Untitled Document

The 4 Nations Chess League

Round 1

Saturday 5th November 2005

Cavendish 2.5-3.5 Braille Chess Association

1.	Kenneth harman	(2178)	1/2-1/2	Tyson Mordue	(2287)
2.	Chris Ross	(2128)	1/2-1/2	Michael Egan	(2080)
3.	David Hamblin	(2025)	0-1	Stephen Hilton	(2045)
4.	Stephen burnell	(1960)	1/2-1/2	Peter Tart	(2015)
5.	Tim chapman		1/2-1/2	Bill Armstrong	(1951)
6.	Norman Wragg	(1845)	1/2-1/2	John Upham	(1820)

Report

An excellent start to the season, in fact, the best so far. In the whole weekend, we took away 6 game points. Considering that match points no longer matter, we are suspecting that teams are going to fight more for those valuable half points.

In any case, we managed to pull out one of our strongest sides and turned in a good performance.

Round 1. saw us pitted against a London side, Cavendish, who did not turn out their strongest side, but nevertheless, were strong in depth.

A strong and solid performance from the team ensured 5 steady draws and Steve Hilton stormed through with another win, thereby clinching the match for us 3.5-2.5.

Tyson Mordue took top board and took the black side of an aggressive setup against the king's Indian defense. White complicated matters and tryied mixing things up through the middle-game. However, black held his nerve and gradually worked his pieces around until he achieved equality and was inevitably beginning to tell on white's outstretched position. A draw was mutually agreed when things began to clear.

Chris Ross played in true classical style and gained a huge, if not winning, positional advantage. However, the heavy pieces were still on the board and Chris allowed trappy tactics by his opponent to get back into the game. Chris could have played on in the final position, although his winning chances were slim. The draw pretty much clinched the match in any case.

Steve Hilton played steadily and didn't do anything ambitiously, and simply allowed his opponent to open the dark squares foolishly dropping a stranded bishop on the queen-side. After the loss of the piece, white could have well resigned.

Steve burnell's game was uneventful and although he strove for the advantage with the white pieces, black seemed content to swap things off and ground the position down into an equal and uninteresting end-game.

Bill Armstrong equalised easily out of the C3 sicilian, transposing it to a French-type position where he began to get very active on the open C file. Pieces were exchanged and black became very active. White faced an almost impossible task to hold the ending but played very resourcefully to wind things down into a drawn ending.

Norman wragg's game was short and too the point. White tried for trappy tactics in the early middle-game but was easily rebuffed. Black broke through the centre and claimed an easy equality.

Games

[Event "4NCL Div. 4. 2005-2006"]

[Site "West Bromwich, ENG"]

[Date "2005.11.05"]

[Round "1.1"]

[White "Harman, Kenneth"]

[Black "Mordue, A. Tyson"]

[Result "1/2-1/2"]

[ECO "E70"]

[WhiteElo "2178"]

[BlackElo "2287"]

[Annotator "Ross,Chris"]

[PlyCount "46"]

[EventDate "2005.11.05"]

[WhiteTeam "Cavendish"]

[BlackTeam "Braille Chess Association"]

{188MB, DFritz8.ctg, OEM} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Bg5 h6 6.

Bh4 O-O 7. f4 c5 8. d5 Qa5 9. Qd2 e6 10. dxe6 Bxe6 11. Bd3 Nc6 12. Nf3 Bg4 13.

O-O Bxf3 14. Rxf3 Nd4 15. Rff1 Rae8 16. Rae1 Nh7 17. e5 dxe5 18. fxe5 Re6 19.

Bg3 Rfe8 20. Qf4 Qc7 21. Nd5 Qd7 22. Qh4 Qd8 23. Qf4 Qd7 1/2-1/2

[Event "4NCl Div. 4. 2005-2006"]

[Site "West Bromwich, ENG"]

[Date "2005.11.05"]

[Round "1.2"]

[White "Ross, Chris"]

[Black "Egan, MIchael"]

[Result "1/2-1/2"]

[ECO "B31"]

[WhiteElo "2128"]

[BlackElo "2080"]

[Annotator "Ross,Chris"]

[PlyCount "51"]

[EventDate "2005.11.05"]

[WhiteTeam "Braille Chess Association"]

[BlackTeam "Cavendish"]

{188MB, DFritz8.ctg, OEM} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. h3 Bg7

6. d3 e5 7. Be3 Qe7 8. Nc3 Nf6 9. O-O Nd7 10. Nh2 Nf8 11. f4 exf4 12. Rxf4 Ne6

13. Rf2 Nd4 14. Qd2 O-O 15. Bh6 Bd7 16. Bxg7 Kxg7 17. Ne2 Rae8 18. Nxd4 cxd4

19. Qa5 a6 20. b4 f5 21. Re1 fxe4 22. Rxe4 Qd6 23. Rxe8 Rxe8 24. Nf3 Bxh3 25.

Qb6 Re7 26. gxh3 1/2-1/2

[Event "4NCl div. 4. 2005-2006"]

[Site "West Bromwich, ENG"]

[Date "2005.11.05"]

[Round "1.3"]

[White "Hamblin, David"]

[Black "Hilton, Stephen"]

[Result "0-1"]

[ECO "E97"]

[WhiteElo "2025"]

[BlackElo "2045"]

[Annotator "Ross,Chris"]

[PlyCount "58"]

[EventDate "2005.11.05"]

[WhiteTeam "Cavendish"]

[BlackTeam "Braille Chess Association"]

{188MB, DFritz8.ctg, OEM} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6.

Be2 e5 7. O-O Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. b4 a5 10. Ba3 Ne8 11. Ne1 f5 12. f3 axb4 13.

Bxb4 c5 14. dxc6 Qb6+ 15. Kh1 Qxb4 16. cxb7 Bxb7 17. Qc2 Bc6 18. Rb1 Qa5 19.

Nd3 Nf6 20. Nb4 Bd7 21. Qd2 Qc5 22. Nd3 Qd4 23. Rb7 Ra3 24. Nb1 Ra7 25. Rxa7

Qxa7 26. Nc3 Qd4 27. Rb1 fxe4 28. fxe4 Nxe4 29. Nxe4 Qxe4 0-1

[Event "4NCL Div. 4. 2005-2006"]

[Site "West Bromwich, ENG"]

[Date "2005.11.05"]

[Round "1.4"]

[White "Burnell, Stephen"]

[Black "Tart, Peter"]

[Result "1/2-1/2"]

[ECO "A40"]

[WhiteElo "1960"]

[BlackElo "2015"]

[Annotator "Ross,Chris"]

[PlyCount "51"]

[EventDate "2005.11.05"]

[WhiteTeam "Braille Chess Association"]

[BlackTeam "Cavendish"]

{188MB, DFritz8.ctg, OEM} 1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 Nc6 3. Nf3 Qe7 4. Nbd2 Nxe5 5. Nxe5

Qxe5 6. Nf3 Qf6 7. c3 Bc5 8. Qc2 Qb6 9. e3 d5 10. Bd3 Ne7 11. O-O Ng6 12. e4

dxe4 13. Bxe4 O-O 14. Bg5 Bd7 15. b4 Bd6 16. a4 Bc6 17. a5 Bxe4 18. Qxe4 Qb5

19. Be3 Rfe8 20. Qc2 Qc4 21. Rab1 a6 22. Rfd1 Qe4 23. Qxe4 Rxe4 24. Rd4 Rae8

25. Rbd1 Rxd4 26. Rxd4 1/2-1/2

[Event "4NCL Div. 4. 2005-2006"]

[Site "West Bromwich, ENG"]

[Date "2005.11.05"]

[Round "1.5"]

[White "Chapman, Tim"]

[Black "Armstrong, W.."]

[Result "1/2-1/2"]

[ECO "B22"]

[BlackElo "1951"]

[Annotator "Ross,Chris"]

[PlyCount "89"]

[EventDate "2005.11.05"]

[WhiteTeam "Cavendish"]

[BlackTeam "Braille Chess Association"]

{188MB, DFritz8.ctg, OEM} 1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. d4 cxd4 5. cxd4 d6 6.

Nf3 Nc6 7. Bc4 e6 8. O-O Be7 9. Qe2 O-O 10. Nc3 Nxc3 11. bxc3 Qc7 12. Bd3 f5

13. exf6 Bxf6 14. Qe4 g6 15. Bh6 d5 16. Qe3 Re8 17. Bf4 Qg7 18. Rfe1 Bd7 19.

Ne5 Nxe5 20. Bxe5 Bxe5 21. Qxe5 Qxe5 22. Rxe5 Rac8 23. Rc1 b5 24. a3 a5 25.

Ree1 Rc7 26. g3 Rec8 27. Rb1 Rb8 28. Rbc1 Kf7 29. Kf1 Rbc8 30. Rb1 Rxc3 31.

Bxb5 Bxb5+ 32. Rxb5 Rxa3 33. Rb7+ Kf6 34. Rb6 Re8 35. Ra6 Ra4 36. Rd1 Kf5 37.

f3 g5 38. Kf2 Ra2+ 39. Ke3 Rxh2 40. Rxa5 g4 41. Ra7 h5 42. fxg4+ Kxg4 43. Rg7+

Kh3 44. Rg5 Kg2 45. Rd2+ 1/2-1/2

[Event "4NCL Div. 4. 2005-2006"]

[Site "West Bromwich, ENG"]

[Date "2005.11.05"]

[Round "1.6"]

[White "Wragg, Norman"]

[Black "Upham, John"]

[Result "1/2-1/2"]

[ECO "B01"]

[WhiteElo "1845"]

[BlackElo "1820"]

[Annotator "Ross,Chris"]

[PlyCount "36"]

[EventDate "2005.11.05"]

[WhiteTeam "Braille Chess Association"]

[BlackTeam "Cavendish"]

[TimeControl "240+2"]

{188MB, DFritz8.ctg, OEM} 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. Bc4 c6 5. d3 Nf6 6. h3 Bf5 7. Nf3 e6 8. O-O Bd6 9. Re1 Nbd7 10. Bd2 Qc7 11. Qe2 O-O 12. Nh4 Bg6 13. Nxg6 hxg6 14. d4 Rfe8 15. Ne4 Nxe4 16. Qxe4 c5 17. dxc5 Nxc5 18. Qe2 Rac8

1/2-1/2