Our penultimate match of the season was a home match against Horfield & Redland B on 3rd April. Horfield are a strong team, but we managed to win 2 games last time, and teams usually field a stronger set of players for their home matches, so, while it was certainly unlikely, I figured we had some chance. Increasing that chance was the fact that we had a rather strong set of players for this match. We had to play in the Link again but it worked pretty well last time. However, I discovered while setting up that we only had 6 score sheets left, enough for the Horfield players but not enough for us. While the Richmond Building has a printer, it doesn’t work, Fortunately, Tommy kindly donated some paper so I was able to make some rudimentary score sheets for us. With that issue resolved for all intents and purposes, we began the match. I’ll cover the games in the approximate order that they finished.
Board 6
Samson had White on Board 6, having won both an A Team game and a C Team game earlier in the week, and his game started with a Pirc. Before long, Samson played 8. f4 and started to attack on the kingside as Black launched an attack on the queenside with 8… b5.
While 10… c5 undefends the b5 pawn, it is in fact quite strong here because it opens up the bishop on b7’s diagonal, so the e4 pawn hangs regardless of which piece takes the b5 pawn. Because the e4 pawn is more important than the b5 pawn, White is left with the difficult decision of how to hold the centre together. However, Black played 10… a6 instead, which defends the b5 pawn but allowed Samson to stabilise his centre a bit before the arrival of 11… c5. Black soon locked the queenside structure with 17… c4 so it was Samson’s turn to attack.
Black had to play 18… f6 or 18… f5 here, in order to prevent 19. Nf6+, but Black opted for 18… Qc6. Part of the reason 19. Nf6+ is so strong is that 19… Kh8 walks into 20. Qh4, after which 20… h5 doesn’t work because of the knight sacrifice 21. Nxh5, since the knight cannot be taken because of mate on h7. Therefore, Black has to take on f6, so Black played 19… Nxf6. After 20. exf6 Bh8, Black’s dark-squared bishop is terrible, but at least there is no chance of mate on g7. Samson continued his attack with 21. Qg3 and 22. h4 in an attempt to pry open Black’s king.
Black tried to prevent 23. h5 by playing 22… h5, but, while Samson was objectively winning anyway, this loses on the spot to 23. Bxg6, which fully exposes the king. After 23… fxg6, White mates with 24. Qxg6+ and 25. Bh6+, so Black resigned. With this win, Samson had managed to win a game for all three teams in the same week, a feat which likely won’t be repeated for a very long time.
Board 3
I had Black on Board 3 and my game started with the Jaenisch Gambit, also known as the Schliemann Defence, in the Ruy Lopez. I incorrectly predicted my opponent but I expected this opening because the player I expected to play also plays the Ruy Lopez. My opponent opted for an interesting line that is nigh-on impossible to play accurately unless you know the theory, so I cleanly won a pawn in the opening. Recognising how glorious my position would be once I castled long, with the bishop pair and a strong central pawn chain, my opponent struck swiftly with the absurd-looking but surprisingly-potent knight sacrifice 13. Nxd5.
After getting two pawns for the piece with 13… cxd5 14. Qxd5, White’s queen attacks both the rook on g8 and the e4 pawn, so I played 14… Qe6. While I was still perhaps-temporarily up two points of material after 15. Qh5+, White’s counterplay is rather scary, since my king is still in the centre, I can’t develop easily, and the d-file is already open for White’s rook on a1. Because I didn’t like the look of 15… g6 16. Qxh7, I wanted to make 15… Kf8 work, but I completely forgot until the moment I played it that 16. f3 is obviously very strong because my king gets obliterated if the f-file opens. Fortunately, I found a solution: the funny-looking 16… Rh8, which vacates g8 for my king.
After 17. fxe4+ Kg8, my opponent played 18. Rad1, which threatens 19. Rxd6 Qxd6 20. Qf7#, so I had to find the only move that doesn’t lose on the spot. The benefit of defending in such circumstances is that, if you can eliminate every candidate move bar one, that move is the one you should make, so I indeed found 18… h6, which creates a safe square for my king on h7, where it cannot be checked. Without a clear way to continue the attack, my opponent spent half an hour here. During that time, I narrowly avoided falling backwards off a nearby chair so it wasn’t a completely uneventful half an hour. When my opponent did eventually move, the pawn sacrifice 19. e5 was played. As my opponent calculated, I can at best draw after 19… Bxe5 because of 20. Rd8+ Kh7 21. Rxh8+ Kxh8 22. Rf8+ Kh7 23. Re8, which wins the bishop on e5. Therefore, I played 19… Qxe5, and my opponent continued with 20. Qf7+ Kh7 21. Bd4, which attacks my queen and threatens mate on g7 through my queen.
If I simply move my queen and defend mate with 21… Qe7 or 21… Qg5, there’s some annoying 22. Bxg7 nonsense, which I saw. My opponent hoped I wouldn’t see the only winning move for me here, but I saw it back when I was calculating 19… Qxe5. This move is 21… Bc5, which pins the bishop to the king so my queen cannot be taken. After 22. c3 Bxd4+ 23. cxd4 Qe3+ 24. Kh1 Qe4+ 25. Kg1, I was finally able to develop my light-squared bishop with 25… Bh3. This threatens 26… Qg2# and there is no way to both prevent mate and stop me from forcing trades by getting a rook to f8, so my opponent resigned. It is fitting that the entire game revolved around me being unable to develop my pieces and the game ended the moment I did.
Board 2
Dimitar had White on Board 2 and his game started with a Dutch. The players castled on opposite sides so Dimitar launched a strong kingside attack down the semi-open g-file.
Since Black’s king, queen, and rook on f8 are all a knight’s distance from g6, there are some interesting tactical ideas. In fact, there is a forced win for White, which is the temporary queen sacrifice 24. Qg6. This threatens 25. Qh7# and Black can’t take the queen because 24… Bxg6 25. Nxg6+ Kg8 26. Nxe7+ leaves White up a bishop. The other obvious move to calculate is 24… Nf6, but this also loses a bishop, this time to 25. Qxh5 Nxh5 26. Ng6+ Kg8 27. Nxe7+. The only other move that prevents mate is 24… Rf5, but Black loses a rook after 25. Bxf5 exf5 26. Qxh5. Therefore, Black can resign after 24. Qg6, but Dimitar instead played 24. Be2 to trade his knight for Black’s bishop. As Dimitar’s kingside attack ran out of steam, Black launched a queenside attack.
Due to the fact that the bishop on c2 restricts the movement of the rook on c3, the above position is objectively winning for Black. The winning move is 32… b4. Firstly, if White threatens mate on h7 with 33. Qd3, after 33… Rf5, White is forced to play 34. axb4 because the rook on c3 is trapped, but there is no way to prevent mate after 34… Qxb4 without losing the exchange. If instead White tries 33. axb4, after 33… Qxb4, wherever the bishop moves in order to defend b2 with the queen, Black wins the exchange after 34… Nxb2. Finally, trying to rescue the rook with 33. Rd3 also doesn’t work because, among other moves, Black has 33… bxa3, which fatally opens up the king. However, Black played 32… Nd6 in the game, and Dimitar swiftly extinguished Black’s attack. The players reached an equal endgame with only a bishop vs knight imbalance, so the game appeared to be heading towards a draw, until a time scramble blunder.
Black is in good shape after 37… Nxe3 because the bishop on c2 is attacked so White cannot take on e6. However, Black instead played 37… Rc6, which hangs the knight on f5 because the e6 pawn is pinned to the rook, so Black resigned after 38. Bxf5. As a result, after only the first three games had finished, we had already at least drawn the match, which was a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.
Board 5
Tristan had Black on Board 5 and his game started with the Smith-Morra Gambit Accepted, where White gives up a pawn for a lead in development. After eliminating a knight on c6, White managed to win the pawn back with 15. Nxe5 by exploiting the fact that the d6 pawn is pinned down the d-file.
With the backward d6 pawn now isolated, it proved difficult for Tristan to defend it or get enough activity to justify losing it.
White missed a way to win a pawn here, which is 20. Bxh6. If Black simply recaptures with 20… gxh6, White can win back a knight with 21. Qxf6 and leave Black’s king exposed. Instead, White played 20. Nf5 and quickly won the d6 pawn. Eventually, White won another pawn and forced an endgame where both sides had a bishop and a knight but White still had 2 extra pawns. While keeping every pawn defended with the bishop and knight, White activated the king and created a passed f-pawn by sacrificing the e-pawn.
Tristan kept fighting but he had no way to even sacrifice a piece for the f-pawn, which soon promoted, at which point Tristan resigned.
Board 1
Tommy had Black on Board 1 and his game started with the Accelerated Dragon. The game soon got interesting when White sacrificed a bishop for 2 pawns with 18. Bxe6.
Black can’t simply recapture with 18… fxe6 because the queen is trapped after 19. Nxe6, so Tommy played 18… Bxd4. After 19. Bxf7+ Kxf7 20. Bxd4, Tommy’s king is exposed but White is down material so, while the position is objectively equal, White’s kingside attack needs to be somewhat successful.
However, once Tommy moved his king off the f-file with 20… Kg8, it’s not obvious how White should continue. Tommy concluded that 21. Qe2 is the best try, and the engine agrees, but White played 21. Rac1 to keep the c2 pawn defended, which is a bit slow as it gives Tommy time to bring his pieces to the kingside to defend. White’s attack therefore fizzled out quickly so, still up material, Tommy started to trade pieces.
While Tommy would almost certainly have converted his advantage into a win regardless, in the above position, White tried to play 47. Qc3 to prevent 47… Ra1 but flagged before doing so. With this win, Tommy had secured the win for us in the match as a whole, and there was still one game ongoing.
Board 4
Alex had White on Board 4 and his game started with the Scandinavian Variation of the Alekhine. After a lot of manoeuvring without trading any pieces, Black initiated a capture chain on e4 which forced two pairs of minor pieces off the board. Following this, Black offered a queen trade with 21… Qd5 and also offered a draw. Correctly believing he was better, Alex declined both with 22. Qf4 and proceeded to increase his space advantage.
To avoid being objectively close to losing, Black has only one move here, which is 25… f5. Every queen move allows 26… Nxd4 so let’s say 26. Qh3 is played, since the queen is then not attacked after 26… Nxd4. After 27. Ng6, it may look completely winning for White but Black can in fact sacrifice the knight with 27… Ne2+. The knight cannot be taken because of 28… Qd1+ with back-rank mate, so the only options are 28. Kf1 and 28. Kh1. Wherever the king goes, there’s 28… Nxg3+ so the queen cannot be taken. After 29. hxg3, in a surprisingly fair trade, Black is forced to give up the queen for a rook, a knight, and a pawn with 29… hxg6 30. Rxd6 Bxd6. However, after all of that, the e6 pawn is undefended, so it may look like 31. Rxe6 wins a pawn. It does not, since 31… Kf7 attacks the rook and threatens 32… Rh8, which rather amusingly traps the queen, so White cannot save both the rook and the queen. Needless to say, it would be extremely impressive to calculate all of that and see that Black is pretty much fine. Black tried 25… Qd8 but 26. d5 is very strong. Alex soon won the e6 pawn and achieved a completely dominant position.
Despite the fact that material is equal because Alex gave up the h-pawn, the above position is completely winning for White. After 35. Qd7+, the king is forced to return to the back rank because 35… Rf7 hangs the other rook and 35… Qf7 loses to 36. Re7 because the queen is pinned to the king. With the king on the back rank, the winning plan for White is to attack the king by getting one rook to h3 and the other rook to e7 or e6. Alex instead played 35. c5, with the idea to crash through by creating a passed d-pawn. However, this allowed Black to trade queens and Alex’s passed d-pawn ended up becoming more of a weakness than a strength, so Black soon won it. In the ensuing pawn-down rook endgame, Alex traded rooks into a losing king and pawn endgame, but you never know what could happen in mutual time trouble.
With little time to calculate each possible line to its conclusion, the players agreed to a draw here but Black is objectively completely winning. The key thing to notice is that Black can forcibly create a passed pawn by sacrificing 2 kingside pawns with 55… h5 56. gxh5 g4 57. fxg4. If White’s king gets to c5, it takes 6 more moves to promote the b-pawn, whereas it takes Black 5 moves to promote after h5, so White can never leave the square of the f4 pawn. Therefore, the pawn sacrifice idea would easily win for Black if Black’s king was in the square of the h5 pawn and White’s king was not in the square of the f4 pawn. These squares for White and Black’s kings are outlined in red and green respectively on the above diagram. With White’s king unable to make progress on the queenside, Black’s king can walk to g6 to prepare h5 without sacrificing the pawn. White cannot afford to allow a passed pawn so must meet h5 with gxh5, but Black will eventually be able to force White’s king away from the f3 pawn, at which point Black will be able to win it and the game.
Summary
In the end, we comfortably won 4.5-1.5, which is undeniably our best result of the season. In fact, we’d still have won the match if Alex had lost his king and pawn endgame and Dimitar’s opponent hadn’t hung a piece. Furthermore, despite the fact that Horfield is a much stronger team than we are, because we lost 2-4 last time, our overall score is an excellent 6.5-5.5. Because our tiebreaks are good, we are now safe from relegation unless, in the last set of matches, Clevedon beat Horfield and Yate beat us, both of which are unlikely results. However, Clevedon’s match is on the same day as our match so we won’t know in advance whether we need to beat Yate. Speaking of that match, our next match and final match of the season is an away match against Yate & Sodbury B on 29th April, so the next match report will be posted soon after that.