Perriman Cup Semi-Final

Shell & Arsenal go the same way.

A very tight match was always likely and it was pretty clear before teams were exchanged that Shell's pool of players gave them a chance of a grading advantage. Tantalisingly, the difference was 38 points so this did not translate itself into a bonus for Customs: we just had to outplay them.

The tension was not helped by the need to change the venue at short notice. Most of the away players arrived late thanks to the traffic and Charles arrived later, having missed the messages telling him about the change of venue apart from the written note hastily handed to the Rev. Cons. in case any chess player should turn up at Alex House.

Once all the games were under way, Heather led the way with a very pleasant win against Ron Prickett. Ron is quite a dangerous player as, although his grade is normally around the 100 mark, he is quite capable of beating 130+ opponents and just as likely to lose to a 60 grade. First blood to Customs but of course in the event of a drawn match, Shell would now win on bottom board elimination.

This soon became 2 - 0 as Andy King, who appeared to have the better of the opening, missed a freeing manoeuvre which allowed me a significant check from d4. This threatened to win a pawn, which would have been a very dangerous capture, but Andy opted to hang on to the pawn, allowing his knight to be pinned. The remainder of the game saw my pieces build up mercilessly on the f2 square and eventually there were massive exchanges which won me a rook and would have forced mate in another couple of moves. Shortly afterwards, Matt fell victim of a vigorous king-side attack while his pieces were stranded on the wrong side of the board.

The adjournments are all very close. Graham is a pawn down but has some active pieces and White's knight is on h1. Dan, who seemed to be under the cosh for a good deal of the evening, has a piece for 3 pawns. Black has an isolated pawn and a doubled pair and they are all still in his half of the board. Charles caused me more panic when, with two minutes remaining for about 6 moves, he tried to press his clock with a piece but missed the button, leaving it running while his opponent thought. Fortunately he recovered from this mishap, reached the time control with seconds to spare and has an extra pawn in a double-edged position.

Very fine play by Charles (whose home analysis was so sound that he spent a lot of the playing session watching Arsenal lose to Chelsea in the European Cup) & Dan secured Customs' place in the Final of the Perriman Cup. Charles duly wrapped his game up after reaching R & 2 v R and Daniel had effectively prevented any progress by Barry Sheppard, even winning a pawn at the end - had he played on he may well have won, but we only needed the draw to go through. It is now likely that Steve Murray will accept Graham's offer of a draw.

3/5/04: some 22 hours before the proposed play-on, Steve Murray telephones to accept Graham's draw offer.

King,A - Walker,P [B07]
[Walker,Peter]

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nbd7 4.f4 e5 5.Nf3 exd4 6.Qxd4

Black looks a bit cramped but has no obvious weaknesses
6...Nc5
[ Fritz prefers 6...Be7 but there's not much in it]
7.Bc4 Be6 8.Ng5 h6 9.Nxe6 Nxe6 10.Bxe6 fxe6
In cramped positions like this, where White's pieces occupy 4 ranks while Black's occupy 3, Black normally likes to exchange. This gives his pieces a little more elbow-room.
11.Qc4 Qd7 12.e5 dxe5 13.fxe5 Nd5 14.Ne4
[ Black is quite happy with the ending after 14.Nxd5 Qxd5 15.Qxd5 exd5]
14...0-0-0 15.0-0 Nb6

Now it's Black's turn to make some forcing moves.
16.Qe2 Qd4+ 17.Nf2
This is Fritz's preference. However, White seems to be walking into real trouble, partly because Black's attacking moves are generally easy to find. White's practical chances may have been better to drop a couple of pawns and then try to use the open lines with 17.Kh1 Qxe5 18.Bf4 Qxb2
17...Bc5 18.c3 Qd3 19.Qg4 Rhf8 [ 19...Bxf2+ 20.Rxf2 Qd1+ 21.Qxd1 Rxd1+ 22.Rf1 Rxf1+ 23.Kxf1 Rf8+ 24.Kg1 Nc4 and Black still has the better of it.]
20.Bf4 Nd5
[ 20...Qc4 is much stronger, threatening 21.g3 g5 22.b3 Qe4 23.Qxe6+ Kb8 24.b4 Bxf2+ 25.Rxf2 gxf4 26.Qxh6 Nd5]
21.Qxe6+ Kb8

It's all bad news for White from now on.
22.Bg3 Nf4 23.Bxf4 Rxf4 24.g3
[ You can tell that things are going horribly wrong when the computer wants to play 24.Kh1 dropping a piece]
24...Rxf2 25.Rxf2 Rf8
[ 25...Qf3 straight away is better. The move played allows White to go a piece down with Kg2, but stopping the mating threats for a while.]
26.Raf1 Qf3

White would have been better to resign here.
27.Qc4 Bxf2+ 28.Rxf2 Qxf2+ 29.Kh1 and resigns on account of 29...Rd8 0-1

Walker,H - Prickett,R [C01]
S&DCL

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.c4 c6 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.h3 Bh5 7.Nc3 Nf6 8.Bg5 Nbd7 9.cxd5 cxd5 10.Bb5 Be7 11.0-0 0-0 12.Re1 a6 13.Ba4 b5
14.Bb3 h6 15.Bh4 Nb6 16.Bc2 Bg6 17.Ne5 Bxc2 18.Qxc2 Rc8 19.Qd3 Re8 20.Rac1 Nc4 21.b3 Nb6 22.Re3 Nh5 23.Qf5 Bxh4 24.Qxf7+ Kh7 25.Qg6+ Kg8 
26.Qxh5 Rf8 27.Rf3 Rxf3 28.Qxf3 b4 29.Ne2 Rxc1+ 30.Nxc1 Bf6 31.Ncd3 Bxe5 32.Nxe5 Qc7 33.Qe2 Qc1+ 34.Qf1 Qxf1+ 35.Kxf1 Kf8 36.f4 Ke7 
37.Nc6+ Kf6 38.g4 a5 39.Nxa5 1-0



There's nothing to stop N-c6-b4 and the advance of the a-pawn. Black's knight is quite remarkably ineffective.