NATIONAL CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP 2001/2

In an attempt to increase the number of entries, the National Club competition has been restructured, with three rather than five standardplay sections. The Club entered the Major, which is based on a team's average grade being under 160, a principle which presents quite different captaincy challenges from the previous U175 competition, and the Handicap Rapidplay

MAJOR.

Round 1 - 16 December 2001

With an unbalanced entry of three teams from the North, nobody from the Midlands and everybody else from the South, somebody was going to draw the short straw, and it turned out to be Wanstead who were paired with Rose Forgrove B from Leeds. The match was played at Syston, where excellent refreshments were provided for the teams by Cyril and Julie Johnson. The match proved exceedingly hard going despite an advanatage for the Club on paper who fell behind when Julian Winkworth's draw on top board was followed by a convincing Rose Forgrove win at the expense of John Philpott. Terry Whitton, with his customary large advantage on the clock coming into the endgame levelled matters up. The board count situation meant that either two draws or a win on board 2 would take Wanstead through, but with David Smith the exchange down a win for Ian Hunnable appeared essential. Ian had an "interesting" game where in an advantageous situation he underestimated his opponent's counter-chances and was forced to give up a rook, but still proved to have sufficient pawns to win the game, to the relief of the watching Wanstead contingent.

Clive Davies v Ian Hunnable

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e6 3. Bg5 d5 4. e3 Nbd7 5. f4   Oh no! The dreaded Stonewall Attack!   5...Be7 6. Bd3 c5 7. Nf3 O-O   Probably unnecessary to castle so soon. Perhaps continue with Q-side expansion was better. 8. O-O a6   I had already taken an hour on the clock!   9. Qe1 b5 10. Qh4   Threatening simply Bxh7+ winning a pawn and breaching my defence.   10...Re8 11. Ne5 Bb7   Allowing White to win a pawn, but my game is already difficult. If 11...h6 I feared 12 Bxh6 gxh6 and Rf3 etc. 12. Nxd7   I was quite happy to see this. White afterwards thought he might have continued Rf3-Rh3 etc.   12...Qxd7 13. Bxf6 Bxf6 14. Qxh7+ Kf8   For my pawn, I have counterplay against the dark squares in the centre.   15. dxc5 Qc6 16. e4?   Specious. White now loses a hatful of pawns, though he can be forgiven for thinking I would not give up my good dark-squared bishop.   16...Bxc3 17. bxc3 dxe4 18. Be2 Qxc5+ 19. Kh1 Qxc3   Suddenly, I'm a pawn up! After early difficulties, I now have a winning advantage and have only to consolidate.   20. Rad1 Rad8 21. Qh8+ Ke7 22. Qh4+ Qf6 23. Qf2   23 Qh3 is more awkward, threatening Qa3+ and, if 23...Kf8 24 Qh8+.   23...Kf8 24. Qc5+ Kg8 25. Qc7 Rxd1 26. Rxd1 Re7   Setting a couple of traps: if 27 Rd7 Qa1+ 28 Bd1 Qxd1+! and if 27 Qb8+ Kh7 29 Rd8 Qa1+ 30 Bd1 Bd5. White avoids both 27. Rd8+ Kh7 28. Qb8 Qa1+ 29. Rd1 Qc3 30. Qd8 Qc7 31. Qd2 Qc6 32. h3   Now I almost have 32...e3, but for 33 Qd3+ Kg8 34 Bf3.   32...g6   Slightly subjective as it is designed to remove the check in the previous note, but switches White's attempts at counterplay to the dark squares.   33. Qd4 Rc7 34. Kh2 Qxc2   Nothing much happening so I might as well pick off another pawn - you never know when you might need them!   35. Qf6   With the serious threat Rd8, so, for instance, not 35...Qxe2 36 Rd8 1-0. Nor 35...Qc3 36 Qh4+ Kg7 37 Rd8 1-0. However, I have a robust rejoinder that made White's shoulders drop.   35...Bd5 36. Qh4+ Kg7 37. Re1   Having caught up my arrears on the clock, White was now in time-trouble as evidenced by this move.   37...Qc3 38. g4 Rc8 39. f5 Rh8 40. f6+ Qxf6   Time control. Now 30m QPF with White carrying forward 6m and Black 1m.   41. Qg3 g5 42. Rf1 Qd4 43. Qc7 Rf8 44. Qg3 Rc8 45. h4 Rc3   45...Rc2 might have been better. 46. Qg2 gxh4   The right move was 46...Qe5+ 47 Kh1 (47 Kg1 Rg3) 47...e3 48 Bf3 e2! (but I didn't see that far).   47. Rf4   Now 47...Qe5 is best and if 48 Qf1 Rf3!   47...Rg3 48. Qf1   Here 48...f6 is required, but I'd planned my play to release the white-squared bishop, oblivious to what White was cooking up.   48...e5 49. Rf5 e3 50. Rg5+ Kf8 51. Qf6   Ouch! But I can cover the d8 check - let him have the e5 pawn.   51...Be6 52. Rh5!   Ah! Missed that. What do I do now? And there's a crowd gathered round the board - this is embarrassing! I can't simply run away as 52...Ke8 53 Rh8+ Kd7 54 Rd8+ picks off the queen. The only way I could find to continue involved giving up the rook, but I have a hatful of pawns and, more importantly, White was now down to three minutes left against my ten.   52...Rxg4 53. Rh8+ Rg8 54. Qh6+ Ke7 55. Rxg8 Qf4+ 56. Qxf4 exf4   I have five pawns for the rook - good job I started collecting them early! The gallery thought White now had to play 57 Rh8 but there's enough play in it for me to win on time: 57...h3 58 Rh4 Bxa2 59 Rxf4 Bd5 60 Kxh3 Ke6 61 Kg3 Ke5 etc. Instead White goes the wrong way.   57. Ra8 Bc4 58. Bxc4 bxc4 59. Kg1 h3 60. Rxa6   Now White gets overrun by queening black pawns.   60...c3 61. Rc6 e2 62. Kf2 h2 63. Rxc3 e1=Q+ 64. Kxe1 h1=Q+ 65. Kd2 Qd5+ 66. Ke1 Qxa2 67. Rf3 Qc4   White now played Rf2 but his flag fell before the move was complete.   0-1 Time

Round 2

The Club were awarded a bye, with a home quarter final against the winners between Bourne End and Basingstoke Juniors to follow. The other quarter finals were Maidstone v The Holt, Basingstoke A v Wood Green and Thornbury v Prescot & Knotty Ash.

Quarter final

Bourne End came through 3-2 against Basingstoke Juniors to set up this quarter final, with the winners earning an away semi-final against Prescot & Knotty Ash who had defeated Thornbury on board count. With Julian Winkworth unavailable the team was reorganised, partly with the intention of matching the strength of the experienced Bucks County players that Bourne End were expected to field. On the morning of the match the Bourne End board 5 dropped out, and when no replacement could be found a default was conceded. However, this initial advantage was cancelled out when Terry Whitton, who had seemed to be building up in his normal style and had established an advantage of almost an hour on the clock, underestimated his opponent's kingside attacking chances and lost a decisive amount of material. The board count situation meant that Wanstead needed to win one of the remaining games, but despite all three players making every effort all that could be achieved was three draws. Gerry Hayes' heavyweight clash on top board looked like the best chance, but despite Gerry sacrificing first a pawn and then the exchange his opponent defended well and Gerry had to settle for perpetual check. Steve Gilmour pressed for much of the game, but after declining a draw offer had to work hard to salvage a pawn down ending, while Larry Marden seemed slightly worse and had no sensible way of trying to win his rook ending.

Gerry Hayes v Andrew Smith

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f4 0-0 6.Nf3 c5 7.d5 e6 8.Be2 exd5 9.exd5 Nh5 10.Bd2 Bxc3 11.Bxc3 Nxf4 12.0-0 Bg4 13.h3 Bxf3 14.Rxf3 Nxe2+ 15.Qxe2 Nd7 16.Raf1 Qg5 17.Re3 b6 18.Re4 Qd8 19.Qf2 Rb8 20.Qg3 Ne5 21.Rxe5 dxe5 22.Bxe5 b5 23.Bf6 Qd7 24.Qe3 Rb6 25.Qxc5 Rc8 26.Qe3 Rxc4 27.b3 Rc8 28.Bd4 Rd6 29.Qe5 f6 30.Rxf6 Rxd5 31.Rxg6+ ½-½

Roger De Coverley v Larry Marden

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 d5 3.Bxf6 exf6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Bd3 Bxd3 6.Qxd3 c6 7.Ne2 Na6 8.0-0 Qd7 9.c4 dxc4 10.Qxc4 Bd6 11.Nd2 0-0 12.Rfd1 Rfe8 13.Rac1 Rad8 14.a3 Nc7 15.Qb3 Nd5 16.Nc3 Nxc3 17.Qxc3 f5 18.g3 Re6 19.b4 Rh6 20.Nf1 Qe7 21.Qd3 Rf6 22.Rb1 a6 23.Qb3 h5 24.h4 Rg6 25.Qd3 Qxh4 26.Qxf5 Rg5 27.Qf3 Qh3 28.Qg2 Qxg2+ 29.Kxg2 h4 30.Kf3 hxg3 31.Nxg3 Bxg3 32.fxg3 Rgd5 33.Rh1 R8d6 34.Rh4 g5 35.Rh2 Rg6 36.Rbh1 a5 37.Rh8+ Kg7 38.R1h7+ Kf6 39.Rb8 Rb5 40.bxa5 Rg7 41.Rhh8 Kg6 42.a4 Rf5+ 43.Ke4 Rxa5 44.g4 f6 45.Rhg8 Ra7 46.Rxg7+ Kxg7 47.Rc8 Kf7 48.Rc7+ Ke6 49.a5 Kd6 50.Rf7 ½-½

HANDICAP RAPIDPLAY

This is organised as a four board five round Swiss. The level of entries meant that the proposed zonals were abandoned and all entrants played in the finals at Magdalen College School, Oxford on Sunday 7 April. In view of the odd number of teams a scratch "Aardvarks" team for which your webmaster played board 2 joined the nine bona fide club teams.

The club began well by holding a strong Mushrooms side to a 2-2 draw and then beating Aardvarks 3-1, with the Aardvarks point being scored on their behalf by the Wanstead captain. There were slim pickings in the next two rounds with ½- 3½ defeats being suffered asgainst both Bedford (despite an excellent draw by Julian Winkworth against Steve Ledger) and Athenaum. However, the effect of the handicapping was that the club was only 1 point behind the leaders going into the last round, who were Aardvarks. With a pairing against Syston, the weakest team on paper, there seemed good chances of overall victory, and the 2½-1½ win was in the circumstances a little disappointing. It allowed Athenaum, who obliterated Aardvarks 4-0 (aided by an unfortunate blunder by your webmaster just before his opponent's flag fell) to tie Wanstead on an adjusted score of 8½. Bedford could have exceeded this score by beating Crowthorne, but were held 2-2 so there was a three way tie for first place. The prize money was split, but Wanstead take the title on the tie-break of lowest average grade.

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES

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