Report – 23 August 2013
Stuart Wilson Trophy
Results:
Andrew Robinson ½ Andrew Mather ½ (from Round 5)
Russell Lyons 0 Brian Willcock 1 (from Round 8)
Ray Adams 1 John Ryland 0 (from Round 8)
Tony Howes 1 Martin Laizans 0 (from Round 8)
Tonight’s play was noticeable for producing both one of the longest games, and one of the quickest checkmates (measured by moves) played at the club over the past 20 years.
Brian produced some fine chess to upset Russell and win in convincing fashion. Ray and Tony also won their games quickly.
Ray has annotated his game as follows:
1. e4, e5; 2. Nf3, d6: 3. Bc4, Bg4. I think theory holds that this development of the Queens Bishop at this stage is premature. Already now I was thinking about something I had read about called the 'Blackburne Trap', because Black's Bishop being out here was one of the precursors of that combination.
4. Nc3, Nc6; 5. d3,Nd5. This fits in with my plan, for the Knight vacates the defence of e5, however it threatens both Nxf3+ doubling my f pawns, (Probably a minor issue in view of the opening of the g file in a position where white leads in development.) and Nxc2+ should my Q have to leave home. 6. Nxe5!? (which is only sound if John takes my Queen immediately). John's reply should have been 6.------ dxNe5, whereupon white would need to liquidate: 7. Qxg4, Nxc2+; 8. Kf1, NxRa1. White would then need to develop his QB, and probably bring his Queen back to entrap the N as soon as possible and continue the game the exchange down. My desire to try to perpetrate the ruse caused me to assess that this would be feasible and still offer winning chances, due to better development and overall experience. However John played 6…. BxQd1??. He could not resist that Queen! This then precipitated 7. Bxf7+, Ke7; 8 Nd5++. The other precursor to the combination was that Black's KB had remained on its original square.
The game of crucial importance to the outcome of this tournament occurred between the two Andrews and finished only minutes before 11:00pm, the first time a game in this tournament has seriously threatened to go beyond this time. The game once again started with 1. d4 Nf6; 2. c4 e5. Andrew Mather was able to get his rook to a6 and h6 in moves 13 and 14, and subsequently applied heaps of kingside pressure against white who desperately offered a draw at move 19. Play continued and white found some counterplay and was able to win the exchange. With a few pawns to the good as well, it seemed white would coast to victory after white’s 35th move – {W: Kg1 Qd5 Rd2 a4 b3 b5 e3 f2 g3 h4; B: Kg8 Qe5Rg6 a5 c7 f7 g7 h7}. Black decided that rather than submit to a slow death he would exchange his rook on g3 for three pawns. After this, the game continued with an interminable number of checks from the black queen, with the white king struggling to find shelter and white more harried by time than black. After move 39 both players were under 5 minutes, and others recorded the moves, albeit rather inaccurately due to the pace of the moves. This incomplete record indicated the game went for at least 98 moves. Two moves prior to the conclusion of the game, black had allowed his queen to be in a position where it was unable to find a check. The position was: {W: Kh2 Qg2 Rf2 a4 b3 b5; B: Kh8 Qc1 a5 c7 g7 h6}. At this juncture, black requested a draw under the 50 move rule after moving Qe4, although 50 moves had almost certainly not elapsed as each player had captured a pawn at move 62 (white on f7, black on h4). White played on with Qg3 allowing Qe5+ and soon agreed to a draw (mainly due to weariness!). However if instead of Qg3 he had played Rf8+ he could have forced mate with 97 Rf8+ Kh7 98 Qc2+ g6 99 Qxc7 Qe7 100 Qxe7++ - as was pointed out by both Greg Colwell and John Ryland who were spectators. However a draw had been agreed leaving both players in with a shot of winning the tournament.
Stuart Wilson Trophy 2013: Current standings
All players to play 11 games
|
No. |
NAME |
POINTS |
PLAYED |
|
1 |
8.0 |
9 |
|
|
2 |
8.0 |
10 |
|
|
3 |
7.5 |
10 |
|
|
4 |
6.0 |
9 |
|
|
5 |
5.5 |
8 |
|
|
6 |
5.5 |
10 |
|
|
7 |
4.5 |
11 |
|
|
8 |
4.0 |
10 |
|
|
9 |
2.0 |
7 |
|
|
10 |
2.0 |
8 |
|
|
11 |
1.0 |
7 |
|
|
12 |
1.0 |
11 |
Stuart Wilson Trophy 2013 results in detail