Dickinson - Pedersen V Athenaeum 1, 27 May

White to play
21.Bxh7+ Kf8 and what next?!

From the diagram position the standard 21.Bxh7+ suggests itself. … Kf8 21…Kxh7 allows 22.Qd3+ regaining the piece, but now Tim continues in sacrificial vein: 22.Be4 Nxe3 23.Qxe3 Rad8 24.Qh3 g6 Fritz prefers … b4 to shore up the a3-f8 diagonal 25.Qh7 Re6 it's hard to find a move here for Black 25…Ke7 26.Bxg6 simply wins another pawn while the Black king has nowhere to go, but equally it's not easy to see where White goes from here. Fritz recommends Qh8+ but nothing immediately decisive results from her cogitations. 26.Bc1 Ke8? … f5 was needed here; now Black is lost even though he subsequently gains a tempo to play … b4. 27.Qg8+ Bf8 28.Ba3 Rdd6 29.Bd5 Qc3 30.Rf1 b4 31.Bxe6 Rxe6 32.Bc1 e4 32…g5 would allow the game to continue as 33.Bxg5 Rg6 34.Rd1 Qc8 would win a piece 33.Bh6 Qc5 34.Rd1 Qe7 35.Bxf8 1-0

Rawlinson (C) - Draper V Athenaeum 1, 27 May

Black to play
15…Nf8 16.dxe5 g5 17.Nxd6 1-0

Chris this weekend had quite a time with Knights, most of them coming a cropper on the queen-side. (The pawn on b6 is where the black knight was before it was lost to a c5 pawn thrust.) But here in the first round we see him conclude proceedings briskly

Rawlinson (A) - Munson V Suffolk Punches, 28 May

White to play and grovel a bit

26.Qxf4 faced with the loss of a piece after a queen retreat (26.Qd3 Rxc4 27.Qxc4 Bxd5), Aidan mixes things up. 26…Bxf4 27.Nxf4 g5 28.b5 gxf4 29.bxc6 Qxc6 30.Be2 Qxc3 31.Rd1 Qb4 and now it's not easy to see why White is playing on. However… 32.Bf3 Re8 33.Raa1 a3 34.h3 Rb8 35.Ra2 Qc3 36.Rda1 Rb3 37.Bd5 Rb2 38.Rxa3 Qd2

39.Bf3! Qxf2+ 40.Kh1 Qb6 41.Rd3 Rb1+ 42.Rxb1 Qxb1+ 43.Rd1 and it's hard to see how Black can now infiltrate. 43…Qb4 44.Rd5 Kg7 45.Kh2 Kg6 46.Rh5 Qe1 47.Rd5 Qe6 48.Rh5 h6 49.Rd5 Kf7 50.Rh5 Ke7 51.Rd5 Qg6 52.Rh5 Qg3+ 53.Kh1 Qe1+ 54.Kh2 Qg3+ ½ - ½ Nice one

Ludbrook - Feavyour V Suffolk Punches, 28 May

23…g5 24.hxg5 Qxg5 25.Re1 Rxf4

Matt had a 2/3 weekend, and this was his win on Sunday: although a clear pawn to the good it looks like there is a lot of play before the scoresheets are signed - but Black's petite combinaison here not only simplifies the position but the assessment (his position goes from -1 to -6 in the first three moves, as his king fatally is exposed: 26.Rxf4 Nf3+ 27.Qxf3 Rxe1+ 28.Kg2 Qe7 29.Rg4+ Kh8 30.Qc3+ Qe5 31.Qc4 Qe6 32.Qc3+ Qe5 33.Qc4 Qe6 34.Qd4+ Re5 35.Re4 1-0

Lunn - Rawlinson (C) V Suffolk Punches, 28 May

White to play (ordinarily)
23…g5 24.hxg5 Qxg5 25.Re1 Rxf4

And on Sunday, Chris ends up with the gammy knights - Disinformator's editorial team didn't need any help in diagnosing let alone grasping the difficulties facing Black in the diagram position. Even so, the retribution comes surprisingly quickly: 16.Bd2 Nd6 17.Rf1 Qe7 18.Bf4 Nd7 19.Bxd6 Qxd6 20.Qe2 Nf6 21.Ne4 Qb4 22.Nxf6+ gxf6 23.Qe6+ 1-0

Gregory - Dickinson V Suffolk Punches, 28 May

White to play (badly)

Two surprising features of this game: the first is the way Fritz favours the black pieces, notwithstanding the self-enclosed bishop on g6 - the second is the one-move refutation of White's 17th move - is there a reason for 17. h4 that anyone of any strength can put forward? 17.h4 Be7 18.b5 Kd7 19.Rab1 Kc7 20.Ne2 Bxh4

Haydon - Starkie V Brown Jack, 29 May

Black to play that rook where, exactly?!

In Ray's game, 24…Rb8 25.Qxa6 Qxa6 26.Bxa6 Bc3 27.Rf1 Bb4 is probably good enough to secure a draw after a cold-blooded encounter typical of the players 24…Rad8 25.Bc6 Bh3 26.Rd2 Qe6 27.Bf2 Rxd6 28.Qxd8+ Rxd8 29.Rxd8+ Bf8 30.Rxe6 1-0

Bourne - Ludbrook V Brown Jack, 29 May

Matt meanwhile goes astray to get to the diagram position but then misses that after 17…Qxb7 18.Qd8+ mates, and further attempts to retrieve the mess only worsen his predicament. 14…Nxe5 15.c4 Ne7 16.Nd6+ Kf8 17.Nxb7 Nxf3+ 18.Bxf3 f6 19.Nd8 Qc8 20.Qd6 fxg5 21.Nxe6+ Kf7 22.Nxg5+ Kf8 23.Re1 Ra7 24.Bg4 Qe8 25.Ra3

Rawlinson (C) - Cabero PP V Brown Jack, 29 May

White to play on regardless

Finally Chris, who got into this mess after another Knight-filled Alekhine [1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 c5 4.c4 Nb4 5.dxc5 d6 6.Qa4+ N8c6 7.a3 Na6 8.b4 Bd7 9.exd6 Ncxb4] contrives to escape with a perpetual when Fritz was reading from the Gospel according to -6.25 : 34…gxf5 35.Nxf5 Re6 is a rook down for no real compensation. 34.Qf6 Nxf4 35.Qg5 Ne6 36.Nh6+ Kh8 37.Qh4 Ng7 38.Nxc4 bxc4 39.Qf6 Re1+ 40.Kh2 Rxh1+ 41.Kxh1 ½-½

Stembridge - White (Ian) V Pontypridd, 27 May

Black to play and lose

Ed seems to have taken over the Ian Webster role at the 4NCL - of getting into positions with dubious looking piece assortments. Here he's the wrong side of the Q Vs R + B + N, and with his remaining piece pretty ineffective, he's rushed his king-side pawns up the table in search of cheapos. Now, a simple … Bxh3 seems reasonable, followed by a later Re6xg6, but Black simplifies disastrously with: 35…Nxc3 36.bxc3 Bxh3 37.Qc4+ Kh8 38.Qf7 Fritz's assessment over the last three moves has lurched from -1.44 (Black) to mate in 15 (White). Hmmm… 1-0

Gilbert - Morris V Pontypridd, 27 May

Black to play and lose

Ends surprisingly quickly: 31…Qd4?? 32.Nh5+ 1-0 [Bxe4 was necessary first before …Qd4]

Terry - Taylor (Robert G) V Pontypridd, 27 May

Black to play and fail to win

White has just played the monumentally bad Rh3-h6?? - but perhaps this is to be expected as earlier on he had started proceedings with 1. Na3 for reasons now too far distant for memory to fully recall or justify. That said, and after spending about 20 moves dealing with the effects of that inanity, my position had swelled from "absurd" to "acceptable", before lurching back into an amorphous lump that is the diagram position. 36. Rh6 was the result of the "anything wins" approach to analysis, when in fact it was one of the few moves which should lead inexorably to a loss. 36.Rh6?? Rb8+ 37.Kc2 Rb1? the pretty underpromotion 37…a1N+ would have exacted the fullest price for White's 36th move. 38.Rxg6+ Kf8 39.Rxg8+ Nxg8 40.Rxb1 axb1Q+ 41.Kxb1 ½-½

Smith (Jon) - Lewis (Dave) V Pontypridd, 27 May

Black to play (in a resigned fashion)
42…f4 43.Rxf4 Re7 44.Rf8# 1-0

Morris - Low YM V Cambridge , 28 May

Black to play (White to win art-illy)

Of late Graham has been noticed winning games by virtue of endgame knowledge and technique - and so his games have by and large flown under the Disinformator radar. This neat finish, ending in zugzwang, constitutes the exception! 59…Ba5+ 60.Kc4 Bd8 61.Kd5 Kb5 62.Bf8 Ka4 63.Kc4 Ka5 64.Bd6 Ka4 65.Bb4 1-0

Burt - Campbell V Cambridge , 28 May

Black to play (on for a few more moves.)

Will's return to the 4NCL fray in November strengthened the Oxford 3 ship enormously and this excellent result against a strong Cambridge side helped to secure a draw, and was the second of his three wins this weekend. The diagram position results from an unforced piece sacrifice to dislodge the enemy king while disrupting his piece coordination. Fritz will have us believe that Black is coasting here (-2.66) but there's quite a bit of work to do before the point can be secured. The silicon wizard now suggests either Kb8 or Rg7 (etc) - illustrating the wisdom of Leonard Barden's observation that nobody will ever buy Fritz's collected best games, but in any event such a policy is difficult to adopt over the board. 20.a4 Kb6 21.Qf2 this forces a retreat from the King, but instead after 21…Qc5? 22.b4! the black queen is being won for material.

20…Kb6 21.Qf2 Qc5 22.b4 Qxd4 23.Qxd4+ Kb7 24.a5 Ra7 25.Bf7 Rf8 26.Bxe6 Bxe6 27.Rxe6 Ka8 28.Nd5 Nxd5 29.Qxd5+ Kb8 30.Rxe7 Rxe7 31.Qxd6+ 1-0