Last Thursday, our Fuller team started the same way as they finish off last season with a good win playing away to Gravesend 5.

The evening began well with Ken Smith (115) playing on board 1 and whom could not quite replicate his good win at the end of last season managing a draw with Lee Phillips (126).

Lee Brockwell (playing on board 2) (109) never looked like losing after coming out of the opening with a very strong central pawn formation and had a good win over Peter Belka (119) (See attached game).

Then Keith Thompson (93) played a strong game and was never in any serious trouble when his opponent - Paul Loadsby (76) - made blunders on move 17 and 18 and allowed Keith to trap his Knight on the edge of the board. From then on, it was only a question of time when Keith wanted to take this Knight, managing to finish the game with a win after losing a won position for the Harvey team a few weeks ago (see attached games).

Our newest member of the team - Sarah Walker-Buckton (97) - fought well and went down against the astute John Fowers (115) only resigning when John had a much superior endgame and passed pawns which Sarah could not stop.

[Gravesend v Sidcup 3 - November 2014

PGN

[pgn height=400 layout=horizontal autoplayMode=none] [Event "Fuller"] [Site "?"] [Date "2014.11.14"] [Round "?"] [White "Thompson, Keith"] [Black "Loasby, Paul"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C48"] [WhiteElo "93"] [BlackElo "76"] [Annotator "Thompson,Keith"] [PlyCount "75"] [SourceDate "2005.07.14"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Bc5 5. d3 d6 6. h3 h6 7. Nc3 O-O 8. Re1 Bb4 9. Bd2 Nd4 10. Nxd4 exd4 11. Ne2 Bxd2 12. Qxd2 c5 13. c3 dxc3 14. Nxc3 a6 15. Ba4 b5 16. Bb3 b4 17. Ne2 d5 $4 18. e5 $1 Nh5 $4 19. g4 $1 Qd7 20. Rac1 ( 20. gxh5 Qxh3 21. Bxd5 Rb8 22. Rac1 Qxh5 23. Ng3 Qh4 24. Rc4 Qe7 25. f4) 20... c4 21. dxc4 dxc4 22. Qxd7 Bxd7 23. Bxc4 Rfe8 24. f4 Be6 25. gxh5 Bxh3 26. Bd5 Rad8 27. Bf3 Re6 28. Red1 Rf8 29. Rc7 g6 30. Rd6 Rxd6 31. exd6 gxh5 32. Bxh5 Kg7 33. Nd4 Kf6 34. Kh2 Bf1 35. d7 Rd8 36. Nc6 Rg8 37. d8=Q+ Kf5 38. Qxg8 (38. Rxf7+ Ke4 39. Qd4#) 1-0 [/pgn]

PGN

[pgn height=400 layout=horizontal autoplayMode=none] [Event "Sidup V Gravesend"] [Site "?"] [Date "2014.11.15"] [Round "?"] [White "Lee Brockwell"] [Black "Peter Belka"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E14"] [WhiteElo "109"] [BlackElo "119"] [Annotator "Brockwell,Lee"] [PlyCount "75"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. d4 e6 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nf3 c5 4. e3 b6 5. Nc3 Bb7 6. d5 Be7 7. e4 d6 8. Bd3 e5 9. O-O Bc8 10. h3 Na6 11. a3 (11. Bc2 Nb4 12. Ba4+ Bd7 13. a3 Bxa4 14. Qxa4+ Qd7 15. axb4 Qxa4 16. Rxa4) 11... Nc7 {From here it seemed to be decision time as to whether go for a king side attack or queen side. Fritz thinks Queen side is best, but I went for a King side} 12. Ne1 O-O 13. f4 Nd7 14. Nf3 Re8 15. Be3 Bh4 16. Ne2 {Fritz thinks that was a pretty poor move anything was better but f5 the best} Bf6 17. f5 Nf8 18. Ng3 Bh4 19. Nxh4 Qxh4 {struggled to choose from Qf3 Kh2 and a slighly riskier Nh5. I went with my orignal plan when taking the bishop which was Qf3. Fritz says NH5 is much better, as the Black queen can then be driven back with Bf2 and h4 after Qg5.} 20. Qf3 Nd7 21. Rf2 Qe7 22. Raf1 f6 23. Qg4 Nf8 24. Qh4 Ba6 25. Nh5 b5 26. b3 {Fritz says either cxb followed by swapping white bishops or just ignoring the threat with Rf3. But I took the cautious route.} bxc4 27. bxc4 Rab8 {Rb3 is now a threat but felt Rd1 would be enough to hold things long enough for my attack to become serious. Fritz still saying Rf3 rg3 is the way to go.} 28. g4 {I think that is an error by black I guess intention was to make the square available to the Knight but Fritz says its equivilant to losing a piece if played accurately from here.} Red8 29. g5 Ne8 30. Rg2 Kh8 31. gxf6 gxf6 32. Rf3 Nd7 33. Rfg3 { Threatens mate with Rg8} Qf7 34. Bh6 Bb7 {I was really struggling at this point to find the killer move that one knows should exist in this type of position, but only had 3 minutes for the next 2 moves to make the time control. Fritz says Qg4. but again played a cautious move to make the time control.} 35. Bg7+ Nxg7 36. Rxg7 Qf8 {Phew time control made. Now I had 15 minutes left to find the mate that had to be there somewhere. It took a couple of minutes but finally I saw it.} 37. Rxh7+ $1 Kxh7 38. Nxf6# $1 1-0 [/pgn]

PGN

[pgn height=400 layout=horizontal autoplayMode=none] [Event "Harvey"] [Site "Sidcup"] [Date "2014.10.17"] [Round "?"] [White "Thompson, Keith"] [Black "Martin, Jo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B00"] [WhiteElo "93"] [BlackElo "99"] [Annotator "Thompson,Keith"] [PlyCount "105"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] [SourceDate "2005.07.14"] {Its Monday morning and I am still smarting over this loss suffered on Friday I came out of the opening quite Ok with a very strong attack and for got all the things I had been working on over the summer.} 1. e4 b6 2. d4 Bb7 3. Nc3 e6 4. Nf3 {This opening was Ok with me it gives me a strong centre noe I have to protect it.} Bb4 5. Bd3 Nf6 6. O-O {Perhaps not the correct move Qe2 might be better but still OK.} Bxc3 7. bxc3 Nxe4 8. Bb2 $2 {not the correct move Qe2 was much better} O-O 9. Re1 Ng5 10. Ne5 {Nd2 may have been better but I wanted him to play d6 and then d5 to block his Bishop on b7 in.} d6 11. Nc4 d5 {He has done what I wanted him to do now he has a very bad Bishop that is out of the game for a while.} 12. Ne5 Nd7 {Here I do not want him to play NxN and make me play pxN then he can play d4 and his bishop would be very strong again. } 13. Nxd7 Qxd7 14. Qh5 Ne4 15. f3 Nf6 16. Qh4 {I thought my position here was perhaps better than it was although I am a pawn down I thought I had a strong attack going my Bishop neede to go to c1 and then both my Bishops would be pointing towards his king} a5 17. Re5 h6 18. Bc1 Qd8 $4 {should have been blacks losing move.} 19. Bxh6 g6 (19... Ne4 20. Qg4 Qf6 21. Be3 Qg6 22. Qxg6 fxg6 23. fxe4 dxe4 24. Bxe4 Bxe4 25. Rxe4) (19... gxh6 20. Qxh6 Ne4 21. Rh5 Qg5 22. Qh7#) 20. Bxf8 $4 {not the best move here Bg5 was much better I did consider it but thought the after Kg7 the attack was over.} ({missed this much better move} 20. Bg5 $3 {gives me a winning game} Kg7 (20... Nh7 21. Bxd8) ( 20... Nh5 21. Bxd8) 21. Qh6+ Kg8 22. Bxg6 fxg6 (22... Re8 23. Bxf6 Qxf6 24. Bh7+ Kh8 25. Qxf6+ Kxh7 26. Qxf7+ Kh6 27. Rh5#) 23. Qxg6+ Kh8 24. Bxf6+ Qxf6 ( 24... Rxf6 25. Rh5#) 25. Rh5#) 20... Kxf8 {from here black played the ending very well} 21. Qh6+ (21. Qh8+ Ke7 22. Qh4 Kf8) 21... Ke7 22. Qg7 (22. Qg5 Kf8 23. Bxg6 fxg6 24. Rxe6 Kf7 25. Rae1 c5 26. Qe5 Nd7 27. Re7+ Qxe7 28. Qxe7+ Kg8 29. Qxd7 Kf8 30. Qxb7 Re8 31. Rxe8+ Kxe8 32. Qxb6) 22... Qh8 23. Qxh8 Rxh8 { Still should have won from this position although it was not so easy} 24. Rae1 Bc8 25. g4 Nd7 26. Rxd5 Bb7 27. Rb5 Bxf3 28. Be2 Bxe2 29. Rxe2 Rh4 30. Rg2 Nf6 31. g5 Ne4 32. Rb3 Rh5 33. c4 Kd6 34. Rb5 Kc6 35. Re5 Nd6 36. d5+ exd5 37. cxd5+ Kd7 38. Rge2 Nf5 39. Rg2 Nh4 40. Rf2 Nf5 41. Rg2 Nh4 42. Rg3 Nf5 43. Rg4 Rh3 44. c4 Ra3 45. Rg2 Nh4 46. Rf2 Nf3+ 47. Rxf3 Rxf3 48. Re4 Ra3 49. Re2 Rc3 50. Re4 Rc1+ 51. Kf2 Rc2+ 52. Kf3 Rxa2 53. h4 0-1 [/pgn]

Keith Thompson