An excellent start to the season for all bar Oxford 3, who simply played well but not quite well enough to secure points. An overall 50% weekend, with Oxford 2’s perfect 2/2 counterbalancing Oxford 3’s perfect other score. They say that the season is a marathon, not a sprint – although why Kieran went to Marathon for a sprint is yet to be fully tapped out – but we’ve made some progress towards the right end of the table more often than not.
Top billing is shared this week, and goes to:
- Matt Rose for this matchwinning draw steal against Lawrence Trent, well worth the delayed dinner we had at the Water Margin in Daventry.
- Marcus Harvey for his win on Sunday against Simon Williams GM.
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Trent – Rose (Saturday) |
Harvey – Williams |
While a mention in despatches to Tom E-W, who produced two excellent performances and so nearly a 2/2 against 2400 opposition, only failing by a Houdini’s breadth to clinch the win on the Sunday. Here’s the position on move 44 – see if you can see the win (Black, to move) … ?
Thorfinnsson,Bjorn - Eckersley-Waites, T
Saturday
Oxford 1
Was it really 5 months ago that the last season ended … ? Barely had the ink dried on the 2010-11 season, with the demotion of our first side (soon to be reported here…) to Division 2, but the summer was upon us … a little cricket … Bobby Fischer against the World … dodgy T-Shirtgate … Germany win the European teams … and we’re back again, and still in Division 1 since last year’s champions Pride & Prejudice withdrew from the fray and left us back in the lurch.
| Wood Green Hilsmark 2 | 2277 | Oxford 1 | 2168 | |||||
| w | Pert, Richard G | m | 2455 | 1 - 0 | Zakarian, David | 2379 | ||
| b | Greet, Andrew N | m | 2449 | 0 - 1 | Eckersley-Waites, Tom | 2276 | ||
| w | Trent, Lawrence | m | 2433 | ½ - ½ | Rose, Matthew | 2282 | ||
| b | Sowray, Peter J | f | 2353 | 1 - 0 | Savage, Ben DM | f | 2262 | |
| w | Pein, Malcolm | m | 2382 | 1 - 0 | Dickinson, Tim R | 2152 | ||
| b | Briscoe, Chris | c | 2220 | ½ - ½ | Coleman, James | 2142 | ||
| w | Smith, Brian A | 1650 | 0 - 1 | Nitz, Tomos | 2058 | |||
| b | default | d - 1 | Ehr, Jennifer | 1794 | ||||
| 3½ - 4 | ||||||||
And in the first round we had a victory to report on – albeit a drawish one. I’m not sure how convinced I am by the rule that allows a default count as 1½ , particularly a bottom board default – although in fairness Wood Green do have a registered squad of 44 players from which to perm 16; you won’t feel too sorry for them over this extra half point. But other teams will have a squad of 8 honest players good and true, and it won’t take too much to squeeze their availability down so as to lose an addition ½ point. How ‘fair’ is this on them – or, indeed, on other teams who (say) could be chasing promotion, only to find that one of their rivals is gifted a key point in this way?
But, in short, we’ll take the extra half point, I suppose, which converted an excellent performance (50%) into a match win.
No change on top board for David Z, though, as Richard Pert put his pieces on the right squares and then drove the queen to distraction:
Pert,R – Zakarian (B)
21. … Qh4 22.Rd4 Qh6 23.Qc7 after which it’s hard to see a way for Black to sustain a credible grovel. David went for … Nd5 24.Rxd5 Bxd5 25.Qxe7, but it was 1-0 as early as move 30.
On board 2 there was a reunion from Round 10 of the demotion pool last May, albeit on a slightly lower board. The result was the same, though:
Eckersley-Waites,T – Greet (B)
A Pirc move has morphed into a Philidor defence, with the addition of the … b5 motif, which gains space on the queen-side at the expense of queenside weaknesses. In the diagram position 13. … Bb7 is the passive way to defend the attacked pawn on c6, but Andrew G opted for the more dynamic – but less successful 13. … Ne5 14.f4 Qb6 15.Nce2 Ne8 16.a5 (the ‘puter suggests Ra3!) Qc5 17.fxe5 dxe5 18.b4! Rxb4 19.Ba3 which capitalises on the log-jammed a3 – f8 diagonal and wins material, and eventually to 1-0 in 40.
We’ve seen earlier how Matt’s position resolved itself into a draw, but this position in the second session was pretty gripping:
Trent – Rose (B)
Black has problems – his King isn’t at all safe there against the Q+N attack, so he finds 48…. Ka5 49.Qe8 (threat Qd8#) Qg5 which threatens – or does it? – some class of a perpetual starting … Qc1 while defending the d8 square. It would be interesting to know the time position here, but Laurence opted for 50.Qe3? when the computer suggests there isn’t a perpetual (after 50. Qc8 the White king heads to e3 and plays f4, which breaks the checking sequences). Incidentally, it’s not quite clear why Matt kept queens on after Qe3… Matt?
On Board 4, Ben had reached – or been reduced to – an equal enough position from the opening before being slowly squeezed after the exchange of queens, to reach this ending a pawn light.
Savage – Sowray (W)
Not having got past the K + P section of Nunn’s Essential Endgames, it’s hard to be definitive about White’s defensive chances here. All the pawns are on one side, admittedly – but unfortunately those are not rooks on the board. Can White sit back and soak it all up? He’d like his king elsewhere than e4 though – perhaps e1, c3 or g1? Even so, distance memories of being ground down in such positions linger… … be that as it may, Ben – and Peter – combined to cut this paragraph off long before its prime as play continued: 34.Bh3? g4 35.Kf5 (… Ke6 and f5# were threatened) gxh3 36.Kxf6 e4 37.Kf5 Bf3 0-1
[Postscript: The good doctor Nunn prescribes (p.70) as follows: “In a bishop ending, when all the pawns are on side, an extra pawn by itself is usually not enough for victory … … however, if the defender has pawn weaknesses then it can be a different matter.”]
On Tim’s board, his French defence had been reduced to passive defence when queens came off on move 20, and variations in the diagram position (B, 39) had been spotted since then:
Pein – Dickinson (B)
White’s advantage is obvious, though its conversion to the full point is some way yet. Black’s policy to date has seen his knight avoid exchanges, jerkily triangulating in the d8-c6-e7 region, with the occasional foray to f7 just to get any fresh air available that side of the board. His bishop is condemned to a lonely wait on c8, but pending an invasion by the White King it continues to defend the very pawns on f5 and a6 that enclose it. Play continued: 39…. Nf7 40.Nf3 h5 (40...Nd8 41.h5 Nc6 42.Nd4 Ne7 continued to play dumb and put White on any promise he has) – but perhaps Tim has seen a winning plan for White?! In any event, this loosening begins to open up the position, and after 41.Kd4 Nh6 42.a4 bxa4 43.Nxa4 Bd7 44.Nb6 Be6 45.Ng5 Bg8 White can now see the winning line (1-0, 64) as the a6 pawn is now lost when next attacked.
Oxford 2
| e2e4.org.uk 4 | 1926 | Oxford 2 | 2030 | |||||
| w | Webster, Richard J | 1973 | 1 - 0 | Healey, Michael W | 2110 | |||
| b | Truman, Richard G | 1955 | 0 - 1 | Hayward, Philip T | 2002 | |||
| w | Ireland, David J | 1926 | ½ - ½ | Duggan, Christopher | 2026 | |||
| b | Moss, Guy | 1899 | 0 - 1 | Nixon, Rodney J | 2011 | |||
| w | Livesey, R Nigel | 1907 | 0 - 1 | Colburn, Paul J | 1995 | |||
| b | Fernandez, Michael H | 1898 | ½ - ½ | Morris, Graham P | 2041 | |||
| 2 - 4 | ||||||||
Thanks to Tim’s tireless efforts we got a good Oxford 2 team out for the first round, and a comfortable 4-2 resulted
On top board, Mike had a bad day at the office, first blundering a pawn to a still defensible position:
Webster – Healey (W)
It was the second pawn that did for him: 27.Ra1 Rxa1 (Mike had intended to take the other rook, which would have made more sense of the plan he adopts in the game) 28.Rxa1 b4? 29.cxb4 Nxb4 30.Ra4 1-0
On Board 2, Phil Hayward’s King’s Indian was beginning to turn in his opponent’s favour and a strategic (and dignified) retreat from the now-vacant queenside squares was being implemented. The computer recommends … fxg3 in the diagram position with Black enjoying a slight edge.
Hayward – Truman (B)
Instead, Black sacri-blunders a pawn 27. … Nf6 28.Nxf6+ Qxf6 29.Bxc7 fxg3 30.hxg3 Bc2 and White counter-sacrifices the exchange 31.Qxd6 Bxd1 32.Qxf6 Be3+ 33.Kf1 Rxf6 34.Nxd1 when all White’s army is poised to help the onward rush of the d- and c- pawns. An excellent finish, in the modern mould (1-0, 50)
Chris Duggan competed with Mike Healey for the first mindless pawn drop of the season:
Ireland – Duggan (B)
sees less discussion over the status of 19…. Bb4? – a simple blunder which just drops the b-pawn. But not the game as Black constructs a dark-square blockade which warns off any winning attempts by White (½-½, 33)
But by board 4 we’ve stopped this blundering lark, and moved on to sacrificial lambs, with Rod going straight for the jugular and succeeding in all (or most all) variations:
Nixon – Moss (W)
16.Nd5 exd5 17.Bxd5 Rc8 18.g6 hxg6 19.Rxg6 (distaining the material gains that Bf7:+ offers, although 19 … Qa4 might keep Black in with a squeak in the middle game) Qc7 20.Rd2 Qd8 21.Rh6 Rxc2+ 22.Kxc2 1-0
Nice
Livesey – Colburn (W)
29.Na4? Bd4! after which it’s hard to come up with a useful move, let alone plan for White as his pieces are (or will be) fairly move-tied. An enjoyable position which calls to mind this piece on the Streatham blog. White tried to bail out with 30.Kh3 but Paul refused to exchange pieces, and kept the bind with Bxf2 31.Nc3 Kg7 32.Nd5 Bc5 33.Rf6 a4 34.Rb1 a3 35.Rbf1 Rb7 36.R6f2? Bxf2 0-1
An equalising win for Paul after a chaotic Round 9 clash against the same opponent with the same colour in round 9 last season.
This left Graham Morris and his opponent trying (we think, at different times) to winkle out a win on board 6
Morris - Fernandez (B)
but after a fruitless chase down the h-file it’s clear there’s nothing left bar the concluding squibbed firework: 59…. Kg2 60.Bd4 Kg3 61.Be5 Bc5 62.Bc7 Bxb6 ½-½
Oxford 3
| Iceni | 2053 | Oxford 3 | 1828 | |||||
| w | Savage, Nicholas W | 2085 | 1 - 0 | Pozimski, Szymon | 1978 | |||
| b | Crombleholme, Alan K | 2119 | 0 - 1 | Neatherway, A Philip | 1954 | |||
| w | Reynolds, D Ian W | 2036 | 0 - 1 | Woolacott, Samuel | 1922 | |||
| b | Ruthen, Stephen W | 2054 | ½ - ½ | Devane, Eoin | 1791 | |||
| w | Donaghay, Richard H | 1993 | 1 - 0 | Henbest, Kevin B | 1725 | |||
| b | Botham, C Paul | 2033 | 1 - 0 | Irving, Alastair | 1602 | |||
| 3½ - 2½ | ||||||||
Oxford 3 came close to a result against a Iceni, a team normally known to cause trouble against our seconds, and who survived a real scare on the top boards to brush past the winning line on the lower half. On top board Szymon seemed a lot more compact until he let a pawn go adrift on move 28, after which the position went slowly away (as the c-pawn accelerated through the gears):
Savage,N – Pozimski (B)
27…. Qc6 28.e4 Nf6? (Rfd8) 29.Qxc6 Rxc6 30.Nxe5 (and 1-0, 43)
A little unlucky there, although we were gifted a score on board 4:
Devane – Ruthen (W)
When Black, intoxicated with his springing Springers overlooked that after 33.Rxf2 a capture with the e-pawn was immediately decisive (33… exf2; 34. Ng3 Re1+ 35. Kd2 h4), or as Fritz likes to put it, +20.48 and counting. Instead play continued … Nxf2+ 34.Kc1 h4 35.c4 Rg8 36.g3 Nd3+ 37.Kd1 Nxb4 38.Rc3 hxg3 39.Nxg3 Re8 40.Ke2 Nxa2 41.Rxe3 ½-½
On board 2, Phil Neatherway scored a pretty, and sound, win against a higher rated opponent. After advancing and securing a passed pawn on the queen side, he repeated the dose on the king-side before … :
Neatherway – Crombleholme
37.Qe5 Qd7 38.b7 Qg4+ 39.Qg3 1-0
while Sam Woolacott marked his debut with a win from the depths of a Caro-Kann:
Reynolds - Woolacott (W)
Having drawn the white pawns up to the dizzy heights of b4 and c5, it’s time to go hunting. 24.Ke2 Ra3 25.Ra1 Kc7 26.Kd2 Nd5 27.b5 Nc3 28.Rc1 Nxb5 29.Rc2 Nd4 30.Rb2 f5 31.Ne2 Nxe2 32.Kxe2 Rc3 0-1 A pawn down, with the c-pawn now destined for the board-side soup, White resigns. Or did a bell go ding-a-ling?
This left us 2.5 – 1.5 but unable to garner another point despite some strong play on the bottom boards.
Donaghay – Henbest (B)
A position rated as equals by CB Lite, and 28. … c4 29.Qxc7 Rxc7 30.dxc4 Rxc4 31.Rb4 Rc5 32.Rb5 Rc7 33.a5 Ne7 34.a6 Nc8 35.Rb7 and it looks like Black has gone a bit too passive here – although it’s hard to suggest immediate improvements without access to some proper artificial intelligence. Or some extended use of some human intelligence : perhaps Black should keep the rook active on the c file, to attack the a-pawn in due course from a4 or thereabouts? In any event, it was 1-0 in 57, with Kev playing til mate.
On bottom board, Alastair (also on his debut) missed a tactic on the d-file early in his Alekhine’s defence – the sort that ends effective interest in the game pretty early.
Sunday
I don’t know what it was like in Staverton, but it was right blurry in Daventry on Sunday morning – the result of watching some TV game shows while kibitzing the day’s output – or, in Tim’s case, surfing the 4ncl internet underworld. Apparently ITV’s The Cube has been going on for a few years now without a mention in respectable chess magazines, and some of the exercises seemed like trying to get out of the semi-Slav with only minor surface lacerations to your position. We left before the next programme – not roulette?! – arrived on screen, and back to the TV normality that is a late-night showing of a Hercule Poirot mystery.
Fortunately, the beer was regular enough, as was the warm taste of victory for two of the two top teams.
On to Sunday, then – and let’s skip breakfast and move on to the play. (Memo to self: skip breakfast next Sunday.)
Oxford 1
| Oxford 1 | 2224 | Jutes of Kent | 2304 | |||||
| w | Harvey, Marcus R | 2346 | 1 - 0 | Williams, Simon K | g | 2513 | ||
| b | Savage, Ben DM | f | 2262 | 0 - 1 | Galego, Luis | g | 2482 | |
| w | Rose, Matthew | 2282 | 0 - 1 | Thorfinnsson, Bragi | m | 2421 | ||
| b | Eckersley-Waites, Tom | 2276 | ½ - ½ | Thorfinnsson, Bjorn | m | 2402 | ||
| w | Shaw, David A | 2245 | 0 - 1 | Stebbings, Anthony J | 2241 | |||
| b | Coleman, James | 2142 | 0 - 1 | Harakis, Alexis M | 2220 | |||
| w | White, Michael JR | f | 2214 | 1 - 0 | Naylor, John | 2174 | ||
| b | Miranda Gonzalez, Nicole | 2027 | ½ - ½ | Summerscale, Claire E | 1981 | |||
| 3 - 5 | ||||||||
How tough Div 1 (b) is can be gauged by the fact that our game against Cambridge counts as an easy enough match. Our chances against the Jutes weren’t helped by having Kieran away on Marathon duty, but the arrival of two Icelandic 2400s in the Jutes squad was a bit of a blow to our hopes…
Harvey - Williams (W)
Marcus completes the other half of a forgettable weekend for the GM when after 22.Nd6+ Bxd6 23.Rxd6 he’s doing pretty well but after … Ke7? (… Bc8) it’s a disaster 24.Rxe6+ Kxe6 25.Nxc5+ Kd5 26.Nxb7 Rb8 27.Na5 when even the b-pawn is defended. It must have been nervous for the next 31 moves but the result wasn’t in any real doubt.
Galego – Savage
Ben ended up in this position, having sacrificed, temporarily he hoped, a pawn to free his position. After 23.Qd2 the idea of … a5-a4, dismantling the protection of the d5 pawn, could easily run into Bxh6 ideas, so instead … Nxd5 but now the Fritz counter goes Geiger : 24.Rd1 Qh4 25.Bxd5 Bxd5 26.Nf5 Qxf2+ 27.Qxf2 1-0
On Board 3, Matt lost to the higher-rated of the B. Thorfinnsson, in a line and with play very similar to his last round loss in the 2010-11 4NCL – so we’ll deal with this game there, if we get around to writing that report, partly because it’s got a lot of manoeuvring and not that much action – although connoisseurs of that sinking feeling you get when your best laid plans are falling apart may like a look at it.
Next door on 4, the lower rated Thorfinnsson, Bjorn, was matched against the younger (or older) of the Eckersley-Waites twins, and sure enough it was an epic along the lines of Beowulf, with battles and detail from opening to ending. Let’s skip the complexities of the early middle game (a pawn sac), the fireworks in the middle game, and join it in the placid ending … :
Thorfinnsson,Bjorn - Eckersley-Waites,T (B)
So, the journalistic outlook is good for Oxford: it looks like Black is winning – a pawn more, lots more piece coordination, and that giant on e2, while those white pawns are weak, disjointed. Unfortunately, they also look a little far away in the event of any further simplification and a pawn rush in a king and pawn ending. My punt at the time was what Tom played – 41. … h4 (aiming at 3 connected passed pawns) although the machine now suggests, as does my eye now, some greater merit in 41. … f4, justifying it with 42.gxf4 Nxf4+ 43.Kg3 Re4 44.c5 Kf7. 42. Rd5 (a brave call, but White doesn’t have too many options, as taking on h4 just invites the black space invaders to come on down, if you’ll pardon the mixed media metaphors) Rxd5 43.cxd5 hxg3 44.Kxg3 Ng5. This looks wrong - … Kf7 looks more sensible, to keep an eye on variations where the white pawns stop adopting poses seen in Downton Abbey (viz. “limp and pathetic”). [Note: and sure enough, Houdini when conferred with suggests there is a win here after 44...b5! (allowing White to queen, with check) 45.a4 bxa4 46.b5 a3 47.b6 a2 48.b7 a1Q 49.b8Q+ Kf7 50.Qc7+ Kg6 51.Qc3 (before doffing him up with geometry) … Qa7]
Still, after 45.a4 Nf3 46.Kf2 Kf7
and even though the calculator is on our side, we can’t really trust it too readily here. 47.b5 Nd4 (... f4 just loses to the pawn rush on the other side) 48.Bc3 g3+ (the computer now thinks White is better) 49.Kxg3 Ke7 50.Kf2
It’s time for a last, and successful, throw of the tactical dice … Nxb5! 51.axb5 Kd6 52.b6 Kxd5 53.Bf6 Kc6 54.Bd8 Kd7 55.Bc7 Kc8 56.Kxe2 Kd7 57.Kf3 f4 58.Kxf4 Kc8 59.Ke5 Kd7 60.Kd5 Kc8 ½-½
Grendel’s mother would have been proud.
Dave Shaw never got going and was beaten neatly in a game that never took off (though Black must have enjoyed it), while James Coleman went down after a defensive effort that eventually succumbed to espace majeure:
Harakis – Coleman (W)
36.Rb1 bxa5 37.Rxb8+ Nxb8 38.Bxa5 Rb7 39.Rb3 Rxb3+ 40.Bxb3 Na6 41.Bd8 Nb4 42.Ke3 1-0
Board 7 was a curious affair with nothing much happening that I could pick up, until time control approached:
Black seems marginally the more coordinated, and after White’s last move (g5) can now opt to take it, or to seek a prize from the Guinness book of records with … h5, thus occupying in full the 5th rank. He decided wisely against the latter, but in choosing the former he got side-tracked into a less wise piece sacrifice. 33. … fxg5 34.Rxe5 Ra3 35.Rg1 Rxc3+ 36.Kxc3 Nd7+ 37.Kd4 Bc5+ 38.Ke4 1-0 although it’s likely this was on time as White isn’t totally won, even if a piece to the good.
Summerscale, C – Miranda Gonzalez (W)
Nicole marked a debut with a draw against Claire Summerscale, with play continuing from the diagram: 26.Nb3 (a4 might be more taxing here) Ra4 27.f3 Nd7 28.Nd4 Nb6 29.Kf2 Nc4 30.Nc2 e5 31.Ke2 f5 ½-½ The a-pawn is tied down and it’s hard for either side to progress.
Oxford 2
| Oxford 2 | 2051 | AMCA Rhinos | 1990 | |||||
| w | Healey, Michael W | 2110 | 1 - 0 | Foley, John P | 2074 | |||
| b | Dickinson, Tim R | 2152 | ½ - ½ | Duvall, Ian | 2053 | |||
| w | Nitz, Tomos | 2058 | 1 - 0 | Tunstall, George S | 1942 | |||
| b | Nixon, Rodney J | 2011 | 1 - 0 | Stayt, James N | 1996 | |||
| w | Duggan, Christopher | 2026 | 1 - 0 | Tart, Peter K | 1944 | |||
| b | Neatherway, A Philip | 1954 | 0 - 1 | Shaw, Matthew H | 1936 | |||
| 4½ - 1½ | ||||||||
A convincing win for Oxford 2, who looked like 5 ½ - ½ winners for a while, but events (and opponents) conspired against them. Tim took a quick draw – all the better to spectate at Staverton – and for a long time we looked certain for 2/2 on the bottom boards. The first part of this emerged when Chris closed out on board 5
Duggan – Tart (W)
The play has fluctuated since move 2 (1. e4 e5; 2. Nf3 d5) but now, after 29.Qc1 Qd7 30.Qc2 Black sees something that turns out not to be there: … Bd6 31.Qxe4 Qb5 32.Nf5 Qxb2 33.Nxd6 f5 34.Nxf5 1-0 A triumph for the Elephant’s Gambit pawn.
And, when leaving the venue that afternoon, the match on Board 6 seemed settled, too:
Shaw – Neatherway (B)
Black starts well : 38…. Ra4! 39.g5 fxg5 40.Kxg5 Rxc4 41.Bxg7 Rxb5 but then loses part of the way 42.Be5 Rxd5 43. Rxa3 (ouch). Although still winning, the rest of the sorry tale can be summed up as “1-0 (sic) (60)” and inspected elsewhere.
Memo to self: never resign (but should I play til mated?)
On top board, the question we raised when leaving for Staverton was “Mike has a strategic advantage … but does he have enough material to make it count?” And, sure enough, just as we were leaving he was playing his 35th move … :
Healey – Foley (W)
And sure enough it looks like Mike’s position is a little worse than those strong piece positions suggest. (There was an easy enough win on move 22, though, as long as your tablet phone could get the Fritz signal.) It’s time trouble and there are tactics abounding: 37.Qe3 Qxe3 38.Rxe3 Nd5 (whoops) 39.Bxg7 Nxe3 40.Bxh6 Nxe6 41.fxe6 (whew – the threat of Ng5 with check prevents an immediate recapture) … Nf5 42.Bf4 Nd4 43.Ne5 Nxe6 44.Nxg4 Rc8 45. Be5
(B)
A good time to draw breath. Black has the better pieces, but White has the more pawns. Mike now re-organises his forces to shove those assets up ‘em – as it were. Black’s more modest forces on the other side have a similar (and complementary) directionality.
Play continues 45. … Rc5 46.Kg2 Ra5 47.Kf3 Rxa4 48.Nf6+ Kg6 49.g4 Nd4+ 50.Ke3 Nc6 51.Bc3 Ne7 52.Kd3 Ra2 53.Ne4 a5 54.h5+ Kf7 55.g5 a4 to bring us to the next time scramble:
(W)
56.g6+ Kg8? (56. … Nxg6 57.Ng5+ Kg8 58.hxg6 Rg2 looks drawing) 57.Nf6+ Kf8 58.Bb4 Rh2 59.Bxe7+ Kg7 60.Ne8+ Kh6 61.Bg5+ Kxh5 62.g7 a3 63.g8Q a2 64.Nf6# 1-0
I missed Tomos’s bit of white square trickery to rescue a position that was beginning to drift away.
Nitz – Tunstall
30.Nf4 Bxc4 31.R6xc4 bxa3 32.Ng6 (Ah. Suddenly He Saw.) Qd6 33.Nxf8 Rxf8 and 1-0 (54), with an object lesson in converting an exchange up with same-side pawns.
On the last board to be covered, Rod won a pawn early on against Jim Stayt, and clung on and converted composedly in an B + N ending, and complete a decent 100% weekend in the middle of the Oxford 2 promotion engine.
Oxford 3
| Oxford 3 | 1780 | Leeds University Old Boys | 2096 | |||||
| w | Terry, Sean | 1926 | 1 - 0 | Hall, John | 2178 | |||
| b | Devane, Eoin | 1791 | 0 - 1 | Mossong, Hubert | f | 2119 | ||
| w | Foster, Chantelle L | 1858 | ½ - ½ | Taylor, Mark V | 2149 | |||
| b | Henbest, Kevin B | 1725 | 0 - 1 | McGann, Gary | 2178 | |||
| w | Irving, Alastair | 1602 | 0 - 1 | Deighton, Simon | 1962 | |||
| b | default | d - 1 | Bourne, Iain | 1994 | ||||
| 1 - 4½ | ||||||||
Oxford’s reward for a close loss against a team that has caused Oxford 2 problems in the past was a plum tie against Leeds, a team rated 300+ Fide points higher per board. Added to that the ½ point default penalty didn’t promise all that well for the team.
Chantelle played sensibly against 2150 opposition to steer a French Tarrasch to a position agreed drawn in the middle game, while Eoin (ground in an ending) Kevin (outplayed in the Tromp) both lost. On top board I managed to scoop an attack up from the ground floor, and reached this position around the time when nerves were beginning to mix with time pressure.
Terry – Hall
It’s hard to know what to do for sure – particularly if you’re conscious that you’re a clear pawn up and that most endings are won! Not finding a way to that (or any) ending, I took the decision to plough after the king – and play continued unsoundly but interestingly: 26.d4 Nd7 27.Rg3 exd4 28.Qxd4 Ne5 (an obvious move, which loses: the knight will be kicked once its opposite number reaches e6. … Nc5 is a better option) 29.Nf4 cxb3 30.Ne6 Nc4 31.Rxg7 Nxa3+ 32.Kb2 Nc4+ 33.Kxb3 1-0
Photos
View slideshow.
Playformator™ (R.I.P.)
What with the passing of time and technology, and for reasons as technical as the rationale for all rook and pawn endings being drawn, the old software that ran the Playformator feature on this site, runs no more. Hard to know who at Apple – in the absence caused by the passing of Steve Jobs – to shake a stick at, but while we're working on this technical problem, we’re starting off a Top Games from the Weekend feature, here:
Oxford 1’s GoTW goes to this match from Sunday on Board 4 – not quite as cheerful a game as Marcus’s breezy win on Board 1, or as dramatic as Trent – Rose the previous night, but a lot more even a contest on the day - something for the chess player who wants to feed his Houdini Habit (although of course this is only to be tried at home, folks):
Oxford 2 – plenty of interesting chess here, and endgame wins with exchanges adrift in two games (Hayward and Healey) caught the eye, but in the end the crowd (we felt) wanted access to a 22 mover, a piece sac in the Sicilian leading to mate:
Oxford 3 – here we’ve gone for a quiet but ultra-efficient win by Phil Neatherway against 2100 opposition, with Black getting nothing from the Alekhine before getting pushed back on the queen, then king-side – and a neat win with reduced material just before time control.