Solutions:
1.Bc6!
1.Kf3!
Exeter Juniors 1-3 Exeter School 22nd May 2015
default 0-1 Leif HAFSTAD
Ethan HWANG 1-0 Henry COLEMAN
Felix WATTS 0-1 Redmond COLEMAN
Ned RICHARDS 0-1 Nick ARMSTRONG
In a close match, where many of the players relied for support on a
mysterious brown elixir, the visiting team had an early boost when the
home team top board didn’t arrive.
It looked as though the home team was going to score a rapid equaliser
when a mate-in-one appeared on board 3, but the opportunity passed by.
The material balance wobbled several times before Redmond found a
back-rank mate later in the game.
Some excellent aggressive play from both sides on board 4 was also
brought to a close when Nick spotted a snap mate.
In the best game of the match, Henry tripled down the e-file, pinning
down all of Black’s pieces. Ethan then sent his Queen off in search of
counterplay, but it became cut off from the e-file, whence White could
have delivered the fatal blow. But the Queen proved distracting
enough, and gradually Black unhooked the pin and exchanged off
into a Rook endgame. White then allowed a Rook exchange when Black had
a distant passed pawn, and the home team finally scored a point.
Games to follow.
Welcome to Yas and our special returning guest Mr.B!
A puzzle from Baker:
Pengxiao Zhu took part in the British Online Chess Championships in August, winning the U10 Blitz trophy and a Performance Prize for the U10 Rapidplay competition.
Many congratulations to Pengxiao from everyone at Devon Junior Chess!
Well, a loss for the juniors, but by the narrowest of margins, and
against a team who were a bit stronger than they looked on paper. A
couple of the Gambits players have had much higher grades in the past,
and in the end I think experience told.
Our first win! Even without the point from ‘super-sub’ Ray Shepherd, we had a draw in the bank, and that would have been a good result too.
So, well done all round. In both other games there was a big chance for our side early on – so make sure you think right from the start, don’t ‘warm up’ during the game!
{A bit of a tired performance by White: Black picked up pawns every few moves
and went into an endgame four pawns ahead. There were a couple of chances to
hit back, and the one on move 8 might have given a very different result.
Look at every check and every capture, every move!}
3. d4 is the move most likely to cause problems. Have a look at this page:
http://exeterchessclub.org.uk/content/lessons-philidors-defence
{Black never really got going and eventually forgot about a threatened piece;
White actually had a chance to win a piece on move 6!}
