Our third match of the season was a home match against Downend & Fishponds C on 24th October. It was a reading / consolidation week so I asked Tommy to play as a sub from the A Team again to make up for the fact that some players weren’t in Bristol. We will likely be competing with Downend for fifth place this season, so, going into the match, we had decent chances to win because we had a relatively strong team and Downend’s players were up to two boards higher than normal. I’d like to compliment the Downend captain for finding the room without any assistance, which was both helpful and impressive. I’ll cover the games in the order that they finished.
Board 1
Tommy had Black on Board 1 and, while he was hoping for 1. e4 because he’s somehow never faced it in classical, his game started with the Benko Gambit Fully-Accepted, in which he sacrificed a pawn for activity. White is better if they play accurately but this was a calculated risk, and Tommy came well-prepared. Impressively, Tommy was still in his preparation when he played 12… Qa5, but his opponent reacted inaccurately with 13. Nd2, perhaps intending to reroute the knight to c4, so Tommy finally had to think.
Tommy played the very natural 13… Ne5, preventing Nc4 and creating the idea of Nd3, and he was able to objectively equalise after 14. Qe2 with 14… Qa6, offering a queen trade. Accepting the queen trade gives Black even better activity so White declined with 15. Nb5, which prevents Nd3 but Black still clearly has the initiative. Tommy simply played 15… Rfb8, attacking the knight on b5, at which point White is already on the verge of being much worse, if not losing.
Notably 16. Nc7 does not win an exchange because Black can simply trade the queens with 16… Qxe2 17. Rxe2 and then trap the knight with 17… Ra7. If White simply drops the knight back with 16. Nc3, which makes 15. Nb5 look like it just wasted time, Black can simply play 15… Nd3 and the position looks horrible for White after 16. Rd1. The b2 pawn is hanging but Black loses all of the advantage after 17… Nxb2 18. Qxa6 Rxa6 19. Rb1 Rab6 20. Bxb2 Rxb2 21. Nc4, at which point material is equal but White can trade off the doubled rooks on the b-file and the a2 pawn is passed. After 15… Rfb8, the only move that doesn’t give Black a near-winning advantage is 16. f4. If Black retreats the attacked knight, Nd3 is no longer a threat so White can comfortably retreat their attacked knight as well. If Black decides to trade the knights with 16… Rxb5, Black is marginally better after 17. fxe5 Nd7 18. exd6 exd6, and Black’s position is much easier to play. Instead of any of that, White lost the game on the spot with 16. a4, overlooking a tactic that is trivial at this level.
The a4 pawn is pinned to the rook on a1 so Tommy’s fourth move out of preparation 16… Rxb5 cleanly won a piece. White made matters even worse by trading queens with 17. Qxb5 Qxb5 18. axb5 and resigned after 18… Rxa1, making this the shortest B Team game of the season in terms of moves. In large part because Tommy only had to think for 3 moves, he played at 99.5% accuracy. This was a strong start, giving us an early lead in the match, and Tommy is now on a perfect 2/2 on Board 1, so he’ll likely be back subbing the next time it is needed.
Board 3
Dimitar had Black on Board 3, a week after winning his game as a sub for the A Team, and his game started with the Tal Variation in the Advance Caro-Kann. There was a lot of knight manoeuvring in the early middlegame and, with the ideas of undermining the defence of the e5 pawn and opening up the c-file, Dimitar played for a c5 pawn break, which he was able to execute with 13… c5.
After 14. c3 cxd4 15. cxd4, the only move that doesn’t give White an objective advantage is 15… Qc4, offering a queen trade, which is unintuitive because it feels like the c-pawn just becomes a target and trading queens is hardly the first thing that comes to mind when you’re not obviously going to be worse otherwise. In the game, Dimitar played the very natural developing move 15… Bb4+, after which the somewhat unnatural move 16. Ke2 gives White an objective advantage because the king is perfectly safe on e2 and, since this connects the rooks, the rooks can quickly aim to double on the open c-file. Instead, White blocked the check with 16. Bd2, and the position is tricky for Black to play because a rook will inevitably land on c1 and White will regain the initiative whether Black decides to trade the bishops or not. The best move is 16… Qc4, which is very difficult to find for exactly the same reasons as it was on the previous move, so Dimitar understandably didn’t play that and instead decided to sacrifice his knight with 16… Nxe5, in the moment believing that he had sufficient compensation.
As far as material is concerned, Black gets at least the e5 and d4 pawns for the knight after 17. dxe5 Qxe5+, and the b2 pawn is also attacked. If White decides to block the check with 18. Qe2 or 18. Qe3, Black cleanly wins the b2 pawn with 18… Bxd2+ Kxd2 19. Qxb2+ and the engine claims the position is equal. However, White accurately played 18. Kf1, which tactically defends the b2 pawn because 18… Qxb2 simply hangs the bishop to 19. Qb5+. Because of this, Dimitar was unable to get sufficient compensation for the knight so he traded bishops with 18… Bxd2 19. Qxd2 and tried to dislodge the knight from g5 with 19… f6. However, this doesn’t work because the e6 pawn loses its primary defender, so Dimitar’s opponent played the flashy move 20. Nxe6.
After 20… Qxe6, there’s 21. Re1, pinning the queen to the king, so Dimitar tried 20… Kf7 instead, but the loss of the e6 pawn left him only up one pawn for the knight regardless. White soon won the f5 pawn too and converted accurately so Dimitar resigned. Knowing in retrospect that all of Downend’s players were within 100 points of each other, in order to realistically win the match, we really needed to win on the top boards where we were marginally the favourites by rating, so we were already on the back foot at this point despite the even score.
Board 4
Samson had White on Board 4 and his game started with the Mengarini Variation (2. a3) of the Sicilian. Black opted for a triangular queenside pawn structure, with 2… d6 and 3… b6, which left the light squares weak. In fact, Black’s next move 4… Nf6 already allowed Samson an opportunity to be much better by exploiting the weak light squares.
The move that gives White a significant advantage is the pawn sacrifice 5. e5, with the idea that 5… dxe5 is met with 6. Qf3, trapping the rook on a8 if not for 6… e4, giving back the pawn. However, this is not simply an elaborate pawn trade because White gets very active and can continue to exploit the weak light squares while getting rapid development. The best response to 5. e5 objectively is 5… cxb4, sacrificing the exchange with 6. Qf3 bxc3 7. Qxa8 Nfd7, but Black also wins a couple of pawns in return. Nevertheless, White is a lot better with easier development and a queen that couldn’t really be more active. In the game, however, Samson, understandably not expecting to be much better on move 4, continued with the standard developing move 5. Bb2. Another interesting moment occurred after 10… Rc8, at which point Samson could have played a counterintuitive move that initiates a capture chain where White ends up with a knight and a bishop for a rook and a pawn.
The move in question is 11. e5, which would be a pawn sacrifice if White planned on recapturing the bishop after 11… Bxg2. Instead, the forcing line proceeds 12. exf6 Bxf1 13. fxe7 Qxe7, and then White can finally recapture the bishop with the queen or the king. While the engine claims equality, the resulting position looks unclear, so there’s no guarantee of playing this line even if you calculate it correctly. In the game, Samson played 11. Qd2, which is a bit inaccurate because of what happened in the game, which is 11… cxd4 12. Nxd4 Ne5, after which Black is threatening Nc4 to get the bishop on b2. The game continued as Samson tried to defend everything, but Black soon won a pawn with the temporary knight sacrifice 15… Nxa3.
White has nothing better than to accept the lost pawn with 16. Bxa3 Rxc3 17. Bb2, which looks far from pleasant. Instead, Samson played 16. Nd1, which enabled him to reroute the knight to e3 and thus ensure that Black’s knight couldn’t sit on c4. After 16… Nc4 17. Ne3 Nxe3, however, Samson had to give up another pawn because 18. Qxe3 allows 18… Ba6 19. b5 Bxb5 20. Qxb5, where the alternative is losing the exchange on f1, so he played 18. Bxe3, which drops the e4 pawn to 18… Bxe4 19. Bxe4 Nxe4. Samson played a few more moves but resigned down two pawns so that he wouldn’t have to lose slowly, and he wanted to play table tennis at 21:00 anyway, so, in that sense, he won.
Board 5
Ismail had Black on Board 5 and his game started with the Réti Opening, which transposed into the Fianchetto Attack of the Dutch Defence after 4. d4. The game got tactical quickly after White struck in the centre with 12. e4 and Ismail responded aggressively but objectively inaccurately with 12… e5.
The best move was 12… fxe4, clarifying the centre a bit, but Black does appear to be too passive in the resulting positions. After 12… e5, White is objectively winning but there is a lot to calculate. The best option for White is 13. exf5, exploiting the fact that the e5 pawn is pinned to the queen so the bishop on f4 isn’t really hanging in the resulting position. Instead, White played 13. dxe5, which is also very strong because after 13… dxe5, there’s 14. exf5, winning a pawn by exploiting the pinned e5 pawn, which is left vulnerable. In the game, White lost the majority of their advantage with 14. Nxe5, which doesn’t simply hang the knight because the Black knight cannot be saved after 14… Nxe5 and 15. fxe5, yet again exploiting the pin. However, White played the objectively losing 15. Qd5+, which makes some sense because it applies more pressure to both b7 and the knight on e5. The engine says that Black is completely winning after 15… Rf7 because 16. Bxe5 is met with 16… c6 and 16. exf5 is met with 16… Bxf5, but all of the variations are so tactically complex that I won’t attempt to explain it all, especially because Ismail played 15… Qe6, which completely flips the evaluation and gives White an objectively winning position instead.
The winning move is 16. Bxe5, which more-or-less wins a piece because 16… Qxd5 17. exd5 allows the rook to defend the bishop on e5 and 16… Bxe5 17. exf5 Rxf5 doesn’t work because of 18. g4, forcing the rook to cease its defence of the bishop because 18… Rg5 hangs the rook to 19. Qd8+. Like I said, there were tactics absolutely everywhere in this game. White missed all of that and played 16. exf5, which allowed Ismail to save his knight with 16… Qxd5 17. Bxd5+ Nf7. After 18. Bxc7, Ismail played 18… Bxf5, which is one of the best moves but elicited an audible “Really?” from his opponent nonetheless. Despite being up a knight, Ismail was soon down 3 pawns and his piece tower on the f-file and back-rank issues made the position very dangerous for him. Unfortunately, 21… Kh8 simply hung the knight to 22. Bxf7, since 22… Rxf7 gets Black mated after 23. Rb1+.
In the hope of a miracle, Ismail played on, and his opponent told him during the game that he should resign, which is certainly uncharted territory. Ismail declined the resignation offer and got checkmated not long after, concluding a rather eventful game.
Board 2
I had White on Board 2 and my game started with an Alapin Sicilian, which my opponent anticipated because this was my third consecutive game on Board 2 and we had played each other twice before in the league. In our game in 2022, I faced 2… d5 and eventually won in a difficult endgame, so my opponent came prepared with the rare 2… e5, played barely 1% of the time at master level. However, I came prepared too, having gone over my preparation in this line about 2 hours before the match, so I played 3. d4, which is itself played about 4% of the time at master level. After 3… cxd4, I transposed into the Andreaschek Gambit with 4. Nf3 and we continued down a line that resembles the Knight Attack in the Italian.
After 7. exd5, in the above position, Black has 3 interesting options, one of which is 7… b5, which is analogous to the Ulvestad Variation in the Knight Attack. One interesting line is 8. Bxb5 Qxd5 9. Qb3 Qxg2 10. Qxf7+ Kd8 11. Rf1, which is objectively equal but very complicated. The move I was hoping for is 7… Nxd5, which leads to what is basically an objectively equal version of the Fried Liver. After the standard Fried Liver moves 8. Nxf7 Kxf7 9. Qf3+ Ke6, however, the usual move Nc3 is impossible because there is a pawn on c3, but I knew that the best move is 10. a4, and instantly playing such a ridiculous-looking move would have been absolutely hilarious. Alas, in the game, my opponent played 7… Na5, which is analogous to the Polerio Defence in the Knight Attack, so the game continued normally with 8. Bb5+ Bd7 9. Qe2 Bd6, at which point I realised that the knight on a5 is trapped after 10. b4.
The engine gives an amusingly unfindable and hard-to-evaluate line where Black is apparently slightly better despite being down a full knight, which is 10… h6 11. Nf3 0-0 12. bxa5 d3 13. Qb2. Understandably, my opponent played 10… dxc3 and got 2 pawns for the knight after 11. bxa5 Qxa5, but I was able to win one of them back by simultaneously threatening mate in one and attacking c3 with both the queen and the knight on b1. I then invested in my passed d-pawn and ensured that my opponent couldn’t win the pawn without allowing unfavourable trades, which eventually culminated in me giving up the d-pawn to win the Black f-pawn and all the rooks being traded. My opponent then played 34… Qd2, pressuring the knight and attacking a2 and f2, but this allowed me to simply force a queen trade as well with 35. Qd5+.
In the endgame that resulted after 35… Qxd5 36. Nxd5, I forcibly won the e-pawn after 36… Kf7 with 37. Nc3 and then sacrificed my knight to guarantee the promotion of what was originally my f-pawn. In the hope of a miracle, my opponent played on, but my passed pawn was 2 moves faster than my opponent’s. I could have promoted to a bishop and still been easily winning, but I wanted to be professional so I just made a queen and blockaded Black’s passed pawn, which made it all the way to b2. With no hope whatsoever, my opponent resigned, concluding an interesting rematch that was basically just decided by the trapped knight.
Board 6
Argi had White on Board 6 and his game started with the Burille Variation (4. Nf3 Bg7 5. e3) of the Grünfeld Defence. Black immediately gave up the c-pawn in the opening with 5… c5 6. dxc5 and tried to win it back with 6… Qa5, but, in doing so, after 7. cxd5 Nxd5, Argi already had an opportunity to be much better.
The move that gives White a significant advantage is 8. Qxd5, which looks extremely dangerous because of the pressure on the knight on c3 so it’s understandable that this wasn’t played in the game. After 8. Qxd5 Bxc3+, the best move is apparently 9. Bd2 with the idea that 9… Bxd2 10. Qxd2 leaves White up a pawn because 10… Qxc5 loses to 11. Rc1. This is losing because the queen has to maintain its defence of the bishop on c1 so 11… Qf5 12. Nd4 Qd7 13. Bb5 Nc6 14. Rxc6 is completely crushing. The majority of the advantage is maintained if instead White sacrifices the rook with 9. bxc3 Qxc3+ 10. Qd2 Qxa1 and generates counterplay against the misplaced queen while developing rapidly. In the game, Argi played 8. Nd4, intercepting the bishop’s pressure on the knight on c3, and this soon worked in his favour because, after 8… Nxc3 9. bxc3, Black played the inaccurate 9… Qxc3+. After 10. Bd2, the queen is almost trapped because 10… Qxc5 allows the same tactic as before with 11. Rc1, skewering the bishop on c8, so Black correctly played 10… Qb2.
The move that maintains White’s advantage is 11. Bc4, continuing to box in the queen. If the queen tries to flee with 11… Qa3, there’s 12. Nb5, attacking the queen and threatening a fork on c7, and if Black tries to win a pawn with 11… Bxd4, there’s the zwischenzug 12. Rb1, and after 12… Qa3 13. exd4, White has the threat of 14. Bb4, successfully trapping the queen. Instead of any of that, Argi offered a queen trade with 11. Qc1, returning the position to objective equality and allowing Black the option of winning a pawn with 11… Bxd4 12. exd4 Qxd4, since 12. Rb1 is now simply met with 12… Qxc1+. However, Black accepted the queen trade with 11… Qxc1 12. Rxc1. A largely-symmetrical endgame was soon reached but Black’s bishop was clearly superior to White’s. Argi activated his rook on the 7th rank with 17. Rb7, but this quickly backfired because a7 and e7 are tactically defended by 17… Rab8.
Both 18. Rxa7 and 18. Rxe7 lose to 18… Rb1+ 19. Ke2 Rxh1, simply collecting the other White rook, so Argi had nothing better than to trade rooks with 18. Rxb8 Rxb8, giving Black the open b-file. Matters worsened after 19. 0-0 because 19… Rb2 cleanly won the a2 pawn. Argi was able to win back the pawn by taking on e7, but Black simply traded the remaining rooks and advanced the a5 pawn. Due to the bishop on g7, the White bishop was unable to intercept the pawn and the king was also too far away to stop it, so Argi resigned. Considering this was the final game to finish, it’s interesting that the game ended on only move 24, perhaps highlighting how tactically complex a lot of the positions were.
Summary
The match came down to the final game but we ended up losing 2-4. Samson, Ismail, and Argi were all briefly objectively much better in their games so we had some chances to at least draw, but it wasn’t to be. Tommy and I both got completely winning positions almost immediately after we left our preparation, so we had a bit of an easier time than everyone else, and those wins were the only points the team scored. Therefore, the main goal is simply to avoid being relegated, and I believe we will because there are weaker teams than Downend. Combining the results of our first 3 matches, we’ve scored 7/18 (6W 2D 10L), which is already a lot better than how the B Team got on last year in Division 1. Funnily enough, 64% of the points we’ve scored so far have been scored by me (2.5/3 on Board 2) and Tommy (2/2 on Board 1) so hopefully plenty of other people will soon start racking up points too. Our next match is an away match against Bristol Grendel A on 4th November, so the next match report will be posted soon after that.