Our ninth match of the season was a home match against Clevedon B on 6th February. This match was an important one for our position in the division’s standings, since Clevedon and Yate are the two teams we can feasibly beat in the standings at the end of the season. We had two new players for this match, Alex and Tristan. Ismail and I arrived at the Richmond Building nice and early at 6pm to calmly set up and prepare, unaware of the nightmare that awaited us once the match began. At 8pm, half an hour into the match, a society entered the room next door to us and started singing very loudly. Now, it is hard to describe with words just how distracting this was, but basically the walls are relatively thin and everyone in the room could hear it very clearly for its entire duration, which was unfortunately 2 hours. As a result, please bear this in mind when considering the quality of the games, especially mine, since, as the home captain, I was thinking about it absolutely non-stop. Fortunately, the Clevedon players were all very nice about it and were more than aware that it wasn’t something we could control, but it had a tremendous effect nonetheless. With that disclaimer out of the way, I’ll cover the games in the approximate order that they finished.
Board 4
Tristan had White on Board 4 for his first game in the league and his game started with the Old Indian Defence. In the opening, Tristan acquired the bishop pair and a nice position, although Black got a lot of play after 9. d5, which was perhaps a bit of an overextension due to White’s incomplete development.
This frees up the e5 square for Black’s b8 knight, which can be reached in only 2 moves, and also opens up the diagonal of Black’s strong dark-squared bishop on g7, so the position after 9… cxd5 10. cxd5 Nbd7 is a bit uncomfortable for White. Tristan continued his development with 11. Bd3, offering to give up the bishop pair after the tempting 11… Ne5.
In fact, there is a nice tactic that makes 11… Ne5 much stronger than it appears. After White responds with 12. Qe2, there’s the temporary knight sacrifice 12… Nxd5, and after 13. Nxd5 Qa5+ 14. Nc3 Nxd3+ 15. Qxd3, Black gets the piece back with 15… Qxg5 and emerges up a pawn with a bishop for a knight. However, none of this happened because Black played 11… a6 and, after 12. a4, declined a second opportunity to play 12… Ne5, which is just as strong as before because of the same tactic, instead playing 12… Rc8. This tactic ceased to exist after Tristan played 13. 0-0 so the game continued and the players eventually reached an objectively equal endgame with queens, opposite-coloured bishops, and 7 pawns each.
In the above position, Black should have played 25. axb5 to minimise White’s chances of creating a passed pawn on the queenside, but Black instead played the losing 25… a5, which allows the excellent move 26. b6, which Tristan found. This threatens 27. Qc7 and a number of other nasty ideas to escort the b-pawn to its promotion square, threats which Black could do little to prevent. Black then played 26… Bf8 but Tristan’s newfound attack quickly crashed through with 27. Bb5 Qe7 28. Qc7, establishing both his queen and bishop on their optimal outpost squares. After 28… f5, Tristan converted clinically with 29. Ba6, sacrificing the bishop for the guaranteed promotion of the b-pawn, and his opponent understandably resigned at this point. With that, Tristan achieved the best result so far this season by a B Team player in their league debut and started the match off with a win for us.
Board 2
Dimitar had White on Board 2 and his game started with the London System. The queens were traded on move 10 and Dimitar eventually won a pawn with 23. exd5. Dimitar’s advantage reached its maximum up to this point in the game after Black lashed out with 26… f5.
The position is quite complicated but Dimitar had to play 27. gxf5 to maintain any advantage. If Black plays 27… gxf5, there’s 28. Ng3, preventing the rook on e8 from infiltrating to e2, and the h3 pawn doesn’t hang to the bishop on d7 because there’s a pawn in the way. If Black plays 27… Bxf5, there’s 28. d7 Re7 29. Nf6+ Kf7 30. Bxf5 Kxf6 31. Bg4 and White is doing very well. In the game, Dimitar played 27. Nf2, which objectively loses to 27… Re2 because of the pressure on the queenside. If White tries 28. Rc1, then 28… Bb6 is very strong because all of White’s pieces are paralysed, so Dimitar decided to give back the pawn immediately with 28. Bb1, allowing 28… Rxb2. Black continued to enjoy an objectively winning advantage until 37… Bxd6.
After 38. Rxd1, both of Black’s bishops are under attack so Black ought to play 38… Bc5, and after 39. Rxd7 Bxf2 40. Bd5+ Kh8 41. Rxb7, White has decent drawing chances only down one pawn and with the rook behind Black’s pawns. Dimitar instead immediately grabbed the b7 pawn with 38. Bxb7 and Black’s winning advantage returned. In fact, after 40. Ne4, Black had a forced win.
Black can ignore the fact that the rook and bishop are hanging and simply play 40… c2. The rook on d1 must move and has to stay on the 1st rank to stop promotion, so if White plays 41. Rc1 for example, there’s the bishop sacrifice 41… Rg1+ 42. Rxg1 Bxg1 and none of White’s pieces can stop promotion In the game, however, Black lost the entire advantage with 40… Rxh3+ because both of Black’s bishops and the rook are hanging so one of them must be lost. Therefore, Dimitar won a piece and was able to stop Black’s pawns by trading into a bishop and knight vs rook endgame, in which the players agreed to a draw. This was certainly quite a save.
Board 5
Jake had Black on Board 5 and his game started with a queenside fianchetto London. His position looked uncomfortable out of the opening because he had to give up a pawn and defend relatively passively, but he eventually untangled and some interesting tactics arose after 12. f3.
Jake spent 15 minutes here calculating 12… e5, which is indeed the best move but it’s exceedingly complicated. If the queen doesn’t take the “free” pawn, then 13… Qh4+ is strong, so White has to play 13. Qxe5, after which Jake would have correctly played 13… Nb4, exploiting the fact that the a-pawn is pinned to the rook on a1. After 14. 0-0-0 Nf2, the position is a complete mess so Jake instead decided to just play 12… Nf6. Despite the non-ideal start, gradually, it appeared that Jake was gaining momentum and his initiative became too much for his opponent after 23… Ncd5.
White shockingly blundered a full piece with 24. Nf4, which allowed Jake to overload the queen with 24… Nxf4 25. Qxf4 Qxe2, so he now had a bishop for only a pawn. However, the game wasn’t over because Jake was concerned about White having drawing chances if he traded off too many pieces without winning more pawns. Jake soon started to reroute all of his pieces towards his opponent’s king but he decided not to spend a move making luft for his king, a decision which ended in tragedy.
In the above position, Jake played 34… Bxf3, threatening mate on g2 so 35. Rxe5 is impossible, but 35. Qxe8+ certainly is possible and it’s simply mating with 35… Rxe8 36. Rxe1#, so Jake resigned after 35. Qxe8+. His opponent’s decision to keep playing after cleanly hanging a piece certainly proved to be a good one.
Board 3
Alex had Black on Board 3 and his game predictably started with the Polish. He opted for a reversed London setup as White prepared 11. e4. After 11… dxe4 12. dxe4, Alex’s position was a bit uncomfortable with a loose bishop on d6 and the threat of the fork 13. e5.
The e4 pawn is insufficiently defended but it has to be captured the right way. After 12… Nxe4 13. Nxe4 Bxe4, the loose bishop on d6 falls to 14. Qxd6. Therefore, Black needs to play 12… Bxe4 because the bishop on d6 is defended after 13. Nxe4 Nxe4. In the game, however, Alex played 12… Bg4, which allows the pawn fork 13. e5, winning a piece for a pawn. With the extra material, White increased the pressure on Alex’s position and he was eventually forced to give up the exchange for a pawn, meaning he was down a rook for 2 pawns, which should be an easy win, but Alex started to put up fierce resistance with the fantastic move 28… Nf4.
This threatens a royal fork on e2 and attacks the rook on d3. If White tries to stop the fork with 29. Re3, like in Jake’s game, the back-rank is a fatal issue because 29… Rd1+ 30. Re1 Ne2+ wins the queen for the knight because the rook on e1 is pinned to the king so the queen will be taken with check and thus the rook on d1 won’t even hang. If White instead tries 29. Rxd6, after 29… Ne2+, like before, wherever the king goes, the queen is taken with check so Black can simply recapture on d6 at the end. Therefore, White has nothing better than to give up the exchange with 29. Qxf4 Rxd3.
White quickly neutralised the remainder of Alex’s pressure and forced a rook trade. In the above position, White has the option of forcing a queen trade with 36. Qxd1 (because 37. Qd7 would be a travesty if Black avoids it) or keeping the queens on with 36. Nxd1. The engine much prefers keeping the queens on so that the knight and queen can coordinate to eventually win Black’s pawns, but forcing the queen trade is also a reasonable decision. After 36… Qxd1 37. Nxd1, the players reached a knight and 5 pawns vs 7 pawns endgame. White should have very good winning chances in such an endgame but Alex certainly had some drawing chances. In the end, Alex lost the endgame. Overall, finding 28… Nf4 in his first match is a promising start for Alex.
Board 1
I had Black on Board 1 and my game started with the Old Benoni, an opening I’d only decided to include in my main repertoire the day before. Since I thought my opponent played the English, I wasn’t ready for a classical Benoni, but I figured it would be a good learning experience, which it probably would have been if not for the singing. My opponent played 3. Nf3, which is a sideline, so I was already out of specific preparation after 3… b5, and 4. c3 is so rare that I figured having had more time to learn the Benoni wouldn’t have helped much anyway. Despite my questionable play, which was hopefully in large part because I was tremendously unfocussed for obvious reasons, I eventually won a pawn with 19… Bxa4, although I was aware that my opponent had enough compensation.
Before long, I was able to briefly objectively equalise, but my opponent won the pawn back in the process. This left me with two incredibly-weak isolated queenside pawns so I felt that the game was slipping away as quickly as my last iota of patience with the singers was slipping away. My objective became trading off the remaining queenside pawns so that I could consolidate and make a draw.
In the above position, with only a few minutes left, I inaccurately played 31… Qa6. I should have played 31… axb4, allowing 32. Rxb4, after which the easiest draw is probably 32… Qc6 but it’s still far from easy, especially with low time and unchecked singing-induced trauma. In the game, the queens were then traded and my opponent was left with a passed a-pawn. In the process, my three remaining pieces ended up clumsily stacked on the c-file and the a-pawn appeared to be moments away from forcing me to stop it by giving up a minor piece at minimum.
I was getting ready to resign, and rightfully so because I was pretty much dead lost due to the strength of the a-pawn, so imagine my surprise when my opponent offered me a draw. After 5 seconds of checking that the draw offer wasn’t a figment of my imagination, I of course accepted it. My opponent thought I was going to draw it anyway, but I’m not sure how because I’m pretty sure the engine wouldn’t draw this. Regardless, I certainly cannot complain and I am beyond grateful that my opponent spared me the rating loss, given that I felt like my play was being severely hindered by both the noise and the stress of being in charge of a match plagued by such noise.
Board 6
Ismail had White on Board 6 and his game started with the Fantasy Variation of the Caro-Kann. He demonstrated good opening knowledge with the engine-approved pawn sacrifice 9. e6 but 11. b3 left his dark squares critically weak. Black punished this with 11… Bb4, attacking the knight on c3 and pinning it to the king, but then incorrectly responded to 12. Bb2.
The best plan, which is objectively winning, is to play 12… Nd5 13. Qd3 Qa5 to exert maximum pressure on the knight and force the horrifically ugly move 14. Kd2. However, Black instead played 12… Ne4, which let Ismail back into the game with 13. Qd3, the difference being that the knight is attacked by the queen, which wouldn’t be the case if it was on d5. As a result, Ismail was soon able to castle and initiate a kingside attack that puts the engine in a coma but let’s not worry about that because the singing was making everyone want to enter a coma.
Now would probably be a good time to worry about what the engine says. Black to move and mate in 3. The solution is 27… Bxg2+ 28. Kg1 Qc5+ (or Qb6+) 29. Rd4 Qxd4#. You may notice that none of that is in bold. Yes, somehow that didn’t happen. Let’s blame the singing because I like doing that. Black instead played 27… Rxg2+, which, make no mistake, is still completely winning. The position is so winning for Black, in fact, that even 27… Qxc2 is objectively completely winning. Anyway, after 28. Rxg2, Ismail was at least not getting mated for the time being. The queens came off not long after, so the players entered a rook and 3 pawns vs bishop, knight, and 5 pawns endgame, so Black was up 3 points of material. Eventually, all that remained of the queenside pawns was Ismail’s b-pawn and all that remained of the kingside pawns were Black’s f- and g-pawns, so Ismail had, at least temporarily, won back a pawn. However, the strength of Black’s connected passed pawns on the kingside cannot be overstated.
Well, Black’s pawns aren’t quite strong enough to make up for the bishop-blundering 56… Bb5, which loses the bishop for free after 57. Ra5. Despite the objective loss of Black’s entire advantage, Ismail still certainly had to work for the draw, and he was eventually successful in doing so, miraculously pulling off the most unbelievable save in a B Team match this season.
Summary
While one could argue that we were painfully close to winning, or at least drawing, this important match, all 3 of us who drew should definitely have lost. Both Dimitar and Ismail had positions where one move basically forces them to resign, and there’s almost no way I would have survived my game if it had continued. The only game where nothing insane happened was Tristan’s so very well done to him for winning the only normal game of the match, and in his first league game, no less. Rather conveniently, we can blame all of the insanity on the singing, especially when it comes to my moves please. With this unfortunate result, our Yate match (which is fittingly the final match of the season for us) is now an absolute must-win, and we ought to aim to score against Downend too. However, the goal for our next match is to avoid getting butchered as badly as we did last time. Speaking of which, our next match is an away match against South Bristol A on 19th February, so the next match report will be posted soon after that.