S&DCL Div 1

Southend are beaten.

Friday 13th bad news for League Leaders

In what was one of the finest team efforts by Customs I for some years, we are on the point of inflicting their first defeat of the season on league leaders Southend. Two games are adjourned, but Heather's opponent was clearly contemplating resignation and it would be quite a disappointment if he choses to play on: the position is R & 3P v B & 4P in which Heather has the rook. Her king is about to invade and white is about to lose two pawns for nothing.

Graham was most unlucky: he was all over Roger Oxenham's King's Indian, winning the exchange and taking a massive space advantage on the king-side. Unfortunately, G allowed the king-side to become blocked, after which Roger launched his own attack on the queen-side. A lapse of concentration just before the time control and Graham's queen was removed for a rook. Graham could have captured black's bishop but chose to resign as to have done so would have allowed a quick mate.

Ellen's game finished first, a draw against her old Temple Sutton Primary School sparring partner, Simon Armour. Ellen said afterwards "I chickened out: I had the better position." However, a draw was a good result and maintains her unbeaten run.

My own game was anything but subtle. Steve played his usual Centre Counter and as ever I opted for the tactical approach. This became the cave-man tactical approach as I threatened a variation of Scholar's mate. Black was in grave danger of losing his e-pawn and having the queens exchanged, but Steve defended well. I probably missed a better continuation at one stage but eventally, with black's king sucked into the defence of some pretty dodgy pieces, there was a forced win of a piece.

Nick had already won. His reached an early endgame and Ian Gilbert seriously misjudged his chances in the R & P ending, choosing to exchange in what had to be a lost K & P ending. Nick actually played an unnecessary king move and should have queened his g-pawn unmolested, but the two separated passed pawn proved stronger than the two connected passed pawns. Nick's grading performance against Southend players this season is 202.

Matt's game has an awful lot going on. He expects to play on next Friday. Heather hopes she won't have to.

8 p.m. Sunday: John Marshall phoned to resign.

20/2/04 Matthew played on v Howard Grist but lost. Final score Customs 3½-2½ Southend. Whoopee!

And why not? The f7 pawn is pretty fragile and the e-pawn is undefended. Steve said after the game that he had played this against John Moore and had drawn, but surely 5 ... e5 must be a blunder.

6 ...Qf6 7.Nf3 Nc6 8.d3 g6 9.Qg5
White always keeps an edge in development. The attacking side normally doesn't want to exchange queens but white's is going to find it quite hard to do anything useful, and black still has a lot of weaknesses around the king-side.
9...Bg7 10.Qxf6 Bxf6 11.Bh6
We had each used more than 45 minutes here.
11...a6

Surely not right. White has active pieces everywhere and black hasn't completed his development yet. Black's problems mainly stem from the fact that his weakness is on the king side but his pieces are on the queen side. Very often, simply piling pieces into the area where your opponent has a weakness will bring results. I couldn't visualise how the game would finish, I just knew that Black's f7 pawn was subject to prolonged attack, that he had some dark-squared weaknesses which I could exploit, and that his pieces were out of play. Nick's game against Howard Grist in the away match at Southend is another good example of this approach.
12.Ne4 Ke7 13.Nfg5
Fritz prefers 13.0-0 although come to think of it Fritz prefers lots of other moves.
13...Nd4 14.Nxf6 Nxb3 15.axb3 Kxf6
White is still better, but not by much. We each had about 15 minutes left now.
16.Ne4+ Ke6 17.Ng5+ Kf6
A bit of repetition to gain a couple of moves for next to no time used.
18.0-0
I've found a plan now.
18...Nd5 19.f4
Opens lines. I think everything is a forced win from now on.
19 ...exf4 20.c4 Ne3 21.Rxf4+ Bf5
In the hurry to get a few moves in I missed this, but I've enough time now to work things out again - about 10 minutes left.
22.Re1

White now drives home the advantage.
22...Ng4 [ 22...Nc2 23.Re2; 22...Rae8 23.Ne4+ Rxe4 24.dxe4 Ng4 25.exf5 Nxh6 26.fxg6+] 23.Ne4+ Ke7 24.Nf2+ Kd7 25.Nxg4 Bxg4 26.Rxg4 f5 27.Rd4+ 1-0