Surrey Trophy - Tuesday 28th Jan 2025
8 boards, Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall, Ashtead
Ashtead 2½ Epsom 5½
On 28th January, Epsom 1 ventured a few miles down the A24 to play local rivals Ashtead 1. Having lost several key players from their league winning campaign of the 2023/24 season, remaining in Surrey’s premier division has been the primary objective of the 2024/25 campaign. On paper, this tie with Ashtead could prove pivotal.
Several of Epsom’s higher board order regulars were unavailable, but season debuts for two titled players, Chris Briscoe and Natasha Regan, bolstered the team’s strength. We expected a strong showing from Ashtead with home advantage, where we anticipated having a slight rating edge on the higher boards, but the opposite on the lower boards. Our bottom three boards showcased three of Epsom’s talented juniors, whose combined age is well under 40.
Rising star Sachin Kumar is often embroiled in long, tactical and complex battles over-the-board, so much so that his father Raam hovering outside of the playing hall wagered that Sachin’s match would be the last to finish. Ironically, after about an hour’s play, all the pieces had come off and they were heading into a rook and pawn endgame with even material. Sachin’s opponent Patrick O’Mara offered a draw, which after some consideration, Sachin accepted.
Young Lev Razhnou has a handy habit of despatching his opponents with relative ease, so much so that he has raced into Epsom’s first team within months of making his ECF debut. He has recently been facing stronger opposition and this match was no exception, being paired against the experienced Ashtead captain, Bertie Barlow. Lev was offered a draw in the early-middlegame, but with typical fighting spirit, he declined, sacrificed a pawn and began manoeuvring his pieces towards his opponent’s king. Unfortunately, partly due to time trouble, his opponent managed to weather the storm, came out into the endgame materially up and duly converted.
Celebrated chess author and pundit WIM Natasha Regan was making her season debut and was black against Jonathan Hinton in the Two Knights Defence variation of the Italian game: 1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. Ng5 Ne5. White sacrificed a pawn in the opening, and after nine moves, we arrived at the below position with Natasha up two pawns, but likely giving one back at some point.
To my eye, this position looks double-edged, where white looks to have an advantage in development in return for the material sacrifice. White here played the very natural looking 10. Qxd4 to reduce the material deficit. This harmless-looking move allowed black to catch up and indeed overtake in development and just three moves later, we arrived at the position below:
Here, white played 14. g3 to defend h2. Black continues by planting the light-squared bishop on h3 to ensure the white king is rooted to its starting square for the foreseeable future. White is in a world of trouble here with no counterplay in sight. After a further 12 moves, Natasha had continued piling pressure on white who decided to call it a day in a final position down a pawn and bishop for nothing. An excellent tactical display by Natasha.
Former British Champion FM Peter Lee (who returned to competitive chess in the summer of 2023 after a mere 60 years away from the board) was on the white side of a French Defence, 1. e4 e6 2. d3 against James Allison. Peter commented “I had great success with 2. d3 in my playing days, but not today”. The game continued with accurate play by both sides, neither offering any serious chances to the other.
The game continued 17. e5 Rb8 18. Red1 Qc8, where Peter provided the following commentary: “Here or on the next two moves I should play Ne4, aiming to infiltrate on Black's kingside dark squares with a small advantage”. The game however continued down a different path, before a mass exchange, leaving black a pawn up, but with opposite-coloured bishops, there was no way to progress and a draw was agreed.
IM Graeme Buckley, who has been a stalwart of Epsom 1 for several years now, had the black pieces in a complicated game against veteran Phil Brooks, where try as he might, he was unable to create a winning advantage against Ashtead’s top board, and a draw was agreed.
CM Chris Briscoe avoided any typical mainline theory with the striking 1. h4?! – not the first time he has essayed this. I didn’t manage to see much of this game, but it looked wildly complicated throughout, and at some point Chris won a pawn against his similarly-rated opponent, Dan Rosen, and managed to convert.
Epsom’s rising star Maya Keen was playing with the white pieces against a similarly-rated opponent, Jon Eckert. After opening with 1.d4 e6, the position soon transposed into an offbeat variation of the Dutch, where it looked like black had made some inaccuracies which gifted the initiative to white, whilst also struggling to complete his development. The position was complicated, but after a series of exchanges, we arrived in the position below after 21…h6:
Allowing black to capture the knight on g5, trade the queens and take the pawn on h5 was an inspired decision (and the top computer move). Black was under serious pressure from this point, both on the board and on the clock. The game continued, and Maya continued to press. We arrived at the below position after 30. Rxd6+:
Under time pressure and on the board, black played the blunder 30…Kg7?? At this point, black stopped the clock to inexplicably lodge a complaint that Maya had not been writing moves on her scoresheet. A debate ensued, with the Ashtead captain offering a draw as a potential solution, which made no sense and was immediately declined. There was no evidence that Maya had not been updating her scoresheet, as was presented to both the captain and opponent. After some time, black decided not to continue with his complaint and resigned, although he still believed he had been wronged in some way and did not offer a congratulatory handshake. This was an unusual situation and left a particularly sour taste of poor sportsmanship, especially given the timing of the claim. Nonetheless, Maya played an excellent game, was never in trouble and found a very impressive attacking idea. It is such a shame that her moment of glory was taken away by her opponent.
Meanwhile, oblivious to the controversy, Epsom’s President Extraordinaire Marcus Gosling was battling in a rook and pawn endgame as black, which resulted from the increasingly-fashionable Korchnoi/Tartakower variation of the Caro-Kann. He was facing a familiar opponent in the form of Tom Barton, who he had met several times over the past year in rapid events. Tom has also played for Epsom 2 this season as a multi-club player – he is a nice chap and we are delighted to have him at our club. It was a tactical battle throughout the middlegame, after black managed to equalise, with Marcus’s a-pawn marching up the board to disturb white’s queenside:
The game continued from here with black winning an exchange, before giving it back later and continuing into the rook and pawn endgame below:
It was late by this point, and this was the only game still in play, with the match result already decided in Epsom’s favour. However, Marcus was determined to make his opponent sweat and disprove the adage that ‘all rook endings are drawn’, even though this one was clearly heading that way. There were several strong players in the room, and a sense of “when are these two going to agree a draw?” was palpable. Fortune favoured Marcus however, as with both players playing on little more than increment, white somehow made a disastrous blunder, allowing black to trade rooks and get his king in front of his pawn. White was kicking himself, but all credit goes to Marcus for keeping the pressure on.
Overall, this was an excellent 5½-2½ victory for Epsom 1, leaving us in a comfortable third place in the league, almost certain to secure our place in Surrey’s top division next season.
Puzzle Answers
1) 17. e5!
2) 22. g4!