Insurance Chess Club

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   Friendly Fixtures

02-May-2010

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Oxford University

Played 31st October 2009, at Merton College, Oxford

Report by Ian Calvert:

On Board 1, Tony initially played solidly against his opponent’s Sicilian: both sides castling on the kingside. However by the time control at move 36, Tony was the exchange down but with good counter-chances: both players had only a couple of minutes left. Thus the 15 minute quickplay began: ICC was 1 point down with one game to play. On move 37, Tony won an important pawn and with two bishops and pawn for rook and knight was trying to win. The complex game may well have swung one way then the other: doubtless a PC could evaluate it without the time constraints. Eventually an illegal Oxford move was made without ICC time claim, both flags fell and a friendly draw was agreed.

Martin’s game on Board 2 was less eventful but notable for his resourceful defence in another complex game. He reports:

“In my game with Mr. Doumbia I defended the exchange variation of the Queen's Gambit. In a position where I thought I had equalised, he did manage to establish a strong knight on d6.

As I thought this was his only good piece, I removed it by sacrificing the exchange for a pawn. Eventually, however, he seemed to be getting the upper hand but, having overlooked a tactic, lost the exchange back and remained a pawn down. He still had some winning threats were I to blunder and, as we were now deep into the quickplay finish, both players were happy to repeat moves for a draw.”

Bob looked eventually to have a middlegame edge as White against the King’s Indian. He played f3, g4, h4 opened the g-file and then castled queenside. Bob had the initiative throughout the game but his opponent did not look close to losing due to accurate defence. The game ended with queen and seven pawns each.

Geoff had a passive position from the King’s Gambit Declined. Just when he looked to have almost equalised his opponent found a devilish knight fork. He fought valiantly but was overpowered in the ending. Geoff comments:

“My opponent was threatening a knight fork of my two rooks, so I gave up my knight for two pawns to prevent it.  I had an extra pawn on each side of the board for the knight.  Later I had to allow a queen exchange to prevent mating threats on the long black diagonal, and created a passed pawn, which I was soon going to lose.  In the end my extra pawn for his bishop was never going to be enough."

In the crucial position I could have given up the exchange for a pawn, possibly a passed pawn, but he would then have had a strong attack on the long diagonal, with mating threats, and could have brought his extra rook into the centre, possibly doubling rooks on the open queen's file.”

Alf managed to salvage a draw in a bishop of the same colour ending after a difficult late middlegame. He played a remarkable and sound Kd2 on move 15 after a London System opening where Black played c5 and then c4.

IC

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Oxford U | Civil Service | Combined Services | Cambridge U | Hastings | Wanstead | Team Stats | Top

Civil Service

Played 14th November 2009, at The Carpenters Arms

(Hover your mouse pointer over the pictures for the captions.)

Report byt Ian Calvert:

ICC lost ½-7½ to a very strong Civil Service side. The final score flatters our much more highly rated opponents. Although unlucky in several games we never looked like drawing the match: or losing 0-8.

On Board 1, Ian Hunnable didn't give his much more highly rated opponent, Ken Norman, the chance to outplay him: he blundered first! After a Capablanca v Yates solid QP versus kingside fianchetto opening, Ian made a slight error in the early middle game resulting in an isolated king's pawn on e3. This was followed by a tactical error which resulted in a very untypical early loss.

Tony Paish defended well in an increasingly difficult position against Tony Ashby, the 2009 British Senior Co-Champion. Ashby cleverly exploited his more active position from the Centre Game opening. The players castled on opposite sides and although Tony Paish's solid position initially had no weakness his opponent had the initiative. After queenside castling, Ashby played Qe1, e5 and then g4 when Black had little or no counterplay. In the end, Ashby had a winning kingside attack. Tony comments:

"My queen became very short of squares in the early middle game, and my opponent cleverly played so as to fork Queen and Bishop, apparently winning the latter. However, I replied by moving my Queen to attack his undefended a2 pawn (he having castled Queenside by this point), with an irritating counter-attack. This made him think for some 20 minutes before moving his King to b1, defending the a pawn. In fact, as I had myself judged, he could safely have taken the Bishop, and won the game much more quickly. However, that would have deprived him of the pleasure of executing a well-planned Kingside attack!"

John Philpott tried an experimental pawn sacrifice when his English opening was countered by a Slav defence set-up.  Although not reacting in the best way to his opponent's unusual follow up, he retained positional compensation well into the middlegame.  However, by careful and systematic play, Alan Brusey neutralised White's initiative and was well on the way to an ending where his now passed b-pawn would have been decisive, when a miscalculation by White in a tactical sequence brought the game to an abrupt conclusion just before the time control.

Martin Page reports:

"My game with Mr. Baillie was equal for a long time. My opponent thought that had I played carefully and undertaken nothing in particular, it would have been very difficult for him to win. Under the influence of a miscalculation, however, I sacrificed a pawn; not only did I get no compensation for it, my game collapsed within a few moves.”

On Board 5 Bob Collins lost on the White side of a Grunfeld to a wicked tactic which netted his opponent the exchange and a pawn in a position that just before it was slightly worse for Bob.

Geoff Naldrett had a brilliant cunning plan which resulted in our only draw. He reports:

"I had pawns on c6, b6 and a6, my c6 pawn attacked by queen and bishop and defended by queen and bishop.  He found the good move 14. c5!  I couldn't take the pawn, so had to play b5, leaving my bishop on b7 out of the game, having to defend the c6 pawn.  Queens and rooks were then exchanged and I later played 19... a5, to prevent 20. b4, defending his c5 pawn.  He overlooked my threat, Nd7, which won his c5 pawn.  He then moved his king to e2 and offered the exchange of knights on d3.  I exchanged knights, which allowed him to then move his queen side pawns to a3 and b4 (dark squares), where my bishop could not attack them.  In the meantime I had moved my king to d6, to defend the c6 pawn and allow my bishop into the game but, with his pawn on b4 and king on d4, my extra c6 pawn could not advance and, when I offered a draw after 36 moves, he was happy to accept it.  A fair result!"

Ray Hamilton's game was in outline like Martin Page's. Time seemed to be a factor, in Francis Bowers just managing to win the penultimate game to finish.

The last game to finish was Alf Bullock's. He defended a difficult, solid but passive, position carefully. Even during the quickplay finish, the result was unclear. Tony Paish had the impression that Alf might have been able to mount a successful defence had he not exchanged Queens when he did. However his opponent eventually broke through with a pawn avalanche on the queenside as he had threatened to do for some time.

IC

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Combined Services

Played 12th December 2009, at The Carpenters Arms

Report by Ian Calvert:

Although ICC won this match 5-1, it was closer than the score suggests. Ian Hunnable won smoothly against a much more highly rated opponent. Alf Bullock elegantly won a rook ending by exchanging into a won king ending. Abdul Sannie won a wildly oscillating game.

Ian won a very well played game. A c6 Grunfeld position with Ian playing Bf4-e5 and his opponent playing a double fianchetto led to his opponent playing a weakening b5. Ian’s pressure on the weak Black c-pawn and queenside was evenyually decisive. Game: Hunnable-Harwood

Martin Page reports: “My game with Mr. Doye, who had White, transposed into the Tarrasch defence to the Queen's Gambit. Mr. Doye developed considerable pressure against my IQP, which he eventually won in exchange for his own pawn on e2. I was quite happy at this point, having forgotten that I was not winning a pawn but only winning one back.

The pressure continued, and it appears my opponent could have won a pawn, after which it would have been difficult for me, but by no means hopeless. In the event, however, distracted by some mating threats I had, Mr. Doye overlooked the pawn win, after which the game quickly became a dead draw.”

Paul Barclay played the c3 variation against a Sicilian. His opponent, the Combined Services match captain, delayed castling, playing g5 and g4 against Paul’s castled kingside which had a pawn at h3. Karl eventually castled queenside with a semi-open g-file while Paul had a semi-open c-file.  Paul reports:

"We had played 23 moves; he had a powerful position against my king but only had 5 minutes left to find the winning moves. I had just started my attack against his king.  I had 15 minutes left so I offered him a dubious draw. He took the sensible option and accepted the half point.”

Bob Collins won a well played Benoni. The b-file was opened and then rooks exchanged . A tactical interlude resulted in Bob winning a pawn producing a Q+N+7 v Q+B+6 ending. Although perpetual check possibilities meant that his opponent reasonably struggled on after losing more pawns the result never looked in doubt. In the end his opponent lost on time in a hopeless position.

Alf won a well played major piece, Queen + 2R initially, endgame after being slightly worse in the unusual middlegame:  in which Alf had played Ke2. The material eventually reduced to a rook ending when Alf cleverly exploited a protected passed pawn to simplify into a winning King ending.

Abdul’s tactical game swung one way and then the other. Initially he looked lost then winning then lost and finally winning. The opening was an irregular Vienna which worked well for his opponent.

IC

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Cambridge University

Played 30th January 2010, at Cripps Court, Magdelene College

Report, by the Ian Calvert

We achieved a good 2-2 draw against Cambridge. All the games were hard-fought draws.

On Board 1, Ian H's 185 opponent played an irregular but sound line of the Queen's Pawn game. After both sides castled king-side a sharp tactical game resulted from a double-edged g5 by Black. Ian defended resourcefully with both players eventually low on time. Shortly after the first time control a draw was agreed: the last game to finish. (A post-mortem on the train home, involving 75% of the Insurance team, established that Black had missed a win. This was later confirmed by Fritz. - IH)

On Board 2, Ian C built up a big time advantage through knowledge of the theory in a sharp Scandinavian line, which impressively his opponent was working out at the board. In theory, White initially had adequate compensation for a sacrificed pawn. However, Ian made a little progress, in his opponent's time shortage, and was probably just slightly better in the final position.

Martin reports on his Board 3 game: “In the 3. .  c5 Tarrasch variation against my opponent's French defence I failed to exchange at the right moment to give Black the usual isolated pawn, but thereafter developed enough piece activity to hold the balance.”

Board 4 saw a Morra Gambit against Bob's Sicilian. He reports “I delayed Nf6 and played a6 and b5 putting the question against his bishop on c4. After 25 minutes he decided against sacrificing his knight on c3 or his bishop for my two pawns (I was already a pawn up).  I had to give up my d-pawn, meaning an exchange of black bishops and queens. Following exchanges of both rooks a draw was agreed.”

IC

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Hastings

Played 10th April 2010, at 2 Cornwqallis Terrace, Hastings

Report by Ian Calvert (and friends):

This year, ICC had a very good 2½-2½ draw against a higher graded Hastings team. Martin Page's sharp win against Mel Young's King's Gambit was crucial.

Ian Calvert played a strangely neglected 1948 move of Smyslov's at move 12 of a greatly-studied variation of the Slav. Ten moves later a draw was agreed in a level Queen and Rook ending .

Ian Hunnable had first loss in 19 games, a run which started with his ICC draw against Cambridge U, 30-Jan. He writes:

"I have been playing Alekhine's line against Chigorin's Defence for a couple of years - [in my transposition] 1 Nf3 Nc6 2 d4 d5 3 c4 Bg4 4 Qa4 (Alekhine) - with decent results, but the odd reverse when the opponent selects a continuation with which I am not so familiar - still learning! In today's game, Tim Spanton played what is probably Black's best continuation, with which I had not previously been tested. I reached a level position but then chose a continuation which turned out to be risky - a miscalculation - and cost me, after the dust settled, a pawn. The material reduced to my R, N and 5P v R, B and 6P. Moreover, Black had a pair of united outside (a- and b-) passed pawns; I had no compensation whatever, so tendered my resignation at the start of the QPF."

Martin comments on his excellent win:

"In my game, Mel Young played a comparatively unusual move against my Falkbeer Counter Gambit and thereafter encountered some difficulties. He nevertheless had a chance to equalise at one point but, having missed this, he came under renewed pressure on both board and clock and finally blundered away a piece."

IC

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17th Roy Wagstaff Memorial Match

Wanstead & Woodford

Played 1st May 2010, at Wanstead House

Report by Ian Hunnable

The first result was on board 3, the pertinent fact being yielded by John Philpott's comment "the queen's came off too early", so obviously nothing much occurred here. The sides also failed to get to grips with each other on board 4 where Fin O'Regan and Alf Bullock reached a position with pawn chains stretched across the board, without an open file in sight, and peace was agreed on Alf's proposal.

The only decisive game of the match was on board 2 where Larry Marden gained the advantage when the big pieces came head-to-head on two open files. Larry won a pawn and the next I saw he was a whole rook up. Martin conceded soon after.

This left the top board game. This was an exchange French with 4 c4. An isolated d-pawn (White, d4) position arose. There was a period where David, with the advantage of the bishop pair, threatened to get the upper hand. I think he chose the wrong course when playing pawn to g3 which shut in his dark-squared bishop on f2, instead of Bg3 which would have seen this piece establish itself on the outpost of e5. After the move played, I felt I gained the advantage, but when David exchanged his light-squared bishop for my knight, this left us with bishops of opposite colour. After the exchange of the second pair of rooks, leaving Q, B and 5P each, bishops of opposite colour, a draw was indicated.

IH

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