Club Night - 25th Apr 2022

Crawford Macnab
25 April 2022

Four games played on Monday 25th Apr 2022.

In the battle of the McDiarmids it was Euan that defeated his father!

Nathaniel played the Benko Gambit for the first time against Charles, doing fine out of the opening to reach a challenging pawn ending.

25th Apr 2022

WhiteBlack
1Maciej Frodyma0 - 1Stuart McKinney1455
2Charles Gunn-Russell17971 - 0Nathaniel Forbes Inskip
3Eric P Smith16211 - 0Richard Josey
4Euan McDiarmid1 - 0Allan McDiarmid1740

In Charles v Nathaniel match the position below was reached with black to move.
It looks like it should be drawn but what is the best move for black?!
The full game is shown below.

Black to play

Black to play

Maciej played well against Stuart but narrowly lost in the end.
Eric got the better of Richard with a small queen sacrifice.

It was good to see Andrew Wright back at the club playing some games against Nick West.

Crawford welcomed potential new member Adam McIntosh to the club and chat through the games that were played.

Club Night

Club Night

The full game between Charles and Nathaniel.

Gunn-Russell, Charles
Forbes Inskip, Nathaniel
1-0
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cb5 a6 5. ba6 Ba6 6. Nc3 g6 7. e4 Bf1 8. Kf1 d6 9. g3 Qb6 10. Nf3 Nbd7 11. h3 Bg7 12. Kg2
 
Tuck the king out of the way
 
12... O-O 13. Qc2 Rfb8 14. a4 Qb3
 
Might be better to keep queens on?!
 
15. Qb3 Rb3 16. Ra2 Rb4 17. Re1 Nb6 18. a5 Nc4 19. a6
 
Pushing passed pawn. Why not!
 
19... Rb6
 
[19... Nd7 Drop knight back to help control e5 square 20. Nd2 Nde5]
 
20. e5 de5 21. Ne5 Ne5 22. Re5 Kf8 23. Re2 Rba6 24. Ra6 Ra6
 
Black gets pawn back
 
25. Be3 Nd7 26. Ne4 c4 27. Nc5 Rd6 28. Nd7 Rd7 29. Rd2 Rb7 30. Bd4 Bd4 31. Rd4 Rb2 32. Rc4
 
Level rook ending
 
32... Rd2 33. Rc5 Kg7 34. Kf3 Kf6 35. Ke3 Ra2 36. Rc7 Ra6 37. Rd7 Rd6
 
Swapping rooks off, black needs to be confident of holding pawn ending
 
38. Rd6 ed6 39. Ke4 h6 40. h4 Ke7 41. g4 f6??
 
Losing move. Was drawn but now advantage swings to white [Better is 41... Kd7 42. f4 Kc7 43. h5 gh5 44. gh5 Kd7 45. Kd4 (45. Kf5 This loses as Ke7 requires the white king to retreat and it is black that wins! 45... Ke7 46. Ke4 Kf6 47. f5 Kg5 48. f6 Kg4 49. Ke3 Kh5 50. Kf3) 45... Kc7 46. Ke4 Kd7]
 
42. Kd4
 
White king will pentrate on queen side
 
42... f5 43. gf5 gf5 44. f4 h5 45. Kc4 Kd8 46. Kb5 Kc7 47. Ka6
 
[47. Kc4 White would not play this but shows the defensive formation black needed to achieve 47... Kb6 48. Kb4 Ka6 49. Ka4 Kb6 50. Kb4]
 
47... Kc8 48. Kb6 Kd7 49. Kb7 Ke8 50. Kc6 Ke7 51. Kc7