Our eighth match of the season and the first of both the term and 2025 was an away match against Bath B on 22nd January. Since Bath is not exactly the closest venue, I anticipated that we might struggle for players, but we only needed one sub: Tommy. We all managed to get on the 18:30 train from Temple Meads and we ended up arriving at the venue at 19:00, so there was plenty of time for a trip to the Domino’s opposite the venue. Bath have been leading the division basically since the start of the season so I expected a difficult match, especially since teams typically find it easier to get players for home matches. I’ll cover the games in the approximate order that they finished.
Board 6
Argi had Black on Board 6 and we knew that he was going to be playing a junior the following day in a C Team match also against Bath, so I assured him that there was a 98% chance he wouldn’t get a junior in this match. Well, rather amusingly, he ended up playing a junior, so he started his game with 55 minutes on the clock and the Modern Bishop’s Opening in the Italian on the board. The light-squared bishops were traded on e6 early in the game, which left Argi with doubled e-pawns but the idea to play d5 and take back with his backup e-pawn, a plan which he promptly executed. This momentarily gave him a seemingly sturdy centre but his opponent put an end to that with the nice tactic 13. Nxe5.
After 13… Nxe5 or 13… Bxe5, there’s 14. d4, winning back the piece because the knight is pinned to the king. Argi got his king out of danger with 14… 0-0, and the position is still objectively equal, but Black has to be very precise after 15. dxe5.
The only move that maintains equality here is 15… Qe6, which is perhaps counterintuitive because it removes the defender of b7 and puts the queen on the same file as the rook. The key idea behind this move is that it defends d5 so the knight can move and it also serves the purpose of preventing the capture of either piece by pinning the pawn to the rook. If White takes the free pawn with 16. Qxb7, Black is in fact winning with 16… Ng4, generating a surprisingly strong attack, so White has to allow Black to untangle with 16… Rae8 and 17… Bc5. In the game, however, Argi played the natural 15… Re8, but White is much better after 16. f4, not because one of the hanging pieces will be lost but because the e-pawn is a defended passed pawn and White is up a pawn. Argi then saved his hanging pieces with 16… Bc5+ 17. Be3 Bxe3+ 18. Rxe3 c6, which now allowed him to move the knight without hanging d5. Despite this, White was objectively winning by this point, although some hope remained.
In the above position, White has the deadly threat of 21. h3, trapping the knight, but Argi missed this, playing 20… Rf8 instead, which allowed White to win the knight and guarantee victory. The game eventually ended with Argi getting checkmated, and unfortunately he didn’t get any better luck the following day, so his rivalry with juniors continues.
Board 1
Tommy had White on Board 1 and his game started with the Tal Variation of the Advance Caro-Kann. His opponent understandably decided not to go into any of the really sharp opening lines but Tommy was nonetheless able to get a complicated, but somewhat dubious, position with 12. Nf4.
This creates the threat of 13. Nxd5, overloading the e6 pawn, but Black continued accurately with 12… cxd4 13. Nxd5 Qc6. Tommy missed initially that the e5 pawn is hanging, and with tempo at that, so Black was already much better at this point. With 14. c4 though, Tommy kept the position complicated, despite losing the e5 pawn to 14… Nxe5, and Black indeed slipped up after 15. Qe4.
The two moves that maintain the advantage are 15… f6 and 15… Bd6, keeping the knight on e5. However, Black understandably played 15… Nxc4, taking the seemingly free c4 pawn. After 16. Nxc4, both knights are hanging to the queen and Black chose to play 16… Qxc4, which restores the position to objective equality. If Black plays 16… Qxd5 instead, White gets a lot of compensation for the two pawns with 17. Qxd5 exd5 18. Rfe1+ Be7 19. Nd6+ Nxd6 20. Rxe7+ Kf8, and indeed the position is equal. Black quickly regained the advantage, however, since Tommy uncharacteristically missed 17. Rfe1, defending the knight on d5 because the e6 pawn is pinned to the king by the rook, and instead retreated with 17. Nf4. Tommy managed to keep his attacking chances alive over the following several moves and he certainly didn’t miss his chance when one was eventually offered to him.
In the above position, Black completely missed Tommy’s idea and played 21… a6 to prevent queen checks on b5 in the future, but this loses all of the advantage despite Black being up two pawns. Black should have played 21… g6 simply to stop White’s threat of 22. g6, although it’s still not easy for Black after 22. Qe5 0-0 23. Rc7. Tommy then, understandably surprised that he had been allowed to do so, played 22. g6 himself, which aims to undermine the base of Black’s pawn chain. However, despite Tommy’s attack winning him back both pawns, the players ultimately agreed to a draw in an objectively equal position. This ended Tommy’s perfect 4-game B Team score this season but he can at least calculate his performance rating properly now.
Board 4
Jake had Black on Board 4 and his game started with the Grand Prix Attack in the Sicilian. The first trade of pawns surprisingly didn’t occur until as late as move 25 and White enjoyed a slight edge for most of the game up to this point. Only one move after the first pawn trade, however, White ended up considerably better after the inaccurate but natural 26… c5.
The engine claims that 26… Rhh8 would have been better because 27. Qxd4 allows 27… Qxd4 28. Rxd4 Rhd8 with positional compensation for the d4 pawn and 27. Rxd4 allows 27… Bc5 28. Rxd5 Bxf2 29. Rd6 Bxe1 30. Bxe1, which leaves Black up the exchange for a pawn but both lines lead to objective equality. Of course 26… c5 is much more natural, but this allows the strong move 27. b4, exploiting the fact that the c5 pawn is pinned to the rook on c8. If Black plays 27… Rhh8, which is one of the best moves, White has 28. bxc5 and both recaptures for Black lose material. The bishop recapture 28… Bxc5 loses to 29. Rec1 Rc6 30. Bb4 Rhc8 31. Qc2, at which point White’s pressure down the c-file wins the exchange, and the rook recapture 28… Rxc5 loses a pawn to 29. Bb4 Rxc4 30. dxc4 because the queen and bishop are hanging so the queen is forced to defend the bishop, allowing 31. Bxe7 Qxe7 32. Qxd4, simply picking up the d4 pawn. None of this occurred in the game, however, since White played the not-quite-as-good 27. Rec1. While White seemed to have queenside pressure regardless, the momentum of the game started to shift in Jake’s favour a few moves later as he launched a kingside attack with 29… g5 and 30… g4 and White resorted to defending with the passive 32. Rg1.
The strongest plan is to keep the tension and apply more pressure down the g-file with 32… Rg8, which threatens to move the king off the g-file and quickly make the g-file semi-open one way or another. Instead, Jake clarified the structure with 32… gxh3, which is still better for Black but White’s position is certainly a bit less uncomfortable after 33. gxh3 Rxg1 34. Kxg1, albeit far from pleasant. Jake opted for a rook lift with 34… Rh6 35. Kh2 Rg6 but White defended accurately with 36. Rc1 and Jake’s attack ran out of steam, so the game appeared to be heading swiftly towards a draw until tragedy struck.
Because his opponent was low on time, Jake decided to try to make things difficult and speed up but this plan backfired immediately because he played 40… Bg5 here, forgetting that, while 41. fxg5 isn’t legal, 41. Qxg5+ certainly is, and this of course wins on the spot for White so Jake resigned shortly after. This was an unfortunate end to an otherwise well-played game, since Jake had decent winning chances during his kingside attack and Jake’s opponent was going to offer a draw on the next move, but chess is brutal sometimes.
Board 3
Dimitar had White on Board 3 and his game started with the Panno Variation of the King’s Indian Defence. As is typical of King’s Indians, Black launched a kingside attack with a pawn storm and was objectively a bit better until move 27 when Dimitar managed to trade off his opponent’s dominant dark-squared bishop. Shortly after, Black traded knights with 28… Nxf4 and posed Dimitar the difficult decision of with what piece to recapture.
Firstly, while 29. gxf4 is not particularly bad objectively, the h-pawn is impossible to defend after something like 29… Qf6, so this is the most unnatural of the three recaptures. The other pawn recapture 29. exf4 is the best move, despite the fact that it makes the e-pawn passed, because it keeps the kingside pawn structure together and the queen can defend the backward g-pawn laterally, so White doesn’t even have to react to 29… Qg7 for example. The passed e-pawn is not particularly strong because it can’t be properly supported by Black’s pieces, whereas all of White’s pieces are already close to it. In the game, however, Dimitar played 29. Rxf4, which certainly makes sense because it keeps the f-file semi-open and keeps the e-pawn fixed on e4 but the f5 pawn is already well-supported and the g3 pawn becomes a major weakness because the existence of the e3 pawn prevents it from being laterally defended. Black immediately exploited this weakness with 29… Qg7 and it is impossible to defend the pawn because 30. Kh2 would only make 30… Rg8 stronger. Dimitar accurately decided to defend by counterattacking the h5 pawn with 30. Qd1.
Black’s only move to maintain the advantage is 30… Qxg3 because 31. Qxh5+ is not actually a problem at all. After 31… Kg7, White can force a queen trade with 32. Qg5+ Qxg5 33. hxg5 but the g-pawn is just immediately falling after 33… Kg6 so White can’t get away this. Therefore, White is forced to retreat with 32. Qe2 to keep the weak but vital e3 pawn defended, giving Black time to launch a kingside attack down the open g-file. In the game, however, Black decided not to go into these complications and simply defended the h-pawn with 30… Kh6. The downside to this is that Dimitar was now able to adequately defend g3 with 31. Qe1 Rg8 32. Kh2, so the game appeared to be heading swiftly towards a draw and Dimitar was therefore offered a draw, but, not long after he declined it, tragedy struck at the same time as it did for Jake.
In the above position, Dimitar played 41. Bxb5 with only 5 seconds on his clock, obviously not realising that his opponent had just defended the pawn by moving the bishop out of the way of the queen, so Dimitar resigned not long after 41… Qxb5. This was also rather unfortunate, since Bath is a much stronger team than us and we could have drawn 3 out of the first 4 games if not for simultaneous bishop blunders. We had lost the match at this point but there were still two games ongoing with which we could redeem ourselves.
Board 5
Jack had White on Board 5 and his game started with the Dutch Defence. The game remained completely balanced until Black’s overly aggressive 16… f4, which allowed Jack to win a pawn.
In the above position, Black has a battery aimed at g2 so there is some compensation for the pawn but not a lot. However, the only move that maintains a significant advantage is 22. Rf4, keeping the knight on e4, but this is unnatural because it feels like the knight becomes a target. The trick is that the otherwise strong 22… Re8 doesn’t work because of 23. d5. Black can’t just play 23… Qxd5 because 24. Nf6+ gxf6 25. Qxe8+ wins the exchange, so Black is forced to play 23… Qd7, at which point White can just defend the d-pawn with 24. c4. In the game, Jack played 22. Ng5, which also makes sense because the knight on g5 is a useful attacking piece, but this loses most of the advantage. However, the advantage is only lost if Black finds 22… h6, at which point there is nothing better than forcing a queen trade with 23. Qe6+, and Black did not find this, playing 22… Re8 instead, which gave Jack an objectively winning position.
The winning move is 23. Qc2, which threatens 24. Qh7# so 23… g6 is forced because 23… Qg6 loses to 24. Qb3+ Kh8 25. Nf7+ Kg8 26. Nd8+ Kh8 27. Nxb7, winning the bishop. After 23… g6, there’s 24. Qf2, which is stronger with the g-pawn committed to g6 because 25. Qf7+ Kh8 26. Qxh7# is a threat. The best way for Black to defend is by covering f7 with the queen, which 24… Qd5 achieves, for example. Then, White can force a queen trade with 25. Qf7+ Qxf7 26. Rxf7 and be winning because the c7 and h7 pawns are forked and 26… h6 doesn’t help because there’s 27. Rxc7, attacking the bishop, so 27… hxg4 28. Rxb7 leaves Black down two pawns. That is quite a lot to see, however, so Jack played 23. Qf3, which forces a queen trade with 23… Qxf3 24. Nxf3. Black proceeded to trade the bishop for the knight in order to win back a pawn, so the game appeared to be heading swiftly towards a draw until tragedy struck at the same time as it did for Jake and Dimitar.
I’m just kidding; Jack played the ensuing rook endgame well and the players agreed to a well-earned draw in the above position.
Board 2
I had Black on Board 2 and my game started with the Anderssen Attack in the Scotch Gambit, an opening I’ve had once before in classical, which was amusingly the last time I went to Bath. My opponent left preparation after 9… Be6 and deviated from my previous game with 10. Nxd4, which forces a queen trade. I had some difficulty activating my pieces but I managed to do so by inviting some tactics with 16… Rhe8.
There are three captures for White to consider, all of which are objectively equal. I thought that White could get away with 17. Bxa7 and 17. Nxe7 Rxe7 18. Bxa7. This is indeed the case and the lines transpose. After 18. Bxa7 b6, there’s 19. c4 Bc6 20. Rxd8+ Kxd8 21. a4 and White will be able to open the a-file to defend the bishop with the rook and then rescue the bishop by using the c-pawn. I also thought White might be able to get away with 17. Nxg7, and this is also the case, but it’s risky so my opponent didn’t go for this either. After 17… Rg8 18. Nf5 Rxf2+ 19. Kf1, it is perhaps more dangerous for Black than White because I have to go into 19… Ba3 20. Bxf6 Bc5 21. Bxd8+ Rxf2+ 22. Ke1 Rxf5, hopefully temporarily giving up the exchange. Anyway, my opponent didn’t go for any of these crazy lines and instead opted for 17. c4 Bc6 18. Be3, which felt too slow to me because my pieces felt much more harmonious than my opponent’s after 18… Bf8, and of course I had been allowed to keep the bishop pair. Over the next few moves, I improved my pieces until my opponent blundered a winning tactic with the natural 22. f3. See if you can find the win in the below position.
The winning move is 22… Bc3. If White plays 23. Rc1, there’s 23… Bxd4, which wins a piece because 24. Bxd4 loses to 24… Bd3+, saving the bishop so that White’s bishop is the only one hanging. Therefore, the only try for White is 23. Rd1 but this loses to 23… Bc2, exploiting the fact that the knight is pinned to the rook. If White tries 24. Rc1 now, there’s 24… Bxd4, which transposes into the previous line after 25. Bxd4 Bd3+, so my opponent decided to give up the exchange with 24. Nxc2 Rxd1+. While I had more time than my opponent here, I was still low on time, so I now had to win the endgame in a time scramble. We stopped writing the moves down near the start of the endgame but I do recall how the game ended.
We ended up in a rook and pawn vs knight endgame, which is usually a theoretical win, and we reached the above position, where I put my opponent in zugzwang with Kb3. If White plays Kd1, I simply win the knight with Rh1+, and the only other try Nd2+ happened in the game. I sacrificed the rook for the knight with Rxd2 to guarantee promotion, so, after Kxd2, I achieved side opposition with Kb2 and my opponent resigned because I can just push the a-pawn and promote. This was my second-highest-rated classical win ever and, unbelievably, after Kxd2, we transposed into my highest-rated classical win ever but with colours reversed.
Summary
We were significantly outrated on every board so 2-4 is certainly a good result, regardless of the fact that we would very likely have drawn the match if not for the simultaneous bishop blunders. Therefore, we should have a decent second half of the season if we continue to perform as we are, minus the bishop-hanging of course. Our next match is a critical home match against Clevedon B on 6th February, so the next match report will be posted soon after that.