Strength in Depth sees Warwickshire to Championship

Suffolk are Minor Champions ~ Surrey win Girls' event.

A thrilling finish to an exciting afternoon's chess saw an excellent Warwickshire team take the BCF Inter-County under 18 Championship at the Pingles Leisure Complex, Nuneaton. In an event which saw the lead change hands several times as the afternoon progressed, the Warwickshire team demonstrated the importance of a solid lower order as their bottom half managed 5½/6 to enable the Host County to finish 1½ points ahead of Cheshire & North Wales, who were just unable to keep pace with the Champions. Perhaps a sign of the times was the demise of Southern Counties' Champions Kent, who failed to win a single game below board 5, defaulted board 12 and who were never in contention, in spite of a magnificent 4½ from their top 5. Cambridgeshire had a difficult afternoon, their solitary winner being Ben Williams.

The early running was made by Essex. Their gift of a point from the Kent absentee on board 12 was followed by a draw in one of the other Essex-Kent games as Stewart Trent shared the point with Paul Richards. Robert Giddens beat Warwickshire's Tristan Cox before Graham Walker pushed Essex to 3½/4 at the end of the second hour's play. However, some of the other Essex positions were grim indeed. Andrew Bigg, the Kent board 4, was on the black side of a Tarrasch French against Julian Winkworth and Andrew won a central pawn. With the white king stranded in the centre, Julian was forced to exchange pieces in order to obtain a modicum of safety for his beleagured monarch, and lost further material. Two other Essex positions left a good deal to be desired: Heather Walker had launched a wayward queen sortie to the a-file when all of White's forces were clustered around her king on the other side of the board and it was a surprise that Ben Watson's win was not secured until the board had been cleared of all but the last pawn. Josiah Lutton was also in difficulties against Richard Mycroft's King's Gambit and, although Josiah eventually salvaged a draw around move 50, subsequent analysis proved the onlookers' surprise to be well founded: White had indeed missed 24 Qxc8 mate! Kyle Bennett eventually succumbed to a direct assault from Warwickshire's Marieanne Howard.

Shortly after the half-way stage, Cheshire & North Wales had taken up the challenge and reached 5 points from 7 games. There were three teams tying for first place at this stage as Essex were on 5/10 and Warwickshire had 5/9, but the remaining positions seemed to favour Warwickshire. Ezra Lutton had reached an unbalanced position against Ameet Ghasi and when Ezra's queen became lodged in the white half of the board it was probable that Ezra could have drawn by force. However, at this stage Warwickshire were on 7 to Essex's 5, and even though patient play by John Sneesby was soon to delivere the point on board 8 for Essex and put an end to Cheshire & NorthWales' challenge, a draw would not have been enough. It was at this stage that Arnold Lutton, the Essex team manager, observed, "Do you know, we are in the unprecedented position that we actually want Kent to win their two remaining games!" Peter Titmas duly obliged, but Matthew Noakes against Jonathan Blackburn was level throughout and the draw was agreed when it became clear that White would win Black's final pawn to leave K & R v K & R.

Meanwhile, the remarkable situation had arisen that the top four placings from the five teams depended upon the last game to finish and fittingly this was between the top boards from the two teams in contention. Essex needed to win to finish level with Warwickshire on points but ahead on board count, in which case Cheshire & North Wales would be third and Kent fourth. A draw would give Warwickshire the title and Essex would therefore share second with C & NW. In the event, a desperate time scramble ensued. Ezra forced White's queen back to f1 and then looked to be winning a pinned bishop. Accurate play by Ameet allowed his queen to sidestep the pin but in turn secure the bishop's safety with a pin on Black's f-pawn. Ezra used this brief initiative to capture the white a-pawn, but the absence of the Black queen from the king-side became the critical factor. With Ezra's flag beginning to lift for the second time it became clear that the attentions of White's queen and bishop were going to cost Black a rook, so Ezra resigned to give Warwickshire a thoroughly deserved Championship.

Team Scores with snapshots at time shown:-

Results

Minor Counties

With grading advantages on almost every board, it was perhaps not surprising that Suffolk won this match by a large margin. There were some spirited performances, particularly by the Hillman brothers who must be worth much more than their published grades.

Girls' Final

Surrey outgraded and outnumbered their opponents in a fairly one-sided match. Oddly, there were two members of the Staffordshire team whose brothers were representing other counties in the Major event.

Games.

Did you play an interesting game in this event? If so e-mail me

Sneesby,J - Hudspith,F [C62] 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6 4.0-0 Bg4 5.h3 h5 6.d3 a6 7.Ba4 b5 8.Bb3 Nd4 9.hxg4 hxg4 10.Bxf7+ Kxf7 11.Ng5+ Ke8 12.c3 Qf6 13.cxd4 Qh6 14.Nh3 Qh5 15.d5 gxh3 16.Qxh5+ Rxh5 17.g3 Be7 18.Kh2 Nf6 19.f3 Kd7 20.Be3 Rc8 21.Nd2 c6 22.dxc6+ Rxc6 23.Rac1 g5 24.g4 Rh4 25.Rxc6 Kxc6 26.Rc1+ Kd7 27.Nf1 Rh8 28.Ng3 d5 29.Nf5 Bd8 30.Bc5 dxe4 31.dxe4 Ne8 32.Rd1+ Kc8 33.b4 Bf6 34.Be7 Bxe7 35.Nxe7+ Kc7 36.Ng6 Rh6 37.Nxe5 Nd6 38.Rc1+ Kb7 39.Rc5 Kb6 40.Nd7+ Kb7 41.Rxg5 Rh7 42.Nc5+ Kc7 43.Rh5 Rf7 44.Rxh3 Nc4 45.Kg3 Ne5 46.f4 Nc6 47.a3 a5 48.g5 axb4 49.Na6+ Kd7 50.Nxb4 Ne7 51.f5 Nxf5+ 52.exf5 Rxf5 53.Kg4 Rf8 54.Rg3 Ke6 55.Nd3 Ra8 56.Nf4+ Kf7 57.g6+ Kg8 58.Kg5 Rb8 59.Kh6 b4 60.axb4 Rxb4 61.Nh5 Rb7 62.Rc3 Rb8 63.Nf6+ Kf8 64.Nd7+ 1-0

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