Saturday
| Oxford 2 | 2-4 | Cheddleton | ||||
| 1 | w | Ozeren, Kemal | 2312 | 0 - 1 | Acey, Gerald | 2150 |
| 2 | b | Schaper, Steffen | 2175 | 0 - 1 | Gilmore, Simon N | 2055 |
| 3 | w | Dickinson, Timothy R | 2162 | 1 - 0 | Armstrong, William G | 1949 |
| 4 | b | Starkie, Ray | 2140 | 1 - 0 | Whitfield, Craig M | 1955 |
| 5 | w | Bruce, Dave | 2109 | 0 - 1 | Yee, John Y | 1920 |
| 6 | b | Lang, Heather | 2072 | 0 - 1 | Stepanyan, Henrik | 1920 |
| SCS | 3-3 | Oxford 3 | ||||
| 1 | w | Haydon, David | 2080 | 1 - 0 | Morris, Graham | 2059 |
| 2 | b | Sathyanandha, Saravanan | 1909 | ½ - ½ | Ludbrook, Matt | 2046 |
| 3 | w | Lutton, J Arnold | 1889 | 0 - 1 | Jeffries, Majid | 2012 |
| 4 | b | Sathyanandha, Senthuran | 1779 | 0 - 1 | Zhang, Marco | 1925 |
| 5 | w | Clarke, Sean A | 1800 | ½ - ½ | Terry, Sean | 1823 |
| 6 | b | Lowry-O'Reilly, Hannah | 1813 | 1 - 0 | Henbest, Kevin B | 1785 |
The massed ranks of Middle England descended on Birmingham for the first rounds of the 4NCL Division 4 bash in late October, an event which promises the artistry of ballet combined with the fine discrimination of a fine red wine, but which all too often descends to a mud-wrestling sumo match with a barrelful of saki. Both Oxford 2 and 3 took up the cordial invitation to participate in this year's event, and with Dreamy Dave Bruce organising teams with his usual skill, twelve of Oxford 's finest arrived on time to commence hostilities. The next few hours would set the tone for the remainder of the year. The crowd, anticipating the ballet but no doubt content for a touch of oriental mud wrestling if needs be, were naturally agog... which way would things pan out in 2007-08?
By way of a reminder, let's throw our minds back to the end of the 2006-07 year; a year during which Oxford 2 were slightly undermanned and consequently underperformed during key moments, while Oxford 3 did as well as expected. Both finished a few points short of their expectations, except in the enjoyment department. Take this snippet from Marco Zhang's last game in 2006-07. We join the game with Marco (Black, to play) impassively taking in what he must suspect to be a mere -6.63 behind the equals sign. He seems to have allowed his position to have been entrenched with major pieces of the wrong colour, and the crowd is wondering if he shouldn't call in the bird doctors (to get the rooks out of the living room).
Pausing only to re-set the volume on his MP3, he continues impassively with 36...Rxg2+ 37.Kxg2 Qc6+ and it's still 6.63, or to put it more simply, two species of hard-to-stoppable mate on the cards. His last few moves have left him an exchange down, to boot. Many people might be tempted to resign at this point... instead of which, White continues: 38.Qf3? This allows the Black king a bit of Lebensraum , but it's likely that both sides are in time trouble around now. 38.Kf2 will eventually cost the other rook but White probably figured this simplification was easier to calculate than dealing with a rash of Black checks. 38...Qxf3+ 39.Kxf3 Bxg7 40.e7 Rf1+ which wins the Rf7 all right, but White will queen the e-pawn. Both sides can now relax a bit as the clock has been put back an hour.
41.Ke4?? Oh dear ... Black needs to play 41.Kg2 with the point that if 41...Re1 42.Rf8+ mates, so Black is forced to play 41...Rxf7 and hope for a draw in the Q v R+B ending. But this move simply allows the Black king move out of the cupboard after ... 41...Re1+ 42.Kd5 Kg8 43.Rf4 Rxe7 44.Kxc4 Ra7 45.Rf2 a3 46.Kb3 Bxc3 0–1
Excellent stuff – and the crowd is anxious to find out whether this sort of stuff is still on the menu. So, fast forwarding a few months to the middle of round 1, 2007-08, here's Marco (White, to play), and he comes up with the "interesting"...
Zhang - Sathyanandha
22.Rg4?? You can see what lies behind this move – a lot of geometric themes suggest that this sort of move works. At least I thought it did at the time - the Nf6 is pinned (except the Rd8 is protected)... there are unprotected queens opposing themselves on the 5th rank – something must work! But not this move, because after the comparatively simple... 22...Nxg4 Black is a simple exchange to the good and even if White wanted to move his knight he stands to lose his queen (... Qxg5) or his king (... Qe1+) 23.Qxg4 but hark, I hear another blunder is in the air... 23...Red6?? 24.Nc4 Qd5 25.Nxd6 Qxd6 26.Re1 g6 27.h4 Qxd4 28.Qg5 Qd5 29.Qf6 Although still material adrift, Marco has been steadily aiming at infiltrating his queen up the board, and his opponent has been passively dealing with these incursions. So. ..
29...Qd6?? a final clanger to end proceedings. 30.Re8+ Rxe8 31.Qxd6 Kg7 32.Qd4+ f6 33.Qd7+ Kf8 34.Qxh7 1–0
The conclusion is obvious: Division 4 chess is back with a blundering vengeance!
Back to the action for Oxford 2. Tim Dickinson was starting off the new season exactly as he had in 2006–07, winning a quick miniature: 16...Be6
17.Rxe6 fxe6 18.Qxe6+ Kh8 19.Ng5 Rf8 allowing a variant on a smothered mate, but Black's position was hopeless anyway. 20.Qg8+ 1–0
One up became two up when Ray got in amongst his opponent weak squares. The position was intricately poised around move 16 when his younger (?) opponent took a wrong view of this position: White, temporarily a piece to the good, has to lose one of his pieces - the Na4 or the Bc5. He chooses...
17.Nac3 which turns out to be wrong to the tune of -2, because the queen now gets to c5 and in the absence of any black-squared presence dominates the a7-g1 diagonal. What's worse, the Nd5 gets to invade on e3. Instead 17.b4 Qxa4 18.Qxa4 Rxa4 19.Rd1 continued the struggle. 17...Qxc5 18.Rc1 Ne3 and the massacre starts, with no end in sight, as there is no safe haven for the white king. 19.Qe4 Nxg2+ 20.Kf1 Ne3+ 21.Ke1 Nf5 22.Nd5 Qa5+ 23.Nec3 e6 24.Nb4 Bh6 25.f4 Rad8 26.Nc2 Qb6 27.Na4 Qd6 28.Kf2 Qd2+ 29.Qe2 Qxf4+ 0–1
But the storm clouds were gathering: on board 5, Dave Bruce dropped a clanger and the exchange against a 1900 opponent who subsequently tidied up nicely, while Heather lost her way in a complex position where she had the advantage, but with no clear signposts as to how to convert it. 2-2
But with our top boards still in their games, a match draw or better was the odds on position... Kemal's position looked a straightforward win, while Steffan was not significantly worse in a minor piece ending. On Kemal's board (W to move), White is in control and the win is nearing, said the crowd as it went for a coffee. Three moves later and things had gone horribly wrong:
Ozeren – Acey
35.Nf3? (c3 or Ne6 seem sensible) 35...Kg4? (ditto c3 or Rg8) 36.Nd2 Kxf5 37.Rd6?? Rxd2 (whoops) when Kemal had to bale out into a R+P ending, two pawns down. 38.Rxb6 Rxc2 39.Kf3 Rc3+ 40.Ke2 Rb3 41.Rb7 g5 42.Rd7 Ke4 43.Re7+ Kd4 44.Re6 Rb2+ 45.Kf3 f5 46.Rxh6 Rxb4 47.Rg6 Rb3+ 48.Kf2 g4 49.Re6 f4 50.Re8 Rb2+ 51.Kf1 Kd3 52.Rf8 Rb4 53.Kf2 Re4 54.Ra8 d4 55.Ra2 Kc3 56.Ra4 Kb3 57.Ra8 d3 0–1
And by now Steffan was staring at a lost position. In the diagram position the white bishop seems better placed, especially given the positioning of the Black pawn army on mostly white squares.
Probably with this in mind he continued from the diagram position: 33...Na6 34.Bxb5 Nxb4 35.Be2! ... only to find that his knight was trapped on the queenside. It would prove to be the bait White needed to harry it to an early grave. 35...Na2 36.Kd4 Nb4 37.Bc4 Nc2+ 38.Kd3 Ne1+ 39.Kd2 Nf3+ 40.Ke3 Ne1 41.Bb3 g5 42.fxg5+ Kxg5 43.Ke2 Ng2 44.Kf2 Nf4 45.gxf4+ Kxf4 46.Kg2 h4 47.Kf2 Ke4 48.Ke2 Kf5 49.Kd3 Ke5 50.Ke3 1–0
So, not the best start for the top team, a 2-4 loss.
Meanwhile what of Oxford 3? Already one up thanks to Marco's sterling efforts, the other games were tightly contested. On board 6 Kevin Henbest was always in trouble against Hannah Lowry-O'Reilly, who played a good game after Kevin had advanced his pawns a bit too adventurously in the opening. Graham Morris on top board was going adrift in another French lookalike opening, and was gradually ground down after having all counterplay squashed.
Equality was resumed with Majid's victory on his first outing for the Oxford lads. How and when and what happens after f5 thrusts in fianchettoed positions are fascinating questions, and Majid's game looked like it was going to answer some, as his opponent had just played f5 to reach the diagrammed position.
Lutton – Jeffries
Majid takes properly on f5 to begin with, but unfortunately the interest becomes curtailed when his opponent's speculative sacrifice is quickly shown to be just that. 13...gxf5 14.Ng3 d5 Fritz gives some interesting ideas in response to the question, why not take on e4 while you're at it, son ? 14...fxe4 15.Nh5 Rg8 (15...0–0 16.Qg4 Ng6 17.Bg5 Qb6 18.Nxg7 Kxg7 19.Bf6+ Kg8 20.Qg5 is crushing) 16.Rxf7 is an interesting sacrifice of material for what looks like a winning attack! 16...Kxf7 17.Qf1+ Ke8 18.Bxe6 ... "etc" 15.exd5 Nxd5 16.Nxf5? exf5 17.Qh5 0–0 ... etc, 0–1
This left the match score to be decided by Matt Ludbrook and Sean, both of whom had made it to time control with some vestige of playability. Matt reached this ending after a few repetitions and other aimless moves while waiting to see which way Sean would jump. When it had become clear that a draw would secure a drawn match, this position was agreed drawn, with Matt (W), to move.
Ludbrook – Sathyanandha
Oddly enough though, Fritz thinks that White is simply winning in this position. After 46.Rf4+ Kg2 47.Rxf2+ Kxf2 48.Nc3 Bd7 the d-pawn advances with surprising rapidity while the b-pawn remains there to finish the job. A sample continuation is 49.Ne4+ Kf3 50.Nf6 Bb5 51.d5 a5 52.Kc3 Kf4 53.d6
My own game had moments of interest – an attempt to play the Kings Indian not the least of them, which was going quite well until I squandered a pawn and position – and needed to put on the scrambling boots. With time control approaching, you've about 1 minute to (a) go back to h6, or (b) advance bravely to g4...
Clarke – Terry
40...Kh6? hmmm. "advance, advance" was what the brain was saying, but courage failed me here. [40...Kg4 41.Rg3+ Kf4 42.Bxg6 Rf6 43.Bb1 Rb3 gives all the chances to Black. As it happens, the 'safe' line played is pretty treacherous.] 41.Rh3+ Kg7 42.Rc7+ Kf6 43.Rf3+ Ke5? Fritz shows that Ke6 better, even though it allows a bishop check on c4 44.Rc5+ Ke6
45.Bxg6? an odd move - why not Bc4+ and hey ho let's hunt the king, chaps? 45.Bc4+ Kd7 46.Rf7+ Kd8 47.Bb5 wins an exchange, as mate in 2 is threatened starting Rd7+, but apparently White was anxious for the draw 45...Bg1+? And so too was I, apparently. ... Rxb4 gives some chances to Black to seek the full point. 46.Kg2 Rxf3 47.Kxf3 Rxb4 48.Bd3 ½–½
So, not the best start for Oxford 2 contingent, and while Oxford 3 can be pleased with the draw, they had chances for the win... off for a Chinese meal in the centre of Birmingham , and the usual negotiations as to which menu to opt for. In the absence of Tom EW and Dave Shaw, there really was too much for us to put away, but we did try.
Sunday
| Guildford-A&DC 5 | ½-5½ | Oxford 2 | ||||
| 1 | w | Shaw, Matthew | 1935 | ½ - ½ | Ozeren, Kemal | 2312 |
| 2 | b | Deswarte, Ian | 1935 | 0 - 1 | Dickinson, Timothy R | 2162 |
| 3 | w | Albrecht, Theo | 1900 | 0 - 1 | Starkie, Ray | 2140 |
| 4 | b | Quinn, Joseph | 1758 | 0 - 1 | Bruce, Dave | 2109 |
| 5 | w | Kokossis, Danae | 1750 | 0 - 1 | Lang, Heather | 2072 |
| 6 | b | Mills, Nigel | 1710 | 0 - 1 | Morris, Graham | 2059 |
| Oxford 3 | 2½-3½ | Guildford-A&DC 4 | ||||
| 1 | w | Chapman, Graham W | 2040 | 1 - 0 | Dekker, Alain | 2124 |
| 2 | b | Ludbrook, Matt | 2046 | 0 - 1 | Shepley, Julien M | 2110 |
| 3 | w | Jeffries, Majid | 2012 | ½ - ½ | Stimpson, Philip M | 2090 |
| 4 | b | Zhang, Marco | 1925 | 0 - 1 | Sen, Subin | 2026 |
| 5 | w | Terry, Sean | 1823 | 1 - 0 | Smart, Michael R | 1972 |
| 6 | b | Henbest, Kevin B | 1785 | 0 - 1 | Bryant, Richard | 1937 |
Oxford 2 had an easier draw, and an easy time of it on the Sunday against Guildford ADC 5. Outranked on all boards, the Guildford players did nonetheless put up a fight before laying down arms.
Kemal has been putting the final touches to the advantage he's had against an opponent who's been resisting strongly, and it looks like a point is in the bag here. 30...Bxf3
31.Qd3 nice... 31...Qg2+ 32.Rxg2 Rxd3 33.Rd2 Rxd2 34.Bxd2 Be2 35.c5! nice again... 35...b5 36.Kf2 Bg4 37.Ke3 ½–½
But against Guildford 's weakest side, this was to be the last point conceded by the first team.
- On board 2 Tim had a major fight on his hands, which became the brawl positif when his opponent refused a draw offer on move 20; in the end might, and superior technique put paid to the opposition. One up, four to play.
- Ray's opponent's answer to the Sicilian gave the opportunity for Ray to play a French defence style position with the benefit of easier piece placement and after a pawn went adrift to a tactic White's position collapsed in slow, slow motion.
- Dave Bruce manoeuvred and manoeuvred in Guioco Pianissimo against a young opponent who failed to spot a threat:
16...exd4 17.Ng6 1–0
Dave does like this opening – and we were yet to discover that his Ruy Lopez background and all the dreams that come out into the open when analysing that venerable opening...
- Heather crisply despatched her opponent from the miseries of a bad position in the white side of the Two Knights; while
- Graham Morris managed more manoeuvring in a 59-move win than I usually get to play in a season, but was always in control.
A much tougher match for Oxford 3, playing against Guildford ADC 4 – and a close match ensued.
On top board Graham Chapman brought back memories of where (some of us) were when Fischer-Spassky game 9 was being played – ah... the poisoned pawn Sicilian, the nostalgia of it all. It must be a rarely played opening nowadays, now that the machine has trained us all in the subtle art of defending positions with improbable resources. That said, Graham steers the game into a positional ending where he gradually outplays his opponent, although the end position seems a bit mysterious (unless Black lost on time?):
29.Nc4 1-0
seems like Black may have panicked, as he can still continue to play this position with three pawns for the piece...?
Chapman,Graham W (2040) - Dekker,Alain (2124) [B97]
4NCL/Div4/OXF3-GADC4 Birmingham (2.1), 28.10.2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6 8.Qd2 Qxb2 9.Nb3 Qa3 10.Be2 Nc6 11.0–0 Be7 12.Bf3 Qb4 13.Qe3 Bd8 14.Kh1 Qb6 15.Qd3 Qc7 16.Rad1 Be7 17.Rfe1 0–0 18.e5 dxe5 19.Bxc6 bxc6 20.fxe5 Nd5 21.Bxe7 Nxe7 22.Qd6 Qxd6 23.exd6 Nd5 24.Ne4 Rd8 25.Na5 f5 26.Nc5 Rxd6 27.c4 Bd7 28.cxd5 cxd5 29.Nc4 1–0
Graham Chapman points out: the end of my game against Alain Dekker is described as 'mysterious'. This is certainly true given the game score on the 4NCL website, the mystery being why Black allowed, and white ignored, 28. N(either)b7. In fact Black's 27th move was 27. ... Kf7, which also explains the resignation. Only 29. ... Rd8 saves the rook, and Black is then facing the prospect of a pretty wretched afternoon after either 30. Nb6 Rb8 31. Nxc8 Rdxc8 32. Nxe6 or, probably better, 30. Ne5+ Kf6 31. Rb1
On board 2, Matt Ludbrook just failed to reap the reward his stubborn defence had merited:
Shepley – Ludbrook
60...b1Q? 60...Bxf4 and if 61.Bh7 (61.exf4 Kxf4 62.d6 Nb5! neatly stops the pawn or queens the b-pawn if 63.Nxb5 Kxf5) 61...Bc7 62.d6 Bb6 63.d7 Nc4 64.Ne6 Black is getting closer to the draw... instead of which: 61.Bxb1 Nxb1 62.Nf5+ (ouch) Kg4 63.Nxd6 Nc3+ 64.Kd3 Nxd5 65.Ke4 Ne7 66.f5 Kg5 67.Ke5 Ng8 68.Ke6 Nh6 69.e4 Ng4 70.e5 Kf4 71.Nc4 1–0
All square after 3 games when Majid got a (Sunday?) draw in a marginally worse position. Marco lost an odd game where for the first 18 or so moves he was equals or better, but a series of indeterminate moves – born we now think in a lack of confidence in his position's security – culminated in a blunder – they always do, son – which rapidly brought Oxford interest in his game to an end.
So, one down with two to play. Unfortunately Kevin went down when he took the wrong turning in this position.
20...Bf5 21.Qe7+ Kg8 22.Neg5 Rfd8 23.Qxh7+ 1–0
And I remembered thinking at the time that Kings Indian players need a health check, because the positions that arise from it – and particularly the lines that Kevin plays – lead to difficult games and split second judgments – even if not here, as Kevin's position is clearly dodgy...
... or so I thought as I flicked through it on the computer; which gives this ‘saving’ variation: 20...Bf3 21.Qxe5+ Kg8 22.Nhg5 Rbe8 23.Qxc5 Bxg2+ 24.Kxg2 Qxc5 25.Nxc5 Rxe1 26.Rxe1 Rf5 27.Nce4 Nxc2 28.Rc1 Nd5. All of which is very exciting indeed (lots of geometry and tactics) ... so maybe I need to get a health check some day...
... particularly since my own game was going its own merry way, in an unusual variation of the Alekhine (1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.b3...) which was suggested to me by something Marco said in the restaurant the previous evening. He was talking about the Sicilian, but as I'd nothing better to play against that opening, I thought it worth a twirl, not least because I was (apparently) hallucinating – since I managed to play most of the game without thinking about chess at all. The two strands of thought that dominated the game were (a) why am I always late for chess games? And (b) what's it all about, then? Or, to quote a Father Ted moment, in a hotel full of priests and all abuzz with activity:
Dougal: What's going on?
Priest: Father X is on the window ledge, threatening to jump...
Dougal: No, I mean ... what's going on in general ?
Over the board, things are going a lot worse than I had imagined them when my opponent finds a nice move:
Terry - Smart
17...0–0–0! which in conjunction with his next move bankrupts White's position after 18.Rh4 Be6! but he gets too ambitious and blunders almost immediately.
Terry,Sean (1823) - Smart,Michael R (1972)
4NCL/Div4/OXF3-GADC4 Birmingham (2.5), 28.10.2007
1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.b3 e6 4.Bb2 Nc6 5.g3 d6 6.c4 Nde7 7.d4 Ng6 8.exd6 cxd6 9.h4 d5 10.h5 Nge7 11.Nf3 Nf5 12.Bh3 dxc4 13.Bxf5 Qa5+ 14.Kf1 Qxf5 15.bxc4 Bd7 16.d5 exd5 17.cxd5 0–0–0 18.Rh4 Be6 19.Nc3 Bb4 20.Nd4 Nxd4 21.Qxd4 Bxc3 22.Qxc3+ Kb8 23.dxe6 f6 24.e7 Rc8 25.Qd4 Qb5+ 26.Kg1 Rhe8 27.Rc1 Rxe7 28.Rxc8+ Kxc8 29.Qc4+ Qxc4 30.Rxc4+ Kd7 31.h6 gxh6 32.Bxf6 Re2 33.a4 a6 34.a5 Ra2 35.Rd4+ Kc6 36.Bd8 Rb2 37.Bb6 Rxb6 38.axb6 Kxb6 39.f4 Kc5 40.Rd8 b5 41.f5 1–0