Brown Jack Chess Club

 4NCL  03/04  -  Division 4

 Jan 04 - Rounds 3 & 4

Brown Jack (seeded 5) beat Cheddleton (6th seeds) by

3½-2½, and top seeds Cambridge, 4-2 in the 3rd & 4th

rounds of the 4NCL on the weekend 25th-26th January.

We are now second in the fourth division table, behind

Oxford (3rd seeds). Peter Richmond's game against

Cheddleton produced a very interesting central pawn

position early on, but unfortunately his king became

fatally exposed. Gary Tanner also lost but Richard Haydon

and Jane Richmond produced comfortable wins. Jonathan

Bourne accidentally sacrificed a pawn, obtaining

active piece play in return, while David Bareham was

required to find a resolute defence to hold his draw. Both

players are at their best in the given situations and

Cheddleton's top board congratulated Jonathan on his

sacrifice and subsequent play.

The start of the Cambridge match showed why they are

division favourites. Jane was doing well and David was

level but Gary had not equalised and Richard and Peter

were in trouble. Jonathan's opening was speculative with

the match turning when his opponent failed to play

13..Nxe5.

Richard duly lost but Gary seized his chance to score his

best ever win in grading terms (see diagram). Jane tired,

missing winning chances and blundered into a lost ending.

This was balanced by Peter's recovery, handing out an end

game lesson to former pupil Rohan Churm. David was again

left to play a time scramble 3-2 up. A crippling pin brought

the point and the team into raptures, not least because

everyone had won a game.

 Diagram #5   Gary's position would have been different if his

opponent had played h4 instead of Rfc1 on the move leading

to the diagram. How did Gary, black to play, win?

Answer here

Thanks to Peter Richmond for the report

Brown Jack 4NCL_03/04