The Kent Under-160 team were back in action against Surrey at the weekend, with Sidcup’s Gary Sharp representing the County. Gary was paired with Michael Gunn. Michael is the closest thing we have to Chess Royalty - he is currently the Non-Executive Chairman and Acting-CEO of the English Chess Federation. But the presence of aristocracy had no effect on Gary who soon had his opponent in trouble and helped Kent to a comfortable victory by 9½ - 6½, leaving them top-of-the-table with a 100% record of three wins from three matches.

Mike Gunn

Interactive Chess Board

PGN Notation:

[pgn height=400 layout=horizontal autoplayMode=none] 
[Event "Kent v Surrey U160 County Championship"] 
[Date "2012.11.17"] 
[White "Sharp, Gary"] 
[Black "Gunn, Mike"] 
[Result "1-0"] 
[ECO "D20"] 
[EventDate "2012.11.17"] 
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nc3 { After the initial moves the game enters a Queen's Gambit Accepted. Normally 
3. Nf3 would be the right choice but instead, in the spirit of going for an attack I decided to try Nc3 
and accepted the isolated Queen's pawn for attacking chances should black continue with 
3. ...e5, as happened in the game. Since this doesn't prevent black playing the a6 and b5 manoevre
which retains the extra pawn, in hindsight 3.e3 may be the better way forward. } 3...e5 
4.e3 exd4 5.exd4 Nf6 6.Bxc4 Be7 7.Nf3 O-O 8.O-O Nbd7 9.Re1 Nb6 10.Bb3 h6 11.Nh4 { 
h6 felt like an invitation to explore the pin on the f7 pawn by the Biship on b3. 
So I played 11 Nh4 with the intention of Ng6 and putting pressure on the Black position. 
Ne5 would have been a safer continuation and would still have given an advantage. } 
11...Ng4 { Black chooses to mount a counter attack, but would have been wise to do something 
to prevent White's next move } 12.Ng6 Bd6 { Black continues with his counter by giving up a 
Rook for Knight and pawn and pressure on the White King } 13.Nxf8 Bxh2+ 14.Kf1 Qxf8 { Taking 
with the Queen instead of the King eases the pressure on the White King and allows White time to consolidate. } 15.Qf3 Bd6 16.Bf4 Bxf4 17.Qxf4 c6 18.Re2 Nf6 19.Rae1 Bg4 20.f3 Bh5 21.Qf5 Bg6 { 
White was already doing well, then Black allows the same pin he walked into on move 
10. Kh8 looks more sensible, bit now the game is more-or-less over. } 22.Qxg6 Nbd5 23.Qg3 
{ From this point the priority was ensuring no blunders to allow Black back into the game and 
secure a full point for Kent } 23...Qd8 24.Nxd5 cxd5 25.Re7 Qb6 26.Qe5 Qb5+ 27.Kg1 Rf8 
28.Qe2 Qb6 29.Qd2 Qd6 30.Rxb7 a6 31.Bc2 Qg3 32.Rb6 h5 33.Re2 h4 { Black hopes to 
complicate the position and take advantage of his well-placed Queen, but White holds all 
the Aces..... } 34.Qd3 1-0 
[/pgn]

In other news, last weekend, Lee Brockwell (captain of the Sidcup 3 side in the Fuller Cup) made his debut for Kent’s Under-100s. Although Lee won his game, it wasn’t quite enough as Kent slid to a narrow 5½ - 6½ defeat at the hands of Surrey.

David Gilbert