Some of you know that the club has two regular members of Nottinghamshire's 4NCL (Four Nations Chess League) teams – David Levens and me. I thought it might be interesting to describe the 4NCL and a typical 4NCL weekend.   more »

In case you missed the note on the WNCC home page: En Passant was temporarily suspended because we used more bandwidth than the free blog allowed. We've now upgraded to a more suitable package, so that shouldn't be a problem in the future.

After just 3 matches in both the Derby and Notts. leagues I find myself not doing too well. Of course I've been playing some pretty strong players, but 3 of the people I've lost to I had never lost to before!!

However, the main point of interest for me was my Notts. league match against Janos Wagenbach [grade 142] . A few months before this game I realised that though I teach both the 2 Knights Defence and the Giuoco Piano with some success, and have even written a little book on the two openings and their many variations, I hadn't played either for years. At the British Championships, held in Gt. Yarmouth, I decided to at least start playing the Giuoco Piano.

Against Wagenbach I essayed the line that we teach in county coaching sessions. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3! [and NOT Nc3?!] The idea is to challenge for the centre. 4...Nf6 5.d4!? and here Wagenbach, unusually for him, took a good 5 minutes to reply. Eventually he played 5...Bd6? a very poor move and I quickly gained the upper hand.

The point is, that though my opponent is a very experienced player with a respectable grade, he clearly did not how to deal with this line which can be very dangerous for Black at this level. Give it a try sometime! David

You know you're onto a good thing when the opposition turns up looking much weaker than expected – and with only three players. Belper B were the unfortunate team, conceding bottom board and a heavy grading difference on the other three. Julien had little trouble on Board 2, and while I could have finished things more efficiently my game was never anything other than an easy win. David, unfortunately, had one of those nights. Final score WNA 3–1 Belper B.

WNB were much more vulnerable: outgraded overall when you consider that Derby & Mickleover C's Board 3 was graded 128 only a year ago. However, John Crawley held the draw fairly easily, and Andrew, Jonathan and Steve won without too much trouble for an excellent 3½–1½ win.

Could WNC make it a hat trick? Not quite. John Charlton, playing his first match, lost quickly. Ross won, but Michael Zhang for once couldn't register a win and had to settle for a half point. Unfortunately, Tracey had dropped a piece, and there was to be no let-off: 2½–1½ to Lichfield B.

The ECF Grand Prix is something I don't pay much attention to, other than to see whether any local players are doing well in the various sections so that I can report the information in Notts News. But somehow, for the first time, my own name appears on the leader board.

It appears that I'm in 6th place in the 174-150 section, based on my results at the British Championship. This is obviously just an early season fluke, based on playing a relatively large number of games at the start of the season. As I'm only 11 points ahead of 10th place I can expect to drop out of the top 10 quite quickly, although I do have another 54 points to be added if the Leicester Congress is included.

The scoring system is quite odd. For each event, you score a number of points equal to your percentage score for the event plus the number of games played. Your best seven results are counted. This actually allows a player with a grade just under 160 to manipulate the system, since the cutoff for many Open tournaments is around that mark. For example, my grade is 155. If I play in an Open and do well (compared with my grade), scoring 50%, I score 55 points (assuming no byes). However, if I play in a Major (U160) I can score more Grand Prix points even if I don't play very well – 3/5 would get me 65 points, even though it would probably be a worse performance. This option isn't open to a player graded 170 or so. At this early stage, the majority of the top 10 are graded in the 150s.

Anyway – if you click the link above in six months' time I'll be very surprised if my name pops up. Meanwhile, Roger Walker (Belper, Mansfield) is leading the 124-100 section and Alex Combie (Newark) is 10th in the 149-125 section.

Three unblogged matches this week. WN2 kicked things off with a good win against Mansfield 2. On paper it looked very even, and things could definitely have gone wrong. John Collins won quickly despite being lost at one point, and Nikolai was also in big trouble before bringing the point home. Score: 3½–1½.

WN4 faced Radcliffe & Bingham 2 away from home, with Robert and Nikolai in action two nights in a row after also turning out for WN2. Both secured draws (as did Steve Thacker), leaving Eric Williamson and John Crawley to win on the bottom two boards. Another 3½–1½ win.

WN6 took on the erratic University 4 but found them in one of their stronger moods. Ross Mackay scored the only point as the team lost 3–1.

To Ashfield, with only three of our top five available and hoping that the opposition would be one or two players light. Our luck was in.

The first lucky break was that Mike Alcock was engaged on duty in the D&DL. Then Andy Toothill got lost (on the way to a home match!) and lost nearly half an hour to Robert on Board 5.

First to finish was Julien, effortlessly despatching Richard Webster in the latter's favourite English Opening. Then Robert was offered a draw on Board 5 and things were looking very good. I had the advantage against Steve Burke, and David seemed to be on top against Glenn Halfpenny. John's position didn't look quite so good, but a match win seemed more likely than not.

Unfortunately, I lost the thread of my game and accepted a draw in an unclear position which turned out to be quite bad for me. But neither of us could figure things out in the post mortem. David missed a tactic and lost, but by this time John had fought back in a complex rook ending. His opponent, Derek Jarvis, was in his habitual time trouble, but he found a way to repeat moves and John had no option but to take the draw.

Nevertheless, this feels like a point won rather than a chance missed, because we were giving away a lot of grading points on the bottom two boards. It could have been a lot worse.

Match details

I arrived a little late to the Ashfield match, having first visited two other Ashfield chess site venues.  So I was last to start - but first to finish ... with yet another draw.  At least this meant I could watch what was happening on the other boards.

Nikolai won his game next, and Robert was a piece up in his.  Eric seemed to be pressing hard but had used up alot of time.   Robert won his game with no apparet problems, which meant we need half a point from two games to win.  Unfortunatley Eric had lost a pawn and his attack had evaporated.  Another pawn went and he resigned in lost position.   John's game on board one looked  very promising though, and after he won a piece the end wan't in doubt.  A nice Queen manouevre towards the end led to a further piece win and his opponent's resignation.

John and Robert are on a winning streak it seems!  

Lots of players making their debuts in tonight's home matches. One – Emma Bentley – is actually quite an experienced player (ECF 71), but this was her first game for us. She won a piece early on as WN5 cruised to a 3–0 lead against Radcliffe & Bingham 2 (Ashton Alfred and Michael Zhang also won). The top two boards had more of a struggle, but Barry Redburn missed a mate in one to hand Eamonn Lim a win, and Len Morrell couldn't convert an extra pawn against Anand Bhajantri, leaving WN5 easy winners: 4½–½.

WN7 were all new to league chess, and they put up a good show against Navigation 3. Saaras Mehan fought exceptionally hard but was ground down in a long endgame; David Somers went astray in a tactical exchange; and Matthew Pethick somehow contrived to lose from a position two pieces to the good – I suspect tiredness played a role. However, Ruth Chadwick got stuck in and won a pawn to gain an excellent position – whereupon her opponent gifted her a queen. Navigation won 3–1, but once the youngsters have had a season's practice it will be a different story.

1. c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6  3.d4 Bb4  4.e3 c5 5.Nf3 0 - 0  6.Bd3 d5  7. 0 - 0 d x c4 8.B x c4 b6 9.Qe2 ( stops Ba6 ) Bb7 10. Rd1 c x d4 11.e x d4 B x c3 (This is risky; Black should at least wait until White has played a3 before making the exchange.)  12. b x c3 Qc7 13. Bd3 ! (An enterprising sacrifice which it is dangerous to accept, but Darga was not doing well in the tournament and needed a win.)  Q x c3 14.Bb2 Qb4 15. a4 ! (Threatens Ba3 - it is noticeable how a3 becomes a valuable square for both B and R.) Rc8 16.Ne5 Qd6 17. Ra3 Nc6 18. Bb1 Rd8 ?    ( Ba6 was suggested as better: if  Q xB then  N xN ) .

19. Ng4 N x N? ( Black MUST play Nd5 to block the B diagonals ) 20. Q x N  f5 ( if  20. ........Ne5 then 21. B xh6+ K xB  22. Qh5+  Kg8  23. Rh3 Ng6 24. Ba3!)  

21.Qh5 (threatening Rh3) g6 22. Qh6 (threatens d5 ) Qf8 23. Qe3 Qf6 24. Ba2 Rd6    25. Qe2! ( This is a very impressive quiet move, protecting the B on b2, and also the R from moves such as Ne5 ) Rad8 26. d5! Qf7 (for if e5, then d x N is check!) 

27.Rad3 Ba6 (or e x d 28.R x d R x R 29.R x R R xR 30.B x R Q x B 31.Qe8 mate)

28.d x e Qe7 29.R x R  R x R   (  if ......B x Q  30.R x R+  N x R  31.R x N+ Q x R.  32.e7 mate)   30. R xR! Resigns.

(The final beautiful point. If 30. ..... B x Q then 31.R x N Ba6 32.Rc7 Q x R  33. e7 dis. ch. Bc4 34. e8Q mate )

A triumph of the diagonals! We sat there for several hours  watching this unfold, and working out the tactics.

Uhlmann won the tournament ahead of Portisch, and a couple of years later they both became Grandmasters, and later World Championship Candidates. Both are still alive; Uhlmann is 72 and Portisch 70, and they still play in local events. John Collins 

Chess was different then. There were no personal computers, and hence no internet. The world was divided by the Cold War, and the majority of the world's great players came from the Soviet Union. Britain was a backwater in chess terms, with very few international masters and  even fewer international tournaments: I had never visited one of these.

I had learnt chess and become fascinated by it at grammar school [with David Levens as it happens], and at Christmas in 1958 I was a student. In those days the goverment actually paid me around £300 a year to go to university and, as the alternative was National Service in the army, it was positively no contest. Before Christmas I had worked sorting parcels for the Post Office, so I was feeling quite affluent and, when my friend David Rumens suggested a day trip to the Hastings Tournament, I was enthusiastic. A day return ticket from Charing Cross to Hastings was cheap then and so we alighted on a freezing December day and took a bracing walk along the front to the tournament venue, the optimistically named Sun Lounge.

Normally the Soviet Chess Federation sent a couple of players: they themselves didn't have any choice in the matter, but this year for some reason, probably political, this had not happened. However, the organisers had succeeded in securing two rising young masters from Eastern Europe: Uhlmann from East Germany and Portisch from Hungary. I had heard of them and seen one or two of their games in magazines [no internet then remember]. I don 't know what they made of the conditions in the playing hall, which were, let us say, not the best. Heating was rudimentary, and Portisch actually played throughout in his leather overcoat. Also smoking was com monplace in those days, among spectators and players, and a thick fug of tobacco smoke pervated the room as we sat down to watch the demo boards. Players from the Eastern b loc did not mix with westerners, and there were some stern-looking men from their respective embassies to see that this was so. Why do I remember this, my first master tournament, with such clarity? Well, sitting there on that December afternoon I was priviloeged to watch Wolfgang Uhlmann play the following elegant game, which I have never forgotten.

 

I can't quite decide whether we gained a point or lost one, given the strength of some of the teams in Division 2 this season.

Ashfield were boosted by Glenn Halfpenny on Board 1, but can't expect him to be available for long. I was expecting to face Bob Taylor, but he dropped a board and found Lateefah in determined mood. She outplayed Bob on the queenside and won very nicely. That offset a quick loss for Predeep in his first match as captain, but a solid draw for Jonathan Day and a regulation win for John Collins put us one up.

My game fluctuated, but at move 21 I found myself practically forced to sacrifice a knight for two pawns and an attack. The position became very unclear, and with both players short of time it was difficult to calculate all the variations. The key moment came when I had a choice of three promising continuations, none of them clearly good or bad. With unerring accuracy, I chose the worst option and Glenn found the refutation – a desperado sacrifice to expose my king and leave me a tempo short of safety.

Match details

Bad light stopped play - well nearly.  During the match at Long Eaton thelighting failed on three separate occasions, leaving us in total darkness for a few seconds.  This had no adverse effect on our play and at no time did the result seem in danger.  I drew first after playing an uninspiring French defence (exchange variation).  Nikolai was several pawns up in his game and was next to post a win.  Eric, playing for the first time in six months, looked as though he might be in trouble with an opponents pawn on his 7th rank but Eric defended well and a draw was agreed.  This left Robert to finish.  An exchange to the good, ahead on the clock(!), his Bishops dominated the board and a win never looked in doubt. The finish was a nice mate that no-one watching had spotted, only Robert.

N Davies    0    R Willoughby    1

J Swift       0.5  P Burley           0.5

A Bentley   0    N Berdunov      1

W Bryce   0.5  E Williamson     0.5

Off the mark in Division 1 – our first points (either game points or match points!) of the season.

It was a tight affair, as you'd expect when the teams were separated by a total of just three grading points. We got off to a good start on Board 3 – Michael's opponent gifted him the exchange when faced with the loss of the pawn.

David got into his habitual mess on the white side of the Kan Variation of the Sicilian Defence, and it didn't help that he was giving away 30 grading points as well. At the time control he was 45 minutes behind on the clock with a bad position, and he duly lost.

With the match level, my position was quite lost while Daniel seemed to be winning. Fortunately for me, my opponent missed the clear winning line and opted for an endgame a pawn up in which I always had defensive chances because of the presence of opposite-coloured bishops. Eventually, he lost his way sufficiently that I had a minuscule edge when the draw was agreed.

Daniel was left with the job of bringing the points home. An invasion of major pieces did the trick.