Sad Evening for Grantham-2

Two rounds to go in Division 2 of Nottinghamshire League and it was obvious that Grantham-2 will remain in this division next year too. 

Newark-1 who arrived to Grantham for away match had completely different ambitions and why not? They have very strong team with Alex Combie graded 192 on the top board and on the boards 2 and 3 they can put up two other players rated 180+ (Daniel Wells and David Coates).

Just quick look on the score table can tell you that Grantham players were outgraded on all boards. And it was not very nice evening for them.

Grantham-2		1:4	Newark-1
David I	172	0:1	Combie A	192
Hebert A	-	0:1	Wells D	183
Mason B	149	0:1	Myers R	155
Palmer T	147	1:0	Aiton K	154
Grummitt W	107	0:1	Ladds G	145

The match started with quick loss on the board two where Andy Hebert blundered piece in Rossolimo Sicilian and Daniel Wells so grabbed the first point for Newark.

Ben Mason on board 3 was trying French defence as Black. Richard Myers chose for Alekhine-Chatard Attack which is very sharp line where White commonly castles queen-side and launches attack on the king-side. Black typically keeps his King in the centre. One of possible lines can go like this:

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.h4 a6 7.Qg4 Bxg5 8.hxg5 c5 9.g6 f5 10.Qf4 h6 11.Nf3 ...

Alekhine-Chatard Attack

However, Ben had different opinion how to play this opening and castle king-side hoping for the best. The game became extremely sharp with the opposite-flanks-attack, however, after exchanges of several pieces Richard had upper hand when he doubled his heavy pieces on the open h-file and soon after Grantham was two points down.

On the board 5 William Grummitt was in very difficult position playing against Graham Ladds who is rated some forty points higher. Will made a positional mistake when he weakened b6 square and b7 pawn. Graham could just slowly but gradually increase the pressure along the b-file and Will did not have too much of counter-play.

Rather funny game was played on the top board, where I (Ivan David) played against Alex Combie rated some 20 point higher. I decided to play rather adventurous chess trying to put my opponent off the beaten track of his extensive theoretical knowledge and chose for so-called Rausis line in Slav Defence (named after GM Igor Rausis) 

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 dxc4 4.e3 Be6!?

It looks like a patzer's move but check the literature! Alex did not expect something like that and he took a long thought... 30 minutes! And he came up with sensible answer:

5.a4 Nf6 6.Na3 c5! 

This idea was borrowed from the stem game Szabolcsi-Rausis, France 1997.

7...Bxc4 8.Nxc4 cxd4?! 

8...e6 is perhaps better idea.... but I was happy to exchange the Queens or spoil my opponent's pawn structure...
 

9.exd4 e6 10.0-0 Be7 

10...Nc6 11.Qb3 Bb4 12.a5 0-0 13.Bg5 Rb8 14.Bxf6 Qxf6 15.Rfd1 Rfd8= 0-1 Lechtynsky,J (2447)-Hasangatin,R (2476) Olomouc 2007.

11.Qb3 Qd5 12.Qb5+ 

[12.Bf4 Nbd7 13.Be5 0-0 14.Nfd2 Rfc8 15.Rac1 Ne8 16.Qe3 Bb4 17.b3 a6 18.Qe2 b5 19.Ne3 Qb7 20.Nf3 bxa4 21.bxa4= 1-0 (40) Nemet,I (2367)-Varga,Z (2497) Basel 2007]

12...Qxb5N 

12...Nbd7  or even 12...Nc6 

13.axb5

Combie-David (after White's move 13.)

OK, so what is the result of the opening? White's pawn structure is definitely spoiled and the only player who can claim any advantage is Black. Not bad result of opening against opponent rated 192, however ....

13...0-0??

This should not have  happened! I intended to play either 13...Nbd7 or 13...Nd5 and then I said: "First, I will keep my King safe and the I will be playing ...a6 so Knight on b8 can be useful." I simply forgot that the a-file is open.... 

14.Nb6!+- 

...and the rest of game is just a matter of technique. I could have resigned at this point but the fact I made such a stupid mistake kept me playing till the time control... 

14...Nbd7 15.Nxa8 Rxa8 16.Bg5 Nd5 17.Bxe7+- Nxe7 18.Rfc1 Nd5 19.Ne5 N7b6 20.Nc4 Nxc4 21.Rxc4 g6 22.Rca4 22...b6?

The idea was to create fortress, Knight on d5 protects everything and I will keep the position blocked, but White plan is simple: To centralize the King and sacrifice the Rook and go into won pawn ending. There is no chance to stop it.

23.Rxa7 Rxa7 24.Rxa7 g5 25.Kf1 Kg7 26.Ke2 h5 27.Kd3 Kg6 28.Kc4 h4 29.Rd7 Nf4 30.Rd6 Nxg2 31.Rxb6 g4 32.Rd6 Ne3+ 33.fxe3 g3  34.hxg3 hxg3 35.Ra6 and Black finally resigned.

So the only hero of Grantham team was again his doyen Trevor Palmer and I bring his game on this website ASAP.