Round 6 - NW Eagles v Guildford-ADC 2 (Sun 28 Jan, 2001)

Report by Charlie Kennaugh

Round 6 Games

Ultimately a disappointing performance and a disappointing result against one of the backmarkers in the division and a team we outgraded on very board. That having been said, it was only a slight outgrading all the way down and Guildford ADC 2 have certainly so far been one of the division's underachievers. In fact at the beginning of the season, looking at all the squads, I thought Guildford ADC 2 were quite reasonable outside bets for a promotion place. Six draws might give the impression that most of the chess played was fairly quiet, but that by no means is an accurate reflection of what actually happened. Admittedly there were one or two quiet games. Claire Summerscale as black against the evenly matched Lydia Goodwin played a French and had an uneventful draw after 18 moves. John Merriman also drew quickly on the black side of a French, both sides seeming happy with a repetition of moves after move 16.

I myself on board 4 against Ian Thompson made a slight move-order inaccuracy on the black side of an English even though I'd prepared the line. By the time I'd repaired the damage and had obtained a fairly promising middlegame position I made another inaccuracy and had to find one or two accurate moves in a slightly worse rook-and-pawn endgame, though once I'd done so the draw was never really in doubt. Meanwhile Gary, black on board two against Keith Richardson, had been involved in a fairly sharp English and may have been under a little pressure at one stage but proceeded to exploit a rather weakened white kingside and crashed through powerfully at the end. Boards one and three, where we had white, also finished drawn though in contrasting fashions. Glen, playing against Don Mason, soon gained an advantage and managed to snaffle an exchange, for which his opponent didn't really seem to have sufficient compensation. However, short of time Glen made a tactical oversight, which allowed his opponent to force a draw. John Littlewood, on the other hand, soon got into difficulties against Russell Granat who obtained a very powerful initiative at the cost of a pawn. However, John somehow managed to survive and by exchanging queens and letting Russell win the pawn pack was able to hold the half point.

The critical games were on boards 5 and 7. Ben Hague on board 7 entertained us all by playing the ancient Muzio Gambit against Ken Coates, who's no slouch on the white side of the King's Gambit himself. The game can be seen fully annotated in the annotated games page. Suffice it to say that after essaying the probably slightly dubious double-piece sac variation Ben obtained after considerable complications the following winning position:

Hague - Coates after black's 21st move

Ben could have won immediately with 22.Nf6+! Rxf6 23.Qxa8+ followed by 24.Qxa7(+) with an easy win since black will have no way to stop the three connected white queenside pawns. Instead of which the game continued 22.Ne7+?! Kf7! (22...Kh8? 23.Qe4!+- e.g. 23...Ng6 24.Qd4 mates) 23.Nc8+ Kg6 24.Qe4+? (Losing a tempo and allowing black's rook to get active. Taking the rook immediately with 24.Qxa8 Rxc8 25.Qe4+ still offered white good winning chances.) 24...Kf6 25.Qxa8 Rxc8 26.Qxa7 Rxc2 27.Qxh7 Rxb2 and the game soon ended in a draw.

With the score 4-3 to the Eagles the deciding game was Dave Tebb v Adrian Jackson. In one of the critical main lines of the Dragon Dave, as white, seemed to have obtained a slight pull but the position remained very tense until the following position was reached:

Tebb - A Jackson after black's 26th move

Dave now played 26.c3!? (the alternatives were 26.Qg4 and Qh3) and the game continued 26...Bxc3! 27.Qh3 Bxb2+ 28.Kb1 Rae8 and now Dave spent much of his remaining time on this critical position. Unfair to be over-critical because the whole combination is difficult to see over the board, but since the move played lost anyway Dave should have tried 29.Qxe6+! which he admitted considering for some time. After 29...Rxe6 30.Rd8+ Kf7 31.Rhd1! (The point, not easy to see ahead over the board. Winning the queen back with 31.Rd7+ would leave black with a better endgame. Now black is subjected to the very unpleasant threat of R1d7+ and has to give back material.) 31...Bf6 32.gxf6 Qh6 33.R1d7+ Kxf6 34.Bd4+ Rd5 (34...Kf5? 35.Rf7+) 35.f4! Qxf4 (35...Qh1+ 36.Kb2 changes nothing) 36.Rf8+ Kg5 37.Rxf4 Rb5+ 38.Kc2 Kxf4 39.Rxh7 with a probable draw. Instead of which, Dave played 29.Rd8? Rxd8 30.Qxe6+ Kh8 31.Qxe4 and now black could have won outright with 31...Rb8. The game continued with both players short of time: 31...Ba1?! 32.Qb4 Qe5 33.f4 Qd5 34.Re1 Bg7 35.Be7 Qd3+ 36.Kc1 Re8(?) (Either 36...c5! or a5! is decisive) 37.Bf6! Rxe1+ 38.Qxe1 Qc4+ 39.Kb2? (39.Kb1 with some drawing chances was essential) 39...Bxf6 40.gxf6 Qd4+ and with the time control successfully reached black quickly converted his material advantage.

Overall a rather disappointing result (4-4); we certainly had chances to win this match. However, if we're honest, we have to admit that we scraped through one or two previous rounds with a bit of luck so these things tend to even themselves out over the duration of a season. There's still everything to play for in our quest to gain promotion or even win the division outright. The really crucial matches are still to come.