Games

This is the game Alisdair Roberts vs Roger Hall (with notes by Roger).

I decided to play the Scandanavian Defence 'cos I don't know anything else.

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.d4 c6 6.Bd2 Qc7 7.h3 Nbxd7 8.Qe2 a6

ARE YOU STILL AWAKE?

I realised at some point that he was going to castle queenside, so I began to develop a line down the c-file where his king would lie.

9.Ne5 c5 10.Bf4 Qa5 11.0-0-0

TOLD YOU.

I realised I was getting my queen into a bit of a hole, but left it on the a-file attacking the weak pawn on a2.

11...Nxe5 12.Qxe5 Nd7 13.Qe3 e6 14.d5 Nb6 15.Bc7 Be7 16.d6 Bf6 17.Bxb6 Qxb6 18.Na4 Qb5 19.Qb3 Qa5

THIS IS WHERE IT GETS REALLY INTERESTING.

I saw that if I could entice him to move his rook off d1 on the back rank, my queen could mate him on e1. However, I had to get his knight away and nudge his King so that it would not protect the rook if brought back to defend the mate.

20.Nb6 Bg5+ Nudging the king.

21.Kb1 Bf4 Attacking his advanced d-pawn.

22. Nxa8 Allowing him to capture my rook on a8 and lulling him into a sense of superiority.

22...Bxd6 I take his d-pawn and apparently offer up the bishop to the rook in error.

23.Rxd6 He fell for it!!

Qe1+ 24 Resign as Rd1 Qxd1 checkmate.

Bliss.

The following notes were provided by Laurence for his win against Tony Fisher.

In the game below I have tried to annotate in a new way. There are no variations and I leave the reader to work out the implications and missed opportunities in each position. Instead, I have tried to give an account of how I was feeling and both players reactions to the position on the board and the match situation. I hope this will make the game more entertaining and readable.

Laurence Cornhill vs Tony Fisher (Shepherds 2)

When we arrived at Shepherds on Monday night, I looked around the sea of familiar faces to work out who my opponent was to be this time. Herbert, bless him, has decided that variety, not predictability, will keep me on my toes. I quickly noticed the guy who had vanquished me last season in a Lady Anne Middleton encounter with Shepherds 1, namely Tony Fisher. All I remember about that game was his bishop sac and my subsequent discomfort and ignominious defeat. Actually, I do remember that he punched the air in triumph when I eventually lost. This, I thought at the time, was less than gentlemanly! So this was my opportunity for revenge.

I read about this move in a book by Nigel Davies, apparently it is played by various strong grandmasters. I have had a great deal of aggravation playing the 150 attack on the internet and decided to give this move an outing instead.

Tony took a long time on his opening moves. As either c5 or e5 seemed most likely here, I used his time calculating how to respond.

I prefer closed positions anyway! Opening the c-file with your knight stuck on c3 can be awkward.

During the game, my opponent huffed and puffed his approval of various of my moves. Although this was flattering, he gave me the impression that he always knew what my best move was......this was slightly worrying. The move 9.a4 met with this type of approval.

Tony was trying to play e6 here. Although I had doubts about putting my knight in no-mans-land in this way, I thought it might cause him to use up even more of his time.

With vague threats of trapping my bishop. However, I carried on with my plan regardless.

Tony was a long way behind on time here and I was beginning to feel more comfortable......always dangerous.

I had great difficulty working out what to do. Perhaps castles queenside was better here.

At least I'm not a pawn down any longer! I felt very comfortable at this point, but when you are ahead you must attack. Things were looking bleak on the other boards as all the other Nowhere Men were in trouble.

This move caused me to giggle uncontrollably for a few moments. Blacks knights look as though they are trying to leave the board voluntarily. My opponents reaction was 'I know it's not pretty...............!'

20...b5 21.h4 Nc7 22.h5 Nxe6 23.dxe6 Nc6 24.Bxg7+ Kxg7 25.Ng5 gxh5 26.Nf7 Rxf7 27.Qg5+ Kf8 28.exf7 Qxf7 29.Qxh5 Qxh5 30.Rxh5 Kg7

After all that pressure I was just a pawn up. The remaining moves were played in time pressure. My reconstruction is not exact, but the final position is similar.

31.f4 Ra8 32.Kf2 Rf8 33.g3 Rf6 34.Rah1 Nxa5 35.Rxh7+ Kf8 36.Rh8+ Kf7 37.R1h7+ Ke6 38.Re8 Rf7 39.Rxf7 Kxf7 40.Ra8 Nc4 41.b3 Nd2 42.b4 Ne4+ 43.Ke3 Nxc3 44.bxc5 dxc5 45.Rxa6 Nd5+ 46.Kd2 Nf6 47.Kd3 Nd7 48.g4 Nf6 49.g5 Nd5 50.Ke4 e6 51.f5 exf5+ 52.Kxf5 Nc3 53.Ra7+

Here, Tony offered his hand to my surprise. I thought there might be a few more tricks, but his flag was about to plummet anyway. Revenge was sweet, but there was no punching the air!