The Cornish Renaissance continues apace, as evidenced by their win over Hampshire at Honiton in the last round of the Inter-County Championship, though the 11-5 victory was helped by Hants being unable to raise a full team and defaulting 4 games. This scalp, added to those of Devon and Gloucestershire, meant Cornwall finished 2nd in the West of England section and now go on to meet Norfolk in the National Stages quarter-final. Somerset finished 1st by virtue of their win over Devon reported last week, which in turn pushed Devon down to 3rd place.
Here are the details (Cornish names first in each pairing).
1. Jeremy Menadue (190) ½-½ D. Tunks (196). 2.Theo Slade (178) 0-1 G. Pafura (192). 3. Mark Hassall (173) 1-0 R. Marsh (176). 4.Grant Healey (176) ½-½ A. Cooper (175) 5. Mate Csuri (175) 0-1 D. Fowler (174). 6.David Saqui (170) 0-1 T. Davis (167). 7. Robin Kneebone (173) 1-0 C. Priest (147). 8. James Hooker (171) 1-0 S. LeFevre (146). 9.Simon Bartlett (168) ½-½ Miss G. Moore (144). 10. Colin Sellwood (156) 1-0 D. Culliford (137). 11. Gary Trudeau (155) 1-0 J. Young (129). 12. David J. Jenkins (133) ½-½ R. Hartley (126).
This was a bright win for the Cornish.
White: Gary Trudeau (157). Black: J. Young (129).
Sicilian Defence–Najdorf Variation [B90]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.h3 g6 7.Be3 Bg7 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.g4 Qa5? losing a tempo. These open Sicilian Defences are often played on a knife-edge, but this move hands the initiative entirely to White. 10.Nb3 Qd8 11.g5 Let the attack commence. 11…Nd7 12.0–0–0 The Yugoslav system, whereby White castles long and attacks quickly on the other wing. Black, of course, should attack the castled king a.s.a.p. but his loss of a tempo hasn’t helped. 12…Nb6 13.f4 Be6 14.Nd5 Bxd5 15.exd5 Nb8 16.Bd4 White is taking complete control of the centre. 16…Rg8 17.Bxg7 Rxg7 18.Qd4 Rg8 19.Na5 Qc7 20.Rd3 N8d7 21.Rc3 Qb8 Better might have been 21…Nc5 and if 22.b4 hoping to win the pinned knight 22… Nc8 23.bxc5 Qxa5 and Black would have gone some way to implementing his thematic plan. 22.Bg2 Nc5 23.Re1 Kd7 24.Rce3 Re8 25.h4 Qc7 26.Bh3+ Kd8 27.Rxe7 Qxe7 28.Rxe7 Rxe7 29.Qf6 Nc8 White is running out of pieces with which to inflict the coup de grace, but those he has are superbly positioned and the final assault plays itself. 30.Bxc8 Rxc8 31.Qxd6+ Rd7 32.Qf8+ Kc7 33.Qxc5+ Kd8 34.Qb6+ Rdc7 35.d6 1–0.
The solution to last week’s 2-mover was 1.Qe5! Only Black’s two bishops can move, and if it’s the white square one, then 2.Qa5mate, or if the other then it’s 2.Ra1 mate.
In this position, Black is threatening both the pawn on e3 and to free his rook with axb. How can White best deal with this?
White to move and win.