David Helps won his game for Sidcup in the Harvey Cup last week. That in itself should be no surprise. David’s unbeaten run in the Kent League stretches back to February 2009. That’s coming-up for four years. During that period he has played19 games winning ten and drawing nine, while his ECF grade has risen from 102 to 143. On Wednesday night the game begun as a Four Knights Symmetrical English but soon transposed into a sort of Tarrasch Defence. In the middle game David playing Black loses a pawn, but gains some compensation by placing his dark squared Bishop on the long a1-h8 diagonal. David gradually creates activity for his Rooks, establishes a Rook and Bishop on the second rank, and marches his c pawn down the board. With David in complete control, he misses a mating combination at move 48, but the long route is still winning and his opponent eventually resigns a Queen down.

David Helps

PGN

 [pgn height=400 layout=horizontal autoplayMode=none] [Event "Chislehurst v Sidcup"] [Site "Chislehurst"] [Date "2012.12.05"] [Round "2"] [White "Thomas, Peter"] [Black "Helps, David"] [WhiteElo "146"] [BlackElo "142"] [ECO "D33"] [Result "0-1"] 1.c4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 e6 5.Bg2 d5 6.cxd5 exd5 7.d4 Be6 8.O-O Qd7 9.Ne5 Nxe5 10.dxe5 d4 11.exf6 dxc3 12.Qxd7+ Bxd7 13.bxc3 O-O-O 14.Rb1 b6 15.fxg7 Bxg7 16.Bb2 Bb5 17.c4 Bxb2 18.cxb5 Rd2 19.e3 c4 20.a4 c3 21.Be4 h6 22.Kg2 Re8 23.Bc6 Rxe3 24.Bf3 Re5 25.h4 Rc5 26.g4 Rc4 27.Rfe1 Rxa4 28.Re8+ Rd8 29.Re2 Rc4 30.Rbxb2 cxb2 31.Rxb2 Rc5 32.Be4 Kc7 33.f3 Rd4 34.Kg3 Kd6 35.Kf4 Rcc4 36.Kf5 Rb4 37.Rxb4 Rxb4 38.Kf6 Rxb5 39.Kxf7 a5 40.Kg7 h5 41.g5 a4 42.Kf8 a3 43.g6 a2 44.g7 Rc5 45.Bg6 Rc8+ 46.Be8 a1=Q 47.g8=Q Qf6+ 48.Qf7 Qxf7+ (48. ... Qh8+ 49.Qg8 Rxe8+ 50.Kxe8 Qxg8#) 49.Kxf7 Rxe8 50.Kxe8 Ke5 51.Kf7 b5 52.Kg6 b4 53.Kxh5 b3 54.Kg5 b2 55.f4+ Ke4 56.h5 b1=Q 57.h6 Qg1+ 58.Kf6 Qg8 59.f5 Qh7 60.Ke6 Qxf5+ 61.Ke7 0-1 [/pgn]

David Gilbert