| Top performances: | most everybody |
| Chopstick violations: | TBA |
| Top one-liner: | James Coleman |
| Shrapnel fines: | TBA once we find whoever donated the penny to the tip at the restaurant |
More photos below.
Saturday
| Oxford 1 | 7½-½ | Guildford-A&DC 3 | ||||
| 1 | w | Savage, Ben D | 2332 | ½ - ½ | Tymrakiewicz, Rafal | 2252 |
| 2 | b | Ozeren, Kemal | 2312 | 1 - 0 | Cooksey, Paul S | 2245 |
| 3 | w | Shaw, David A | 2219 | 1 - 0 | Richardson, Keith B | 2239 |
| 4 | b | Smallbone, Kieran | 2216 | 1 - 0 | Anderton, Matthew N | 2233 |
| 5 | w | White, Michael J R | 2274 | 1 - 0 | Taylor, Mark | 2150 |
| 6 | b | Rawlinson, Aidan | 2221 | 1 - 0 | Hill, David F | 2059 |
| 7 | w | Eckersley-Waites, Tom | 2186 | 1 - 0 | Dreczkowski, Ryszard | 2039 |
| 8 | b | Tidman, Sophie | 2092 | 1 - 0 | Morris, Claire H | 1885 |
A report on Oxford's fine performance on the Saturday follows, but it would be churlish not to congratulate the arch competition, Cambridge, on their success against mighty Guildford in Division 1 on the Saturday... see the end of today's report for more details.
First, the main match... your reporter arrived with his usual pleasant punctuality – having negotiated the directional indicators to the venue successfully by tramping around the Bull Ring for 30 minutes longer than required – and in time to meet Ben outside the hotel after a draw which reflected his own state of health. Apparently the cold virus that has been sweeping the land of the dreaming spire throughout November is not confined to Oxfordshire and has migrated towards London , and his decision to seek an early draw was probably a good one, releasing him for a few hour's rest, and a few moment's match punditry. “Not looking good”, he intoned, although “maybe Mike is just winning”.
Things were not looking good, but we weren't too concerned: three years on the trail of the Oxford team has sharpened one's appreciation of the accuracy of the Ben match barometer – at least for those of us with a Jesuit education and 30 years' experience of pulpit punditry... so there was plenty of time to decamp to room 215 or thereabouts before rushing in to comfort the troops.
All of that said, the first view of the boards wasn't enough to start a lap of honour: of those playing Black, only Sophie seemed to be carving out a clear advantage against Clare Morris, closely followed by Aidan, whose semi-Slav had turned into a nice blend of stodge and positional plus; and while we were confident that Kemal wasn't losing against Paul Cooksey, a result wasn't a foreground conclusion.
Meanwhile Kieran was once again asking whether Caro Could, and was relaxed enough to step outside for a fag with this sort of position:
Anderton – Smallbone
Another hair-raising position for the Black pieces, being well ahead on the clock. However, after 21...Nxb3 22.axb3 f5 23.Ne5 Qh6 24.e7 ... it was time for Kieran to join his opponent in time trouble, as White has a clear, if not yet decisive, advantage: ... Rdc8 25.Qd3 Bxe7 26.Nc4 Nxc4 27.bxc4 Bb4 28.Qxf5 Rxc4 and with not much time to get to move 40, White sees a phantom winner: 29.Rxe8+? Rxe8 30.Qd5+ Qe6 (whoops) 0–1
Time to look at the play with the White pieces, which were similarly ... “balanced”.
On board 3, Dave Shaw was thinking almost as much as his opponent in or about this position:
Shaw – Richardson
I spent some time wondering what sort of plan White could develop – attack along the h-file? Not enough development, too little point. h3 followed by f4? A bit slow, surely. It slowly dawned on me: Black is better. White needs to defend. 14...a5 was played after a long think. Black was considering 14...Bxa4 15.Bxa4 Nc4 16.Qe1 Nxb2 17.Bb3 where the White king's position has been properly dynamited, with the approval of Fritz, incidentally - but it is understandable why Black might want to avoid the material imbalance in this variation, and strive for a more settled route to advantage. 15.Bd4 b5 16.axb5 Bxb5 17.Ne2 a4 18.Ba2 Re8 19.Nc3 Qd7 20.Kb1 a3 21.b3 f5?
Black has been gradually increasing his hold on the board, as witnessed by the Ba2's self-immolation, but this move leads him astray, although for reasons that won't become clear for a few moves. The simpler hacking route (Rb8, followed by c5) is the machine's choice. 22.Rhe1 Ba6 23.Ne2 Bxe2 24.Rxe2 Rab8 25.Qc3 c5 26.dxc6 Nxc6 27.Rxe8+ Rxe8 28.Bxg7 Qxg7 29.b4+ ... ahhh – that's check. White begins to take over the board, and won neatly.
Shaw,David A (2219) - Richardson,Keith B (2239) [B06]
4NCL/Div2/OXF1–GUI3 Birmingham (3.3), 10.11.2007
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 a6 5.a4 Nf6 6.f3 0–0 7.Qd2 e5 8.Bc4 exd4 9.Bxd4 Nc6 10.Be3 Ne5 11.Bb3 Be6 12.Nd5 Nxd5 13.exd5 Bd7 14.0–0–0 a5 15.Bd4 b5 16.axb5 Bxb5 17.Ne2 a4 18.Ba2 Re8 19.Nc3 Qd7 20.Kb1 a3 21.b3 f5 22.Rhe1 Ba6 23.Ne2 Bxe2 24.Rxe2 Rab8 25.Qc3 c5 26.dxc6 Nxc6 27.Rxe8+ Rxe8 28.Bxg7 Qxg7 29.b4+ Kf8 30.Qxa3 Rb8 31.c3 Qf6 32.Qb3 Kg7 33.Re1 Ne5 34.Qa3 Rc8 35.Qa7+ Kh6 36.Rc1 Nc4 37.Bxc4 Rxc4 38.Qe3+ f4 39.Qd3 d5 40.Rc2 Qc6 41.Kb2 Qb5 42.Qd2 d4 43.Qxf4+ Kg7 44.Qd6 Qf5 45.Qe7+ Kg8 46.f4 Qd3 47.Qe2 dxc3+ 48.Kb3 1–0
Meanwhile, Tom EW had carefully built up a Fritz-assessed advantage of +1.87 by move 31, before being persuaded to take his king on a tour of key squares (Kc1-d2-e3-e4-d4-c3-c2) between moves 36 and 44, at which time the pendulum had swung to -1.06 in this position:
Eckersley-Waites – Dreczkowski
when Black, though subject to some tactical pressure on the e-file, can now play the cool ... Kf8 and start to eat up the stray pawns that have presented themselves on the altar for sacrifice. Instead, after 46...Re4 47.Rxe4 fxe4 48.Rxe4 Ke6 49.gxf6 Kxf6 50.Rf4+ Kg7 51.Kc3 Rf8, Black wrongly seeks to simplify into a minor piece ending where the white squared bishop is too strong for the knight, which can't defend the queenside. 52.Rxf8 Kxf8 53.c5 Ke7 54.Bd5 Nc6 55.a4 Kf6 56.b5 axb5 57.axb5 Nd8 58.Kd4 Kf5 59.b6 g5 60.Bxb7 Nxb7 61.c6 1–0
On board 5, Mike was chiselling out an advantage and the question was now a one of conversion:
White – Taylor
The first of two games by Mike featuring French defences and unusual material balances. We join his Saturday game after skipping the opening features and after Black's exchange sac (Rxf3) has been beaten down to an ending where there's a lot of work to be done to prove the point. 24.Rhg1 e5 25.fxe5 Bxe5 26.Rad1 Bxb2 a good practical option as if 26...Be6 27.Bd4 forces one pair of bishops off while securing the future of the white pawn contingent. 27.Rxd5 Be6 28.Rb5 Rf8+ 29.Kg3 Ba3 30.Rxb7 Bd6+ 30...Bxa2 looks fairly hairy - and doesn't lose a piece to 31.Rxa7 but after 31...Bd6+ 32.Kh4 Bf7 33.Bd4 g6 34.Rf1 Kg8 Black is in virtual zugzwang and White can with patience invade: 35.Rb7 Ba3 36.Kg5 Bd6 37.Rf6 Ba3 38.Rxg6+ Bxg6 39.Rg7+ Kh8 40.Rxg6+ Kh7 41.Rh6+ is mating. 31.Kh4 Be5 32.Rb5 Rf5 33.a4 Bc4
Black's attempts to complicate while hacking off pawns seems to be getting somewhere, but Mike comes up with a simplification... : 34.Rg5 Rxg5 35.Kxg5 Bxb5 36.axb5 Bb8 when a win is neatly demonstrated with: 37.Kf5 Kg8 38.Ke6 Kh7 39.Kf7 Be5 [39...Kh8 40.Kg6 Kg8 41.Bd4 rounds up the g-pawn.] 40.Bxa7 Kh6 41.Ke6 Bg3 42.Bd4 Kg6 43.b6 1–0. Impressive stuff.
White,Michael JR (2274) - Taylor,Mark (2150) [C04]
4NCL/Div2/OXF1–GUI3 Birmingham (3.5), 10.11.2007
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nc6 4.Ngf3 Nf6 5.e5 Nd7 6.c3 f6 7.Bb5 fxe5 8.dxe5 Be7 9.Nd4 Nxd4 10.cxd4 0–0 11.Bd3 Qe8 12.Qc2 Qh5 13.Qxc7 Qh4 14.Nf3 Rxf3 15.gxf3 Qxd4 16.Qc2 Nxe5 17.Bxh7+ Kh8 18.f4 Bb4+ 19.Kf1 Ng4 20.h3 Nxf2 21.Qxf2 Qxf2+ 22.Kxf2 Kxh7 23.Be3 Bd6 24.Rhg1 e5 25.fxe5 Bxe5 26.Rad1 Bxb2 27.Rxd5 Be6 28.Rb5 Rf8+ 29.Kg3 Ba3 30.Rxb7 Bd6+ 31.Kh4 Be5 32.Rb5 Rf5 33.a4 Bc4 34.Rg5 Rxg5 35.Kxg5 Bxb5 36.axb5 Bb8 37.Kf5 Kg8 38.Ke6 Kh7 39.Kf7 Be5 40.Bxa7 Kh6 41.Ke6 Bg3 42.Bd4 Kg6 43.b6 1–0
By now the match result was decided, and the game scores turned it into a rout, as Aidan was rewarded for some neat manoeuvres along the c- and d- files to win an exchange before liquidating to a K+P ending that (nearly) anyone could win, Sophie chose the right moment to switch from king- to queen-side pressure and liquidated to a similarly won ending, while even Kemal came to the party after Paul Cooksey overstretched from this position:
Cooksey – Ozeren
Here, White still has the marginal chances after a few exchanges his a-pawn has significant promotional opportunities...... but it's hard to over-estimate the effect of 5 hours on players these days (bless these youngsters). 35.Rxa6 Rxc5 36.Nd4 Nd5 37.Rxe6 (ouch) 37...Nf4 38.Rc6 Ra5 39.a3! pretty - the pawn can't be taken because of mate in two starting with Nf5+ ... Black is banking on his more active pieces to halt the a-pawn, and the next phase of the game sees White trying to coordinate the advance of the beast. 39...f6 40.Rc3 Rd5 41.Rc4 Re5 42.Rc3 Rd5 43.Nb3 Rd1 44.a4 Rb1
thus guaranteeing the rook's position behind the pawn, and with White's king tied down, the draw seems assured... 45.g3 ... until White presses for more, hoping that the misplaced knight will compensate for the missing h-pawn. 45...Rb2+ 46.Ke1 Nxh3 47.Rc7+ Kg6 48.Nc5 Ng1 and now it's beginning to be obvious to the crowd that the h-pawn is more of a threat than the a-pawn. 49.a5 h5 50.a6 h4 51.a7 Ra2 52.g4 Nxf3+ 53.Kd1 Ne5 0–1
7-1, and another triumph... for the Ben Barometer™. By now we had been joined by Dave Bruce, who had set up another chopsticks event for us in the centre of his adopted town. After negotiating the complex menu in FM style, we settled on 6 of one and a half dozen of the other, and ate well, fortified by tales of Ben's marriage ceremony, and the unusual (but not unexpected) opening to the best man's toasting of the bridesmaids (at least we think it was a toast)
(stands)... “it is I believe customary for this speech to last as long as the consummation of the marriage by the couple that follows the ceremony... ... thank you very much” (sits)
The party ended with 50% of the contingent going to the party, while the maturer contingent (including, this time, Ben) scarpered home to enjoy the view of Birmingham by night through the hotel window:
Back to the Cambridge match, which saw them lead 4-3 with one game to go, not least since it was only our defeat to them in the last round of the 2006-07 season that prevented Oxford taking their place in the top division. This fine game by their top board saw Mark Hebden go down in a hail of major pieces, after a complex struggle in the King's Indian:
Rajlich- Hebden
32.h5 gxh5 33.Nf6+ Bxf6 34.gxf6 Raf8 35.R6xd4 Rxf6 natural, but loses immediately but White is comfortably winning in any event by now - Fritz's 'saving' resource is ... Qc8 which is only -2.50 after the a4 pawn drops... 36.Rg1+ Kh8 37.Rd7 R8f7 1–0
Draws against GM opposition by Mssrs Mah and Pinter, and a win by Eckersley Waites (jun) – or is it (sen)? – helped keep the Cambridge mob in contention, as defeats on boards 3 and 5 saw the match come down to a best-of-two event. Then Rohan Churm defied about 300 FIDE points to win in some style:
Churm – Tissir
23.Nxd6! a standard sac which wins a pawn (23... Qxd6 24.Qxg4). Black tries to scramble out of it but immediately finds himself in a combinative gumbo: 23...Be2 24.Rf7 Qxd6 25.Qxb7 Kg8 26.Rf2 Rb8 27.Qf7+ Kh8 28.Rxe2 Qc5 29.Qf6+ Bg7 30.Qc6 Qa5 31.d6 Qxa2 32.d7 Rf8 33.Rf2 Rxf2 34.Kxf2 Qxb2+ 35.Kg1 1–0
The last board saw David Howell, having escaped from earlier problems to emerge with an advantage in the diagram position, and needing to win to avoid an embarrassing team defeat – this was achieved after no considerable thought, as follows:
Moskovic – Howell
45.a4 Nd2 46.Qxb6 Qh5+ 47.Kg1 Qd1+ 48.Kh2 Nf1+ 49.Kg1 Ne3+ 50.Kh2 Ng4+ 51.Kg3 Qxc2 52.Qd4 Qb3+ 53.Kf4 Qe6 54.Bg1 Nf6 55.Kf3 Qc6+ 56.Kg3 Ne4+ 57.Kf4 Qg6 58.Ke5 Qxg2 59.Kxf5 Ng5 60.a5 Qc2+ 61.Kg4 Qg2+ 62.Kf5 Qh3+ 63.Qg4 g6+ 0–1
Sunday
| South Wales Dragons 1 | 1½-6½ | Oxford 1 | ||||
| 1 | w | Cobb, James E | 2417 | ½ - ½ | Savage, Ben D | 2332 |
| 2 | b | Cooper, John G | 2366 | ½ - ½ | Ozeren, Kemal | 2312 |
| 3 | w | Blackburn, Jonathan L B | 2228 | 0 - 1 | Shaw, David A | 2219 |
| 4 | b | Morris, Charles F | 2198 | 0 - 1 | White, Michael J R | 2274 |
| 5 | w | James, David J | 2220 | 0 - 1 | Rawlinson, Aidan | 2221 |
| 6 | b | Zeidler, Sven P | 2219 | 0 - 1 | Eckersley-Waites, Tom | 2186 |
| 7 | w | Spice, Alan | 2170 | ½ - ½ | Smallbone, Kieran | 2216 |
| 8 | b | Blackburn, Suzie | 1859 | 0 - 1 | Tidman, Sophie | 2092 |
Another day, another breakfast. What can usefully be added to what has already been said about the Paragon fare... ? Not bad, but honestly those sausages are a bit scary...
To the board, therefore – where the lads and lady are hacking away with the finest that South Wales Dragons can offer. The top two boards gave the initial flavour as both Ben and Kemal were gradually pushed into defensive mode. Ben ended up defending doggedly against James Cobb and agreed a draw in a position where it was hard to envisage progress by White – notwithstanding the optimistic +1.59 advantage awarded by Fritz. On board 2, a much more lethal salvage was required by Kemal.
Ozeren - Cooper
Black may be a pawn down, but the subtle positioning of a pawn in front of the Bb2 seems to suggest that something has gone wrong with White's plans. Black's continuation is clear and forcing: 18...Bxh2+ 19.Kxh2 Ng4+ 20.Bxg4 Fritz's initial optimism about the White position begins to fade around here - he had originally rated Kg1 as OK, but rapidly changes his mind. 20...Bxg4 21.Nd4 and now, "anything" wins, but 21...Qh4+ 22.Kg1 Bf3 23.Nxf3 exf3 24.Qf5 fxg2 25.Kxg2 Rg6+ 26.Kf3 Rf6 seems clearest. 21...Bf3 22.Nxf3 exf3 23.Kg3 fxg2 [23...Rf6 is another way to snare the win of material] 24.Rg1 Qg5+ 25.Kf3
25...Qh5+? Leads to a draw. Fritz suggests the more patient (!) and startlingly quiet 25...Rd8 as the way forward. The idea is essentially to plonk a rook on d3 and whack the king into submission: 26.Ke2 Rd3 27.Ba3 Rf6 28.Qc1 Qg4+ 29.Ke1 Qf3 30.Qc2 Rxe3+. Instead a peaceful draw results: 26.Kxg2 Rg6+ 27.Kf1 Qh3+ 28.Ke2 Qh5+ 29.Kf1 Qh3+ ½–½ - leaving Kemal free to go check the footie results to find that Villa have won the local Derby with Birmingham.
On board 3, Dave Shaw's wandering knight proved too much for the static opposition:
Blackburn – Shaw
26...Nf5 27.Rf3 Nxd4 28.exd4 Re1+ 29.Kh2 Rxd1 30.Rbe3 Re4 31.Qg3 Rdxd4 32.f5 h6 33.Qb8+ Kh7 34.Rxe4 Rxe4 35.Qxb7 Qe5+ 36.Kg1 Re1+ 37.Kf2 Qe2+ 38.Kg3 Rg1 39.Rf2 Qe3+ 40.Rf3 Qg5+ 0–1
While on board 4, Mike White once again found himself up against a French proponent who was anxious to hand over material in search of initiative – or possibly salvation – and who had sacrificed first a piece, and then an exchange, but ended up with nothing more than a mass of king side pawns, but no clear winning plan was evident. This resulted in a 20 move push-and-nurdle which eventually allowed the extra rook to count:
White – Morris
41.Nxf3 exf3 42.Rd7 Bf8 43.Qd5+ Kh8 44.Qxf3 1–0
A roaring battle featuring Aidan on board 5, where both sides - separated by 1 FIDE point - rushed to move 16 or so of apparent book (Botvinnik semi-slav, anyone?) before closing it firmly and making up something they just thought of. In the diagram position, Black enjoys a Fritzian advantage of about 0.72, but it's not a fold-up-and-die position by any means, as anyone (un)fortunate enough to have read the works of Polugaevsky in his youth can testify...
James – Rawlinson
19.Nd5 and here the spectators rejoiced because White had blundered a piece... 19...Bxd5 20.Bxd5 Qe5 21.Qf3 ahhhh... 21...Bh6 Correction: Black has blundered a position ... 21...Qxg5 22.Bb7+ Kc7 23.Qc6+ Kb8 24.Ba8 is mating... ... the crowd went in search of a coffee, while Aidan went into a huddle. He came out of it with: 22.Bxh6 a bit hasty - interpolating Rfe1 is a bit clearer 22...Rxh6 23.Bxc4 Rxf6 24.Qa8+ Qb8 25.Qxb8+ Kxb8 26.Bxb3 Rb6 27.Bxf7 Ne5 28.Ba2 Rxb2
at which point Aidan offers a draw - not unreasonably even if he's a pawn adrift his pawns are more advanced. His opponent declines, but promptly goes into terminal decline after 29.Rab1 Rxb1 30.Rxb1+ Kc7 31.f4 Ng4 32.Bc4? d3 33.Ba6? d2 34.Be2 Ne3 35.Bd1?? Nxd1 36.Rxd1 c4 37.Kf2 c3 0–1
On board 6, Tom EW had drifted very early on into what can accurately be described as an opening without queens to reach this position:
Eckersley-Waites – Zeidler
And into the sort of position one tends to find in the OCA leagues when one side is being a bit respectful for the other. On the available evidence this year, it would seem that Tom's opponents have paid attention to his prowess in the middle game version with queens on and are heading toward the ending wherever possible. Although the position is to my eye the chessboard equivalent of TV AM's breakfast show, it was not long before Tom had edged the position his way towards the complex end of the tactical spectrum, and a deserved 1-0 resulted.
On board 7, Kieran found himself move-ordered (1. Nc3) into ... ... another edition of What Caro did Next , and on this particular day the answer has to be “not very much, actually” – but for all that Kieran waited patiently until ... with the usual bound, he was free to offer a perp.
But the clean, uncomplicated violence for the day was reserved for board 8 where the ladies were battling it out in yet another French defence. We join proceedings at move 15, and notwithstanding what the crowd has to say ("...Sophie's giving away pawns again, I see") White has established an advantage in space, and has just played 16. f5:
Tidman – Blackburn
16...exf5 17.Ne3 natural, but not apparently best. Fritz comes up with Ba3, with the idea of 17.Ba3 Rf7 18.Bf3 which does indeed seem to lose a few pawns, but wins the exchange... 17...fxe5 18.dxe5 Qb6! 19.Qxd5+ Rf7 20.Rf3
20...Nb4? too ambitious - Black needs to get the troops to the e-file (...Re8) 21.Qd4 an uncomplicated way of retaining the advantage - White's pieces are too strong for their opposite numbers after the forced exchange of queens 21...Qxd4 22.Bxd4 fxg4 23.Rxf7 Kxf7 24.Rf1+ Kg6 25.Rf6+ Kg7 26.e6 Bc6 27.e7 1–0
Tidman,Sophie (2092) - Blackburn ,Suzy (1859) [C02]
4NCL/Div2/SWD1–OXF1 Birmingham (4.8), 11.11.2007
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bd7 6.Be2 Nge7 7.Na3 cxd4 8.cxd4 Nf5 9.Nc2 Be7 10.0–0 0–0 11.b3 a6 12.g4 Nh4 13.Nxh4 Bxh4 14.f4 f6 15.Bb2 g5 16.f5 exf5 17.Ne3 fxe5 18.dxe5 Qb6 19.Qxd5+ Rf7 20.Rf3 Nb4 21.Qd4 Qxd4 22.Bxd4 fxg4 23.Rxf7 Kxf7 24.Rf1+ Kg6 25.Rf6+ Kg7 26.e6 Bc6 27.e7 1–0
Another bad day for the French... and it was time to head off to see if I could find a clear path to Birmingham New Street station, a task which proved so triumphantly simple that we provide the directions:
- go down the hill into Birmingham
- find the Bull Ring and follow the directions to New Street
- on the third time around the city centre – you'll know this when you bump into the armed police guarding the Aston Villa sports shop for the third time – stop, light a fag, and ask for directions.
- when you make it to any part of New Street , do not try to find the main part of the station. Just find the train, sit on it, and weep.
So it's 6/8 – and roll on 12-13 January for the next series:
- 12 Jan – Wessex
- 13 Jan – Cheddleton
Photos
“How many of his pawns = my rook?!” muses Mike
Sophie and Kieran discuss bad hair days
“Well, that's buried Botvinnik for another generation, I reckon...”
Jonathan Creek analyses his game against Adam Hunt