Congratulation to Sidcup2 on securing their place in the Semi Finals of the Fuller cup on Thursday night by obtaining the half point they needed to win the Metro Section of the League.

Sidcup finish on 4.5 points and Beckenham & Bromley will finish as runners up on 4 0 points. We now go on to have a home tie against the Mid Kent Section of the Fuller league in the Semi’s which at the end of February their section looked a close call between 3 teams.

Thursday evening was the crunch game against Beckenham & Bromley to see if we finish as runners up and having an away fixture in the semis or finish as winners. We lost to Beckenham and Bromley in the first match of the season 2.5 to 1.5 since then we have had a run of 4 good wins by beating Petts Wood and Lewisham in both the home and away legs.

Leon Hopkins (playing black) as has been happening all season, set us on the winning road by having a good win against Stephen Roberts. Leon equalized with black on about move 12 when white played what I thought looked an OK move e4 (but Fritz says it lost white the advantage they have on the first move) although it does give white a bad bishop on f3. By move 17 Leon had white in all sorts of trouble when pinning white’s knight to the queen and winning the piece, then going on to also win a bishop and putting the game beyond the reach of Stephen mopping up in grand style by doubling his rooks on the f file.

Keith Thompson secured the half point required to win the section by beating Geoff Kewsey. Keith (playing white) failed to fully capitalize on a mistake made by Geoff on move 9 playing Qf3 instead of Qe5+ where he could have forked a check and his rook on h8 (he completely missed this until he checked against Fritz). So he could have had an earlier night but playing Qf3 he still had a good advantage. Apart from that Fritz has him down as not playing too badly having an advantage all the way through the game although around move 22, Fritz says he was down to a 1.5 pawn advantage but by move 27 was well on top again when Geoff Kewsey took a poisoned pawn on h2 and lost his bishop for 2 pawns with Geoff resigning on move 53 being a bishop down and about to lose more material.

Both Dennis Halton and Ken Grist fought hard in their matches; Dennis losing a very tight match on time when both Dennis and his opponent Howard Walden both having less than a minute on their clocks only for Dennis’ flag to fall first.

Although the season for us is not over just yet, congratulations must go to Leon on having gone through the season unbeaten in section playing 6 and winning all 6 and also to Ian Reeve for a good performance in his first season by winning 3 out of the 4 matches he has played in.

Game 1

Refresh to see interactive board

PGN Notation:

[pgn height=400 layout=horizontal autoplayMode=none]
[Event "Fuller"][Date "2012.03.15"][White "Roberts, Stephen"][Black "Hopkins, Leon"][Result "0-1"][ECO "A29"][WhiteElo "50"][BlackElo "78"][PlyCount "58"][EventDate "2012.??.??"][SourceDate "2005.07.14"] 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 Bb4 4. Bg2 Nc6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. O-O d6 7. d3 Bd7 8. Bd2 Bc5 9. e3 a6 10. Ng5 Bg4 11. Bf3 Bf5 12. e4 Bg6 13. Nd5 Nd4 14. Bg2 c6 15.Nxf6+ Qxf6 16. Kh1 h6 17. Nf3 Bh5 18. h3 Bxf3 19. Bxf3 Qxf3+ 20. Qxf3 Nxf3 21.Kg2 Nxd2 22. Rfd1 Nxe4 23. dxe4 Bd4 24. Rab1 f5 25. Re1 fxe4 26. Rxe4 Rxf2+ 27.Kh1 Raf8 28. Ree1 R8f3 29. b3 Rxg3 0-1
[/pgn]

Game 2

Interactive Chess Board - Refresh please

PGN Notation:

[pgn height=400 layout=horizontal autoplayMode=none]
[Event "Fuller"]
[Date "2012.03.15"]
[White "Thompson, Keith"]
[Black "Kewsey, Geoff"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C61"]
[WhiteElo "121"]
[BlackElo "110"]
[Annotator "Thompson,Keith"]
[PlyCount "105"]
[SourceDate "2005.07.14"] 
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nd4 4. Nxd4 exd4 5. d3 a6 6. Ba4 {I thought black was going to 
play Bc4 here.} Qe7 {A very unusual move for black cannot find any games in my database 
where this has been played before.} 7. O-O Qb4 {This I think is a bad move for Black 
as white having already castled it leaves his queen on the other side of the board and 
out of any attack white can muster. If I had not castled it would have trapped my bishop 
but it is no good once I have castled.} 8. Bb3 Bc5 {Black is already losing in this 
position} 9. Qh5 g6{A mistake here by white failing to capitalize fully on blacks blunders. 
Qe5+will check and then capture his rook. and black may have well resigned here.}
10. Qf3 (10. Qe5+ Kf8 11. Qxh8 g5 12. Bxg5 (12. Qxh7 Qxb3 13. axb3 d6 14. f4 (14. Bxg5 f6 
15. Bh4 c6 16. Nd2)) 12... Qb6) 10... d5 11. Bxd5 (11. exd5 Bf5 12.a3 Qb6 13. Re1+ Ne7 
14. Ba4+ c6 15. dxc6 O-O 16. cxb7 Ra7 17. b4 Bd6 18. Bh6Rb8 19. g4 Be6 20. Qf6 Nf5 
21. gxf5 Bf8 22. fxe6 Bxh6 23. Qxf7+ Kh8 24. e7 Raxb7 25. e8 3DQ+ Rxe8 26. Rxe8+ Bf8 
27. Qxf8#) 11... Be6 12. Bxe6 fxe6 13. a3 Qb6 14. Nd2 O-O-O 15. Nc4 Qb5 16. b4 Be7 
17. Qg4 Kb8 18. Qxe6 Re8 19. Qd5 {White was already well up here and I did not like 
my queen on the same file as his rook so I decide to exchange queens perhaps no the best 
plan but I still had a good game.} Qxd5 20. exd5 Rd8 21. Re1 {Again missed an opportunity 
here Ne5 Nf7 will secure a rook the only way to stop this is by losing his knight.} 
Rxd5 22. Ne5 {Too late should have been played on the previous move.} Nf6 23.Bg5 Rf8 
24. Nf3 Bd6 25. Re6 Nd7 26. Bh6 Rff5 27. Rae1 Rh5 28. Bg7 c5 29. Re8+ Kc7 30. bxc5 Rxc5 
31. Nxd4 Bxh2+ {Was hoping for this move black never regains from the blunder.} 
32. Kf1 Rcd5 33. Ne6+ Kd6 34. g3 Bxg3 35. fxg3 Rh1+ 36. Kf2 Rf5+ 37. Nf4 Rxe1 
38. Kxe1 Rf7 39. Bh6 Re7+ 40. Rxe7 Kxe7 {Now a piece up it is just a matter of swapping 
pieces and pushing my passed pawn} 41. Ke2 Kd6 42.d4 b5 43. c3 Kc6 44. Kd3 Kb6 
45. Kc2 Ka5 46. Kb3 Kb6 47. Ne6 Kc6 48. Kb4 Kb6 49. Nf8 Nxf8 50. Bxf8 a5+ 51. Kb3 a4+ 
52. Kb4 Kc6 53. Bh6  {Not too bad a game. Missed 2 very good chances to win the game 
much earlier and make it very much easier for me but I am pleased I kept my advantage 
from black having a very bad opening but should have been won a lot easier. Perhaps the 
importance of the match got to me. I think I was concentrating too much on blacks weak 
f7 square and failed to notice Qe5+.} 1-0
[/pgn]