The first team went to Lewisham on the 28th Oct for their second fixture in the En Passant league, with a slightly different team to the first match.

Lewisham fielded quite a weak team based on grading, for some reason, so we were heavy favourites on paper. However 3 of their team were estimate grades, and these tend to under estimate the opponent.

Anyway despite things not looking at all clear for a long way into the match we came away with a convincing 5.5 to 0.5 win.

Ken Smith got in front on material early on, but then conceded the advantage. However he eventually won convincingly.

David Gilbert and David Helps played solid games and eventually ground out a good wins.

This left Robert, Ian, and Gary. Robert’s game was very interesting, in that he deliberately allowed his queen to be trapped, but was convinced he’d picked up enough material on the way to that to be in front. I can’t say I agreed with that view and nor did others, however surprisingly Fritz does agree with his view, although the handling of his position from that point had to be played very accurately. Which he did. However I was convinced that he could have saved his Queen by giving up a piece, and Fritz also agrees with this, and he could have won the game far easier than he did.

I’ve attached the game and my analysis comments below. It’s worth a look if only to become familiar with Blacks very odd opening, which despite 3 pawn sacrifices, would have been in front if he’d played the correct move following Robert’s unorthodox QF3. Ian’s game caused great controversy after his flag fell at the first time check, and neither player had recorded the last moves to know if 35 had been reached. There was also a further dispute about whether the clock was faulty, and the flag had fallen early. In the end Ian refused the offer of a draw and the game was replayed and the missing moves recorded to work out if 35 moves had indeed been played. It turned out that 35 moves had been played and Ian was safe. He then went on to win the game, playing the end game accurately, and making a very late night of it.

Gary eventually agreed a draw to a game which was very locked up by pawns. He had the better position, but unfortunately any way to open things up just played into his opponents hands and equalised the game.

So we now stand as  - played 2, won 1, Lost 1.

PGN Notation

[pgn height=400 layout=horizontal autoplayMode=none] 
[Event "?"] 
[Site "Bexleyheath"] 
[Date "2015.10.29"] 
[Round "?"] 
[White "Pezet"] 
[Black "Hamilton"] 
[Result "1-0"] 
[ECO "B01"] 
[Annotator "Brockwell, Lee"] 
[PlyCount "59"] 
[TimeControl "240+2"] 
{500MB, Fritz13.ctg, Lee-PC} 1. e4 {[%emt 0:00:00]} d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. dxe6 Bc5 5. exf7+ Kxf7 {Interesting opening from Black. Oddly Fritz has white only winning if NF3 is played at this point, which is not the move played next. } 6. Qf3 {Following this move white is now down over 4 points. However I suspect its not a move Black is familiar with given later moves.} Re8+ 7. Be2 Bg4 {NC6 was better} 8. Qxb7 Bf5 9. Nc3 {White has now recovered after a couple of poor black moves} Ne4 10. Qxa8 Nxc3 {With intention of playing Be4 after knight taken, winning the Queen} 11. bxc3 {White blundered here, Qf3 was the game winner. Some 6.5 points better than the move played. Not only does it save the Queen but it pins the white bishop. When watching the game I was very surprised it wasn't played, as it seemed the only move, but looking at it now it's even better than I thought.} Be4 12. Qxe4 Rxe4 13. d4 Bxd4 14. cxd4 Qxd4 15. Rb1 Nc6 16. Be3 Qc3+ 17. Kf1 Qc2 18. Rc1 Qxa2 19. Bf3 Rxe3 20. fxe3 Ne5 21. Ne2 a5 {Black needed to play Qd2 here to get back into this} 22. Rd1 a4 23. Kf2 a3 24. c5 Qb2 25. Rhf1 c6 26. Kg3 {Kg1 was better} Ke7 27. Nd4 Qb8 28. Nf5+ Kf6 29. Nd6 a2 {Another blunder by black Nxf3 was much better} 30. Bd5+ {Resigned} 1-0 
[/pgn]

Lee Brockwell