[games, pgn]

Sunningdale in leafy, stockbroke-y Berkshire … In former times, the house (above) was the location for the conclusion of a Northern Ireland peace agreement in December 1975 – an unusual, not to mention faintly farcical arrangement, which left many an Irishman of that time assuming that Sunningdale was just another posh house the other side of the border – “area don’t you know, somewhere near Stormont” sums it up.

So, an “imagine-my-surprise” air follows this writer to this particular venue each time the 4NCL circuit pays a visit – and, come to think of it, where and who better than chess players to continue the arcane practice of dodgy signatures on frankly dubious accounts of what may or may not have happened?! And so, it was to here that the UK chess world* gravitated en masse in mid January for Rounds 6 and 7, and with the above in mind that one reads the following account of proceedings…

(*except Dave Bruce, who was sipping champagne in Birmingham and listening to Chess FM coverage of Corus 2009. And, of course, the participants at Corus 2009. And perhaps some others.)

So, that much scenery being enough to allow the players to skip through their opening repertoires, and with thanks to Kevin Henbest for a pleasant trip in bright sunshine from central Oxford, we arrived in good time at 4.20pm for the post-openings phase to find 8 Oxford heads-a-thinking, 7 brows-a-furling (etc) … as nobody seemed to be carving out an advantage that would be obvious to the passing 1850 FIDE-rated player. Or so our first text to Birmingham suggested:

4.20pm: FIRST IMPRESSIONS: we seem to be bad (or dubious) in two (Tim and Sophie), good in one (Aidan) and equals (plus) in the remainder. Kevin thinks Tim is better for instance. I thought Tom E-W game in flux until he played exf5 when either he is “fluxed” or I need new glasses. A lot of huddling over the boards, and less walking and talking. Kieran maybe better, a pawn up but in a hairy endgame - Ben making no great progress but a pawn up with opposite bishops and rooks.

So, not one for panicking in other people’s chess game trouble, after a coffee (£2 for a cup, as many refills as the paper cup holds), we settled in for a more leisurely kibitz:

These positions had already come and gone by 4.20pm, with Sophie dropping an exchange in highly visual circumstances against the youthful Alan Merry, while Tim’s opponent bottles out and returns a piece with castling – is 15. … Nb8 plain madness or actually a quite clever blockade? So while Tim regains his piece, and maybe a pawn, the white king looks like he’s coming in for some clerical stick in the next few moves.

Merry – Tidman (B) 19. … Bd4; 20 Nb6!

Dickinson – Bucknell (B) 15. … 0-0

By 5.00pm, Sophie seems to be winning, with a lot of central pawns and two bishops the reward for some canny on-board wriggling. Tim looks dodgy still, but as Mr Mojo says, that’s par for the course. Elsewhere Ben and Mike have better endgames but opposite bishops; Kieran’s activity and play continues to the tune of a pawn adrift. Dave Shaw has stodgy defence in prospect, and Aidan is OK but may be taking it TOO easy. Tom EW has 2 bishops but too many pawn islands for my liking.

A horrible thought surfaces: 4-all for a third time?!

Player – Eckersley-Waites 19.c4 Qc7 20.Qf2 Bd6 +/- too many pawn islands, not enough bishops

Dickinson – Bucknell Tim continuing to look dodgy but after Qe5+ things improve…

Onward to the 5.45pm update, where it seems that Sophie may be blowing up on 8?! Aidan turns screw on 7; Shaw has stodge pizza (6); Tim cooks spaghetti on 5 (= ?); Tom in spaghetti junction on 4 while riot of opposite bishops on top 3 means all to play for.

6.00 Time control and time to start counting: Aidan crush then Tim D snap mates and Sophie draws ("probably lost but so winning earlier") looks good and brings us to 2.5 points but Dave's Stodge turns to Shit City and two draws on top boards leaves us at 3.5 with two to play. Then Tom EW gives up ghost but fortunately Mike White wheedles a piece up on move 40.

Will Mike White's B, N and 1 win against Mark Gray's opposite B and one!? Tune in next week on the same Batty channel...

Meanwhile things were turning our way on two other boards:

White – Gray Mike wheedles a piece around time control: 38.Nb7 Bb3 39.f6+ Nxf6 40.Bd8+ Ke8 41.Kxf6

Dickinson – Bucknell Tim's snap mate: 34.Bxe6 Ra4?? 35.Rf8+ 1-0

Score: 3 ½ - 3 ½ with Mike’s game to conclude…

6.45pm So it's K, N and B v K for the match... Mike certainly knows how to crank up the tension, having made no attempt to queen his remaining b-pawn and gone straight to the B+N V solo King ending. So it was time so hold on to seats to witness what result White (White) would achieve against former Oxford Univ CC president, Mark Gray (Black). A small small contingent grouped around the table to see if a BCF 2250 player could or could not finish off his opponent.

but as things transpired, the vultures soon had to go find their own grub – not all that easy in posh Sunningdale – for Mike was up to the job:

After which there was plenty of time to go for a quiet pint, check the internet, iron a shirt, or whatever took your fancy before heading out for a Pizza Express meal, edited highlights of which follow:

and a quick return to the hotel bar was favoured once the rumour spread in the back of Ben’s car that after Match of the Day might follow “GM wannabes watching porn on the big screen”, but hopes of action (football or otherwise) were dashed by experience – how dull was Chelsea – Stoke, then? – and the evening was somewhat curtailed when the pub closed at midnight.

But not before the snooker doubles team-bonding exercises were concluded.

“Spot the Balls”

“good technique – Kieran stays down on the shot”

SUNDAY MATCH – 11.00am start

A restful morning spent repairing the stretched sinews of the night before the reporter concludes amongst other things that Sunday morning TV is complete and utter crap. Honestly, all those people smiling as they go from parish to parish wearing sou’westers and wellies and look at puppies paws and say how nice it is that the weather has stayed away. No offence, but shouldn’t the cameras stay away too?

Breakfast wasn’t half-bad though – and Aidan picked up the ‘my-cup-ain’t-half-full-it’s-overflowing’ cooked breakfast stacking award, while Sophie getting points for noticing the porridge, and Kieran managing to get 8 people to fit the table designed for eight. The hot topic of the day was discussed when Ben revealed the line-ups for the 11am start, viz:

“How come we posted our team 24 hours early on the internet, Kieran?”*

*(Matt Rose gets a crackerjack pencil for observation)

and people wandered off in search of databases around 10am, although in fairness Poisoned Pawns and Oxford are like (as they say on Facebook) “like peas in a pod”, so hardly any need really.

Eventually it was time to check out, and since these rounds weren't live on the web - the only crowd facilities we found were these:

The analysis room

it was soon time to rejoin the fray in the tournament hall. Accordingly, and having having missed large chunks of opening theory, our first text to the Birmingham faithful went something like this:

12.30pm. After restful morning paparazzi arrives to find Oxford better on 3 already (Matt R, Dave and Aidan) with Mike and Sophie chugging away carefully. Tom has sacked an exchange in an ending while Kieran takes on Dan Rosen and in view of previous encounters between this pair and time trouble already being mooted as an issue (at move 11) fireworks expected while Ben ... ... actually, who knows - a Vienna ending, 2 bishops and no noticeable pawn structure...

Does anyone know, incidentally and apropos moves 3-8 above, what the longest series of pawn-only moves is in chess? I can’t find anything obvious on Tim Krabbé’s site.

Tom’s sacrifice of the exchange in the endgame will be in an endgame familiar to Oxford players who recall the end-of-season encounter Starkie – Eckersley-Waites from a couple of years back:

Byway – Eckersley-Waites
10.Na3 Ra5 11.Bc7 Rxa3 12.bxa3

after which the game starts to warm up a bit.

By 1.20pm the confident summary is:

• Ben seems to have found a position that isn’t in his book of surprises, and stops to think for 32 minutes.
• Tom meanwhile has improved his position against Paul Byway – at least regaining the exchange with advantage – but then stops for a while to sacrifice a piece for pawns to reach a bishop vs pawns ending. It seems that the success at the snooker table has gone to his head.
• Kieran seems to be aiming typos against the enemy king but these end up to be blank cartridges and a somewhat anodyne draw emerges. The post mortem reveals that the journalist is the main culprit, for having mentioned Pavlov’s dog in the middle of an offhand conversation on the way back from the coffee dock.
• Sophie though has been winning for some time in a hail of non-tactics in her battle on board 8.

Right, time to have a look at top board:

At the other end of the match, Mike was completing his 2nd win of the weekend a lot more quickly than the previous day’s marathon:

By 1.50pm it’s 3-1 as draws (Kieran, Dave) complemented by mate on 8 (Sophie) add to Mike’s win. Meanwhile Aidan is about to annex key e-pawn, and with it the game.

2.20pm Aidan closes out comfortably on board 7, his third piece foray beyond 4th rank on move 28 being enough to induce resignation next move: 4-1 with the top three boards to come. Tom is a piece for three pawns adrift; Matt still has a plus but nothing concrete while Ben ... looks too close to call any result

2.45pm It appears my “too close to call” call was off the mark, as on returning to the board, I found this position:

So with the match result now secure, Tom’s game can be viewed with a greater sense of detachment. Here he seems to have a draw in hand unless the white rook can disturb the king-side pawns:

Seani