| 20-Nov-07 | v. | Braunstone 3(A) | |||
| 1. | A. Robinson | 0.5 | B. Shuter | 0.5 | |
| 2. | J. Toon | 1 | D. White | 0 | |
| 3. | J. Impey | 0 | P. Gray | 1 | |
| 4. | S. Machin | 1 | F. Hulford | 0 | |
| 2.5 | 1.5 | ||||
1 Dodds, Iain 134 0-1 181 Edwards, AlanWe were beaten by this team, probably the strongest team in Division 2, on the away fixture, and we were not playing our best team; so our expectations were minimal.
2 Harlow, Phil 130 0-1 161 Burgess, Ray
3 Watkinson, Phil 123 1-0 132 Pattinson, John
4 Pike, Andrew 112 Drawn 131 Tate, Mick
5 Cooper, Barrie 113 1-0 94 Busby, Mick
-----------------------------------------------
total 2.5 - 2.5
And so it seemed to be, with Phil H., who was constantly under the cosh in his favourite c3 Sicilian, losing. Andrew agreed a draw in a complex position, but possibly where he had an slight advantage, and Alan Edwards ground down Iain in a 73 move slugfest.
However, Barrie won in grand style on the bottom board, leaving the match result depending on my game with John Pattison which, although I was a pawn up, was dead drawn. John, however, found a way to lose, in the beginnings of time trouble, giving me the win and the match drawn.
Our next game is on Monday 3rd December (note this is different date than in the Handbook) against Littlethorpe 2A.
Phil.
Stephen Smith - John Glover, Leicestershire Leagues 2007. White to play.
White has sacrificed his pawn on d4 to provide attacking opportunities - what did White have in mind? Stephen, who had only about 5 minutes left on his clock at this point, made his next 3 moves in about 30 seconds - can you do as well? Solution next week.
Solution to last week's puzzle: 1. Bg8! and mate by the queen on h7 is unavoidable.
1 Jex, Alan 141 Drawn 134 Dodds, Iain
2 Dawkins, John 142 1-0 130 Harlow, Phil
3 Glover, John 139 0-1 129 Smith, Stephen
4 Hardy, Otto 131 Drawn 123 Watkinson, Phil
5 Beauquel, Julien 123 0-1 112 Pike, Andrew
------------------------------------------------
Total 2-3 Having beaten Loughboro 2 in the first match of the season at home, we knew that the return match would be a lot tougher. And so it proved, with Phil Harlow's game finishing first with a loss, with all the other games looking very close, or in my game with Otto, a little worst. Iain then agreed a draw with Alan Jex; Iain was a pawn up, but Alan had plenty of compensation due to Iain's exposed king position. My game with Otto was bordering on a loss at this stage; it was only after Andrew's win on board 5 that I felt able to offer a draw, and I was much relieved when it was accepted. So, it was all down to Stephen's game with John Glover, which was very drawish - both sides had queen, rook, knight and five pawns; Stephen's backward pawn was attacked by queen and knight and I wouldn't see any way that Stephen could make any progress. In fact, I was worried that if he did attack he could easily over-reach and go down in flames. But attack he did, leaving his backward pawn to its fate, grabbing control of an open file which would allow a back rank check, but one which would be useless. Then a cheeky knight move by Stephen, which his opponent couldn't take, suddenly gave opportunities and John had to defend. I, along with the rest of the onlookers, could not see any way forward, but Stephen banged out the next three moves - a check, a queen swop, followed by a killer knight fork of king and rook! I tell no lie to say that there was a gasp from the crowd.
Equally entertaining was Stephen's wrapping up of the game in mutual time trouble; and a successful outcome of the evening was achieved. Man of the match was awarded to Stephen by both team captains; and a good contender for game of the season.
Wigston 3 play next Thursday, at home, against Scraptoft Valley 1.
Phil.
| 15-Nov-07 | v. | Littlethorpe 2(H) | |||
| 1. | A. Byron | 0.5 | C. Jones | 0.5 | |
| 2. | M. Burrows | 1 | C. Gibson | 0 | |
| 3. | W. Dehnen | 1 | D. Bray | 0 | |
| 4. | A. Morley | 0.5 | S. Hewitt | 0.5 | |
| 5. | P. Horspool | 0.5 | M. Cowley | 0.5 | |
| 3.5 | 1.5 | ||||
| 15-Nov-07 | v. | Syston 2(H) | |||
| 1. | B. Shuter | 1 | R. Stone | 0 | |
| 2. | D. White | 1 | S. Hollingworth | 0 | |
| 3. | P. Gray | 1 | R. King | 0 | |
| 4. | F. Hulford | 1 | R. Agger | 0 | |
| 4 | 0 | ||||
The solution, if you needed it, is: 1. f6! hxg5 2. Qg6!! with mate to follow.
There is a connection with this puzzle and the previous week's; let's have a look at that one again (White to play and win):
Remember that here, Boris played the killer 1. Qh6! So, the similarities between the two - well, both are mating attacks against the king-side, with king and rook still in their castled position. Also the pawns in front of the black king are unmoved (in the top diagram, Black had just played ... h6 on the previous move to try to kick away the g5 knight). So these are two attacks against the same defensive position you will see in the majority of your games - which is why they are useful to learn.
I read somewhere that in planning an attack against a king position, you need to pick a pawn to focus your attack. So, against the normal castled king, you plan an attack on the f7, g7 and h7 pawn (if you are White). This leads us to another similarity between the two puzzles - both are mating attacks focused on the g7 pawn. Of course, there are standard patterns for attacks on the f7 pawn and the h7 pawn, and we will no doubt have some puzzles with these in the future.
And if we can classify the theme of the two puzzles as "mating attack against the normal castled king, using the g7 square", we can also try to describe the method of the attack. I use the word "redundancy", which means that there is more than one way the attack can be successfuly concluded - for example, in the first puzzle, White is threatening mate with queen and knight, and if Black stops that (by taking the knight) then a mate by queen and pawn follows. And in the second puzzle, Boris is threatening mate by queen and knight, or by queen and bishop, or (if Black tkes the queen), by knight and bishop!.
This "redundancy" method of mating attack can be diffcult to defend against, but has the downside that it takes longer for White to get the pieces into position.
Phil.
| 8-Nov-07 | v. | Wigston 2 (H) | |||
| 1. | M. Burrows | 0.5 | A. Morley | 0.5 | |
| 2. | W. Dehnen | 0.5 | P. Horspool | 0.5 | |
| 3. | P. Gibbs | 0.5 | S. Smith | 0.5 | |
| 4. | I. Dodds | 0.5 | P. Watkinson | 0.5 | |
| 5. | P. Harlow | 1 | A. Pike | 0 | |
| 3 | 2 | ||||
| 7-Nov-07 | v. | Melton 1 (A) | |||
| 1. | J. Denton | 1 | P. Watkinson | 0 | |
| 2. | C. Knight | 0 | J. Daniel | 1 | |
| 3. | B. Foreman | 1 | B. Cooper | 0 | |
| 4. | S. Peters | 1 | B. Shuter | 0 | |
| 5. | R. Wallace | 1 | D. White | 0 | |
| 4 | 1 | ||||
| 8-Nov-07 | v. | Ashby 2(H) | |||
| 1. | F. Hulford | 0 | L.Adlard | 1 | |
| 2. | D. Wilkins | 0 | D. Reynolds | 1 | |
| 3. | C. Eastlake | 1 | T. Rossell | 0 | |
| 4. | P. Turland | 0 | R. Evans | 1 | |
| 1 | 3 | ||||
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| 1-Nov-07 | v. | Braunstone 1(H) | |||
| 1. | A. Morley | 1 | M. Salisbury | 0 | |
| 2. | P. Horspool | 1 | J. Bingham | 0 | |
| 3. | P. Gibbs | 1 | P. Colburn | 0 | |
| 4. | I. Dodds | 0.5 | D. Sandrovitch | 0.5 | |
| 5. | S. Smith | 0 | P. Hogan | 1 | |
| 3.5 | 1.5 | ||||
| 1-Nov-07 | v. | Littlethorpe 7(H) | |||
| 1. | R. Townsend | 1 | G. Winterton | 0 | |
| 2. | B. Shuter | 1 | L. Clarke | 0 | |
| 3. | D. White | a | L. Findley | a | |
| 4. | P. Gray | 1 | B. Thomas | 0 | |
| 3 | 0 | ||||
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