Final of Watson Trophy
BEXHILL 1.5 – LEWES 2.5
On Friday 9 May, we reached one of the high points of this season as we hosted Lewes in the final of the Paul Watson Trophy. On board 4, Harry Morter joined the team, having shown a rapid rise in skill this year as one of our leading juniors. Outrated by 200 points, he showed no hesitation, just quiet determination. Playing a solid Jobava London system as White, he blocked Back’s …Bd6 challenge to the London bishop on f4, with a bold Ne5. Black’s threats with…Qb6 {pressuring the pawns on d4 by X-ray and b2 directly) were countered by Nb5! Harry went on to play N x the d6 Bishop, so after the Q recaptured, he gained material by a discovered attack on the Q when his remaining N went to g6 to pick up the Rook on f8.( He may have done even better according to one spectator by taking on f7!) His Bd6 later went on to fork the Black king on f8 with a pawn on c5.
Harry maintained this material advantage (plus positionally with his 2 bishops) but he needed to open at least one file for his rooks. He achieved that with 18.d5! opening the d-file and making a powerful Q+R battery. Black tried a tactical defence attacking White’s Bishop on c5 with …Re5 but clearly overlooked the threat of a back-row mate. Then, as Black’s Q was forced to b8, Harry’s black-squared Bishop, yet again proved the winner as he forked both Re5 and the Qb8 with Bd6 -again!! Two rooks ahead. White resigned after only 26 moves. A convincing win, and very promising for Harry’s prospects. WELL DONE, Harry!
Our hopes were now raised and enhanced when, with Black on Board 3, Andrew Fleming looked to have long term structural chances against the White isolated pawn on d4. (It had been a difficult-to -classify queen’s pawn opening) But White had medium term pressure with a Rook on the half-open e-file, and a N on the c5 outpost which the pawn supported. Black had to solve the problem of his…Bc8 tied to defending the pawn on b7 and thus was keeping the a8-Rook out of the game, sitting on the long diagonal X-Rayed by White’s B on g2. Andrew set about it, using …Qb6 to keep pressure on c5/d4 and vacate the d8 square for his f-Rook. A tactical sequence ensued after …Nxd4+ !? where Black skewered the White Q on d2 and R on e1 with …. Bb4! White countered with a similar threat to the Black Q, but Black had the tempo to pick up a second pawn with an intermediate move…Bxf2+! Both Qs being removed, the endgame was one of a strong White N and R v Black’s R and bad white-squared Bishop. It was hampered by the need to defend his now-isolated pawn on d5, and the backward pawn on the half-open b- file. White’s rook gained a powerful outpost on b6, had a classic blocking square ( and jump-off point ) for his N on d4. Plus White had a more active King. Was this enough to compensate the 2 pawns? It began to appear so. Although Andrew was able to untie his q-side with …Rb8, Bd7, White had meanwhile, with advancing a pawn to a5, fixed the weakness at b7. Andrew counter-attacked the pawn on a5 with …Rc5, and at one point went 3 pawns up (But this was not the crucial a-pawn, sitting on a black square and invulnerable to the bishop).
Spectator hopes were seriously raised now! But the positional factors were still very much in White’s favour. Once Black played pawn moves…f6, g6 to push the probing white N away several times, White used his R, returning to the b6 outpost to wipe out Black’s k-side pawns, catching these like ducks in a row on the 6th rank. White was left with a lone passed pawn on h5. Black’s King had transferred to passive defence at the weak q-side and eventually consolidated it with a bishop manoeuvre … Bc2-a4-c6, but it was still acting defensively. Black had a passed pawn on d5, his now 1 extra pawn still backward on b7. Both sides pushed their passed pawns. Andrew’s king followed in support of the d-pawn , while White’s King tried to block it. A draw was agreed when it was clear that White’s King could not escape Rook checks and neither side could promote.
Although it looked a disappointing result because of the endgame starting with such a material plus, closer reflection suggests Andrew did very well to hold a draw with such positional deficits. Such deficits don’t go away in the endgame! All credit to White for holding the game, but White’s position was much easier to play, and Black had many problems to overcome, reflected in Andrew’s less time left on the clock. A worthy draw, Andrew!
Next in the spotlight was Luke Chapman who, playing Black on Board 1 after a tremendous season, was nevertheless outrated by a talented, young and experienced opponent. Against White’s Catalan system, Black released the central tension with …dxc4 and used an early …Nd5 to create play on the q-side with …Bb4, interrupting the White Q recapturing on c4. But White came out of the bishops exchange on d2 with a slight lead in development. Black’s N on d5 would be vulnerable to an e4 pawn push at some point, and a q-side structure that was vulnerable to the Catalan bishop on g2. Black shifted the a8-rook off the long-diagonal and prepared a …b5 pawn push to open files on the q-side, though the other N on c6 ( X-rayed by the Bg2) would first have to find a better home. At this point, Luke played a ‘mysterious rook move’…Rfc8. Difficult to evaluate as a weaker spectator! It appeared to be looking towards moving the N on c6, defending the pawn on c7, and hoping to break with …c5 later? White chose not to use the e4 square for a pawn, but for a N, heading for a c5 outpost, created when Black did play …b5. This would stymie Black’s planned break. Luke re-organised his pieces… Be8, …Nd8…Nd7. Luke challenged the centre with…e5, but White by- passed it with d5! Taking more space. The idea also being to fix the pawn on c7. Luke pushed on with …e4 and White offered the exchange of Q’s, on e4 which Luke accepted. White was thus able to centralise 2 Ns on e4, d4 and, with Bh3, pin a N against the Rook now trapped on c8!
Luke resigned because, if not exactly in Zugzwang, he said afterwards he was in a bind with no effective moves. He was not obviously downhearted. He had fought hard.
So the match was now level 1.5- 1.5 and everything hung upon Michael Hubbard with White on Board 2. The players’ ratings were balanced.Mike adopted a solid English Opening set up, with c4, e3, b3 and fianchetto of the q-side bishop. Black set up a strong point on…d5, supported by …e6, Nf6, and b6 and a likewise fianchetto on the q-side. Black sought control of the e4 square. The tension between the central pawns, c4 and d5, continued for a while as each side sought an advantage in the outcome. Mike eventually played cxd5, with Black pawns now on c5 and d5. White hit the centre again with d4. It looked as though Black may be left with hanging pawns c5/d5, if Mike had next played dxc5. But both sides resisted further pawn exchanges while developments were completed.
Ns were exchanged on e4, leaving a Black pawn on e4. White was keeping his own strong point on d4. Eventually, White developed a k-side initiative with Qf5 and landing a Ng5, forcing…g6. The Q and N were unable to create decisive threats against Black’s castled position. If the d4 pawn hadn’t been there the White bishop on b2 might have combined with the Q and N? Further weakening of Black’s K-side, with …h5 was provoked. But Black used a centralised N on e6 to threaten the N on g5, which was pinned against the Q on h4 by Black’s Q on e7. After lengthy thought, Mike played f4!?, which allowed …exf3 (en passant) , removing the hold on e4 and forcing exchanges of Qs on h4. Black finally broke the central tension of the pawns…cxd4! After exd4 it was White who was left with an isolani on d4. This would not necessarily favour Black, if White’s pieces could exploit outposts the pawn provided or advance it to tactical advantage. But White’s N was left on the side on h4. It was Black whose rook held the adjacent c-file and …Rc2 created threats on the 7th rank, to a loose B on c2, which was forced back to c1. Following up with …Bf4, Black discovered a double attack on the pawn d4. Bishops were exchanged on c1, deflecting the R from the d-file and Black was a pawn up after …Nxd4.
In the R and P endgame which ensued, Black gained a second pawn after… R x a3 and R x h2 and had created an outside passed pawn on b3. White’s King was dealing with the Black pawn majority on the K-side. And spending vital tempi eliminating them. Both sides were down to less than 30 seconds on the clock (but with 30-second increments the battle continued at length) . Eventually Black executed a winning plan to walk his King over to the Q side, checked all the way by White’s rook, with a view to sheltering from checks at b2 with enough time to free his Rook to create a decisive block to the checks and force promotion. White’s pawn was too far back on the K-side and had no time to promote. The game concluded in Lewes’ favour at the very end of a long evening
It was a terrific battle throughout. Credit to the fighting spirit on both sides, not only in this game but in all of them. Bexhill members congratulated Lewes on their well-deserved victory and for making an evening of such good chess possible by travelling from Lewes. Thanks also to everyone, particularly Bill Tracey and Michael Hayward, for their organisation and efficiency in preparing and hosting at St Marks Venue.
We lost, narrowly, but it was a great effort of which we should be proud, and a delight to have the chance to witness the event