The South Devon Chess Festival starts in exactly one month’s time when the 18th Royal Beacon Seniors Congress starts on Monday 6th November at Exmouth. This will consist of a game a day throughout the week, finishing on Friday afternoon and giving everyone who wishes to partake in both just enough time to get down to the Livermore House Hotel, Torquay, where the 51st Torbay Congress will start at 7 p.m. that evening. This will provide players with 10 games in 7 days. For more details about the Seniors event, contact the Organiser by e-mail at jones_r53@sky.com, and for the Torbay Congress contact Phil McConnell on secretary@torbaycongress.com. Downloadable entry forms for both events may be found on several local websites including chessdevon.org.
In last year’s Seniors event, Andrew Footner mistook the start time of Rd. 1 and was defaulted, which meant he had to pull out all the stops in his remaining games, which he did winning all 4 and coming 2nd=.
White: M. Dow. Black: A. F. Footner.
Scandinavian Defence [B01]
1.e4 d5 Signature move of the Scandinavian Defence, immediately asking a question of White. 2.exd5 the most usual answer. Black now has to choose whether to retake immediately, the Main Line, in which case his queen will be attacked, or to leave it for the time being and build up an attack against it. 2…Nf6 3.d4 Bg4 4.Be2 Bxe2 5.Qxe2 Qxd5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.c3 0–0–0 8.Be3 e5 9.dxe5 Nxe5 10.0–0 Bd6 11.Nbd2 Rhe8 12.Rfd1 Nd3 13.Nf1 Bf8 14.Qc2 a6 15.Bd4 c5 16.Bxf6 gxf6 17.Ne3 Qe4 18.Rd2 Bh6 19.Ne1 Nxf2! Black wins a pawn as Whte’s knight is triple attacked. 20.Rxd8+ Rxd8 21.Qxe4 Nxe4 22.Nf5 Bf4 23.Nf3 Ng5 24.N5h4 Rd6 25.Re1 Re6 Black is trying very hard to get his f-pawns undoubled. 26.Kf1 Kc7 27.Re2 Rxe2 28.Kxe2 Kd6 Black’s king now sets off on an 11 move odyssey. 29.c4 Ke6 30.Kd3 h5 31.b3 Nxf3 32.Nxf3 Kf5 33.h3 Be5 34.Ng1 Bb2 35.Nf3 Kf4 36.Ke2 Kg3 37.Kf1 f5 38.Ng1 Be5 39.Ne2+ Kh2 40.Kf2 f4 41.Kf3 h4 42.Nc1 Kg1 43.Nd3 Bd6 44.Nc1 If White tried to win a pawn with 44.Nxf4 there follows 44…Bxf4 45.Kxf4 Kxg2 46.Kg4 f5+ 47.Kxf5 Kxh3 and the h-pawn will queen, so the knight is reduced to impassivity. 44…Kf1 45.Nd3 f6 46.Nc1 Ke1 47.Nd3+ Kd2 48.Nb2 Kc2 49.Na4 b5 50.cxb5 axb5 51.Nb6 Kb2 0–1 White resigned, fearing his pawns would be gobbled up, but the position was perhaps less clear than that. e.g. 52.a4 Kxb3 53.axb5 c4 threatening to break away. 54.Nxc4 Kxc4 55.Kg4 Kd5 As the bishop covers the b8 queening square, the king needs to come across asap. 56.Kxh4 Ke5 57.b6 Kf5 58.Kh5 Ke4 59.Kh4 and it’s still unclear.
In last week’s position, Mrs. Hogg played 1.f7+ forcing 1…Rxf7 and allowing 2.Rh8 mate.
In this position from a game c. 100 years ago, in an attempt to break through Black’s well set up defences, White offered the sacrifice of the exchange with 1.RxB, an offer Black considered and then accepted. Was he wise to do so?
