Gloucestershire met Devon on Saturday at West Buckland in Rd. 1 of the 2014 – ‘15 Inter-County competition. It was a well-contested contest, although in the end Devon forced a comfortable enough 12-4 win, mainly due to their greater strength in the bottom half of the team.
This was also the debut for former presenter of TV science programmes, Adam Hart-Davis, who is now a regular at the Plymouth Chess Club.
Here are the details, with Gloucestershire names first in each pairing and grades in brackets.
1.J. Stewart (207) 0-1 D. Mackle (203). 2. P. J. Meade (182) 0-1 J. K. Stephens (194). 3. N. K. Hosken (181) ½- ½ S. J. Homer (188). 4. M. J. Ashworth (181) ½- ½ P. Sivrev (187). 5. J. Jenkins (176) 1-0 J. Wheeler (181). 6. P. J. Kirby (173) ½- ½ J. Underwood (179). 7. P. Dodwell (163) 0-1 D. Regis (176). 8. B. Whitelaw (159) 0-1 A. W. Brusey (176). 9. R. M. Ashworth (151) 0-1 B. W. Hewson (174). 10. A. Richards (136) ½- ½ W. Ingham (176). 11. A. N. Walker (134) ½- ½ M. Shaw (170) 12. P. Baker (132) 0-1 G. Body (169). 13 K. Bendall (131) ½- ½ M. Stinton-Brownbridge (164). 14. J. Caterer (128) 0-1 I. S. Annetts (162) 15. P. Bending (122) 0-1 A. Hart-Davis (161). 16. J. B. Harris (115) 0-1 C. J. Scott (157).
Here is a game with notes based on those kindly supplied by the winner.
White: Jim Caterer (128). Black: Ivor Annetts (162).
Caro-Kann – Exchange Variation [B13]
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Qc7 6.Ne2 If 6.Nf3 then 6…Bg4 is a little more problematic. 6…Bg4 7.f3 Bd7 8.Bf4 e5 9.dxe5 Nxe5 So far, but no further, all was known to Black from the 2002 game Gonzalez v Sasikiran. 10.Bc2 Bd6 11.0–0 Ne7 12.Nd4 h5 13.Ba4 0–0–0 Now the race is on to start a telling attack against the enemy king. White starts well in this respect. 14.Bxd7+ Rxd7 15.b4 Kb8 16.a4 N7g6 17.Bg3 h4 18.Nb5 Qc6 19.Qd4 b6 If 19…hxg3 20.Qxa7+ Kc8 21.Qa8+ Bb8 22.Na7+ That’s as far as Black got with his analysis. It seems to win the Black queen but White’s own queen can become trapped in the corner – or worse e.g. 24…Ba7+ 25.Kh1 Rxh2 mate. 24…Ba7+ 25.Qxa7 Nxa7 and Black is a piece for a pawn to the good! 20.Bf2 h3 21.Nxd6 hxg2 22.Kxg2 Rxh2+ 23.Kg3 If 23.Kxh2 Nxf3+ 24.Kg2 Nxd4 25.Bg3 Black was mildly worried about this move but all lines are good for him. 23…Rh4 24.Qxh4 Nxh4 25.Kxh4 Qxd6 Black was thinking his opponent would not pin the knight with Bg3 because it would be mate. And yet…. 26.Bg3?? Qh6# 0–1
Last week’s position was ended after 1.Qxa7+! RxQ 2.RxR+ Kb4 3.Ra4 mate.
Here is another hitherto unpublished 2-mover by Dave Howard.
White to mate in 2