The O’Hanlon ended a run of 4-2 defeats with a 4-2 win to get their season properly underway.
Edit – Ronan Sweeney has passed on his game for inclusion, so the post has been updated for that!
Resuming against Inchicore 1-0 thanks to Ronan Sweeney’s nice win on Wednesday, a slightly weakened team still had more than enough for our hosts. Captain Eddie says he “left early” – plus ca change! – though this time, he only had a draw in the bag. Odhrán, who had been looking forward to not playing a 1700 like last time, only drew against his 1300-rated opponent, while sub Des lost on the bottom board.
Elsewhere though, Stephen had a comfortable win after picking up a number of pawns, while the second sub of the night, Finn, picked up what’s surprisingly his first ever win outside the Bodley in 4 attempts to round of the win.
Next up is a home game against Portmarnock on Wednesday week.
Ronan Sweeney v NN (Inchicore); 29 October 2014; O’Hanlon Cup
1. d4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. e3 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Bd3 Nf6 6. Nbd2 c4?!
This generally isn’t a great idea – white is aiming for an e4 break, which 6. … c4 doesn’t stop. In the meantime, black’s position may get more stuck without the option of taking in the centre.
7. Bc2 b5 8. 0-0 Be7 9. Qe2 a5 10. e4
White has achieved his aim. (Although I always find d4 openings funny – why strive to achieve the e4 break when you could just play it on move 1? 🙂 ) Curiously, Fritz prefers 10. ed here, but either way, white has an edge.
10. … 0-0 11. e5 Nd7 12. Nf1?! (D)
The idea is to play f4, but Fritz doesn’t like this. Its number one pick is rather counter-intuitive; it involves bringing two pieces towards the king in one go by way of a nice tactic – see if you can spot it before scrolling on!
12. Ne4! is the move. If 12. … PxN 13. QxP threatens mate on h7 and the knight on c6 – so white wins a pawn. After the text, Fritz starts to believe in black’s queenside play more.
12. … b4 13. f4 Ba6 14. Rf3
Fritz prefers ramming home the pawn with 14. f5 first.
14. … NxP!? (D)
An interesting sac which doesn’t quite work out.
15. BxP+
Fritz prefers taking the knight first and then saccing on h7.
15. … Kh8??
Black had to take, when the best that white can do is get perpetual (or enter a dead level continuation by taking back the knight). Instead, he’s in trouble now.
16. PxN c3??
Again, black had to take the bishop. Now he’s in even bigger trouble!
17. Bd3 PxN?? (D)
And now it’s mate in four.
18. Rh3+ Kg8 19. Rh8+! KxR 20. Qh5+ 1-0
20. … Kg8 is met by 21. Qh7#
It’s nice that in the final position, black has mate in two – if only it were his move!