There were 11 Benildus players in the field of 126 at the Leinster Championships in Malahide at the weekend, and between us we came away with a grading prize and the small matter of two of the three Leinster Champions.
In the Senior, Tim was our sole representative, and he ended up with his target of 50%, albeit that he got a horrible draw, largely against progressively younger players. Starting with a draw against Alex Goss, he drew with Utkarsh in round 2 and beat Danny Dwyer in round 3. That earned a brief respite against a 2150 over from Canada, which ended in defeat, before finishing off with a defeat against Conor Nolan and a win over Sanjay Menon. The Canadian aside, the other five put together were only slightly older than Tim!
In the Intermediate, we had just myself and Vjekoslav. We both had wins against 1400s to start off with – although I was lucky, being -3 at one stage before reaching a dead level ending which I managed to win – and then both drew when seeded in round 2. I then beat Vjekoslav’s round 2 opponent, while Vjeko lost. That set up strong finishes from both of us; Vjekoslav won his next two and drew the last to end on 4/6, missing out on a grading prize on tie-break. I drew with the top seed – agreeing a draw in a position where we both reckoned we were slightly worse, after I’d sacced earlier – and then beat a 1350 in round 5 (a first ever match against the French Wing Gambit) before meeting the overnight leader in the final round, who had lost round 5. He had been 1100 in January, and was now up to 1600, and a win against me would see him up to 1750 or so – so this was a tough enough game to finish on. This is one to share, as even Fritz likes it!
Seán Murphy (1601) v Kevin Burke (1654); Leinster Championships – Intermediate round 6; 07/05/18
1. d4 e6 2. c4 f5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. Nf3 d6 6. 0-0 0-0 7. Nc3 Qe8 8. Re1 Ne4 9. Qc2 NxN 10. QxN a5
All fairly normal stuff so far. I thought 10. … a5 stopped the e4 advance, but it doesn’t – white can give up the exchange and get a rake of pawns instead after 11. e4 d5 12. ed Bb4 13. Qb3 BxR 14. NxB ed 15. BxP+ Kh8 16. Bf4 Qe8 17. Bxb7. But maybe I bluffed my opponent a bit here; the theme of the Bb4 skewer can be a threat against the Dutch, and so my opponent backed off.
11. Qc2 Nc6 12. a3 e5 13. d5 Nb8 (D)
I’ve got pretty much everything I could ask for from the opening. With the centre locked up, white should attack on the queenside while I go for the king. But white’s next couple of moves are too slow, and this gives my attack a headstart. The c5 break is an idea for white here, though it remained unplayed throughout.
14. b3 Qh5 15. Rb1 g5
Charge!
16. e3
Creating lots of juicy light-squared weaknesses around his king. Black isn’t winning here; just slightly better. But already the game feels like it’s tipping black’s way. 16. h3 was a more resilient try.
16. … Nd7
I wasn’t entirely sure which pawn to push, so I just moved another piece over towards the king instead. The knight is headed for f3.
17. Qe2 g4 18. Nd2 e4 19. Bb2 Bf6 20. h3 BxB 21. hg?? (D)
Somewhere around here, white goes seriously wrong – but it’s not entirely clear where. Fritz thinks black is maybe +0.5, but when you play its recommended move for white, it says “Oh yeah”, and the score jumps to +1.5. It appears 21. hg is the decisive blunder, opening up the h and f-files; 20. BxB RxB 21. h4 would be a bit tougher to crack as the en passant capture isn’t on.
21. … fg 22. RxB Ne5
Another light-square weakness presents itself – Nd3, winning an exchange, is now a threat as well. Fritz is now scoring +3.5
23. NxP Nf3+ (D)
+8.7 now. The more Fritz looks at the position, the more screwed it thinks white is.
24. Kf1
24. BxN PxB 25. Qf1 Bh3 26. Qd3 Bg2, and the infamous Dutch LSB decides. 24. Qd3 – to keep a defensive eye on f1 – fails to the simple 24. … Bf5, and the knight is pinned and will be lost next move.
24. … Qh2 25. Qd1 Qg1+ 26. Ke2 QxB
I realised straight after this move that I could have won more material with 26. … NxR 27. QxN QxB – but Fritz actually prefers this move. The knight on f3 is better than the rook on e1, although white would probably have resigned after losing a rook.
27. Rh1 Ne5 28. Qd4 (D)
Hanging the rook, though white’s position was desperate anyway. And it allowed me to finish with a computer-like finesse.
28. … Qf3+!
The exclamation mark isn’t needed here really, but I like that Fritz scores this 11 points better than simply taking the rook (albeit that +19 and +30 are both easy wins). The point is that white’s king has nowhere good to go, and so black can keep up the pressure. 29. Ke1 or Kf1 and the rook falls with check, while after –
29. Kd2 QxR
– white now has to stop Nf3+, forking king and queen, giving black time to pummel more pieces down. And so instead, white resigned. 0-1
This left me in the outright lead on 5/6, with two players on 4/5 playing on board 1. This game ended in a draw almost two hours after my game had ended, which confirmed me as outright champion – though I could have been saved a lot of waiting as black had offered a draw around move 15, but white, who had earplugs to keep his concentration, didn’t hear the draw offer! But the game was quite symmetrical throughout, and a draw always did appear the most likely result. My final-round opponent pipped Vjekoslav to the grading prize; €400 was my reward, which I think is my biggest pay-day to date.
In the Junior, we had 8 players in total – and the same outcome. Kavin, Ben and Yubo all made it to 2/2, and while Ben drew round 3, Kavin and Yubo won to go to 3/3. In round 4, they played each other on board 1 – Yubo got off to a great start, being positionally and materially better by the early middle-game, but then hung a piece later on and managed to lose with 14 minutes more on his clock than he had started with! Kavin won round 5 as well to guarantee second place at worst – having not played anyone above 1000 in an U1400 section! – but for a long time in the final round against a 1280, it looked like second was what he was going to have to settle for, after having to give up an exchange to try alleviate the pressure he was facing. The game then reached Q+2 v Q+5, with one pawn on d6, supported by the queen. But queen and pawn endings are tricky, and after Kavin’s opponent loosened his king position, Kavin was able to start checking. Somehow, he won three pawns back, including the one on d6, and was now left with Q+2 each, though his opponent had now (white) pawns on g5 and h5. Then, somehow, his opponent walked into mate in 1, and Kavin was outright winner with the only 6/6 score across the whole tournament, having beaten three of the other players in the top five. €300 was his earnings for the weekend, and when this and the leagues are rated, he’ll be up to 1300 or so.
One of those in the top five was Yubo, who ended with a win against the second seed, 1350, which I presume was on time as he was a rook for queen down! Ben, Zhengjin, Eric and Joe all scored 3½; Ben lost his last two to drop back after a good start, Zhengjin was Patrick Brozynski’s victim this time (though Yubo took a draw), and Joe’s only two defeats came against 1280s. A half point further back were Robbie and Venkat, though Robbie was a piece up in his last game before walking into mate.
So overall, quite a successful tournament – €760 earned, nobody below 50% and a good few rating points gained across the board. If only they could all be like this!