They shoot chessplayers don't they?

Played at Denton Chess Club - 19/02/2014

Stockport Lge Div 2

Denton B           V          Marple C

1 T Hilton        0.5/0.5     G Trueman
2 J Ryan           0.5/0.5    P Kirby
3F Moan             1-0        T Kay
4 D Holt            0.5/0.5     C Baker
5 C Lopez           1-0         T Cowling
6 P Boyd             1-0         J Barlow

                           4.5/1.5

Missing several of our regulars the C teams long unbeaten run finally came to an end at the hands of a buoyant Denton team who needed the points to avoid getting sucked into a relegation dogfight.

I faced Tim Hilton on board 1. The game started 1e4 e6 2d4 d5 3ed:  ( A risky choice on my part as Tim once said that people who play this move should be shot. I do believe it's as good as anything else, after all when White plays e5 , either now or later, I always feel Black has achieved one of his goals) 3...ed: 4Nf3  Bd6 5c4 Nf6 6c5 (Fritz showed me this move some weeks ago. The idea is simply to cramp Black.) 6...Be7 7Nc3 0-0 8Bd3 b6 (Excellent play by Tim, the White pawns must be challenged) 9cb: ab: 10h3 Ba6 110-0 Bd3: 12Qd3:Nbd7 (Here 12...c5 gives good chances of equalising) 13Ne5 (It would have been simpler and a much better practical choice to complete my development with 13Bf4 when White has a nice edge) 13...Bd6  (13...Ne5: is perhaps best as after 14de: Nd7 15Nd5: Ne5: White doesn't really have much)14Nc6 After much thought I decided to invade, it is a good move but is it correct to say a player has made a good move when he doesn't realise why it's a good move? After the game Tim said he feared 14f4 but after 14...c5! it's White rather than Black who doesn't have a good continuation.) 14...Qc8 (Although 14...Qe8 is better I would have been delighted to see Tim play it as after 15Bd2 it's pretty clear that White is on top and the position is easy to play. 15Re1? (I've gone on long enough about my game but I did miss a very nice move here. Can you see it?. If you think logically you should find it, but the answer is available on request.)
After 15Re1? I was always worried about the  now potentially vulnerable Knight on c6 and was rather relieved when we agreed a draw some moves later.

On Board 2 Paul seemed to come out of the opening somewhat worse, with White having a very nice Keres style g4 attack. Not for the first time this season Paul showed his resilience to keep in the game at all and at the end Houdiniesque qualities to somehow emerge with a draw.

On Board 3 Tony came unstuck against an in-form Francis who, the night after beating Stuart Murray (184) with Black, played a very nice long term Knight "sac" for what ultimately became 4 pawns. I struggled desperately to see if there was any way Tony could activate his pieces ...but I don't think there was.Very insstructive play from Francis.

Chris played very solidly on 4 to draw with Black against a higher rated opponent. Dave's 2g3 Anti-Sicilian, which he knows well, never looked like threatening Chris' bastions.

Terry had an interesting game on 5 against a player who I suspect is very under graded. Eventually Terry was forced to concede Bishop and Knight for Rook and I was interested to see if Senor Lopez would try to prove his advantage in an endgame with the match already decided. Unfortunately he did.

On 6 Jeff played very dynamic chess, choosing the Budapest Gambit. Although he seemed to come out of the opening well it was a very difficult middle game to play and he succumbed to a nice Kingside attack.

So 4.5/1.5 was the final score. Many thanks to all who played, particularly those Stakhanovites Tony and Terry who completed three games in three successive evenings for Marple Chess Club.