The Christmas theme seems to have been -Trapping Queens on open boards …
Bexhill I – 2.5 —–1.5 – East Grinstead II
Friday 19 December saw this First Division clash as we hosted East Grinstead II.
Andy on Board 2 had White against an opponent he outrated by 100 or so points. This was an amazing game! Sharp tactics were promised with an open Sicilian Accelerated Dragon variation. At Move 9, Andy went into deep thought after Black’s ..Qb6, appearing to eye the ‘poisoned pawn’ on b2, as well as threatening discovered attacks on d4, plus complex tactics based on the loose white bishop on e3 should the Nd4 move. Andy had used up over half his time and appeared to ignore the threats with a calm 0-0.
Here is the score as I watched the game ( apologies to the players if my memory is wrong)
- e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Bc4 O-O 8. f3 Qb6
The amazing continuation, as I remember it, went :
9. O-O Nxe4 10. Nd5 Qc5 11. Nxc6
Black had struck with ..Nxe4, a ‘desperado’ piece discovering the attack on d4 and hoping to wreck White’s centre after a recapture f3xe4. I was amazed at Andy’s rapid reply Nd5 -he’d had it all worked out! The Nd5 attacked the Q on b6 at the same time defending the B on e3. Back’s Q displaced to c5, still on the e3 bishop’s line, but attacking White’s B on c4. Andy played Nd4xc6. Now virtually all his minor pieces were hanging. Black could only take one at once!
Here is the further game continuation :
11…Qxc4 12. Ncxe7+ Kh8 13. b3 Nc3 14. bxc4 Nxd1 15. Raxd1.
Black captured the bishop, as recapturing the N with ..Qxc6 would have resulted in a fork from the remaining Nd5 x e7+. After Nc6 x e7+, Kh8, Andy still didn’t take the Black N hanging at e4, instead attacking the Q with b3, exposing his QR to the Dragon Bishop on g7. Escape for the Q on a seemingly open board was impossible without loss as a move to b5 or a6 would meet with a fork of Q and R by Nc7. At the end of this sequence, which I believe Andy had probably seen from the start, Andy was a vital piece up. He went on to harass the R on b8 and eventually win the exchange putting him a whole R ahead.
On Board 1, Luke, evenly matched on ratings , had Black against a Catalan set-up, in which White pressurised and eventually won Black’s Isolated Queen’s Pawn. White dominated the open c and d files. Luke placed his hopes of saving the endgame in the opposite coloured bishops but lost a second pawn and conceded the game. This levelled the match score.
On Board 3 Howard had a great game as Black . He out-rated his opponent significantly, but the match position put pressure on him to overcome a seemingly solid “Stonewall” set-up against Howard’s Dutch Defence. White had developed the dark-squared QB to g5 early and exchanged it for the N on f6, and then deployed all his pawns on the dark squares.
Out of the opening, White seemed to have some q- side pressure, against which Howard engineered the b5 pawn break after a ‘strategic withdrawal’ of his N to a7. It was at the cost of a pawn but, as Howard explained afterwards, it was opening lines to White’s King which had castled q-side. White seemed to waste tempi repeating moves by his remaining ( white-squared) B and manoevring his Q from b6 over to the K-side. I missed what happened to the White Bishop.
Howard opened the e-file with a middlegame exchange e5xd4 and when White challenged the opened file with Re1 Howard boldly exchanged his Q for 2 rooks.
With apologies to Howard for my poor memory, the game concluded with a position something like this where the Q was trapped on an open board!
On Board 4, Andrew was White against an opponent who outrated him by 86 points. Sensibly playing a positional Vienna/King’s Indian Attack vs an Italian set-up (!) ) : 1.e4, e5 2. Nc3, Nf6 3.g3, Bc5. Black tried to mix it with an early …h5, h4. but Andrew sidestepped with g4 and after that neither side seemed to make progress on the K-side. Both sides delayed castling .The middle-game focussed on the d-file which was half open after Black’s pawns were doubled on the c-fileafter Andrew played Na4x the B on c5 .
Again, with apologies to Andrew for my poor memory, but a position something like this occurred, with everything resting on a potential d4 pawn break, which must have occurred while I was out of the room. But it gives me a chance to practice transferring play from my Fritz program onto this website!!
When all the heavy pieces had been exchanged ,Andrew sensibly accepted the draw which clinched the match.
As I spoke to him briefly afterwards, each sides’ pawns being largely on the opposite coloured squares to their own bishops and on the same coloured squares to the opponent’s bishop – might have been vulnerable.
Thank you to East Grinstead for the positive spirit in the match and undertaking the travel.
Any correction of information in the commentary will be welcome, if you email the secretary at lawryrhodes@yahoo.co.uk
A general seasonal message will follow after our last club meeting of the year on Tuesday 23 December, along with an update on the Christmas party at the Wheatsheaf and the Juniors Christmas party which took place just before the above match.