Our Sidcup 2 team played their third match of the season against Lewisham 6 which ended up in a 2-2 draw, gaining our first point of the season. It was a bit disappointing as we were hoping for a win.

Ken Grist (playing on board 4) was the first to gain a half point in drawing with Martin Stone. Then Leon performed what is becoming a guaranteed act on board 2 and won a point for us. Then, unfortunately, Dennis lost in a hard match against Delroy Bennet. The last match to finish the evening was the closest and most exciting when Ken Smith (playing against Michael Knight) gained the draw we needed on the night for our first point of the season. Playing black, he was in a winning position but time was running out for him and the flag on his clock was seconds away from falling therefore losing the match but by repeating a position 3 times, the game ended in a draw. I am sure that if the time had not been a factor, he would have gained a full point for us.

The game started in an unusual Queen’s Fianchetto opening after move 5 for both players. I can only find 1 other game played out of a 4 million game database which was played in 2002 by Navis as white and Poobalasingam as black, who went on to win in 33 moves.

I attach part of the game between Ken and Mike taken from Ken’s move list but unfortunately because he was in time trouble at the end, the score is not complete and the moves only can go to move 35. After that, he did manage to get the pawn on d4 home to be a queen and rook up at the end with having to swap his other rook for white’s queening pawn on b8. At the end, he was up a queen and rook against a bishop and knight with pawns being equal, but the three white pawns covering white’s king were stopping black from winning.

Play online chess

PGN Notation:

[pgn height=400 layout=horizontal autoplayMode=none] 
[Date "2012.11.10"] 
[White "Knight, Michael"] 
[Black "Smith, Ken"] 
[Result "1/2-1/2"] 
[ECO "A50"] 
[PlyCount "71"] 
[SourceDate "2012.11.10"] 
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Bf4 Be7 4. e3 O-O 5. Nf3 b6 6. Be2 Bb7 7. O-O d6 
8. Nbd2 Nbd7 9. Qc2 c5 10. Bd3 h6 11. Rfe1 Ne8 12. a3 f5 13. b4 Nef6 
14. Bg3 Nh5 15. d5 Nxg3 16. hxg3 exd5 17. cxd5 Bxd5 18. Bxf5 Nf6 19. e4 Bf7 
20. b5 Qc7 21. Rac1 Qb7 22. a4 Rad8 23. Nh4 Rfe8 24. Ng6 Bxg6 25. Bxg6 Rf8 
26. Qc4+ Kh8 27. f3 Nd7 28. Qd5 Qxd5 29. exd5 Ne5 30. Bh5 Nd3 31. Rxe7 Nxc1 
32. Rxa7 Rf5 33. g4 Rxd5 34. Nc4 Rd1+ 35. Kh2 d5 36. Nxb6 1/2-1/2 
[/pgn] 

[pgn height=400 layout=horizontal autoplayMode=none] 
[Event "BCF-ch Major op"] 
[Site "Torquay"] 
[Date "2002.08.01"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Navias, Andrew"]
[Black "Poobalasingam, Peter"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A45"]
[BlackElo "2030"]
[PlyCount "66"]
[EventDate "2002.07.29"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "ENG"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2007.11.25"]
1. d4 e6 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. e3 Be7 4. c4 O-O 5. Nf3 b6 6. Bd3 Bb7 7. Nbd2 c5 
8. O-O d6 9. Qc2 Nc6 10. Rad1 Nb4 11. Qb3 Nxd3 12. Qxd3 cxd4 13. exd4 d5 
14. cxd5 Qxd5 15. Qc4 Qxc4 16. Nxc4 Ba6 17. b3 Rac8 18. Rc1 Nd5 19. Bg3 Rfd8 
20. Rfd1 b5 21. Ne3 Nc3 22. Re1 Ne2+ 23. Rxe2 Rxc1+ 24. Re1 Rdc8 
25. h3 Rxe1+ 26. Nxe1 Rc1 27. N3c2 Bb4 28. Nxb4 Rxe1+ 29. Kh2 Bb7 
30. f3 Re2 31. Kg1 a5 32. Nd3 Rxa2 33. Bf4 Bd5 0-1 
[/pgn]

Keith Thompson