RR v Geoff Laurence after 6 d5

We join the action early as RR shoves his d-pawn up the board, as one does, without too much preliminary thought. Geoff goes into the tank, and I realise he cannot simply be considering the (lack of) virtue of Na5 or Nb4. What about
6 ... Nxe4, 7 dxc6 Qxd1+, 8 Kxd1 Nxf2+ and 9 ... Nxh1?
Yikes, that is not good for white. Time to start thinking.
6 ... Nxe4, 7 Bd3 Qxd5 Nope

6 ... Nxe4, 7 Bb5 Bd7, 8 dxc6 now fine,

6 ... Nxe4, 7 Bb5 a6, 8 dxc6 Qxd1+, 9 Kxd1 Nxf2+
10 Ke2 Nxh1, 11 cxb7+ with bxa8Q to follow. Don't mind that.
Same line 10 ... axb5, 11 cxb7 Bxb7, Kxf2 and Geoff has given up knight for two pawns.

Try again 6 ... Nxe4, 7 Bb5 a6, 8 dxc6 Qxd1+, 9 Kxd1
Now 9 ... axb5, 11 cxb7 Bxb7 I've lost a pawn and the chance to castle. Not a good line for white.

So I need 8 Ba4 which protects the queen so prevents the fork on f2.

What else could I try? 7 Qd3 so both knights under threat.

Geoff plays 6 ... Nb8.
Later at home I discover that 7 Be2 is a very effective riposte to 6 Nxe4. It doesn't block the queen, but protects it to threaten dxc6. If the c6 knight moves the other one falls to Qa4+. And I'm ready to castle. Would I have found this if necessary? Onwards.

7 Bg5 c6, 8 Nc3 Qa5, 9 Qd2 h6, 10 Bxf6 gxf6, 11 Rd1 Bg4
12 Be2 Qc7, 13 h3 Bxf3, 14 Bxf3 Nd7, 15 dxc6 bxc6, 16 0-0 h5
17 Qc2 Ne5, 18 Be2 h4 Didn't think this advanced black's cause - was expecting e6 to keep my knight out of d5, free his bishop onto the queenside if desired and create a little freedom for his king.

19 Nd5 Qc8 see diagram right.

RR v Geoff Laurence after 19 ... Qc8

RR missed a tactical blow here: 20 Ba6 Qb8 (... Qxa6 Nc7+), 21 Qc5 (f4 cxd5 is OK but inferior)
f4 is now coming from white, and if black tries
21 ... cxd5 then 22 Bb5+ Nd7, 23 Bxd7+ Kxd7, 24 Rxd5+ is much more fun for white than black.

Instead RR didn't even try Rc1 choosing the tame continuation
20 Ne3 e6, 21 f4 Nd7, 22 Rf3 Rg8, 23 Ng4 Be7, 24 Rc3 Rg6

RR v Geoff Laurence after 24 Rg6

Time for RR to get careless. Black cannot play c5 because of b4 from white, so there is no hurry to exploit blacks isolated pawn. Kh1 must be sensible, and f5 looks well worth further consideration, but I grabbed:
25 Rxc6 Bc5+, 26 Qxc5 (Rxc5 leaving the black rook in the corner is better)
26 ... Nxc5, 27 Rxc8+ Rxc8

About 15 minutes left on the clock and I just couldn't come up with a plan. I felt f5 was right but couldn't see why at the time so settled for Bb5+, not that a check is a plan.

28 Bb5+ Ke7, 29 Rc1 running scared of allowing the black knight into e4 with a possible knight and rook mate if my rook then leaves the back row.

With Hassell no more and Cheddleton reducing their entry to six teams, running a fifth division was no longer viable, so we are back to four. Meir's plans were subjected to shifting sands as player availability became problematic. After announcing two teams in division three and one in four at the AGM, they flirted with moving one into the second before settling on just two teams, both in division four.

Division 3

Newcastle C 4 3 0 1 6 Alsager C 4 2 1 1 5 Fenton B 3 2 0 1 4 Cheddleton D 3 1 2 0 4 Cheddleton C 2 1 1 0 3 Stafford B 2 1 0 1 2 Kidsgrove 3 1 0 2 2 H C Pawns 4 0 2 2 2 Newcastle D 3 0 0 3 0

Division 4

Cheddleton E 4 3 1 0 7 Fenton C 3 3 0 0 6 Cheddleton F 3 1 1 1 3 Alsager D 2 1 0 1 2 Fenton D 3 1 0 2 2 Newcastle E 3 0 1 2 1 Meir B 2 0 1 1 1 Meir C 2 0 0 2 0

Teams in divisions three and four behaved themselves, getting their matches played in accordance with the fixture list. Consequently it is sensible to reproduce the early season tables for future reference. Newcastle top and tail the third, and already only one team in each division is pointless and only one team, Fenton C, within these two divisions having a 100% record. Looks like we are lining up another competitive season here.

Divisions one and two have had a patchy start, with he cross charts not as well populated with results as they should have been at this stage.

Overall there has been one match defaulted - Fenton failed to raise a team in the Intermediate Cup to visit Cheddleton, and another whose status is unknown - Alsager did not get a team out for the Open cup at Stafford, but I do not know at the moment whether that is a concession or a postponement. There are four outstanding postponements, two in each of the top two divisions, the Kings v Newcastle A fixtures have been reversed, and one match - Rooks v Knights - was played a week early. The bottom divisions haven't been quite perfect though, as all the defaulted boards have appeared down there, Pawns being responsible for three and Alsager D for one.

Communication of results has been variable, with Kidsgrove, Meir and sometimes Alsager being slower to submit scorecards than the other clubs.

RR v Michael Connor after 6 ... Qb6

7 Qb3 0-0, 8 Nc3 Bg4, 9 0-0 Nbd7, 10 a4 Nc5, 11 Qc2
RR had vague hopes of trapping the black queen if it grabs the b-pawn, but exact calculation rather than vague hopes should be the order of the day. In fact Qa3 allowing the e-pawn to fall is superior as in taking this pawn black has to allow the exchange of the dark square bishops. There followed

11 ... Qxb4, 12 Ba3 (black is threatening Nfxe4, which cannot be taken by the white knight as it would reveal a double attack on his b2 bishop.)

12 ... Qa5, 13 Rab1 Rab8, 14 Bb4 Qc7, 15 d4 Ne6
16 Qd2 Nd7, 17 d5 Nec5, 18 a5 offering another pawn.

RR v Michael Connor after 18 a5

This was accepted:
18 ... Bxc3, 19 Qxc3 (Bxc3 getting the bishop on the long diagonal would be nice in principle, but the Nxe4 is now a fork enabling black to remove the bishop. With the queen capture white now gets to menace the dark squares around the black king. With things to do RR now feels relatively happy even though he doesn't really have compesation for the two pawn deficit.)

19 ... Nxe4, 20 Qe3 Ndf6, 21 h3 Bd7, 22 g4 Grabbing the a-pawn may be better as it helps reduce the material imbalance, but RR is in attack mode - a rare sight.

22 ... Nc5, 23 Qh6 (ignoring 23 Bxc5 and 24 Qxe7)

23 ... e5, 24 Nxe5 cxd5, 25 g5 Ne8, 26 Nxd7 Nxd7
27 Rfc1 d4, 28 Rd1 Ng7, 29 Bg4 f5, 30 gxf6 Nxf6
31 Rxd4 Nxg4, 32 hxg4

RR v Michael Connor after 32 hxg4

The dust is beginning to settle, with RR a pawn down but about to give black's d-pawn serious grief. Fritz meanwhile has been getting apoplectic, having given 4 yellows and 6 reds to our efforts from move 20 onwards. Clearly neither of us had the presence of mind to stand back from the position and think clearly.

32 ... Rbd8, 33 Rbd1 Rf6 (another pair of reds)
34 Qh2 Ne8 (two more!), 35 c5 d5, 36 Qg2 Rf4

RR now spent too long comparing the merits of Rxf4 and Rxd5 and lost on time.
Defeat in round one meant RR effectively got upfloated into the top section for round two, getting a full point bye whilst playing black against Luke Boumphrey.

Luke Boumphrey v RR after 28 ... Ke5

Early removal of the queens soon led to an endgame. White has the benefit of bishop against knight with pawns on both wings, black has the better king and two isolated pawns to harrass. Pretty even.

29 Be2 Kd5, 30 Bf3+ Kc5, 31 Be4 Nd6, 32 Bd3 e5, 33 f3 Nc8
34 g4 Ne7, 35 Be4 a5, 36 Kb3 Nd5, 37 h5

Luke Boumphrey v RR after 37 h5

Fairly sure I've got a draw now.

37 ... gxh5, 38 g5 Pardon. Can he play that and live?

38 ... h4, 39 Bxh7 h3, 40 f4 h2, 41 Be4 Nxf4
42 Kb2 b5, 43 axb5 Kxb5, 44 Kb3 a4+, 45 Ka3 Kc4
46 Kxa4 Kxc3, 47 Kb5 Kd4, 48 Bh1 e4 0-1
Black against Harry Baxter was RR's next assignment.

Harry Baxter v RR after 10 ... Bf6

White has a small lead in development, black a small space advantage. Apparently not a lot going on, but the next few moves would prove decisive.

11 Ne5 Bxe5, 12 Qxe5 Nc6 (development with gain of tempo)
13 Qh5 Nd4 and white now embarks on a big material exchange on d5 without checking what would happen afterwards. Black on the other hand not only looked ahead but could always halt the exchanges with a pawn capture any time he wanted.

14 Nxd5 Bxd5, 15 Bxd5 Qxd5, 16 Qxd5 exd5 Suddenly white sees that he has given himself one move to prevent both the fork on f3 and the loss of his c-pawn, an impossible task.

17 Bc3 Ne2+ (... Nxc2, 18 Rc1 and whichever retreat black selects white removes the knight doubling a pawn and limiting his advantage)

18 Kg2 Nxc3, 19 bxc3 RR will have a lasting advantage in the endgame.

Harry Baxter v RR after 29 ... Kf5

We rejoin the game several moves later. Keen not to allow e4 to fall into black's hands white tries
30 Kf2 h4, 31 gxf4 Kf4, 32 h5 f6, 33 h4 f5
34 Kg2 Ke3, 35 Kg3 a6 (... f5+, 36 Kg5 and both sides queen in a further 7 moves - count them.)

36 h6 gxh6, 37 h5 a5 making full use of the waiting moves available

38 Kg2 f4, 39 Kh3 Kxf3, 40 Kh4 Ke4 Not even allowing white a sniff at queening a pawn of his own. White resigned a few moves later.
Round 4 against G Sage went pear-shaped from a reasonable position in the middlegame, with RR failing to stay cool under attack - his chosen moves advancing the attackers cause rather than his own.

Round five with white against Damien McCarthy also saw RR in generous mode, carelessly discarding a pawn in an attempt to retain access to a square which was probably not that important. Needless to say lots of material then came off so that when considering move 29 RR was the proud(?) possessor of the position right.

RR v Damien McCarthy after 28 ... Nxc8

OK. I have a supported past pawn, and I can take the c-file. But is that going to be enough to slow the black queenside pawns? Think I'll go for some distraction.

29 g3 g5, 30 gxf4 gxf4, 31 Bf1 Qc7, 32 Bh3 Ne7
33 Be6 Qc3, 34 Qe2 Qe3, 35 Qf1 (possibly exchanging the queens and hoping that I can hold the piece ending is better, but this is more complicated!)

Ken Wozniak v RR after 8 ... Bxc2

11 0-0 e6, 12 Nd2 Bd5, 13 b3 Ba3, 14 Rc2 0-0
15 Bf3 Bxf3 No I'm not going to allow you to close the d-file.
16 Nxf3 Nd7, 17 Ne5 Nf6 Not taking that even though it would give me control of the d-file with my rooks. Stick to plan A.
18 Nc4 Be7, 19 Rd1 Natural, though in this case a dim knight (Na5) would have been brighter.
19 ... Rfd8, 20 Rcd2 Nd5

Exhibit A: RR has a passive position against Ivor Annetts as we join their first round game.

Ivor Annetts v RR after 17 b3

First task is to dissipate Ivor's edge.
17 ... Nfd7, 18 Bh4 (f6 is not yet a threat as white has Nxd7 as a reply. However safety first is not a bad approach.)

18 ... c5 (not Nxe5 enabling white to get a stranglehold.)

19 dxc5 Nxe5, 20 fxe5 Nd7, 21 Ne4 Nxe5, 22 Qf4 A tempting pin, but it helps the game to turn.

22 ... f5, 23 Nf6+ Bxf6, 24 Bxf6 Qxc5+, 25 Kh1 Ng4.
As a result of the last few moves black has a backward pawn on an open file weak black squares around his king. Is his judgement that correct that these weakneses are in this case less important than the pawn he holds?

Ivor Annetts v RR after 25 ... Ng4

26 Bd4 Natural (unfortunately!). Qg5 and white is mated, other bishop retreats cost white his queen. OK, so these aren't going to happen in the game, but it is nice to spot them.

26 ... Qe7, 27 Qg3 Rad8 (an immediate e5 probably better)
28 h3 e5, 29 hxg4 Rxd4, 30 Rxd4 exd4, 31 gxf5 Qxe3
32 Qxe3 Rxe3, 33 fxg6 hxg6, 34 Rb1 Rc3, 35 Kg1 d3

Ivor Annetts v RR after 35 Kg1

"Passed pawns should be pushed" is a lazy saying. After d3 black cannot get his king up to support the pawn in time, and the rook cannot shepherd the pawn home on its own. A draw was agreed on move 52. So having gained a pawn for unimportant weaknesses (they didn't matter, did they?), and then exchanging it for a good passed pawn, RR surrendered his chances meekly.
Exhibit B, and RR fails in his attempt to throw away his advantage.

RR v William Elworthy after 30 ... Q(c7)d8

RR is well in control here, having used the weak black squares around black's king to win the exchange. With his rook now under attack it is obviously time for care. Once again for want of seeing something else he liked the look of, RR played the move he knew he shouldn't, namely Qf2. Fortunately black didn't punish this, and RR was able to complete a routine win. I'll treat black's equalising move as a quiz, and give the answer at the end of today's entry.

Russell Pegg v RR after 9 ... N8d7

Round 3, black against Russell Pegg. RR is playing a bit of a rope-a-dope game. White has a clear spacial advantage, which strong players would expect to convert to a full point. At my level however whites often struggle to find a coherent plan, and as minor pieces depart the field of play whites d-pawn becomes a big problem for him.

10 a3 Bxd2, 11 Nxd2 (Qxd2 or Bxd2 are met by Bxf3) Bxe2
1 Qxe2 h6 (Qh4, removing her majesty from the central files is better)
13 Rac1 0-0, 14 Rfd1 Nf6, 15 Qf3 Rc8, 16 Ne4 Nxe4
17 Qxe4 Nd7, 18 h3 Nf6, 19 Qh4 Nh7, 20 Qg3 Qf6
21 Qe5 Rfd8, 22 Qxf6 Nxf6 Russell's patience has run out in his attempts to be nasty on the kingside, so he takes the queens off. RR's long term plan is intact, and he may be looking at an ending with R+N v R+B, which traditionally favours the knight holder.

Russell Pegg v RR after 22 ... Nxf6

23 f3 Rd7, 24 Kf2 Rcd8, 25 Ke2 a6, 26 Rd3 b5
27 b3 Kf8, 28 Rcd1 Ke8, 29 Bf4 Ng8, 30 Be5 f6
31 Bf4 Kf7, 32 Bc1 Ne7, 33 Be3 g5, 34 g4 Ng6

Russell Pegg v RR after 34... Ng6

It is becoming harder for white to find useful moves, though black has no devastating threats either.

35 Rc1 Not good. bxc4, 36 bxc4 Russell took some time over this move. He didn't want to allow me the b-file, nor surrender the d5 square to my knight. He admitted afterwards that he hadn't noticed that capturing with the rook would have allowed Ne5 delivering considerable pain.

With the b-file his RR started dictating, creating weaknesses in exchange for simplification. We rejoin nearly 20 moves later.

Russell Pegg v RR after 54 K(g2)f3

Now 54 ... Re5, 55 Rc4 Kd6 wins the e-pawn, with the chance that white might opt to remove the rooks (small chance). Instead the game went
54 ... Rd5, 55 Re3 c5, 56 Rb3 Kxe6, 57 Rb6+ (Rb5 c4) Ke5, 58 Rc6. RR is well ahead, but fails to realise that his passed pawn is more important than his f-pawn, which can be abandoned. Consequently he fails to play Kd4 with intent to march his c-pawn to victory. Instead a series of weaker moves starting with Rd3+ fritters away the advantage.
Round four was an exception of sorts - RR didn't throw (successfully or not) an advantage. Instead he dug a hole from a fair position. Roger Greatorex was the grateful recipient.

RR v Roger Greatorex after 20 ... f4

OK, those central pawns look menacing, but there's no need to help them. Instead of bxc5 or exf4, RR abandons his king to his fate with
21 Rfd1 Ng4, 22 Bxg4 Bxg4, 23 f3 (compounding the error)
23 ... fxe3, 24 Rd5 (clearly resignable) exf3 Who said those pawns weren't menacing?

Death followed.
Last round. RR with white launched a hack attack against Jon Duckham, and we join it with RR definitely winning - yes he is a piece and two pawns up. However the sight of that mate in one threat instead of sharpening RR's thoughts seemed to reduce them treacle instead.

RR v Jon Duckham after 36 ... Qe1

Qa7+ the crowd roars. But RR fails to see that blocking with either rook loses a rook to Qxf7+. So instead we had
37 Rxf1 Rxf1, 38 Qa7+ Kh8, 39 Qb8+ Kg7, 40 Qe5+ (spent a lot of time on Qxb4 with he idea of neutralising the mating threat)
With time seeping away, floundered on to the position right

RR v Jon Duckham after 45 K(f6)e5

Another quiz for you. White to play and mate in 5. RR saw only part of the idea, went another way, simplifying to a drawn position (before his flag fell). Boohoo.

Overall though twas a better weekend than Preston - at least I had some sound or better positions to muck up!
Quiz answer: Nf5. White either has to give back the exchange or play Rc6 allowing draw by repetition.

Unless you are able to analyse through to the end of a game, there is always a point reached when asessing potential moves that you have to make a judgement of the position reached at the end of your calculations. No matter how much experience is called on to help this judgement, there is always an element of gut feeling involved, particularly in relatively level positions.

Tonight's game at Alsager where RR had black against Brian Birchall was a case in point for the author. The game started placidly, but when Brian started to threaten to visit c7 with a knight things livened up, and RR found himself a pawn to the good, albeit as part of doubled ones. RR's judgement then went on leave, as he repeatedly considered and rejected good moves (according to Fritz) in favour of inferior ones. So the major pieces all died on the a-file, and in due course the pawn was returned in order to reach the piece ending that RR was happy with. There then followed a long period of probing by RR and repulsion by Brian, until with less than 2 minutes left RR stopped recording, material level at knight and two pawns each.

RR v Derek Northage after 12 ... Rc8

17 ... Ne7, 18 Ne5

RR v Derek Northage after 18 Ne5

I had thought of 18 Ng5 h6, 19 Bh7+ Kh8, 20 Rxc8 Rxc8, 21 Nxf7 mate, but didn't think Derek would co-operate.

18 ... Rxc5, 19 dxc5 My normal reaction would be take with queen so as to try to remove them before creating the passed pawn, but I decided I also liked my diagonal threats.

19 ... Qc7, 20 Bc3 Offering the c-pawn for his h-pawn, and getting the bishop onto the long diagonal.

20 ... Nc6, 21 Nxd7 Qxd7 As the h-pawn is going anyway, Derek decides to open some lines for an attack of his own.

22 Bxf6 gxf6, 23 Bxh7+ Kg7, 24 Bd3 Rh8, 25 Qe2 The game has switched sides - we've abandoned the queenside and gone for kingside action instead.

RR v Derek Northage after 25 Qe2

25 ... f5, 26 b4 Qe7, 27 a3 There are lots of ways of consolidating my position, and whilst this may not be the best it will still work. Expect to defend for a few moves before making Derek move backwards again.

27 ... Qh4, 28 h3 Rh6, 29 f4 deciding that keeping the black knight out of e5 is sensible.

29 ... Qg3, 30 Kh1 f6, 31 Rf1 Kf7, 32 Qf3 Now in boring mode

RR v Derek Northage after 32 Qf3

32 ... Qh4 Keeps the queens on, at the expense of
33 Bxf5 Ne7, 34 Bd3 could force the queens off with g3, more my style
34 ... Nc6, 35 Be2 My worst move - f5 is much more fun. I was running scared of Ne5 again, but it is too late for that to be effective.
35 ... f5, 36 Qf2 Qf6, 37 Qg3 Ke7, 38 Qg5 with visions of my pawns marching down the g and h files to victory
38 ... d4 desperate to get the knight involved, but
39 Qxf6+ Kxf6, 40 Bf3 and Derek called it a day.

RR v Craig Whitfield after 28 ... Rb7

About the only thing balanced about the position as we join the game with RR pondering his 29th move is material. On the queenside white has a space advantage and the prospects of targetting black's b-pawn, which is probably weaker than white's a-pawn. On the kingside it is black who has space advantage, though his pawn advance could see his king even more sparsely protected than white's. In the centre white's knight is well placed, but must be wary of moving as e4 from black would unleash black's dark square bishop. So a position of pluses and minuses, but overall one that as white RR was not unhappy with.

Unfortunately the game is played in the head, and RR's plan of waiting for the black advance to run into the ground is clearly a dangerous one, particularly against a strong player.

29 g3 Nxh3, 30 Nxh3 gxh3, 31 Bg5 RR deviates from his plan - Bxh3 is surely called for. The more material that is removed the happier RR should be. Instead he is seduced by the "clever" idea of using black's h3 pawn to hide behind.

31 ... Qd7, 32 Qe3 Bg4, 33 Be2 Inconsistent with having not removed the h-pawn. Bh6 would have been a natural continuation from the previous Qe3. This sort of oscillation between plans is never good.

33 ... Nc8, 34 f3 Bf5, 35 Bd1 Ne7

RR v Craig Whitfield after 35 Ne7

RR's position is still eminently tenable, but with time passing, an unjustified fear of black's knight, and the knowledge that earlier removal of the h3 pawn would have rendered the task of finding moves easier RR starts to panic.

36 a5 bxa5, 37 Ba4 (Rxa4 must be better, despite allowing an easily blocked check. At least then there is some possibility of play on the queenside. As it is craig is soon coming at RR from all angles.)

37 ... Qc7, 38 Bh6 Bg6, 39 g4 with intent to remove squares from black's light squared bishop, but just opening the f-file for black.