Milton Keynes B vs Luton C, 2024: Whitewash
Although we out-rated Luton C on every board, it is still an impressive performance when the opposition fails to register even one half point. Furthermore, I do not think any of our players were ever in any trouble. More demanding tests lie ahead (in particular, Luton B will be a challenge), but we should enjoy things while they are going well.
Board 1 - Humayum Mirza vs Andrew Bowler
From the Two Knights Defence: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3, a position arose that had more in common with a Closed Spanish. Humayum played a little too passively, and I was able to swap his white squared bishop for my knight on c6. After fifteen moves we reached the following position.
Thanks to the knight on f4, black has the advantage here, with one simple idea being … Qd7 followed by … BXh3. Concerned about this plan, Humayum played the passive 16.Ng1?. Now 16… Qg5 just wins a pawn, but, on autopilot, I played 16… Qd7. Black is still better here, and, importantly, has a number of available attacking ideas. After 17.Ndf3?! f5 18.d4? fXe4 19.QXe4 eXd4 20.cXd4 Rae8, we reached the following position.
Here Humayum resigned thinking I had a winning sacrifice on h3. I thought it was too early to resign; I would have played on a few more moves and made black work out the win. After white’s best move, 21.Qc2, sacrifices on h3 give black a draw at best. In fact, I intended to play 21… NXg2!! (Brilliant, according to chess.com.), and the main line goes 22.KXg2 BXh3+ 23.NXh3 Qg4+ 24.Kh2 RXf3 25.Ng1. Now, in my initial calculations, I had thought 25… Rf5 threatening mate won, but 26.Qb3+ certainly muddies the waters. Then I realized that 25… Ref8 threatening to lift this rook to f5 was much clearer. White’s best seems to be 26.NXf3 RXf3 27.Qb3+ RXb3 28.aXb3 cXd4, when black’s extra pawns, especially the pawn on d4, are too much for white to cope with.
My calculations in this game where much clearer than they usually are, and I had already been considering a knight sacrifice on g2 when I played 17… f5. I think the reason for was that earlier in the day I had been looking at a line in the Spanish Opening where black manoeuvres the king’s knight to g6 after which it often ends up going to either f4 or h4 with a sacrifice on g2 threatened. In analyzing a couple of games with this line I had looked over a number of variations that were very similar to the ones played in my game. So, preparation sometimes does payoff, even when the opening you have been studying doesn’t occur in the game.
Board 2 - Alan Heath vs Andrew Pye
Alan got a great position from the Bishop’s Opening, soon lumbering Andrew with doubled isolated pawns on the e-file. Unsurprisingly, one of these pawns soon dropped off, and once Alan’s rooks infiltrated black’s position other pawns followed. Alan smoothly converted his advantage by advancing his passed d-pawn, and his opponent threw in the towel when it was about to promote. Although this was quite a long game, it was played at a fair lick by both sides, and was over before I was out of the opening phase on the adjacent board.
Board 3 - Peter Montgomery vs George Ward
Peter played the King’s Indian Attack, but the attack never got going, and it ended up looking like white was playing Philidor’s Defence. George was pressing in a comfortable position when Andrew miscalculated a sacrifice and ended up material down. George then calmly converted his advantage in what appeared to be quite an easy win.
Board 4 - Dominic Watson vs Milen Stanchev
This game was a wild encounter arising from the Scotch Gambit, and every time I had a quick look at it, I had little idea which side was better. After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 eXd4 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.e5, Milen played the slightly unusual 5… Ng4. I don’t know much about this line (5… d5 looks more sensible to me), but a position arose where Dominic had the better structure and Milen two active bishops. When I last looked, Dominic was a pawn up, but Milen’s bishops were threatening both sides of the board from central squares. Dominic won, but it would be interesting to look at this game in more detail.
Board 5 - Desmond Welton vs Sumit Bhalla
Another King’s Indian Attack (Why is this opening so popular with the Luton players?) where, like on Board 3, no attack materialized. Sumit played solidly, and on the couple of occasions I checked he appeared to be nursing a slight advantage. When I last looked Sumit was an exchange up, but Desmond had some pressure on the f7 square. I don’t know how the game ended (except that Sumit won!), but it seemed to me that white’s initiative could be neutralized, after which black’s material advantage would count.