5 26.Qf6+ ¾g8 27.g4 hxg4 28.h5 gxh5 29.fxg4 h4 30.Qxh4 d4 31.Qf6 ºe4+ 32.¾a1 d3 33.ºxa6 Qd5 34.ºc4 Qb7

35.ºa6 ½-½ W (20)


The French … … Justin Hadi

The French, the bane of the 1.e4 club player’s life. At root, its main asset seems to be annoying the white player into submission. It’s going to be war by attrition. The position can be blocked from the third move, leaving white to wonder what happened to his beloved open, dynamic, chess.

You attack, they defend, your attack comes to a grinding halt and they win the endgame without having played a single aggressive move along the way. Well, that’s often what the story seems to be at club level anyway. The problem with the French is you really need to know what you’re doing to attack it well, and the best ways to do this are in the main lines, which the average French player has been playing for the last twenty years.

Clearly in terms of chess understanding and development the main lines are the way to go but then most club players don’t have the time or the inclination to read up on the 13 volume tome "Opening for White according to Anand" by GM Alexander Khalifman. At the top level, the French is not even regarded to be a strategically sound opening. Khalifman writes "Most of the top players do not even recognise it as an 100% correct opening."

But Khalifman later says "Whenever there are drawbacks to something, there are advantages to it as well. White’s space edge can be neutralized by timely undermining of his centre. Black’s light squared bishop can be exchanged at some moment, meanwhile there arises a question - whether it is really so bad after all..?" And the club French player who’s been playing it for twenty years is very familiar with all the themes. So the question is what to do? In a crucial prize money game, I tried the exchange variation with 3.c4 which worked ok if only to get black out of his comfort zone. But objectively Black is already equal on move two though, and there’s no more bad bishop. In blitz, or rapidplay there’s a very easy answer. Play some random gambit to gain time on the clock.

So, what to do? Well if it works in 3 minute games online ...

Hadi,J - Jones,Robert [C00] 4NCL (3), Hinckley 15.01.2011 1.e4 e6 A disappointment.

2.f4 "Controversial" - Mike White. Not as controversial as 39...Qg2+ Sugden-White and 0-1 (time)

2. ... d5 3.e5 c5 4.b4

The random gambit. Usually gains a few seconds on the clock online and an initiative which is worth the pawn in blitz.

4. ... cxb4 5.d4 âc6 6.âf3 ºd7 7.a3 Qb6 8.axb4 ºxb4+ 9.c3 ... In exchange for his pawn, White gets a solid centre, which cannot easily be undermined, free development and play down the half open a and b files.

9. ... ºe7 10.ºd3 f6 11.0-0 f5

This seems dubious. White has some compensation for the pawn and wasting a tempo like this says to me, I’m going defend against the attack and win the endgame.

12.ºa3 âh6 13.¼a2 ºxa3 14.âxa3 âf7 According to the computer White has sufficient compensation for the pawn now.

15.Qe2 Qd8

16.ºxf5 exf5 17.e6 0-0 18.exf7+ ¼xf7 19.âg5 ¼e7 20.Qd3 h6 21.âf3 Qe8?! According to the comp 21...Re4 22.Nd2 Re8 this was the way to keep the advantage. The knight can’t go to e5 as in the game without conceding the e4 outpost around which Black can build his play.

22.âe5 âxe5 Swopping off pieces to win the endgame but now the e5 pawn will be strong.

23.dxe5 Qf7 24.âc2 a6 25.âd4 ºe6 26.¼b1 ¼c8 27.¼b6 ¼cc7 28.¼ab2 ºc8 29.Qg3 ... The immediate 29.Rd6 was more accurate

29. ... ¾h7 30.¼d6 ¼cd7 31.¼xd7 ºxd7 Clearly if 31...Rxd7 then 32.e6 is +-

32.¼xb7 ºc8 A draw was offered

33.¼xe7 Qxe7 34.Qd3 g6 35.h3 Qf7 36.Qb1 ... looking to invade on the b file

36. ... Qb7 37.Qxb7+ ºxb7 White should win this ending in practical play at this level as the a pawn can be blockaded.

38.âb3 ¾g7 39.¾f2 ¾f7 40.âa5 ºc8 41.¾e3 ºd7 42.¾d4 ºb5 Black’s first active move of the game!

43.¾xd5 ºf1 44.h4 ºxg2+ 45.¾d6 ¾e8 46.c4 ºe4 47.c5 g5 48.hxg5 hxg5 49.fxg5 f4 50.c6 1-0


Revisiting Anderssen … notes from Mark Hannon*

* Disinformator’s writer-in-residence-in-Witney-with-a-long-distance-finger-on-pulse

Tan,Weisin - Hannon,Mark [A00] FWS - witney 2010-11, 13.01.2011 1.a3 Anderssen's opening, Anderssen scored 1.5/3 against Morphy with this move.

1. … g6 2.e4 ... Black's next move is a novelty on move 2! in all the 4.5 million games on chess base this is the first time this position arose. GM Fedorowicz played the unoriginal Bg7 here against Jonathan Rogers

2. ... d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.âc3 Qd6 5.d4 ºg7 6.ºe3 ... Allows Black to obtain the 2 bishops

6. ... âh6 7.Qd2 âf5 8.0-0-0 âxe3 9.Qxe3 0-0

Black is doing OK of course but I rather dawdled over playing some of these obvious moves, time which cold have been more valuably spent once the game was more concrete.

10.âb5 Qd8 11.Qg3 âa6 At the time it seemed that Black must defend c7 but Rybka points out the nice move a6, e.g. 11... a6! 12. Nxc7 Ra7 {The rook has a flight square and White's position is overextended} 13. Nb5 axb5 14. Qxb8 Qa5 and Black has a winning initiative.

12.âc3 c6 13.âf3 âc7 14.âe5 ... It is better now to kick the Knight with 14 ...f6 keeping the position of my knight flexible and removing any threat to c6 to enable the advance b5, a5 etc

14. ... âd5 15.ºc4 ºe6 The Bishop turns out to be a little exposed here, amore solid way to cement my knight on d5 would be with e6, note that because White no longer has his dark square bishop the weakening of the f6 square is harder to exploit.

16.¼he1 ¼c8 16 ......Nxc3 17.Qxc3 Bxc4 is better now to exchange two pairs of minor pieces so as to relieve Black's cramp. At the time I was obsessed with preserving my pair of bishops and attacking white’s queen side by opening files latching on to the a3 pawn-note the lasting

psychological effect of white's unusual opening move. But, in this structure which is like a Kengis Alekhine Defence it is useful to exchange white squared bishops

17.âe4 b5 18.ºb3 a5 19.âc5 ºf5 20.Qf3 ... Up to now I had been quite confident but this move emphasises the awkward position of my knight and queen's bishop

20. ... ºe6

21.g3 ... I think here 21. Nxe6 fxe6 22. Qg4 followed by Nd3 is better, but the more enigmatic text move caused me to self-destruct over the next few moves.

21. ... a4 22.ºa2 b4 Panicking, with his knights proving a bit scarily positioned and my position being not as good as I had thought, I lash out with out calculating adequately, but Qd6 would be a good and natural alternative

23.axb4 âxb4 Typical example of one bad move following another it would be better to play Qd6 and admit my mistake but still keep a coherent structure

24.ºxe6 fxe6 25.Qa3 ... I had missed this powerful move

25. ... âxc2 If 25... Qa5 then f4 with a great position for white so I tried a desperate sacrifice

26.¾xc2 ¼xf2+ 27.¾b1 ¼b8 28.âxa4 Qa5 29.¼e3 ...

29. Nxc6 Rbxb2+ 30. Qxb2 Rxb2+ 31. Nxb2 is clearer, I think. Re3 disconnects the rooks and gives Black some tactical opportunities.

29. … ¼b4 30.b3 Qb5 30... Bxe5 still gives some chance of resistance as 31. Rxe5 here allows the tactic Rxd4 32. Rxa5 Rxd1+ 33. Qc1 Rxc1+ 34. Kxc1 Rxh2 and Black has 3 pawns for piece though the structural damage to black's pawn structure leaves white with excellent winning chances

31.âc5 ºxe5 32.¼xe5 But now white can recapture on e5 with the rook and secure the Knight on c5 and Black is totally busted. I lost on time here.

1-0


Top Tactics 2011

As it says upstairs … find the top continuation….

1. Truran – March

OCA (31 Oct) (B)

2. Kocan – Woolacott Chilterns (26 Nov)

(B)

3. Piggott – King OCA (8 Dec)

(B)

4. Hadi – Roberson Richmond QP (Nov)

(W)

5. Manley – Shanmugan Oxford Rapids (30 Oct)

(W)

6. Harvey – Clarke Swindon u-18 (4 Mar)

(W)

7. Jeffries - Moyse

Chilterns (5 Mar) (W)

8. D’Souza-Eva - March OCA (5 Dec)

(W)

9. Burt - Farrington Kidlington (8 Feb)

(B – mate in 5)


Blunderama™ Dramas 2011

Spot the drama time. There’s an indication in brackets as to how far ahead you need to look to find the blunder…

a. Rajangam – Rasell

OCA (10 Jan) (W – 1.5)

b. Chapman - Schaper FW Shield (24 Feb)

(W – 2.0)

c. Panayotov - Terry OCA (7 Mar)

(B – 1.5)

d. Hackett – Terry FW Shield (13 Jan)

(B, 4.0)

e. Shanmugan - Hayward FW Shield (24 Feb)

(W, 1.0)

f. Koreywo - Bush Chilterns (5 Mar)

(W, 1.5)

g. O’Reilly - Rose

OCA (4 Apr) (B, 2.0)

h. Sonadse- Scott Chilterns (5 Mar)

(B, 1.0)

i. “Paul – Me” OCA 4 (24 Jan)

(W, 6.0)

Answers follow


The answers postcard

The Top Tactical 1. Truran,M - March,M , 31 Oct – continued: 25…. Nxf3 (this woke me up as I hadn’t seen that the e-pawn could

move so quickly to pin the Nd4) 26.Kxf3 e5 27.Nab3 exd4 28.Kf4 g5+ and although Black is much better the game was agreed drawn in 33

2. Kocan,B - Woolacott,S , Chilterns, 26.11.2011 – Sam started the mopping up early (as can happen in the Caro, with 13… Qxd4 14.Qxd4 Nxd4 15.Bd1 Bxc3+ etc (0-1, 36)

3. Piggott,R - King,S , 5 Dec – Simon finished things off with a flourish : 26….Bxf4 27.exf4 Qb2 28.Qf3 Bg4 29.Qe4 Qf2+ 30.faKh1 Bh3 31.Rg1 Nd3 32.Nc3 Qxg1+ 0-1

4. Hadi,J - Roberson,P , Nov 2011 – and aagainst a 226 rated player Justin started the winning process with 20.Rb6 Rxc7 21.Nxd5 exd5 22.Rxg6 Bxg6 23.c3 1-0 Of course, though – the wizened Disinformorion may have been looking at the flashier line which Justin provided in the notes to the full game (see following sections)

5. Manley,J - Shanmugan,R , 29 Oct – Ravi has bitten a pawn and just retreated his Ne8, after which Jon uncorked the following vintage stuff: 18.Qh6 Ba6 19.Re3 Bxd3 20.Rh3 f6 21.Qxh7+ Kf7 22.Rxd3 (with 1-0 in 33) I particularly like way the R wanders to h3 after Bxd3 and supports the attack just long enough to win the h7 pawn and then have time to collect the bishop

6. Harvey,M - Clarke,B , 4 Mar – just after Black has grabbed the c4 pawn, and you’re wondering what sort of compensation there is on the d-file, Marcus comes up with 23.g4 (pawn) Be6 24.gxf5 Bxf5 25.Rd5 Qf7 26.Rxf5 (exchange) Qxf5 27.Ng4 (piece) Qxg4 28.Qg6+ Kh8 29.Qxh6+ Kg8 30.Qg6+ Kh8 31.h6 Rg8 32.Qf6+ Kh7 33.Rd7+ (rook) Qxd7 34.Bxe4+ Rg6 35.Bxg6+ 1-0

7. Jeffries,M – Moyse N, 05 Mar – Majid is on top and he gets to re-use the knight-fork motif twice to complete the job: 20.Bxe7 Nxe7 21.Qxf6 Nd5 22.Qf3 a6 23.Qxd5 1-0

8. D'Souza-Eva,J - March,M , 5 Dec – Jon ignores the threat to g5 to create some of his own. And then some more. 13.Nf5 hxg5 14.Nxe7+ Kh8 15.Bxd5! Bxd5 16.Ncxd5 Nbd7 17.Nc6 Qc8 18.Nde7 Qb7 19.Qd2 Nh7 20.Qe2 Ndf6 21.h3 Rfe8 22.Qf3 Qd7 23.Ne5 1-0

9. Burt,W - Farrington,E , Kidlington Feb 11 Will: “My game against Ed was a bit of a disaster from the start, soon ending up a piece down without enough compensation, then no compensation, then no position. Wondering why I hadn't resigned half

an hour ago, I planned to resign one move before reaching the following ... Then, reflecting that Black probably had a direct mate anyway, I spotted a rather neat mate in five so I thought I'd let Ed play it out ... resigning when he missed the spectacular third move in favour of something that was probably about +20.0. I think Priscilla Morris was rather non-plussed when I asked

her if I was allowed to announce mate in five for my opponent! 1...Qc3+ 2.Kd1 Qa1+ 3.Kc2 Qb1+ 4.Kxb1 Na3+ 5.Kc1 Rb1#

The Baser Blunderama

(a) Karl threatened the obvious … : 29. Ng5 Ndf8 30.Nf7+ 1-0

(b) A 4 Knights ending in the middle game is enough to see off Graham: 18.Nb3 Nh5 19.Nd5 Nxe2+ 0-1

(c) Sean aims to win back a pawn, but reaps a bigger reward: 28…. Qg4 29.Qg3 Qxd1+ 0-1

(d) And here I grab a pawn, knew the risk, and nonetheless played 9.... Re8 10.e5 Nd5 11.Nxd5 cxd5 12.Rfb1 Qa3 13.Rb3

(e) In the FWS, Ravi overpresses and overlooks: 22.d5 Qf4+ (groan) 23.Kb1 Qxc4 24.Qxa7+ Kc8 (and though White has the draw in hand he needed to win, so lost)

(f) An extraordinary win of the exchange for Black happened after 23.Re4 Rxe4 24.Qxe4 Nc3

(g) Matt (Rose) played the two knight’s tango but a third knight move secured a pawn for Gerard: 19… Na5 20.Qb5 Nc4 21.Nxe4

(h) Dave’s position is teetering, and 34…. dxe4?? is the final straw but fortunately for him his opponent can’t find the camel’s back, so 35.Qd4+?? (Na5! will win quite a lot, immediately) Ke7 36.Qxe4 R6c7

(i) Here, with a scoresheet picked up at the end of the evening, we found this very long exit strategy: 20.Re7 Nd7 21.Rxd7 Qxd7 22.Qa7 Qb5 23.Rc1 Qb3+ 24.Rc2 Qd3+ 25.Rd2 Qb1+ 0-1 A suitably anonymised classic to end the 2011 series.


The 2011 Partridge Rasell – Egby, Chilterns 29 January 2011

Every now and then comes a game which ticks every box that every held a feather to tickle the editor out of that part of his life that preaches action but practices mañana – and this does it almost without trying. White wins without having to do much more than adopt Kelly Riley’s Aggressive (“push the pawn”) Procedure. For Black, there’s the feeling that his pieces, when consulted, took some fresh air before deciding it was time to stay in this particularly cold January morning. We’ve sent a deputation to search out Chigorin’s grave to test for any recent movement. On with the fun, which starts 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nb6 when 6.d5 brings us to the first diagram:

6. ... âb8 7.a4 ºg4 8.a5 â6d7 9.h3 ºh5 10.Qb3 Qc8 11.ºe3 âa6 12.âc3 âac5 13.Qc2 b6

14.b4 âb7 15.ºa6 ºxf3 16.gxf3 âb8

17.ºb5+ Nd7 18.ºc6 ¼b8 19.âb5 a6 20.âa7 Qd8 21.axb6 cxb6 22.¼xa6 âd6

23.e5 âf5 24.e6 1-0 The archetypal chess (car) crash -

from 0.00 to +/- 14.59 in 24 moves


Games Section … page 1

Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents GamesGamesGamesGames, Disinformator 41, Disinformator 41, Disinformator 41, Disinformator 41

The pgn file for this, and the remainder of the games can be downloaded from Disinformator Central, here -

http://oxford4ncl.org/disinformator.htm * Moyse,Nigel - Tan,Weisin [A07] OCA - Cowley, 10.01.2011.......................................2 Brown,Matt - Burt,Will [C63] OCA - Cowley, 10.01.2011.......................................2 * Richmond,Peter - Manley,Jon [C63] FW Shield - Witney 2010-11, 13.01.2011......................2 Truran,Mike - Scott,Dave [E05] FWS - Witney 2010-11, 13.01.2011 ............................3 King,Simon - Terry,Sean [B07] OCA2, City derby, 24.01.2011...................................3 March,Mike - Godfrey,Dave [E81] OCA2, City derby, 24.01.2011...................................3 Staneland,Peter - Bush,Martin [A13] Chilterns - Bucks, 29.01.2011 ...................................4 Richards - March,Mike [B43] OCA - Wantage, 2011 ............................................4 Shanmugam,Ravi - Rose,Matt [B20] OCA - Univ 1, 31.01.2011 ........................................4 Manley,Jon - Starkie,Ray [B23] OCA – Cowley 1, 15.02.2011....................................5 King,Simon - Smith,Chris [B24] FW Shield semi - Univ 1, 24.02.2011...........................5 Beckett,Richard - Davenport,Rob [C44] Chilterns - Ox-Hants, 02.04.2011 ...............................5 Rose,Matt - Hayward,Philip [B05] FWS shield final derby, 18.04.2011.............................6 Terry,Sean - Brooke,Ian [C00] FWS shield final derby, 18.04.2011.............................6 Burt,Will - Hannon,Mark [B23] Witney open, 10.10.2011.........................................6 Watkins,P - March,Mike [D02] Chilterns 2011 , 01.10.2011......................................7 Adair,John - Zakarian,David [B32] Chilterns 2011 , 01.10.2011......................................7 Rose,Matt - Starkie,Ray [B36] OCA Div 1, 31.10.2011 ...........................................7 Manley,Jon – Shanmugam, Ravi OU Rapid St Hugh's (4) , Oct 11 ................................8 Haldane,Robin - Tan,S OU Rapid St Hugh's (6)...........................................8 De Coverley,Roger - Nixon,Rod [C91] Chilterns Rossetti Hall, 05.11.2011 .............................8 Woolacott,Sam - Cook,Jenny [D35] FW Shield Rd 2 – Cowley 3, 21.11.2011.......................9 Stocks,Selby - Lee,Alex [B90] FWS 2 – Cowley 3, 21.11.2011 .................................9 Taylor,John - Terry,Sean [B22] FWS 2 – Cowley 3, 21.11.2011 .................................9 Palliser IM,Richard - Terry,Sean [B08] Simul, Oxford, 22.11.2011 .....................................10 Palliser IM,Richard - Miranda,Nicole [D17] Simul, Oxford, 22.11.2011 .....................................10 Hayward,Philip - de Souza Eva,Jon [A55] FWS, City 2 – MCS - 11.2011 .................................10 Manley,Jon - Tuncs,David [B23] Chilterns, Hants Basingstoke (3), 26.11.2011...............11 Terry,Sean - Wilkinson,John [D02] Chilterns, Hants Basingstoke (7), 26.11.2011...............11 * Hadi,Justin - Roberson,Peter [C10] Richmond Rapidplay, 11.2011.................................11 Piggott,Roley - King,Simon [E61] OCA 2 - Wantage, 2011 ........................................11 de Souza Eva,Jon - March,Mike [B23] OCA - MCS, 05.12.2011........................................11



* Moyse,Nigel - Tan,Weisin [A07] OCA - Cowley, 10.01.2011 A tough (and for me fascinating) game from Board 2 of the first game after Christmas 2010, showing both sides had battled through the festive season and left their charitable instincts at home after the 12th day of Christmas. The game starts to heat up in the diagram position with Nigel’s Qh4 more or less forcing Black to swap off his queen for 2 rooks – although perhaps Qxa7 might have had the same effect, with the gain of a precious pawn. The last 20 or so moves are missing – lost in a time scramble interrupted by some mild disputation about the health of one clock – though by the time the scoresheet runs out it’s clear that Black has come out trumps.

1.âf3 d5 2.g3 âf6 3.ºg2 c6 4.b3 ºg4 5.d4 e6 6.0-0 ºd6 7.âbd2 0-0 8.ºb2 âbd7 9.¼e1 ¼c8 10.âe5 ºh5 11.âdf3 c5 12.c4 cxd4 13.âxd7 Qxd7

14.Qxd4 dxc4 15.¼ad1 ¼fd8 16.bxc4 ºb4 17.Qh4 Qxd1 18.¼xd1 ¼xd1+ 19.ºf1 ºxf3 20.exf3 ºe7 21.Qf4 âe8 22.¾g2 ºc5 23.ºe2 ¼d7 24.ºc3 b6 25.Qc1 ¼cd8 26.h4 âd6

27.g4 âb7 28.h5 ºd4 29.h6 ºxc3 30.Qxc3 gxh6 31.f4 ¼d4 32.ºf3 âc5 33.Qe3 ¾g7 34.f5 ¼d3 35.f6+ ¾g6 36.Qe5 ¼3d4 37.Qh5+ ¾xf6 38.Qxh6+ ¾e7 39.Qh4+ ¾f8

40.Qxh7 ¼xc4 41.Qh8+ ¾e7 42.Qh4+ ¾e8 43.ºc6+ âd7 44.Qh8+ ¾e7 45.Qh4+ âf6 46.ºf3 ¼dd4 47.¾h2 ¼f4 48.ºd1 ¼cd4 49.Qg3 e5 50.Qa3+ ¾e8 51.ºf3 etc 0-1

W (17)

Brown,Matt - Burt,Will [C63] OCA - Cowley, 10.01.2011 And here is the game that launched a few inquiries in the direction of the Samaritans – with Will showing once again a genius peculiar to him for upsetting the board with crazy material imbalances and preponderances. Here he has reached the diagram position by allowing his Ne5 to be harried to h6 via g4 – with very few prizes of what’s happening next. Black’s calm 20th move, moving his king back to help his only other piece join the queen for the final onslaught, is as impressive now as it was depressing to see over the board … 1.e4 e5 2.âf3 âc6 3.ºb5 f5 4.d3 âf6 5.0-0 ºc5 6.exf5 0-0 7.âxe5 âxe5 8.d4 ºxd4 9.Qxd4 d6

10.f4 âeg4 11.h3 âh6 12.g4 âhxg4 13.hxg4 âxg4 14.f6 ¼xf6 15.f5 ¼xf5 16.¼xf5 ºxf5 17.Qd5+ ¾h8 18.Qxf5 Qh4

19.Qf4 c6 20.ºd3 ¾g8 21.ºf5 Qe1+ 22.¾g2 Qe2+ 23.¾g3 h5 24.ºxg4 hxg4 25.âc3 Qe1+ 26.¾xg4 ¼f8 27.Qg3 Qe6+

28.¾h4 ¼f1 29.Qh3 Qe1+ 30.¾g5 ¼g1+ 31.¾f4 g5+ 32.¾f5 Qe5+ 33.¾g6 Qe8+ 34.¾h6 Qf8+ 35.¾g6 Qf7+ 0-1 Black to play Black to play Black to play Black to play (12)

* Richmond,Peter - Manley,Jon [C63] FW Shield - Witney 2010-11, 13.01.2011 Peter Richmond was the pick of the Witney attack for most of 2010-11, taking up from where he left off at the end of Disinformator™ 40 to win once again against Jon Manley – though here, it was a more complex game, where he needed some help from the opposition to garner the full point. Jon gets the right idea in the diagram position but gets lost in the resulting complications – 13...Nb4 14.Nb5 Bg4 15.f3 Nxc2 16.Rb1 Rxa8 17.fxg4 is suggested by the PC with the RAM - and fails to get compensation for the lost rook. 1. e4 e5

2. âf3 âc6

3. ºb5 f5

4. d3 fxe4

5. dxe4 âf6

6. 0-0 d6

7.âc3 ºe7

8. a4 0-0

9.ºc4+ ¾h8

10.âg5 Qe8

11.âe6 Qf7

12.âxc7 Qxc4

13.âxa8 âd4

14.Qd3 Qc5

15.âb5 ºe6

16.âac7 ºc4

17.b4 Qc6

18.âxd4 exd4

19.Qxd4 ºxf1

20.âe6 Qc4

21.Qxc4 ºxc4

22.âxf8 ºxf8

23.ºe3 a6

24.ºd4 ºe7

25.c3 ¾g8

26.¼e1 ¾f7

27.f4 h5

28.¾f2 d5

29.ºxf6 ¾xf6

30.e5+ ¾e6

31.¾e3 a5

32.¼b1 axb4

33.cxb4 1-0

B (11)B (11)B (11)B (11)



Truran,Mike - Scott,Dave [E05] FWS - Witney 2010-11, 13.01.2011

Another key clash in our cup match against Witney – a match I could afford to watch from the sidelines, having blunderama-ed® so effectively against Dave Hackett, and full of interesting individual battles. 15. … Qd5+ is a neat way to reduce to an ending which Dave likes playing – enough of a plus coming from the result of more space, fewer weaknesses and a 3-2 queenside majority. Black slowly makes inroads along the c-file before 30. … Nc5 claims the first pawn – without any loss of control. A good advertisement for what we’re missing this year with Dave’s absence from the City team.

1.d4 âf6

2.c4 e6

3.g3 d5

4.âf3 ºe7

5.ºg2 0-0

6.0-0 dxc4

7.Qa4 a6

8.Qxc4 b5

9.Qc2 ºb7

10.âbd2 âbd7

11.âb3 ºe4

12.Qd1 c5

13.âe5 ºxg2

14.¾xg2 âxe5

15.dxe5 Qd5+

16.Qxd5 âxd5

17.a3 ¼ac8

18.e4 âb6

19.âa5 ¼c7

20.¼d1 âa4

21.b3 âc3

22.¼e1 c4

23.ºd2 cxb3

24.âxb3 ¼fc8

25.¾f3 ¼c4

26.h4 h6

27.¼e3 âa4

28.¼a2 ¼c2

29.¼xc2 ¼xc2

30.ºc1 âc5

31.âxc5 ºxc5

32.¼e1 ¼xf2+

33.¾g4 ¼a2

34.¼d1 ºxa3

35.¼d8+ ¾h7

36.ºe3 g6

37.¼d7 ¾g7

38.ºb6 h5+

39.¾h3 g5

40.hxg5 ¾g6

41.ºd8 ºc1

42.g4 ºxg5

43.gxh5+ ¾xh5

44.ºxg5 ¾xg5

45.¼xf7 ¼a3+

46.¾g2 ¾g4

47.¼f6 ¼a2+

48.¾f1 b4

49.¼xe6 b3

50.¼b6 0-1

B (20)B (20)B (20)B (20)

King,Simon - Terry,Sean [B07] OCA2, City derby, 24.01.2011 Do people ever learn from their losses, I wonder. I recall a book in the 1970s which had me rushing to my scoresheet to create some statistical viewpoint of my games – an exciting project which had me bored within the hour. Quite apart from everything else, I didn’t play much, and varied my openings too often. Now, a little later in life, I think you can learn from positions you’ve botched up, like the position here after move 19, which sees my kingside in a mess, but an extra bishop in the kitty for use in the ending. Can I get there safely?! Of course not – as it happens – but I may have learned enough from this to play slightly better in a simul game against Richard Palliser, reported later. An enjoyable mess of a game, both sides missing a lot but never losing the thread entirely.

1.e4 c6

2.âc3 d6

3.g3 g6

4.ºg2 ºg7

5.d4 âd7

6.âge2 e5

7.ºe3 âgf6

8.h3 0-0

9.Qd2 âb6

10.b3 Qc7

11.¼d1 âe8

12.0-0 âd7

13.f4 exd4

14.âxd4 h6

15.g4 ¾h7

16.f5 âe5

17.âce2 g5

18.ºxg5 hxg5

19.Qxg5 f6

20.Qh5+ ºh6

21.âf3 Qf7

22.Qh4 Qg7

23.âf4 ºd7

24.âxe5 dxe5

25.âg6 ¼g8

26.¼f3 c5

27.ºf1 ºc6

28.¼fd3 âc7

29.¼d6 âe8

30.¼xc6 bxc6

31.ºc4 âc7

32.¼d6 ¼gd8

33.¼xf6 ¼d1+

34.¾f2 ¼ad8

35.ºd3 ¼8xd3

36.cxd3 Qd7

37.âf8+ 1-0

B (19)B (19)B (19)B (19)

March,Mike - Godfrey,Dave [E81] OCA2, City derby, 24.01.2011 A great game for the attacking enthusiast – in the diagram Black finds a thematic move, only to discover it only takes one move for White to set in motion a 15-move carveup through a seemingly solid defensive setup, ending in mate or thereabouts… 1.d4 âf6

2.c4 g6

3.âc3 ºg7

4.e4 d6

5.f3 0-0

6.ºg5 âbd7

7.âh3 c5

8.d5 a6

9.âf2 Qa5

10.ºd2 Qc7

11.ºe2 e6

12.a4 b6

13.0-0 ºb7

14.¼c1 ¼fe8

15.b3 exd5

16.cxd5 âf8

17.ºg5 h6

18.ºe3 ¾h7

19.Qd2 ºc8

20.¾h1 ºd7

21.f4 b5

22.axb5 axb5

23.e5 dxe5

24.âxb5 ºxb5

25.ºxb5 ¼ed8

26.¼xc5 Qd6

27.fxe5 Qxe5

28.ºf4 Qe7

29.d6 Qa7

30.¼c7 Qb6

31.ºc4 âe6

32.ºxe6 fxe6

33.ºxh6 âe8

34.ºxg7 âxg7

35.âg4 ¾g8

36.âf6+ 1-0

B (21)B (21)B (21)B (21)



Staneland,Peter - Bush,Martin [A13] Chilterns - Bucks, 29.01.2011 Continuing the theme of mayhem appearing from virtually nowhere, it looks like another dull day on a Chiltern cup board, with Black loosely threatening the base of the White pawns, and White may now want to chop on e4 and play h3, and perhaps punt those king-side pawns in the direction of the Black king. Instead, perhaps a mix-up in the move-ordering department, and h3 gets played first… … disaster. 1.âf3 d5

2.c4 e6

3.e3 âf6

4.âc3 c6

5.b3 âbd7

6.ºb2 ºd6

7.cxd5 exd5

8.ºd3 0-0

9.¼c1 ¼e8

10.0-0 âe4

11.Qc2 âdf6

12.âxe4 âxe4

13.ºa1 ºg4

14.Qb2 f6

15.âd4 Qb8

16.f4 ºb4

17.h3 ºxd2

18.hxg4 ºxe3+

19.¾h2 ºxf4+

20.¼xf4 Qxf4+

21.¾g1 Qe3+

22.¾h2 Qg3+

23.¾g1 Qxd3

24.âf5 c5

25.g5 d4

26.gxf6 gxf6

27.¼f1 âg3

28.âh6+ ¾g7

29.¼f3 Qd1+

30.¾h2 âf1+

31.¾h3 ¾xh6

32.Qf2 ¾g7

33.Qh4 ¼f8

34.ºb2 ¼ae8

35.Qf4 ¼e3

36.Qg4+ ¾h8

37.b4 ¼xf3+

38.Qxf3 Qxf3+

0-1

W (17)W (17)W (17)W (17)

Richards - March,Mike [B43] OCA - Wantage, 2011 A sprightly enough game here by Black after some uninspired post-castling play by White, his 13th move showing a distinct lack of ambition, with the ‘penalty’ being exacted a few moves later with an rook landing on that square in so pure and deadly a fashion as to make it hardly rank as a sacrifice - Though perhaps White could have grovelled a bit better with 19.Ne2 Bxd2 20.Rxc4 Nxc4 21.Bxd2 Nxb2 22.Rb1 Nc4 23.Rxb7 Nxd2+ 24.Kg2. 1.e4 c5

2.âf3 e6

3.d4 cxd4

4.âxd4 a6

5.âc3 Qc7

6.ºe3 b5

7.a3 âc6

8.Qd2 b4

9.axb4 ºxb4

10.¼a4 âge7

11.ºd3 0-0

12.0-0 ºb7

13.âf3 f5

14.exf5 âxf5

15.ºxf5 ¼xf5

16.¼d1 ¼xf3

17.gxf3 âe5

18.¾f1 Qc4+

19.Qe2 Qh4

20.¼d4 Qh3+

21.¾e1 ºxc3+

22.bxc3 âxf3+

23.¾d1 âxd4

24.Qd3 Qg4+

0-1

W (13)W (13)W (13)W (13)

Shanmugam,Ravi - Rose,Matt [B20] OCA - Univ 1, 31.01.2011

Another Sicilian, closed and tense – and in my experience, very hard to evaluate – both in “+/-“ terms as well as practical play – what plan, which move? I think here, it is easy to see that Black has the better of it, but which plan helps to take advantage of this superiority? Here, White makes things a lot easier with 20. c4, which loses either a pawn, or (as happened OTB) complete control of the light squares on the queen side. That Black spins out the game til move 52 is a credit to him – and a test that often is often thrown the way of the player of the black pieces in a closed Sicilian: show me you can win! 1.e4 c5

2.d3 âc6

3.g3 g6

4.ºg2 ºg7

5.f4 d6

6.âf3 âf6

7.0-0 0-0

8.h3 b5

9.¼e1 ¼b8

10.¾h2 a5

11.âc3 b4

12.âe2 ºa6

13.ºe3 Qc7

14.¼b1 a4

15.e5 âd5

16.exd6 Qxd6

17.ºf2 ¼fd8

18.âg5 âd4

19.âe4 Qc7

20.c4 bxc3

21.â2xc3 âb4

22.Qxa4 ºxd3

23.¼bc1 ºc2

24.¼xc2 âbxc2

25.¼b1 âb4

26.Qd1 âf5

27.Qe2 âd3

28.b3 âxf2

29.Qxf2 c4

30.b4 e5

31.a4 exf4

32.gxf4 ¼d3

33.âb5 Qd8

34.¼e1 ¼b3

35.Qe2 ¼xb4

36.¼d1 Qh4

37.¼d7 Qxf4+

38.¾g1 ¼b1+

39.ºf1 âe3

40.âd2 Qg3+

41.¾h1 Qxh3+

42.¾g1 âxf1

43.âxb1 Qxd7

44.Qxf1 ºd4+

45.¾h1 Qd5+

46.Qg2 Qh5+

47.Qh2 Qd1+

48.¾g2 ¼e8

49.â1c3 Qg4+

50.Qg3 Qxg3+

51.¾xg3 ºxc3

52.âxc3 ¼e3+

0-1 W (20)W (20)W (20)W (20)



Manley,Jon - Starkie,Ray [B23] OCA – Cowley 1, 15.02.2011

And still the Sicilians flow on – I’m taking a mild interest in the opening, if for no other reason than I’m more than occasionally playing 1. … c5, and preparing against the day when my opponents play something other than 2. c3. White has reached the diagram position with nothing more to claim for advantage than a pair of weakish Q-side pawns. It looks a bit dull, to be frank – but nowadays the tendency to play to the death by Carlsen & Co has taught the rest of us how exciting it can get if you stop offering draws. This game gets decided by a blunder (oversight? tiredness?) on move 26, after which the computer evaluation skips in favour of White – and Ray’s attempt to salvage something only hastens the end. 1.e4 c5

2.âc3 g6

3.d4 cxd4

4.Qxd4 âf6

5.âf3 âc6

6.Qa4 d6

7.e5 dxe5

8.âxe5 ºd7

9.âxd7 Qxd7

10.ºe3 ºg7

11.ºb5 0-0

12.¼d1 Qc8

13.0-0 a6

14.ºxc6 bxc6

15.ºc5 ¼e8

16.¼fe1 Qb7

17.ºd4 ¼ad8

18.b3 e6

19.a3 ¼e7

20.ºe5 ¼ed7

21.¼xd7 ¼xd7

22.Qh4 âe8

23.ºxg7 ¾xg7

24.âe4 Qb5

25.Qg3 Qd5

26.Qc3+ e5

27.âc5 Qd4

28.Qxd4 ¼xd4

29.âxa6 ¼d2

30.¼c1 âd6

31.âc5 âb5

32.a4 âd4

33.¾f1 âxc2

34.âe4 ¼d4

35.¼xc2 ¼xe4

36.¼c4 1-0

W (20)W (20)W (20)W (20)

King,Simon - Smith,Chris [B24] FW Shield semi - Univ 1, 24.02.2011

In which Simon takes up the Closed Sicilian, and cudgels his opponent into an early submission, with a Top Tactic, after Black pursues a central pawn at the expense of an open f-file, and find he can’t accept the sacrifice: 14...exd5 15.Rae1+ Kf8 16.Rxf6+ gxf6 17.Bh6+ Kf7 18.Bxd5+ is quite deadly. 1.e4 c5 2.âc3 e6 3.g3 âc6 4.ºg2 âf6 5.d3 ºe7 6.f4 d5 7.e5 âd7 8.âf3 f6 9.0-0 fxe5 10.âxe5 âdxe5 11.fxe5 âxe5 12.Qh5+ âg6

13.ºd2 ºf6 14.âxd5 0-0 15.âxf6+ ¼xf6 16.Qxc5 ¼f5 17.¼xf5 exf5 18.Qd5+ Qxd5 19.ºxd5+ ¾h8 20.¼e1 ºd7 21.ºc3 ºc6 22.ºxc6 bxc6 23.h4 h5

24.¼e6 ¾h7 25.¼xc6 f4 26.¼c7 ¼g8 27.¾g2 fxg3 28.¾xg3 ¾h6 29.ºd2+ ¾h7 30.¼c5 âe7 31.¼xh5+ ¾g6 32.¼c5 âf5+ 33.¾g4 âe7 34.¼c7 âc8

35.h5+ ¾f6 36.ºc3+ ¾e6 37.¼xg7 ¼e8 38.h6 âd6 39.h7 ¼f8 40.¼g6+ ¾d7 41.h8½ ¼f1 42.¼xd6+ ¾c7 43.Qd8+ ¾b7 44.Qe7+ ¾c8 45.¼d8# 1-0

W (14)W (14)W (14)W (14)

Beckett,Richard - Davenport,Rob [C44] Chilterns - Ox-Hants, 02.04.2011

After an unusual opening which allows White to develop pieces at the expense of the black-squared bishop, Black’s other prelate then indulges in an odd twitch in the diagram position, … Bf5 followed by … Bc8 – and this is all Richard needs to whip up a winning attack. With time running short, Black initially sets up a temporary blockade of the position, but then decides on an active (if short-lived) continuation. 1.e4 âc6

2.d4 e5

3.âf3 exd4

4.ºc4 d6

5.c3 âe5

6.âxe5 dxe5

7.0-0 âf6

8.Qb3 Qd7

9.cxd4 ºd6

10.dxe5 ºxe5

11.¼d1 Qe7

12.f4 ºd6

13.e5 ºc5+

14.ºe3 ºxe3+

15.Qxe3 0-0

16.âc3 c6

17.Qd4 âg4

18.âe4 ºf5

19.âd6 ºc8

20.¼d3 âh6

21.Qe4 g6

22.Qe1 âf5

23.âe4 b5

24.âf6+ ¾g7

25.ºb3 c5

26.¼h3 ¼h8

27.g4 âh6

28.Qh4 âxg4

29.âxg4 Qxh4

30.¼xh4 c4

31.ºc2 h6

32.âf6 ºe6

33.a3 ¼ac8

34.ºe4 ¼c7

35.¾f2 ¼d8

36.¼c1 ¼d2+

37.¾e3 ¼xb2

38.âe8+ 1-0

B (18)B (18)B (18)B (18)



Rose,Matt - Hayward,Philip [B05] FWS shield final derby, 18.04.2011 Two games from the Frank Wood final, demonstrating how close the seconds came to garnering match and cup spoils. Matt’s open play against the Alekhine results in a pawn sacrifice and the appearance of pressure, but good defence sees Phil emerge with a better position – and two pieces for a rook. With the cup teetering in the balance – with City 1 needing a draw, City 2 needing a win – the last game finished with a R+P v Q blockade in place for the white pieces. Barely – but comfortably… 1.e4 âf6 2.e5 âd5 3.d4 d6 4.âf3 ºg4 5.ºe2 e6 6.0-0 ºe7 7.c4 âb6 8.exd6 cxd6 9.âc3 0-0 10.a4 âc6 11.a5 ºxf3 12.ºxf3 âxc4 13.a6 d5 14.b3 âb6 15.axb7 ¼b8 16.âb5 ¼xb7

17.ºe2 Qb8 18.g3 âd7 19.ºf4 e5 20.dxe5 ¼xb5 21.e6 âde5 22.ºxb5 Qxb5 23.ºxe5 âxe5 24.¼xa7 ºc5 25.exf7+ âxf7 26.¼a4 h6 27.Qf3 ºb4 28.¼d1 ¼d8 29.¾g2 âg5 30.Qf4 âe4 31.Qxe4 dxe4

32.¼xd8+ ¾h7 33.¼d4 ºc5 34.¼xe4 Qxb3 35.¼ac4 ºa7 36.¼f4 Qa2 37.¼c1 ºe3 38.¼cc4 ºxf4 39.¼xf4 Qd5+ 40.¾g1 h5 41.h4 ¾g6 42.¾h2 Qd2 43.¾g2 ¾h6 44.¾g1 Qe2 45.¾g2 ¾g6 46.¾g1 Qe1+

47.¾g2 Qc1 48.¾h2 Qf1 49.¼f3 ¾h6 50.¼f4 g5 51.¼f6+ ¾g7 52.hxg5 Qc1 53.¼f4 ¾g6 54.¾g2 Qd1 55.¼h4 ¾xg5 56.¼f4 Qe1 57.¼h4 Qc1 58.¼f4 Qd1 59.¼h4 ¾f5 60.¼f4+ ¾e5 61.¼h4DRAW

W (31)W (31)W (31)W (31)

Terry,Sean - Brooke,Ian [C00] FWS shield final derby, 18.04.2011 And on the bottom board, a different type of comedy – farce – was in evidence as I took on Ian’s French defence to reach a position where I had all the space, and an expectation that something would happen to allow an entry into the Black position. By the diagram position I had managed a fit of the wobbles to be considering (a) Rxa4; or (b) either Nxe6 but decided on the fatal compromise – the solid and positional (so-called) Kg3. Even by now the practised follower of the extended blunder is pricking up his ears, awaiting developments. Both sides provide them – with the occasional good move thrown in for good measure – until White finally blunders the lot, and Ian picks up the wrong end of the stick and hands it, and this time the game, straight back. 1.d4 e6 2.e4 âc6 3.c3 d5 4.e5 ºe7 5.ºd3 ºg5 6.f4 ºh6 7.âf3 âge7 8.g4 g6 9.0-0 ºg7 10.b4 a6 11.ºe3 h5 12.h3 hxg4 13.hxg4 âg8 14.¾g2 âh6

15.âg5 ºd7 16.âd2 âe7 17.a4 b5 18.âb3 bxa4 19.âc5 ºb5 20.¾g3 Qc8 21.¼f2 c6 22.âxa4 Qc7 23.âc5 0-0 24.¼a5 Qc8 25.¼h2 f5 26.Qh1 ºxd3 27.âxd3 fxg4 28.¼ha2 âef5+

29.¾f2 g3+ 30.¾f3 Qd8 31.âc5 âxd4+ 32.¾xg3 âhf5+ 33.¾f2 ºh6 34.cxd4 ºxg5 35.âxe6 ºh4+ 36.¾f3 Qe7 37.âxf8 ¾xf8 38.Qc1 Qh7 39.Qg1 ºe7 40.¼xa6 ¼xa6 41.¼xa6 Qh5+ 42.¾g2 Qg4+

43.¾h2 Qxg1+ 44.ºxg1 ºxb4 45.¼xc6 ¾g7 46.¾h3 ºd2 47.¾g4 âh6+ 48.¾f3 âf5 49.ºf2 âe7 50.¼c7 ¾f8 51.¾g4 ºa5 52.¼d7 ¾e8 53.e6 ºc3 54.ºh4 âf5 55.¼d8# 1-0

(W, 20)(W, 20)(W, 20)(W, 20)

Burt,Will - Hannon,Mark [B23] Witney open, 10.10.2011 An enjoyable game from the Witney open in October, with Mark taking on the g4 line with gusto, and then balancing attack with defence on the queenside to bring home an early point. In the final position the black knights prevent mate from abstract looking squares (d7, b5) while White must lose material to avoid mate on a2

1.e4 c5 2.âc3 âc6 3.g4 e6 4.ºg2 h5 5.gxh5 âf6 6.d3 âxh5 7.ºe3 ºe7 8.Qd2 âf69.0-0-0 d5 10.exd5 exd5 11.ºg5 ºe6 12.âge2 Qa5 13.d4 c4

14.¾b1 0-0-0 15.âf4 ºb4 16.âxe6 fxe6 17.¾a1 ºxc3 18.bxc3 âe7 19.¼b1 ¼d6 20.¼b2 ¼a6 21.ºf4 âf5 22.h4 âd6 23.ºh2 âb5 24.Qf4 âd7 0-1



Watkins,P - March,Mike [D02] Chilterns 2011 , 01.10.2011

White gets punished for a wrong choice in the diagram position – the black pawns that result after the exchange on e4 end up as the advance cavalry for the subsequent attack, particularly after Black is allowed the time to anchor his bishop on c5 (14. … a5!) – and while the computer is less animated than the end result suggests, perhaps Black’s advantage lies in having the easier choice of moves, and plans, than his opponent. 1.âf3 d5

2.g3 âf6

3.ºg2 e6

4.0-0 c5

5.d4 âc6

6.b3 b6

7.ºb2 ºb7

8.âbd2 ºd6

9.c4 0-0

10.a3 âe4

11.âxe4 dxe4

12.âd2 f5

13.dxc5 ºxc5

14.e3 a5

15.Qc2 Qc7

16.¼ad1 âe5

17.ºxe5 Qxe5

18.âb1 ºc6

19.a4 g5

20.Qc3 Qc7

21.Qc2 Qf7

22.Qe2 Qg6

23.f4 exf3

24.ºxf3 ºxf3

25.Qxf3 f4

26.gxf4 gxf4+

27.¾h1 fxe3

28.Qe2 Qe4+

29.¾g1 ¼f2 0-1

W (11)W (11)W (11)W (11)

Adair,John - Zakarian,David [B32] Chilterns 2011 , 01.10.2011

The Chilterns Cup now admits anyone, which means that if you’ve got a passing IM in your midst, he can play top board. On the hottest day of the year (almost), David turned up to play a model game in the Sveshnikov – not that I can act as judge in the matter. It’s hard as a non-combatant in this line to appreciate what’s going on; sometimes you need the scars of war to appreciate the nuances. For all that I liked the passage of play in the diagram that saw Black play Qd7 – d8 in response to White’s f3 and f4 1.e4 c5

2.âf3 âc6

3.d4 cxd4

4.âxd4 e5

5.âb5 d6

6.c4 ºe7

7.ºe2 âf6

8.â1c3 a6

9.âa3 0-0

10.0-0 ºe6

11.b3 ¼c8

12.ºb2 âd4

13.ºd3 ºg4

14.Qe1 Qd7

15.f3 ºe6

16.f4 Qd8

17.¾h1 exf4

18.âd5 âc6

19.¼xf4 âe5

20.¼d1 âh5

21.âxe7+ Qxe7

22.¼f2 Qh4

23.¼fd2 Qg5

24.ºxe5 dxe5

25.ºe2 âf6

26.ºf3 Qf4

27.Qg3 Qxg3

28.hxg3 g5

29.¼e1 ¼cd8

30.¼f2 ¾g7

31.¾h2 ¼d7

32.âb1 ¼d3

33.¼ef1 ¼e3

34.¼d1 g4

35.¼e2 gxf3

36.¼xe3 âg4+

0-1

B (14)B (14)B (14)B (14)

Rose,Matt - Starkie,Ray [B36] OCA Div 1, 31.10.2011

The book of the Rose – Starkie chess games would be a pretty long one – spread over quite a few years (20?) – and the start of this season sees another battle in a Sicilian, where as early as move 12, it is becoming clear that a direct attack isn’t likely to win this game, not at least without some serious manoeuvring and / or a blunder or big risk. Black’s exchange on d5 on move 22 involves consciously side-lining his rook on b6, to create chances against the b3 pawn. This though allows an immediate f5, opening the position, and Ray gets sidetracked, then lost, in the complications. Another good example of Matt’s preference for piece position and initiative over material. 1.e4 c5

2.âf3 g6

3.d4 cxd4

4.âxd4 âc6

5.c4 âf6

6.âc3 d6

7.ºe2 âxd4

8.Qxd4 ºg7

9.ºg5 0-0

10.Qd2 a6

11.0-0 ºe6

12.¼ab1 Qb8

13.a4 ¼c8

14.b3 a5

15.f3 ¼c5

16.¼fe1 Qf8

17.ºf1 h6

18.ºe3 ¼c6

19.âd5 âd7

20.g3 âc5

21.ºg2 ¾h7

22.f4 ºxd5

23.exd5 ¼b6

24.f5 gxf5

25.Qc2 ¾h8

26.Qxf5 ¼xb3

27.ºe4 Qg8

28.ºxc5 ¼xb1

29.ºxb1 dxc5

30.¼xe7 1-0

W (19)W (19)W (19)W (19)



Manley,Jon – Shanmugam, Ravi OU Rapid St Hugh's (4) , Oct 11

… in which Ravi gets bitten by a Top Tactic after grabbing a misplaced (on c3) poisoned pawn… 1.e4 e5

2.âf3 âc6

3.âc3 âf6

4.ºb5 ºb4

5.0-0 0-0

6.d3 ºxc3

7.bxc3 d6

8.ºg5 Qe7

9.¼e1 âd8

10.d4 âe6

11.ºd2 c6

12.ºd3 Qc7

13.a4 a5

14.Qc1 b6

15.âh4 exd4

16.âf5 dxc3

17.ºxc3 âe8

18.Qh6 ºa6

19.¼e3 ºxd3

20.¼h3 f6

21.Qxh7+ ¾f7

22.¼xd3 âg5

23.Qh4 ¼g8

24.¼ad1 ¼a7

25.âxd6+ âxd6

26.¼xd6 ¼e8

27.e5 ¼e6

28.¼xe6 ¾xe6

29.Qc4+ ¾f5

30.Qd3+ ¾e6

31.f4 âf7

32.exf6 gxf6

33.¼e1+ 1-0

W (15)

Haldane,Robin - Tan,S OU Rapid St Hugh's (6)

And for those of you still wondering (cf Quiz, earlier) where that King was headed for its final resting place, the diagram gives another hint… 1.e4 e6

2.d4 d5

3.âc3 dxe4

4.âxe4 âd7

5.âf3 ºe7

6.ºd3 âgf6

7.Qe2 âxe4

8.ºxe4 âf6

9.ºd3 b6

10.ºg5 0-0

11.h4 ºb7

12.ºxf6 ºxf6

13.ºxh7+ ¾xh7

14.âg5+ ºxg5

15.hxg5+ ¾g6

16.Qh5+ ¾f5

17.Qh3+ ¾xg5

18.f4+ ¾xf4

19.¼f1+ ¾e4

20.Qf3+ ¾xd4

21.0-0-0+ ¾c4

22.Qc3+ ¾b5

23.a4+ ¾xa4

24.¼f4+ 1-0

W (21)W (21)W (21)W (21)

De Coverley,Roger - Nixon,Rod [C91] Chilterns Rossetti Hall, 05.11.2011

Roger’s games are always worth looking at – dull enough openings with either colour, but excellent entertainment, consistently, thereafter. Here he neglects h3 in the Ruy, and both sides speedily reach the diagram position, when I fully expected Qxc6, and Black can’t be doing too badly. Instead, Rod mixes things up even more … Nc4, 19. Bd5! When that c-pawn could be the ruination of Black. (And so it turned out to be – but should it have been? Something for the reader to work out over Christmas…) 1.e4 e5

2.âf3 âc6

3.ºb5 a6

4.ºa4 âf6

5.0-0 ºe7

6.¼e1 b5

7.ºb3 d6

8.c3 0-0

9.d4 ºg4

10.d5 âb8

11.a4 âbd7

12.axb5 axb5

13.¼xa8 Qxa8

14.h3 ºh5

15.âbd2 c6

16.g4 ºg6

17.g5 âh5

18.dxc6 âc5

19.ºd5 âd3

20.¼e3 âhf4

21.Qf1 âxc1

22.Qxc1 âxh3+

23.¾h2 âxg5

24.Qg1 âe6

25.c4 bxc4

26.âxc4 âf4

27.âb6 Qa5

28.¼b3 ºd8

29.âd7 âxd5

30.¼a3 Qb5

31.exd5 Qxd5

32.âxf8 ¾xf8

33.Qc1 ºe4

34.c7 ºxc7

35.Qxc7 ºxf3

36.Qd8# 1-0

B (18)B (18)B (18)B (18)


Games Section … page 9 Woolacott,Sam - Cook,Jenny [D35] FW Shield Rd 2 – Cowley 3, 21.11.2011

An interesting game in the Frank Wood Shield. While the English Attack™ was being trialled on bottom board, the play on board 3 saw a promising looking attack develop for Sam Woolacott, recently joined on a year’s loan from the University. All the features of a decisive break are in place – open h-file, doubled rooks… - and in due course White crashed through to win Black’s queen - … but was it forced, or was Jenny a little too trusting of the formidable appearance on the ramparts of the enemy forces? Another for our readership to think over. 1.d4 d5

2.c4 e6

3.âc3 âf6

4.cxd5 exd5

5.ºg5 ºe7

6.e3 ºe6

7.ºd3 âbd7

8.âge2 h6

9.ºf4 c6

10.Qc2 0-0

11.f3 âh5

12.ºg3 âxg3

13.hxg3 âf6

14.g4 âd7

15.0-0-0 ¼e8

16.¼h2 ºd6

17.¼h3 Qe7

18.¼dh1 âf8

19.e4 dxe4

20.âxe4 ºc7

21.¼h5 f6

22.g5 fxg5

23.âxg5 ºf7

24.âxf7 ¾xf7

25.ºc4+ âe6

26.Qf5+ Qf6

27.Qg4 ¾e7

28.¼f5 1-0

W (19)W (19)W (19)W (19)

Stocks,Selby - Lee,Alex [B90] FWS 2 – Cowley 3, 21.11.2011

What had escaped my attention for the last few years was that the club was running, from Abingdon, a youth team, courtesy the efforts of Andrew English and with (I hear) the benefit of some training from Peter Wells. Fortunately for the club this year, we’ve been able to call on these juniors for the first team – as otherwise we’d have defaulted more than the 3 boards we’ve already done to date. Alex and Andrew have played both games in the FW Shield to date – performing creditably against Cowley 1 (Heather Lang and Geoff Rasell), and getting the points they deserved in the follow up match against Cowley 3. Here, Selby goes a bit off-message with 10. Ng3, and then panics a bit with 19. Nd5, and Alex (a little nervously to begin with) mops up the ending when it arrives. A pawn to the good is a tough conversion in the ‘real world of league & cup chess’ (Brian). 1.e4 c5

2.âf3 d6

3.d4 cxd4

4.âxd4 âf6

5.âc3 a6

6.ºd3 e5

7.âde2 ºe7

8.h3 âbd7

9.ºe3 0-0

10.âg3 âc5

11.ºxc5 dxc5

12.0-0 ºe6

13.âf5 c4

14.âxe7+ Qxe7

15.ºe2 ¼fd8

16.Qc1 b5

17.Qe3 ¼d4

18.¼fd1 ¼ad8

19.âd5 âxd5

20.exd5 ¼8xd5

21.c3 ¼xd1+

22.¼xd1 Qb7

23.¾h2 ¼xd1

24.ºxd1 f6

25.Qd2 Qd5

26.Qxd5 ºxd5

27.¾g3 ¾f7

28.ºc2 g6

29.b3 ¾e6

30.bxc4 ºxc4

31.ºb3 ¾d5

32.¾f3 ºxb3

33.axb3 ¾c5

34.¾e4 b4

35.c4 a5

36.f3 a4

37.bxa4 ¾xc4

38.a5 ¾b5 0-1

Taylor,John - Terry,Sean [B22] FWS 2 – Cowley 3, 21.11.2011 I liked this game at the time, having to balance the initiative that Black was getting with the knowledge that if it went wrong on the a- and b- files it would go badly wrong. There was a hair trapped under the pawn on d2, and I developed an idée fixe about keeping it (the pawn) (and the hair) there as long as possible. In the end, I was winning comfortably, but almost let time trouble decide with my 51st (eye-poppingly bad if not completely losing) move, but Black resigned when he did have a playable continuation… 1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.âf3 âc6 5.h3 e5 6.Qb3 Qxb3 7.axb3 e4 8.âh2 ºe6 9.ºc4 ºxc4 10.bxc4 âe5 11.âa3 âd3+ 12.¾e2 0-0-0 13.âc2 ºd6 14.âg4 âf4+

15.¾f1 ¾b8 16.âge3 âf6 17.b4 âd3 18.bxc5 ºxc5 19.¾e2 âh5 20.g3 f5 21.ºa3 f4 22.ºxc5 âxc5 23.âd5 fxg3 24.¼hg1 gxf2 25.¾xf2 ¼hf8+ 26.¾e2 âd3 27.âd4 ¼f2+

28.¾e3 ¼h2 29.¼gb1 ¼xh3+ 30.¾e2 âhf4+ 31.âxf4 âxf4+ 32.¾d1 ¼h1+ 33.¾c2 ¼xb1 34.¼xb1 ¼g8 35.âc6+ ¾a8 36.âe7 ¼e8 37.âf5 g6 38.âd6 ¼e7 39.¼e1 âd3 40.¼xe4 ¼xe4

41.âxe4 âf4 42.âg5 h5 43.d4 h4 44.d5 ¾b8 45.d6 ¾c8 46.c5 h3 47.âf3 g5 48.âh2 ¾d7 49.¾d2 ¾c6 50.¾e3 a5 51.âf3 ¾xc5 52.d7 âe6 53.¾e4 0-1

(B, 20)(B, 20)(B, 20)(B, 20)



Palliser IM,Richard - Terry,Sean [B08] Simul, Oxford, 22.11.2011 This year’s simul saw Richard join us for food, then a 22-board simul (+16, =5, -1), and then some beer – but not quite enough, as Oxford’s pub life on a Tuesday is restricted to the now late opening King’s Arms. I got a game when a board appeared empty as soon as move 2, and an enjoyable game resulted, with Richard hacking away on the kingside, where (unlike my game against Simon King, earlier in this collection) I put up a stouter defence. A draw was agreed in a murky position, with Black battling against the smaller increments that were appearing on his clock with each passing move… 1.d4 âf6

2.âf3 g6

3.âc3 d6

4.e4 ºg7

5.ºe3 0-0

6.Qd2 c6

7.ºd3 ºg4

8.âg5 h6

9.h3 ºd7

10.âf3 ¾h7

11.g4 âg8

12.0-0-0 b5

13.¼dg1 e5

14.dxe5 dxe5

15.h4 f6

16.âg5+ fxg5

17.hxg5 ºe6

18.gxh6 ºf6

19.g5 ºe7

20.f4 exf4

21.ºxf4 âd7

22.e5 ºf5

23.âe4 âc5

24.âf6+ ¼xf6

25.gxf6 âxd3+

26.cxd3 ºc5

27.ºe3 Qd5

28.ºxc5 Qxc5+

29.Qc3 Qe3+

30.¾b1 Qxd3+

31.Qxd3 ºxd3+

32.¾c1 ºc4

33.¼d1 ºd5

34.¼he1 ¾xh6

35.¼h1+ ¾g5

36.¼h8 ¼f8

37.¼f1 ºxa2

38.b4 ºf7

39.¾b2 ºe6

40.¾c3 ºf7

41.¼f2 DRAW

W (20)W (20)W (20)W (20)

Palliser IM,Richard - Miranda,Nicole [D17] Simul, Oxford, 22.11.2011 A nice contest here – afterwards Richard wondered whether he could have gone after the Black king, and the diagram position could be about where that is. After … Qxd5, Qxb4 does keep queens on board – with mate still possible for both sides. Instead Richard opted for a queen swap and the resulting play was pleasing and instructive, as White needs to work to keep the queenside pawns from running away with themselves (and the game). 1.d4 d5

2.c4 c6

3.âf3 âf6

4.âc3 dxc4

5.a4 ºf5

6.âe5 e6

7.f3 h6

8.e4 ºh7

9.ºxc4 âbd7

10.âxd7 Qxd7

11.a5 ¼d8

12.ºe3 ºb4

13.Qb3 Qe7

14.¼a4 c5

15.ºb5+ ¾f8

16.¼xb4 cxb4

17.âe2 g5

18.h4 gxh4

19.ºxh6+ ¾g8

20.ºg5 e5

21.d5 Qd6

22.¼xh4 ºg6

23.¼xh8+ ¾xh8

24.ºd2 âxd5

25.exd5 Qxd5

26.Qxd5 ¼xd5

27.ºc4 ¼xa5

28.b3 b5

29.ºd5 ¼a1+

30.¾f2 a5

31.f4 f6

32.fxe5 fxe5

33.ºc6 ºf7

34.âc1 a4

35.âd3 a3

36.ºxb4 a2

37.ºc3 ¼d1

38.ºxe5+ ¾h7 DRAW

B (25)

Hayward,Philip - de Souza Eva,Jon [A55] FWS, City 2 – MCS - 11.2011

Jon gave me this game where he ran into some excellent play by Philip – it must have seemed that White’s position was teetering after the sacrifice in the diagram on e4 – but White steers the ship through some rocky seas to reach an improbable looking win.

1.c4 âf6

2.âc3 d6

3.d4 e5

4.âf3 âbd7

5.e4 g6

6.ºg5 h6

7.ºe3 ºg7

8.h3 0-0

9.d5 a5

10.ºd3 Qe7

11.a3 âc5

12.ºc2 âe8

13.b4 axb4

14.axb4 ¼xa1

15.Qxa1 âxe4

16.âxe4 f5

17.Qa8 fxe4

18.Qxc8 exf3

19.ºxg6 âf6

20.Qe6+ Qxe6

21.dxe6 ¼a8

22.¾d2 ¾f8

23.gxf3 ¾e7

24.ºf7 e4

25.¼g1 ¼a2+

26.¾c3 âd5+

27.¾b3 ¼b2+

28.¾a3 âxe3

29.¼xg7 âxc4+

30.¾a4 ¾f6

31.e7 1-0

B (15)B (15)B (15)B (15)



Manley,Jon - Tuncs,David [B23] Chilterns, Hants Basingstoke (3), 26.11.2011 Some games from the Chiltern match played in late November… here, Jon keeps control of the Sicilian chiefs before rounding them in… 1.e4 c5 2.âc3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 âf6 5.âf3 ºg7 6.e5 âc6 7.Qa4 âg8 8.ºf4 f6 9.exf6 âxf6 10.0-0-0 d6 11.ºb5 ºd7 12.¼he1 0-0

13.Qb3+ ¾h8 14.âg5 e5 15.ºe3 Qe7 16.Qa3 a6 17.ºf1 h6 18.âge4 âxe4 19.âxe4 d5 20.ºc5 Qf7 21.âd6 Qf4+ 22.ºe3 Qb4 23.Qxb4 âxb4 24.a3 ¼f6

25.âe4 ¼f7 26.axb4 dxe4 27.ºc4 ¼af8 28.ºxf7 ¼xf7 29.¼d6 ¾h7 30.¼ed1 ºg4 31.¼1d2 ºf8 32.¼b6 ¼c7 33.¼d8 ºg7 34.¼b8 ºc8 35.ºc5 h5 36.¼d6 h4

37.¼d8 ºf5 38.¼e8 ºf6 39.g3 h3 40.¼f8 ºg7 41.¼fd8 e3 42.fxe3 b6 43.¼xb6 ºh6 44.¼xa6 ºxe3+ 45.ºxe3 ¼xc2+ 46.¾d1 ¼xh2 47.¼a7+ 1-0

W (17)W (17)W (17)W (17)

Terry,Sean - Wilkinson,John [D02] Chilterns, Hants Basingstoke (7), 26.11.2011

This game thrown in to show how to learn from your Blunderama™. Black takes the b2 pawn and runs into difficulties – not (admittedly) that they were all seen at the moment White played 5. Nc3… 1.d4 âf6 2.âf3 d5 3.ºf4 c5 4.e3 Qb6 5.âc3 Qxb2 6.âb5 âa6

7.a3 ºf5 8.Qc1 Qxc2 9.Qxc2 ºxc2 10.¼c1 ºf5 11.dxc5 ºd7 12.âe5 ºc6

13.âd4 âb8 14.ºb5 ºxb5 15.âxb5 âa6 16.c6 bxc6 17.¼xc6 ¼b8 18.¼xa6 ¼xb5

19.¼xa7 e6 20.¼a8+ ¾e7 21.0-0 ¼b7 22.¼c1 g6 23.âc6+ 1-0

* Hadi,Justin - Roberson,Peter [C10] Richmond Rapidplay, 11.2011

See Top Tactics: Justin writes: “I took a quick trip to the Richmond Rapidplay in November. Scored 4/6 in the open, including this win against Peter Roberson (228!) . There's a lovely combination after 20.Rxb7! Kxb7 21. Qxa6! Kxa6 22. c8=Q+ which I missed during the game. .... but eventually 1-0 after 23. c3. That'll teach the so and so for trying to hack me. Can you find a spot in disin for this one?” 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.âc3 âc6 4.e5 f6 5.ºb5 ºd7 6.ºxc6 ºxc6

7.âf3 Qd7 8.0-0 0-0-0 9.Qd3 h6 10.ºf4 f5 11.¼fb1 g5 12.ºd2 Qf7

13.b4 âe7 14.a4 f4 15.b5 ºe8 16.a5 Qg6 17.Qf1 ¼d7 18.b6 a6

19.bxc7 âf5 20.¼b6 ¼xc7 21.âxd5 exd5 22.¼xg6 ºxg6 23.c3 1-0

Piggott,Roley - King,Simon [E61] OCA 2 - Wantage, 2011

More Top Tactics from Simon (“Fritz wasn’t too sniffy about it”) - absolutely 1.d4 âf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 ºg7 4.ºg2 c5 5.d5 d6 6.âc3 0-0 7.e4 ºd7 8.âge2 âa6

9.0-0 ¼b8 10.a4 âb4 11.ºe3 a6 12.¼c1 b5 13.axb5 axb5 14.b3 bxc4 15.bxc4 ¼a8 16.e5 âg4

17.e6 âxe3 18.exf7+ ¼xf7 19.fxe3 ¼xf1+ 20.¾xf1 ºh6 21.âf4 Qf8 22.¾g1 Qg7 23.Qd2 Qe5 24.¼e1 ¼a3

25.âb5 ¼a2 26.Qd1 ºxf4 27.exf4 Qb2 28.Qf3 ºg4 29.Qe4 Qf2+ 30.¾h1 ºh3 31.¼g1 âd3 32.âc3 Qxg1+ 0-1

de Souza Eva,Jon - March,Mike [B23] OCA - MCS, 05.12.2011

The final top tactic sees some sparks unleashed in Mike’s direction by Jon – White’s pieces orchestrate beautifully to take advantage of the weakness on f5 (12. Nh4) and then d5 before the White knights dance around the position (mirrored by less effective efforts from their counterparts 1.e4 c5 2.âc3 a6 3.g3 b5 4.d3 ºb7 5.ºg2 e6 6.âf3 d5

7.exd5 exd5 8.0-0 âf6 9.d4 c4 10.¼e1+ ºe7 11.ºg5 0-0 12.âh4 h6

13.âf5 hxg5 14.âxe7+ ¾h8 15.ºxd5 ºxd5 16.âcxd5 âbd7 17.âc6 Qc8 18.âde7 Qb7

19.Qd2 âh7 20.Qe2 âdf6 21.h3 ¼fe8 22.Qf3 Qd7 23.âe5 1-0


Notes, etc.

Peter Wells lecture, 7 November 2011: The Exchange Sacrifice Club players don’t as a rule sacrifice the exchange – a point established by a show-of-hands on the night – but IMs and GMs do, quite often, quite alarmingly often. The average club player spends a lot of time trying not to blunder material, to have the resources to invest material for an initiative over the board. GMs on the other hand usually know where their material is, and spend their time looking for ways to wrest the initiative in search of that extra half-point that pays the bread bill. Little things matter … Peter’s starting point – the advantage of the exchange is decisive –

echoes that of Euwe (quoted in Watson’s SoMCS1), and serves as a warning to those who might willy-nilly chuck an exchange for some temporary, unthought-through, compensation. That said, the proliferation of exchanges sacs, both in number and variety, does nibble away at this principle, and the idea from my youth that 2 pawns was good compensation for the exchange is one of fairly mechanical application, and perhaps only applies to fairly undynamic positions. What accounts for these changes in culture; two things occur: a culture that which now prizes the win a bit more (in financial as well as win-points (as in London 2011) terms) than the draw, and the clever computer-based preparations of players hoping to catch out their opponents – to beard them in their own openings lair – finding new twists in familiar places. Peter presented this position, at a point when a sacrifice is in the air. It’s White (Ribli) to move – and the Hungarian GM went for 17. Rd4! This was probably prompted by the dearth of other alternatives – Re1 loses the d-pawn – but other considerations were the blunting of the Bg7, and the relatively scattered positions of the Black pieces on the a-file. The game continuation was impressive and the win resulted on move 27. The interesting query is how far did the GM look before committing to the sacrifice. We don’t know, but Peter said he would have been happy if he’d seen the position on move 22, when after 22. b3 White, though a rook adrift now, is raking through the Black queenside.

That for me represents quite a bit of seeing. (At the time, I’d not considered 18. … e5 !). A fascinating lecture on a much-neglected topic. (SoMCS devotes only 13 pages, to relatively old material, so Peter’s next book on the topic will fill a timely gap in the literature.)

Ribli,Z [A04] 1.âf3 âf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 ºg7 4.ºg2 d5 5.cxd5 âxd5 6.âc3 0-0

7.0-0 âc6 8.d4 âb6 9.d5 âa5 10.Qc2 c6 11.dxc6 âxc6 12.¼d1 ºf5

13.e4 ºd7 14.âd5 âxd5 15.exd5 âa5 16.Qe2 ºa4 17.¼d4 ºxd4

18.âxd4 e5 19.Qxe5 ¼e8 20.âe6 fxe6 21.b3 ¼e7 22.ºb2 Qf8

23.d6 Qg7 24.Qe2 e5 25.dxe7 ºc6 26.ºh3 Qxe7 27.b4 1-0

London Chess, December 2011 To London on 5 December with Matt Rose and Jon Manley for the annual trip to Olympia for round 3 of the chess classic, a tournament completely choc-a-bloc with exchange sacrifices of the type covered in Peter’s lecture. This one appeared on the day we were there (Carlsen – Nakamura ) 31.Rxf6 gxf6 32.Qf4 Rb2 33.Bh5 Qg7 34.Bf3 Ra8 35.d5 Bc8 36.Nh5 Qf8 37.Nxf6+ Kh8 38.Rc1 Kg7 39.e5 dxe5 40.Nh5+ Kh7 41.Be4+ 1-0 looked pretty impressive, although at the time I thought Rxf6 was a bit rubbishy, given the active rook position. The commentary room took a different view – apparently the absence of material on that side meant that the rooks were less effective in dealing with the storm about to engulf the Black king.

Once you see it, though, the exchange sac is compelling. But you have, I suppose, to look for it… !

1 Watson’s Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy


Notes, etc.

My favourite sacrifice of the exchange was a more traditional one, in Carlsen – Howell , where Black played 20. .. Rd6! and despite the commentary team’s best efforts to follow the smooth flow of the White attack, Howell managed to find good moves only to fail a little closer the time control. Favourite game? Also a Howell game, also Black v Anand – although McShane – Kramnik was pretty exciting, and delayed the mag deadlines by a complete half day. The commentary team were good in person, and online – although some of their questions to celebrity GMs were a bit Fr Ted-ish2 at times. And some openings research on the players would add more direction to the conversation. I felt also that on occasion it might be better to leave the GMs to tell us what they thought was interesting about the game first,

before hopping to those portions which had been considered interesting while the game was in play. Then again, some of the players weren’t all that great – but Adams was interesting, Nakamura was very open, Anand was his usual self, and Kramnik was man of the tournament, but over the board and in the post-mortems. Completely flabbergasting in terms of delivery, depth, range and engagement. Not a bad player either. Twitterama … Watching online from Oxford was a better experience this year – less ether-interruptions, and a better standard of kibitzing, even if you couldn’t always hear what was being said in the room. My first extended exposure to Twitter, a medium I can’t get my head around, unless it’s for something practical like sending moves to your mates on match day (whoops) or reporting updates from a different arena (nice one, Tim). This time there were twitter updates on the RH side of the screen – with the occasional spoilsport telling us what the computer evaluation was. And, occasionally, someone twittering something I was thinking. I suppose in an age where people can cut and paste all manner of thrash, being restricted to 140 characters isn’t a completely bad thing. Take this excerpt from a speculative email I received over the summer – o ne of many from the same source:

I would like this case heard in the University Committee responsible for such proposals to meet the expenses of the new semester or to create a round of financial fundraising before coming up to the University at the semester allotted by the funds for the entire period of time because of the risk of arriving in a foreign country and the riots and the public networks to be encountered with legal counsel with the fees of administration entailed. Trusting that the whole is satisfactory, I remain

To which can be added : indeed as well as the mandatory [sic] Perhaps someone would like to reduce this to 140 characters to enable a rapid response… ?

UK Chess championships 2011 A strong year at the championships – Short and Adams topped the bill (and shared 1st prize, though the latter won the play-off) with many other GMs in attendance (Mssrs Pert, Jones, Howell, Williams) was somewhat overshadowed by the twittering of Mssrs Keene and de Mooi. The former opened the championships in rather unusual circumstances – he seemed to have arrived, but not all were aware of his role, while the latter, and current ECF president was enraged to be engaged on the appropriateness of his attire (a Stonewall gay rights T-shirt) for the presentation awards ceremony. The result? A barrage, nay firestorm of emails and posts on the ECF forum on any and all issues to do with the topics. By the end of a long weekend, it was hard to know what the question was – although I found a lot of interesting stuff in the blog itself. (And amusing: Jon D’Souza-Eva: “ Playing the stonewall crippled my chess progress

for five years.” You can read all about it here3 ). Odd to have found such interesting stuff wrapped up in a package that involved the egos of two essentially self-obsessed people. Here is Ray Keene’s account in the Spectator:

August 6: I was accorded the honour of declaring the tournament open, while ECF President C. J. de Mooi executed the ceremonial first move…”

August 13: The prize-giving was marked by a curious incident. C. J. de Mooi, TV Egghead and president of the ECF, was barred by tournament officials from presenting the prizes because he was wearing his stonewall T-shirt.

Fascinating stuff, I felt. Having created a scene at the start, and a storm at the end, both sides twitter a bit and then walk off into the sunset. Maybe they deserve each other, like the couple at the end of Casablanca…

2 e.g. Nun (with raised hands): “where do you get your inspiration for your sermons?” 3 http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3343&start=15


Notes, etc.

Bobby Fischer against the World Over the summer, I decided to watch some films, all documentaries of a sort – in addition to the Fischer one, there was Senna, and Fire in Babylon. (Not that I’m a huge F1 fan – but I know someone who is…) So, in a pub after cricket I tell a mate of mine, now 30 of these films – and, for want of a better starting point, talk a few paragraphs about Bobby – the man, the effect, the player, the tragedy… - and, after drinking that in, he asked, with a pause: “who is Bobby Fischer?”. Hmmm – maybe not now so odd, but there was a time… Does the documentary help to answer my friend’s query? I’m not so sure. It tells the story of the 1972 match, focussing mostly on the pre-match build up – that lonnnnnng July and August – followed by the drama of games 1, 3, 4 and 6 and the non-game that was No. 2 before skipping to Game 21 and the aftermath. In short it misses quite a lot of the interesting match – games 10, 11 and 13 spring to mind … maybe the producers don’t’ remember the end of Game 13, but even as a 13 year old the drama of the finale is etched in the background (and this, from someone who had yet to learn what the opposition was) – but it conveys the message skilfully enough. A major failing of the format is that it misses out on other people’s stories – this came out in Fire in Babylon (which didn’t interview many non-West Indian cricketers). In Fischer, there are few Russian viewpoints (tho Krogius speaks tellingly of Spassky’s failure to compete: “psychologically, relationships abhor a vacuum… if you give up, someone else takes your place”, and little context other than Bobby’s fierce, isolated, talent – and his mysterious persona, both before his crack-up and after. This mystery lends to quite a bit of conjecture about him, when perhaps a bit of research might have produced a better narrative time-line. (Another friend of mine asked: “what do we know of Fischer, 1975 – 1992” and my initial instinct was “not very much”. But there is a lot known – for example, in Ree’s book (Human Comedy…) just reading it casually it tells of negotiations in 1976 between Karpov and Fischer, in Tokyo (p. 21) while in 1988 Petra Dautov (wife of the GM) wrote a book on their relationship (discussed, p 46-50). The tendency to swallow the image, undigested, rather than expand the narrative to see a perhaps bigger picture is a common failing in an age like the current one, devoted to image and its preservation. But Fischer the man is more complex than the image provided in this film. Which is not to say that he wasn’t slightly … crazy – however the medics might classify it. By the end of his life he had rejected everything: his mother, his religion of birth, his Church of God, chess, country … the lot. He died early because he rejected the treatment that could have prolonged his life. That people treated him kindly – people of Iceland, take a bow – only throws into perspective just how beastly he could be. Yet, as Ree points out (p. 49) despite this “no one ever seems to get seriously mad at Fischer… … he is probably someone who wouldn’t hurt a fly, and I feel sorry for the poor exile.” Two points stick – the Icelandic psychologist, who befriended Fischer as long as he could, speaking about how you are only creative by “getting out of the box… but that occasionally it’s hard to get back into the box”, and a Fischer story, told in Iceland by the man himself about his problems with writing songs: he confesses to Evans that he can’t write anything, and Evans tells him “that’s because you haven’t lived … and he’s right!”. In the tone of the old, demented, hero of many a player’s youth, there was humorous self-deprecation – perhaps a momentary state – but he seemed to enjoy the joke. And that is a comfort. A short history of chess skulduggery We’ve received an email (who needs letters these days) from Jon D’Souza Eva who’s found a typo in Disinformator 10 – apparently the Cowley team banner had the City players named, and vice versa – along with some interesting suggestions as to what we should do to correct this state of affairs. It involves (I’ll summarise) recalling or reprinting the magazine with the correction, possibly using laser printed labels, and then re-circulating them to the original subscribers. A fascinating suggestion, although our (Will & I’s) original idea was to devote a whole magazine to the issue of mistakes in previous magazines – a daunting prospect which some future social chess historian might take on. Providing of course, we have a chess historian in Oxford – because at the moment we’re running out of chess players… A more interesting project might be to provide some consolidated chapter and verse on the incidents and accidents of the game in Oxford – and who better than the City magazine people to start the ball rolling. Let’s have a quick review of the field of play.


Notes, etc.

The incident that enlivened the end of Andrew English’s game, reported on page 17, prompts some of these memories from the Oxfordshire scene… : Here we see a screenprint from the ICC a while back:

This is clearly a Kelly-style suggestion ghost in the machine – or is it a Brooke move taken to the nth degree? We’re quite used to this – take this, from a Biswas – Riley match a few years ago, in a tournament. It’s White to play, and …

Biswas – Riley

White to play

after the sensible 46. Re4 it’s curtains for Kelly. The Great Man picks up the King, moves it confidently in time trouble towards h6, … sees the dilemma … agitates the hand holding the king… the king begins to land on h6.8 before being smuggled nicely, via h7 to g8. Fortunately, the crowd was by now giggling, and Karl had correctly remembered the point at which the King had taken off. Earlier in the decade, Disinformator 32a had provided this particular poser to it varied audience:

Zhang – Edwards (2005)

White to play Fritz sees that 10. Bf6 – crafty, nice – is good for a +2 advantage or thereabouts. But, no doubt aware of the psychological pitfalls of taking an early advantage that isn’t immediately decisive, Marco went for the much bolder 10. Nxd6# Which may or not seem like the last word in crazed fantasy – it was only the next morning when the truth dawned on Black, so you sort of wonder how the post-mortem went – but take this account of a match in 2008 when Ian Brooke and his opponent went seriously fantasy in the Chilterns Cup. (A shame we don’t have the moves - but we have the account, now) Will Burt writes : I remember the occasion very well. It was 22 November 2008 and the match against Berkshire at Wellington School. We were in a maths classroom at the back of the site, rather than the usual rather grand venue. It was also just before a traumatic week in which Mick Kimber (who was also playing that day) had his sudden massive stroke followed by Lester's death on Thursday 27. At some point fairly early on Ian captured his own piece (no idea if it was Nxc34) and his opponent kept quiet about it ... later on Ian forgot to record his moves and was asked to update his scoresheet by his opponent who, for some reason, was notating in German algebraic, which caused Ian a little confusion. Finally in a very late middlegame around 5.30pm Ian's man sacrifices his extra piece, realizes it was unsound and that he is now losing and suddenly 'remembers' the illegality a couple of hours before. Of course nobody knew what the rules are, but rather assumed that it was far too late to do anything about it and that the game would simply continue. Marco Zhang (Mr Nxd6# of all people) phoned up Priscilla who explained that the rules actually say that you should return to the position before the illegality and adjust the clocks accordingly ... as there was no time for this the game was abandoned as a draw, not entirely with good feeling.

4 I have this great vision that the move was Nb1xBc3


Notes, etc.

We will return to this theme in later magazines, with some proper research…


Notes, etc.

News from Abingdon … Andrew English reports on an exciting end to a junior match It was played by our current Board 1, Edward O'Brien, who is in the Upper Sixth and is hoping to study physics at Oxford. He was playing against MCS's Board 1 Daniel de Souza-Eva. Abingdon A was playing away against MCS on 11 November in a first round match of the National Schools' Championship. Alex Lee, who you know, won his game on Board 2, and the overall result was 2.5-3.5 in Abingdon's favour except that the age-handicapping put MCS through to the next round. It is quite a dull game - everything just keeps getting swapped off to the advantage of neither player - until we reach a critical phase in the King and Pawn endgame. Black's 40. ... g4 is a huge blunder. 41. a4 Ke6 are both correct moves, but then Edward misses his opportunity. When Peter Wells went through it with Edward he did not spot the crucial mistake either. The natural looking 42. Ke4 is actually a blunder that draws a won game. First White's a and b pawns needed to be advanced to decoy the Black King, and only then does the White King capture Black's pawns and queen his remaining pawn. (But check my analysis.) Make's a good endgame study. O'Brien,E - D'Souza-Eva,D [B17] National Schools Ch, 11.11.2011 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.âc3 dxe4 4.âxe4 âd7 5.âf3 âgf6 6.âxf6+ âxf6 7.c4 ºg4 8.ºe2 e6 9.0-0 ºd6 10.ºe3 Qc7 11.h3 ºh5 12.a3 c5 13.Qa4+ Qd7 14.Qxd7+ âxd7

15.g4 ºg6 16.¼fd1 cxd4 17.ºxd4 ºf8 18.âe5 âxe5 19.ºxe5 f6 20.ºd6 ¼d8 21.ºxf8 ¼xf8 22.ºf3 b6 23.¼xd8+ ¾xd8 24.¼d1+ ¾e7 25.ºc6 ¼d8 26.¼xd8 ¾xd8 27.b4 ¾c7 28.ºb5 ¾b7

29.ºd7 e5 30.ºe6 ¾c6 31.f3 ¾d6 32.ºd5 b5 33.ºg8 bxc4 34.ºxc4 h5 35.¾f2 hxg4 36.hxg4 f5 37.ºd3 ¾e6 38.gxf5+ ºxf5 39.ºxf5+ ¾xf5 40.¾e3 g5 41.a4 ¾e6

42.¾e4 ¾d6 43.a5 a6 44.¾f5 ¾d5 45.¾xg5 e4 46.fxe4+ ¾xe4 47.b5 ¾d5 48.b6 ¾c6 49.¾f6 ¾d6 50.¾f5 ¾c6 51.¾e6 ¾b7 52.¾d6 ¾b8 53.¾e7 ¾b7 54.¾d8 ¾a8 DRAW

W (18)W (18)W (18)W (18)

Let’s see all that with diagrams...

Black to play (36)

36.hxg4 f5 37.Bd3 Ke6 38.gxf5+ Bxf5 39.Bxf5+ Kxf5 40.Ke3

… g5? 41.a4 Ke6 42.Ke4 [42.b5 Kd6 43.a5 Kc5 44.b6 axb6 45.axb6 Kxb6 and now the Black king is out of action and can't prevent the f-pawn from queening.]

42...Kd6 43.a5 a6 44.Kf5 Kd5 45.Kxg5

… e4 46.fxe4+ Kxe4 47.b5 Kd5 48.b6 Kc6 49.Kf6 Kd6 50.Kf5 Kc6 51.Ke6 Kb7 52.Kd6 Kb8

53.Ke7 Kb7 54.Kd8 Ka8 ½-½ Quite a thrilling way to pick up a half point!


A brief reminder about “Kidlington 35” in 2012: 4-5 February, Exeter Hall

Centrefold – the view through the MCS looking glass, 1 Oct 2010, and clockwise from top left, Priscilla Morris just fails to register the win against George Spalding (end Oct 2010) at the same time as City 1 were registering a win at Cowley; Will, Jon and Mike March’s hand show that many hands and a few beers will make for an unclear position (or a clear win), while Jon is shown relaxing after a tough day on the rack at the County Match in MCS before being gifted a few pawns – see Blunderama

disinformator 41 - oxford 4ncl.pdf · disinformator 41 the oxford city chess club magazine december...

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