Our first match of the season was an away match against Clevedon B on 23rd September. Largely because it was our first match, only 5 B Team players were available (me, Ignacio, Thomas, Samson, and Argi), so I invited Tommy to play for us as a sub from the A Team. At the time of the match, he was rated 1770, just below the 1800 limit above which players cannot play down, so I was just about able to ask for his help. Two players finished for the day at 6 pm, so getting a bus there would have been cutting it close, and the bus schedule on the way back was such that some of us would have been lucky to get home before 1 am, so we just got a taxi both ways. I’ll cover the games in the approximate order that they finished.
Board 5
Samson had White on Board 5 and his game ended decisively in only around 20 minutes, making it a rapid game. The game started with the Max Lange Defence in the Vienna, but Samson’s next move 3. Bb5 is extremely rare. Nevertheless, Black continued to blitz out every single move, which, needless to say, is not advisable in classical. After relatively standard developing moves, the first critical moment occurred after 7… d5, threatening d4 winning a knight. Samson responded with 8. e5, which is objectively much worse for White, but the evaluation doesn’t matter as much when your opponent plays every move almost instantly.
After Black played the correct response 8… d4, a capture chain was inevitable, so Samson played 9. 0-0 so that cxb2 never comes with a check. The capture chain then ensued with 9… dxc3 10. exf6 cxb2, but 10… cxb2 actually blunders a draw after 11. fxg7, which Samson played. Instead, Black needed to play 10… Qxf6, attacking the bishop on f4 and supporting the pawn on c3. However, in the game, even though Black promotes first with 11… bxa1=Q, White’s promotion 12. gxf8=Q+ is a check, so, miraculously, material was momentarily equal after the newborn queens were taken by the original queens with 12… Qxf8 13. Qxa1. What Black may have been relying on is 13… Qc5+, which happened in the game.
The bishop on b5 is undefended, but taking the seemingly-free bishop loses the game, which Black did not realise, again largely due to not spending any time. After 14. Kh1 Qxb5, the only move that wins, and in fact the only move that doesn’t lose, is 15. Bh6, threatening mate on g7, and there is no good way to defend mate. The best way, 15… Bf8, was played in the game, but after 16. Bxf8 Kxf8, White is completely winning, despite being down a bishop, because of Samson’s next move 17. Qh8+, moving the queen 7√2 squares, the maximum distance any piece can move.
This forces 17… Ke7, and after a brutal king hunt with 18. Re1+ Kd6 19. Qf8+ Ne7 20. Qxe7+ Kc6, Samson simply played 21. Nd4, a royal fork, and Black resigned with 1 hour and 15 minutes on their clock. In the end (which was the start for the rest of us), Samson won, so fair enough, I guess. I did not expect such an early submission for the fastest win of the season, but this game is going to be very challenging to beat, even for anyone crazy enough to intentionally aim for the record. Regardless, credit to Samson for waiting over 2 hours for the rest of us to finish, more than an hour and a half longer than everyone else.
Board 1
Tommy had White on Board 1 and his game started with the Botvinnik-Carls Defence (3… c5) in the Advanced Caro-Kann, an opening we were coincidentally discussing in the taxi on the way to the match. The early middlegame focussed on the e5 square, with both sides keeping the tension until Black initiated a mass knight trade there.
Instead of trading the dark-squared bishops on e5 too, Black played the inaccurate 16… Qc7, perhaps concerned about White’s activity after 16… Bxe5 17. Qxe5, but the engine says that this was the optimal way to play, since Black can offer a queen trade with 17… Qf6 and largely extinguish White’s pressure. However, 16… Qc7 allowed Tommy to launch a powerful kingside attack with 17. Qh5, leaving the bishop on e5 hanging. If Black had played 17… Bxe5, they would have been checkmated with a relatively common pattern after 18. Bxh7+ Kh8 19. Bg6+ Kg8 20. Qh7#, but 17… g6 was correctly played instead.
After sacrificing his bishop on g6 to open up the king, Tommy had a perpetual check on demand with Qh6 and Qg6 back, since he was down a bishop for two pawns. However, up on time, in the above position, he thought for longer than Samson’s game lasted, and found the only winning move, 21. Rae1. If the more natural Rfe1 is played, then 21… Qf4 generates so much counterplay with the threat of Qxf2+ that White is immediately worse. After Black responded with 21… Qe7, Tommy’s next move 22. Re3 lost most of the advantage because 22… Qh7 miraculously doesn’t lose to 23. Rh3, due to 23… Qxh3 24. gxh3 Rg8, pinning the queen to the king, at which point Black is winning. Tommy apparently had to play 22. Qh6+ first so the king is on g8 instead, since blocking with the queen hangs the rook on f8. However, Black immediately decisively blundered with 22… Qg7, likely trying to prevent 23. Rh3+.
We made the above position the weekly puzzle at our Saturday chess session the Saturday after the match so see if you can find the winning sequence yourself if you didn’t solve it then.
Tommy fortunately solved his own puzzle, starting with 23. Qh5+. If 23… Kg8, then simply Rg3 pins the queen to the king, so Black played 23… Qh7, allowing 24. Qe5+. If 24… Qg7, then Rh3 followed by Rg3 pins the queen to the king, so Black played 24… Kg8, but after 25. Rg3, Black resigned because the only try 25… Kf7 loses to the beautiful 26. Qc7+, skewering the queen on h7. I hope to have Tommy back subbing for us at some point after such a clinical winning sequence, but he needs to avoid winning a single A Team game for that to happen.
Board 6
Argi had Black on Board 6 for his first game in the league, starting with 55 minutes instead of the usual 80 because his opponent was a junior. His game started as a symmetrical Queen’s Pawn Opening, but then White played 2. g3, the 8th most popular move at master level. After 2… Nf6 3. Bg2 e6 4. c4, however, the game transposed into the Closed Catalan. The game remained roughly equal (although White missed an opportunity to be better on move 8) until White played the inaccurate 22. Rh4, going after the pawn on h3, despite it being well-defended by the bishop.
The engine instead recommends the very natural move 22. Rae1, building pressure down the e-file, because 22. Rh4 allows 22… Re7 with the idea to double the rooks on the e-file and keep White’s heavy pieces tied down to preventing back-rank mate. Because of this idea, the natural follow-up 23. Re1 is completely losing for White. Instead, Argi played 22… Bf5, which also gives Black a significant edge, an edge that was maintained after the queens and a pair of rooks were traded. However, the momentum shifted to White after 28… g4.
After 29. Bxg4 Bxg4 30. Rxg4+, White would win with 30… Rd1# if Rxg4 was not a check. Unfortunately, the check left White up 2 pawns after permanently preventing back-rank mate. While Argi was able to win back both pawns, the White rook reached the 7th rank and White’s remaining pawns marched up the board. To finish off the game, White played the excellent 51. Rg7+, forcing a rook trade at the cost of an unnecessary pawn.
Even though Argi was temporarily up a pawn after 51… Rxg7 52. fxg7 Kxg7, White’s lone pawn on e6 is much closer to promotion than Black’s b5 pawn, so after 53. Kd6, Argi resigned because the king simply cannot stop the pawn. Chess is brutal, since 28… g4 basically decided the game. I also lost my first classical game in the league. I was completely winning against a strong opponent but we got into a time scramble because I didn’t know how to manage my time, and they pushed their pawns and won as every player on both teams watched over our shoulders. I will never show anyone that game. After that, however, I went on a 7-game winning streak so hopefully Argi can bounce right back and do just that (no pressure). Funnily enough, the only other game I lost that season was against Bristol University B in the match where the team’s promotion to Division 1 was confirmed.
Board 4
Thomas had Black on Board 4 and his game started with the Exchange Variation of the Bogo-Indian. The early middlegame featured a lot of manoeuvring and, while White had more space and control of the centre, White never had a tangible advantage until perhaps 21… Qg5, which looks like a solid active developing move, but actually allows a tactic.
Even though 22. f4 looks like it just loses a pawn at first glance, after 22… Qxf4, there’s 23. Nd5, attacking the queen and threatening a fork of the rooks on c7, and the queen cannot move to a square from which it defends c7. However, it’s not so simple because Black gets both activity and a pawn for the exchange after 23… Qh4 24. Nxc7 Bxc4, so White can easily go wrong in the resulting positions. Instead, White played 22. Rf1 to threaten f4, which Thomas did not blunder obviously. A few moves later, after a bit more manoeuvring, White played 26. Nc3, blundering the c-pawn to 26… Qc5+.
After White blocked the check with 27. Rf2 however, 27… Qxc4 was played in the game, which of course wins the c-pawn, but loses a lot of the advantage. It would have been better to take with the bishop because, no matter where the queen moves, a3 also falls, which would have given Black two connected passed pawns and much more activity. Nevertheless, up a pawn, Thomas repositioned his remaining heavy pieces to support his queenside pawns as White applied pressure in an attempt to stop their advance. It looked as though Thomas’ game would be a long positional grind where he has decent winning chances but the win is by no means guaranteed. However, the game ended suddenly. White doubled the rooks on the half-open d-file with 35. Rcd4 to apply further pressure to the Black d-pawn, but this move in fact loses the game on the spot.
Likely thinking that the c-pawn was frozen in place because of the constant threat of Rxd6, White completely missed 35… c5, forking the queen and the rook on d4. If 36. Qa4, crucially Black shouldn’t trade queens, because the attacked rook takes back, but instead Black should play b5, attacking the queen and maintaining the attack on the rook. The game continued for one more move with 36. Rxd6, but after 36… Qxd6, White resigned because the queen and rook are still hanging, so 37. Rxd6 cxb5 leaves Black up a rook. I really wish I’d seen Thomas’ reaction to 35. Rcd4 appearing on the board but unfortunately not. With at least a draw in the match secured, Ignacio and I just needed to not both lose in order to win the match.
Board 2
I had Black (for the 6th time in a row in the league, though fortunately that streak ended at 6) on Board 2. My game started with the Scotch Variation Accepted in the Four Knights Game, which allowed me to detonate what I like to call a ‘prep bomb’, which I define as an offbeat move, after which I am well-prepared, that forces the game into a tactical frenzy where my opponent has to find a sequence of challenging moves to avoid being worse or even losing.
By far the most common move is 5… Bb4, but 5… Nxe4, seemingly losing the knight for a pawn, is actually the second-best move, and my opponent confirmed after the game that they had never seen it before. If White called my bluff and played 6. Nxe4, which is the best move, I would have played 6… Qe7, and there is no way to defend both of the knights in the centre and prevent the idea of d5 pinning the knight on e4 to the king. The standard response to these ideas is 7. Qe2, but that hangs the knight on d4, so the best move is actually f3. My opponent instead opted for the other line where White is fine, which is 6. Nxc6, initiating a capture chain that forces all 4 knights and both queens off the board with 6… Nxc3 7. Nxd8 Nxd1 8. Nxf7 Kxf7 9. Bc4+. I couldn’t recall my exact preparation here, but I decided to develop my king with 9… Kg6, which was indeed what my preparation said.
After my rendition of the Bongcloud, White played 10. Kxd1, so, on move 10, all of my remaining pieces were on their starting squares, except my king, which was not even on the 7th rank, but the 6th. Nevertheless, the position is objectively equal, as my king is surprisingly safe on g6. The game remained equal as I gradually forced trades to neutralise the pressure that accumulated on my position, although my opponent was definitely the one playing for a win. Eventually, we reached a same-coloured bishop endgame where White had a 2 vs 1 pawn majority on the kingside and I had a 4 vs 3 pawn majority on the queenside. By this point, my opponent had lost all realistic winning chances, but I was still in the mindset of playing not to lose, so I seriously considered offering a draw, but decided against it because I had nothing to lose by continuing to make moves.
Concerned that I would find a way to get my king involved, my opponent offered a trade of bishops with 32. Bd3, but this actually loses after the trade because my king has an easy path to activity, via f5. Although I objectively blundered a draw by executing this idea too early, allowing a long engine line where I queen just before White and White’s king is more vulnerable but it’s still a draw, my opponent played the more human but losing line and resigned after I put him in zugzwang. Apparently I played at 97% accuracy, but the position fizzled out so quickly that that means almost nothing. I’m mostly just happy that I got to see my opponent’s confused reaction to 5… Nxe4.
Board 3
Ignacio had White on Board 3 and his game started with the Canal Attack in the Sicilian. On move 12, Ignacio sacrificed a pawn to ruin Black’s central pawn structure and quickly won the pawn back, reaching an imbalanced but apparently more-or-less equal position by move 21. At this point, Ignacio played 22. Nxd5, sacrificing the exchange for a pawn and some potentially strong queenside pawns.
The engine doesn’t agree with the sacrifice, but the engine wasn’t playing Black, and the top line after 22… Bxe1 is insane. The best response was apparently 23. Nc7, because if Black plays 23… Rac8 for example, saving the rook and attacking the knight, White is better after 24. Rxe1 because the bishop now defends the knight. The only move for Black to have an advantage after 23. Nc7 is in fact 23… Rd1, sacrificing the rook on a8 to defend the bishop and threaten discoveries. After White plays 24. Nxa8, there is again only one move for an advantage for Black, which is 24… gxh4, trying to dislodge the bishop from g3, where it defends the rook, meaning discovered attacks on the rook would only win an exchange, not the full rook. Since 25. Bh2 gets checkmated and 25. Bf4 loses to the discovery on the bishop 25… Bd2+, the only move for White to stay in the game is 25. Kh2. Even then, it’s easy for Black to lose the advantage, so it’s anyone’s guess what would have happened if 23. Nc7 was played. Instead, Ignacio played 23. Ne7+ to win back the pawn on c6, and the players reached a 2 rooks vs rook and bishop endgame, where Ignacio notably had a 3 vs 1 pawn majority on the queenside.
Black was objectively completely winning in the above position, since they can double the rooks on the 5th rank with 31… Rdd5, attacking a5. If White defends the pawn with b4, c3 hangs and the remaining pawns have a difficult time advancing, and if White plays a6, Ra5 forcibly wins the pawn, and Black should be able to convert up a full exchange. Instead, Black played 31… Rb7, attacking b2, but Ignacio’s next move 32. Bf2 eviscerated Black’s winning chances, since the queenside pawns can start advancing (even at the cost of the c3 pawn in some lines), and a passed queenside pawn would likely generate sufficient counterplay to draw. Ignacio was quickly able to get rid of the Black a-pawn at the cost of both his b- and c-pawns, allowing his a-pawn to make it to a7 uncontested.
Since Black is permanently tied down to preventing the a-pawn’s promotion, in the above position, Black sacrificed one of the rooks for the a-pawn and the bishop. Despite the fact that this left Black still up a pawn, as the saying goes, “All rook endgames are drawn”, or at least this one is because Black only has a 3 vs 2 pawn majority and White’s pieces are already well-placed, so Black settled for a draw. For a draw, this game was very eventful with Ignacio’s interesting exchange sacrifice and subsequent generation of enough counterplay to peacefully conclude a match where every other game was decisive.
Summary
With Ignacio’s impressive save, we won the match comfortably 4.5-1.5 with 4 wins, a draw, and a loss. Considering Ignacio and Samson were objectively losing, I was playing for a draw until the final few minutes, and Thomas was generously offered a rook in a position where he was definitely better but objectively not winning, the final score doesn’t reflect how easily the match could have gone the other way. Regardless of luck, starting off with a match win is a promising start to the season. There are many strong teams in Division 2 this season, and many of our strong players finished university at the end of last season, so trying to get promoted back to Division 1 will be an uphill struggle, but we can do our best. Our next match is a home match against South Bristol A on 10th October, and I will report on that match after it happens (unfortunately not before).