John Henderson reports on the 4NCL Rounds 9-10

COME, FRIENDLY BOMBS, AND FALL ON SLOUGH!

“COME, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough…” once wrote the former poet laureate, Sir John Betjemin. Right now, this may be the only way the opposition are going to stop the Slough juggernaut as it speeds towards its second 4NCL title.

A close finish was expected at the final three rounds of the 4 Nations Chess League in Birmingham as the reigning champions, Slough, held a slender one-point lead over their rivals, Wood Green, with the two teams due to meet in the decisive final game of the season on Monday.

Ftacnik and Miles.

With one wildcard selection for all teams allowed on the final weekend, Slough arrived with their wildcard being the former Candidates finalist, Kevin Spraggett of Cananda, and their pre-registered outfit consisting of captain Tony Miles, Lubo Ftacnik, Colin McNab, Peter Wells, Matthew Turner, Geoff Lawton and Susan Lalic. Not to be outdone, a determined Wood Green trumped that with the wildcard of world no.5, Alexander Morozevich of Russia (and, as wildcards go, they don’t come any wilder than Mr Morozevich!), and their pre-registered team of the former world title challenger, Nigel Short, Jon Speelman, Alexander Baburin, John Emms, Chris Ward, Paul Littlewood and Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant.

Morozevich and Spraggett

Everything looked set for the final round showdown until disaster struck the Wood Green All-Stars when the non-GM team of Barbican burst their bubble by beating the title hopefuls in round nine. With Morozevich and Short declaring that they had no real wish to meet sub-2500 opposition, Wood Green paid the price in the match when they couldn’t win with the five remaining GMs!

Slough sealed their second successive title with a tenth round victory over Barbican 4NCL1 to leave them three points clear going into the final round match against Wood Green1.

With Wood Green strengthened with the addition of Morozevitch, Short and Arakhamia-Grant, they – after one or two little heart-flutters - proved just too strong for the Guildford ADC team. Morozevich made short work of Jonathan Rowson on the top board as he steamrollered the Scottish champion into an early resignation in a hopeless position.

On two, however, it proved to be a disastrous début in the 4NCL for Short as “Gentleman” Jim Plaskett creamed the former world championships challenger. After the defeat, a delighted Slough captain, Tony Miles, was at his mischief best when he was overheard to say to Short “Welcome back to England!”.

Plaskett-Short.

It’s now a case of the best-laid plans of mice and men now for Wood Green. Instead of needing to beat Slough in the final round for the title, they now need to beat their arch rivals to make sure of second place in the competition as they have the same game and match points as Bigwood1.

Round 9

Slough1 6-2 Wood Green2 (White on odds)

1 K Spraggett 1-0 M Pein

2 L Ftacnik draw B Tiller

3 A Miles 1-0 A Law

4 M Turner 1-0 R Pert

5 P Wells 1-0 A Norris

6 C McNab 1-0 A Yastrebov

7 G Lawton draw D Tan

8 S Lalic 0-1 Z Lazhevskaya

Barbican 4NCL1 4.5-3.5 Wood Green1 (Black on odds)

1 A Collinson 0-1 J Speelman

2 C Crouch 1-0 A Baburin

3 S Knott draw J Emms

4 R Palliser 0-1 C Ward

5 N Pert 1-0 J Levitt

6 J Rogers 1-0 P Littlewood

7 S Dishman draw P Sowray

8 I Lauterbach draw S Jackson

Bigwood1 6.5-1.5 Richmond

Bristol1 3.5-4.5 Index IT1

Silvine White Rose 7-1 North West Eagles

Guildford ADC 7-1 The AD’s.

Division 1

1 Slough1 18/18 (54.5); 2 Wood Green1 15 (46.5); 3 Bigwood1 15 (46.5); 4 Barbican 4NCL1 13 (42.0); 5 Index IT1 10 (35.0); 6 Guildford ADC 9 (41.0); 7 Richmond 7 (31.0); 8 Silvine White Rose 6 (32.5); 9 Bristol1 6 (29.5); 10 The AD’s 4 (26.0); 11 North West Eagles 3 (24.0); 12 Wood Green2 2 (23.5) – Figures in brackets indicate game points.

Round 10

Barbican 4NCL 3.0-5.0 Slough 1 (Black on odds)

1 C Crouch 1-0 K Spraggett

2 A Collinson 0-1 L Ftacnik

3 N Pert draw A Miles

4 J Rogers 0-1 C McNab

5 S Dishman draw P Wells

6 S Knott draw M Turner

7 R Palliser draw G Lawton

8 I Lauterbach 0-1 S Lalic

Wood Green1 5.5-2.5 Guildford ADC (Black on odds)

1 A Morozevich 1-0 J Rowson

2 N Short 0-1 J Plaskett

3 J Speelman 1-0 D Gormally

4 A Baburin 0-1 D King

5 J Emms draw A Kinsman

6 C Ward 1-0 R Webb

7 P Littlewood 1-0 N Povah

8 K Arakhamia-Grant 1-0 M Yurenok

Bristol1 2.5-5.5 Bigwood1; Index IT1 4-4 Silvine White Rose; Richmond1 2.5-5.5 North West Eagles; The AD’s 3.5-4.5 Wood Green2.

Division 1

1 Slough1 20/20 (59.5); 2 Wood Green1 17 (52); 3 Bigwood1 17 (52); 4 Barbican 4NCL1 13 (45.0); 5 Index IT1 11 (39.0); 6 Guildford ADC 9 (43.5); 7 Silvine White Rose 7 (36.5); 8 Richmond 7 (33.5); 9 Bristol1 6 (32.0); 10 North West Eagles 5 (29.5); 11 The AD’s 4 (29.5); 12 Wood Green2 4 (28.0) – Figures in brackets indicate game points

Collinson,A - Speelman,J [B14]

4NCL (9)

Barbican 4NCL1 vs Wood Green1

1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 exd5 cxd5 4 c4 (The Panov-Botvinnik Attack. In return for the isolated d-pawn, White hopes for active piece play.) 4 ..Nf6 5 Nc3 e6 6 Nf3 Bb4 7 cxd5 Nxd5 8 Bd2 Nc6 9 Bd3 Be7 10 a3 Bf6 11 0–0 0–0 12 Qe2 g6 13 Bh6 Re8 14 Rfd1 Nxc3 15 bxc3 Bd7 16 Ne5 Nxe5 17 dxe5 Bh8 18 Bf4?! [Blocking in the bishop with 18 f4!? and Bg5 was better.] 18 ..Qc7 19 h4?! Ba4 [19 ..Qxc3?! 20 Be4 Bc6 21 Rac1 Qxa3 22 Bxc6 bxc6 23 Rxc6 Qa4 24 Qf3 Bg7 25 Rc7 Rad8 26 Rdc1 offers White chances] 20 Rdc1 Rad8 21 h5 Rd5 22 hxg6 hxg6 23 Be4 Bxe5!

24 Bxd5 Bxf4 25 Qe4 exd5! 26 Qxa4 Re4 27 Qxa7 Bh2+ [27 ..Bxc1 28 Qa8+ Kg7 29 Rxc1 Rc4] 28 Kh1 Rh4 29 Re1? [White's doomed, and the only way of holding out for a few more moves was: 29 Rcb1 Qxc3 (29 ..Qf4? 30 Rb4 Qh6 31 Qa8+ Kg7 32 Rxh4 Qxh4 33 Qc8!) 30 Qa8+ Kh7 31 Ra2 Bc7+ 32 Kg1 Qe5 33 g3 Qe4; 29 Qa8+ Kg7 30 Re1 Qf4 31 Ra2 Qh6 32 g3 Bxg3+ 33 Kg2 Rh2+ 34 Kxg3 Qh3+ 35 Kf4 Qf5+ 36 Ke3 Qe4+ 37 Kd2 Rxf2+] 29 ..Qc8! 30 f4 Bxf4+ 31 Kg1 Bd6 0–1

Rowson-Morozevich.

Morozevich,A - Rowson,J [B80]

4NCL (10)

Wood Green1 vs Guildford ADC

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 d4 cxd4 5 Nxd4 a6 6 Be3 e6 [Objectively speaking, I think that Black's best option here is the Kasparov Variation with 6 ..Ng4!? ] 7 f3 (The dreaded English Attack) 7 ..Be7 [7 ..b5!? 8 g4 h6 9 Qd2 Nbd7 10 0–0–0 Bb7 11 h4 b4 12 Na4 as in Topalov-Kasparov and Anand-Kasparov, Linares 1999, is generally accepted as a reliable Black's set-up.] 8 Qd2 0–0 9 0–0–0 Nc6 10 g4 Nxd4 11 Qxd4 b5 12 h4 e5 [12 ..Bb7!?] 13 Qd2 b4 14 Na4 Rb8 15 g5 Nd7 [15 ..Nh5 16 Qf2! Qa5 17 b3] 16 b3 Bb7 17 h5 f5?! [The alternative didn't look to healthy either: 17 ..Bc6 18 g6! Bxa4 19 bxa4 Nc5 20 h6! fxg6 (20 ..hxg6 21 hxg7 Kxg7 22 Bxc5 dxc5 23 Qh6+) 21 Bc4+ Rf7 22 hxg7 Nxa4 23 Qd5] 18 Bc4+ Kh8 19 g6 h6 20 Bxh6! (C-RUNCH!)

20 ..fxe4 21 Rdg1 e3 22 Qxe3 [22 Bxg7+! Kxg7 23 h6+ Kf6 (23 ..Kh8 24 g7+ Kh7 25 gxf8N+ Qxf8 26 Qg2 d5 27 Bd3+ e4 28 Qg7+ Qxg7 29 hxg7+ Kg8 30 Rh8+ Kf7 31 Rxb8) 24 Qg2 d5 25 g7 Ke6 26 h7] 22 ..d5 23 Bxg7+ Kxg7 24 h6+ Kf6 25 g7 dxc4 26 h7 1–0

Plaskett,J - Short,N [C03]

4NCL (10)

Wood Green 1 vs Guildford ADC

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 Be7 (A Short - and Morozevich! - favourite. It first came to notice in the late 1960s when the Australian correspondence player, John Kellner, used it extensively. Later, in the 1970s, Oleg Romanishin was largely responsible for bringing it into tournament praxis.) 4 Ngf3 [The main alternative runs: 4 Bd3 c5 5 dxc5 Nf6 6 exd5 Qxd5 7 Ngf3 Nbd7 8 b4 (8 Nb3 led to complicated play in Kudrin-Short/Port Erin 1999.) 8 ..a5 9 Bc4 Qh5 10 c3 Nd5 11 Bxd5 Qxd5] 4 ..Nf6 5 Bd3 [5 e5 Nfd7 6 Bd3 c5 7 c3 Nc6 8 0–0 a5 9 Re1 cxd4 10 cxd4 Nb6 11 Nf1 Bd7 12 Ng3 h5 13 Ne2 g5 ½–½ Sutovskij,E-Short,N/Port Erin 1999/ JC'99 (77)] 5 ..c5 6 c3 Nc6 7 0–0 dxe4 8 Nxe4 cxd4 9 cxd4 0–0 10 Nc3 Nb4 (We've now got a typical Isolated QP game similar to those in the Nimzo-Indian and the Panov-Botvinnik Attack in the Caro-Kann.) 11 Bb1 b6 12 Re1 Bb7 13 Ne5 Nbd5 14 Qd3 Rc8 15 Qh3 Nxc3 16 bxc3 Qd5 17 Bd2 [17 Ng4?! h6 18 Nxf6+ Bxf6 19 Be4 Qd7 20 Bxb7 Qxb7 and Black has an easy endgame due to the weakness of the white c & d-pawn.] 17 ..g6 [In reflection, perhaps best was 17 ..h6!? ] 18 Bc2 Qa5 19 Qh4 Rxc3? [A mistake. Black really had no option other than to head for the murky waters of 19 ..Nd5!? 20 Qh6 Nxc3 21 Nxg6! (21 Re3 Qd5 22 Nf3 Nb5 23 Re5 Rxc2 24 Rxd5 Bxd5 25 Bb4 Re8 26 Bxe7 Rxe7 27 Ng5 f5 28 Nxh7 Rxh7 29 Qxg6+) 21 ..fxg6 22 Bxg6 hxg6 23 Qxg6+ Kh8 24 Re5 Ne2+! 25 Kh1! (25 Kf1 Qxe5 26 Qh6+ Kg8 27 dxe5 Ba6 28 Qxe6+ Rf7 29 Ke1 Rd8 with an unclear position.) 25 ..Qxe5! 26 dxe5 Rxf2 27 Qh6+ Kg8 28 Qg6+ with a draw] 20 Bb3 Nd5 21 Qh6 Bb4 [21 ..Qb4 22 Bxd5 Bxd5 23 Rac1 Rfc8 24 Qe3! wins] 22 Nd7 Rd8 23 Bxd5 Rxd7 [23 ..Bxd5?? 24 Nf6+ Kh8 25 Qxh7#] 24 Rxe6!!

(Oh, that's got to hurt!) 24 ..fxe6 [24 ..Rc8 25 Rxg6+ hxg6 26 Qxg6+ Kf8 27 Bh6+ Ke8 28 Qg8+ Ke7 29 Qxf7+ Kd8 (29 ..Kd6 30 Bf4#) 30 Bg5+ Kc7 31 Rc1+ Kb8 32 Qxd7 Rxc1+ 33 Bxc1 Qxd5 34 Bf4+] 25 Bxe6+ Kh8 26 Bxc3 Rd8 [26 ..Rg7 27 a3! Bxc3 28 Qf4 is mating] 27 Qf4 [27 Qf4 Kg7 28 Qc7+ Kh6 29 Qxd8 Bxc3 30 Qf8+ Kh5 31 g4+ Kh4 32 Qe7+ Qg5 33 Qxh7+] 1–0