Surrey Trophy - Tuesday 17th Feb 2025
8 boards, Epsom Christian Fellowship, Epsom
Epsom 1 4-4 Kingston 4
On a chilly evening in mid-February, Epsom 1 hosted the formidable league leaders Kingston 1 in the Surrey Trophy (Division 1). We had struggled to fill our team, with several regulars being unavailable for a variety of reasons. We were aware that Kingston were also missing two of their strongest players, however they have strength in abundance, so we knew that this was going to be a difficult task. Indeed, Epsom were outrated on every board, with the gap widening lower down the order.
Kingston won the toss and took white on the odd-numbered boards. As suspected, Board 2 was an all-Lalić family affair, in the form of IM Susan Lalić versus CM Peter Lalić. This was the closest game of the match in rating terms, with Susan benefiting from the white pieces. After a brief skirmish in the opening, a draw was soon agreed between mother and son.
On Board 8, Ollie Thompson was making his Epsom 1 debut playing John Foley, who outrated Ollie by over 300 points. With Ollie playing with the white pieces, we saw a Caro-Kann Defence, Tartakower variation – a favourite of the Kingston president. This was a topsy-turvy game with chances for both sides out of the opening, with Ollie holding his own against a strong opponent. After 14 moves, we arrive at the below position with white to play:
Ollie opted for 15. Rde1, which would eventually lead to a queen trade and black marching his a+b pawns into white’s queenside with a healthy advantage and putting white on the defensive. Ollie continued to fight valiantly and forced a trade of pawns and pieces which eroded most of black’s advantage. After 45 moves, the position had further been consolidated with white a pawn down in an endgame:
By this point both players were short of time and had stopped recording moves. Black clearly has an advantage here and can put pressure on white, but objectively, it is not necessarily a winning position for black. In practical terms though, white must play incredibly accurately to hold as it looks very difficult to stop black’s f+g pawns marching up the board. In the time scramble, black was able to get his pawns rolling and eventually convert. Nonetheless, Ollie gave a great account of himself and ran his opponent right down to the wire.
Similarly, on Board 7 saw me, Epsom 1 captain James Pooler, playing with the black pieces and a 300-rating point deficit against the experienced David Rowson. The opening was an Italian Game by transposition, which saw both sides castle early and white start to press for an advantage. Knowing that I was up against it, my strategy was to try to avoid making any significant weaknesses for my opponent to exploit. After 16 moves, we arrive at this position:
Clearly, black is playing passively, however it is unclear how white should continue. In this position, white played 17. f5, a move I was very pleased to see. At the time, I thought this prevented white from playing Nf5 at some point and created a long-term target in the form of a backward pawn on e4.
The game continued and I was able to generate some counterplay by navigating my queen to h4, a move which my opponent said after the game that he had missed. I felt that I had gained the initiative and put my opponent on the back foot in an uncomfortable position. Of course, it is still very complicated with so much material remaining on the board. Black continued to apply pressure and we come to this position:
This move creates multiple threats to white, with …Bc5+ looming, as well as simply winning the e4 pawn. At this point, I thought I had all the threats, with white’s pieces largely tied to protecting key defenders. White pushed my queen and knight around in an attempt to consolidate, further weakening his kingside.
After 31 moves we get to this position with black to play. After 31…Nf2+, I couldn’t see any defence for white, and indeed my opponent resigned after 32. Kh2 Bd6+ 33. Ng3 Nxg4+.
This was a crucial victory in the context of the match, but also on a personal note as it is the best win that I have had in classical play.
Meanwhile, directly to my left, a hungover Marcus Gosling was continuing his quest of achieving a 2000 ECF rating, playing white against the strong Jasper Tambini. Marcus played the Réti Opening, which soon developed into chaos. From my vantage point, it did not look good for the Epsom president, as we arrived in the below position:
White’s dark squared bishop looked like its days were numbered after black played 13…g5.
The game continued as white traded the bishop for knight, and lost on of his doubled g-pawns. White’s position after this exchange was looking rather unpleasant, as he would be left with a pawn on g3, whilst having open f and h files and doubled pawns on the e-file. I feared the worst when glancing over at that point.
Despite appearing rather forlorn, Marcus was undeterred. In this position, he sacrificed his light-squared bishop with 19. Bxd5 in favour of activity, with the idea of planting his knight on f6 and loading up his rooks on the h-file.
This concept created a pesky distraction for black, who had to spend several moves defending and forcing trades as the initiative shifted to Marcus.
A few moves later, in the below position it appears that black has emerged up a bishop, however white has created some very scary looking threats against h7, with the imminent Rh6 looking rather ominous.
Three moves later, black activated his rook (the wrong one, as it turned out) and gave a series of checks, and in the process sac’d his queen. However, black had lost all control over the position, with Marcus being able to manoeuvre his king to safety, firstly on e3 and then on the queenside. Black resigned a queen down with mate looming. A remarkable practical turnaround from Marcus, congratulations!
Chris Wright was playing the black pieces against Peter Hasson, who also held a rating advantage. The game began with an English Opening, which Chris defended in a more off-beat manner. Black managed to equalise out of the opening without too much trouble and began advancing his queenside pawns into white’s territory. White countered meanwhile by pushing his kingside pawns up the board towards Chris’s king.
There were very few chances throughout the game and after a mass exchange, we eventually reached this position. There was no way for either side to progress, so after two repetitions of the position to the left, a draw was agreed.
Having looked at the computer analysis, both players played very accurately, with Chris defending well and creating effective counter-play to nullify any of white’s ideas. Well done Chris – a valuable draw with the black pieces against strong opposition.
Robin Haldane had the black pieces and a 200-point rating deficit against the adventurous Mike Healey. I didn’t manage to access the scoresheet for this one, but from recollection, the game flew out of the opening and into an endgame, with white having a R, B + 6P to black’s R, N + 6P. It looked like an even game, but white was able to exchange some pawns, and press his central pawns up the board, crippling black’s knight with his dominant bishop. Black found himself in zugzwang and was forced to resign, despite still being level on material. Hard luck, Robin.
The 1965 British Champion, FM Peter Lee was playing with the white pieces against talented teenager Luca Buanne, who is on an impressive run of form and has recently exceeded 2200 in rating. I didn’t manage to get hold of a scoresheet for this game either, however it looked as though Peter was a pawn down in the ending but managed to hold his opponent to a draw after reaching R v N + 2P.
By this point, the score was 3.5–3.5 with Epsom having put up a courageous effort against their strong adversaries. Now just Board 1 remained in play, with IM Graeme Buckley playing with the black pieces against the formidable CM David Maycock. Graeme has generously shared some detailed analysis of his match, which was a Sicilian Defence.
“…white has just played 20. Ne4. This was a move I expected because it attacks a rook. Interesting how our brains work. Stockfish has 2.00 by keeping the N on g5 which is where it came from. It's attacking the black king so one can see that this is where it belongs. Here Stockfish sees a tactic. 20. Bg6 Rg6 21. Qc7 Nc7 22. Nc6!
Chess is all about tactics, not openings. If one can analyse forcing moves, which is all this variation is, one will become stronger.
My worst mistake of the game according to the engine evaluations, albeit not an obvious one, was my failure to play 21...Rf4 0.40 (and stop Ng5). This gave him his advantage back. I played 21...Qf4+ allowing 22. Rd2 which pins his rook, but everyone can see that the Qs will be exchanged and then the f2 pawn will be defended. So, this is why 22. Kb1 was played, but was not best. After 22... Rf8 23. Ng5 Qxg3 24. hxg3 Rf2 25. Nh7 Ne5 could follow, and black finds himself -0.50!”
“But I had a passive position for some time until it got tactical, and I reached the next diagram.
I have just played 42...Nc8 and he could have replied straightforwardly with 43. Rxf7 Rxf7 44. Nxf5. Note the order in which white should take on f7 – very instructive. No fancy exchange sacrifices required but maintaining the pin one more move to force 44...Kf8 45. Bxf7 Kxf7 46. Rc1 and white's R and N are both better than black's and knight forks must be avoided, so 46...Kf6 47. Nxg7 gives white a pawn (and he still has the open file) 2.00. I think this is game over.
43. Rde1 was unnecessary and allowed 43...Rb6 (which I did not play) with a probable draw. One last chance for white came next.”
Note: David had under 1 minute to calculate the above, whilst Graeme had around 3-4 minutes]
“45. Nc6 and 45. Ne6 are both on the cards, but which one? With seconds left, he chose the weaker one. It just goes to show you need time on your clock. 45. Ne6 wins because in the R + minor piece ending, it turns out that white can quickly push his a + b pawns and promote. It's not about white trying to win back a pawn with R to the sixth rank – just push. In some variations, the e + f pawns advance but then all the pieces are exchanged and white promotes first (or uses his K to stop black's pawns). Black's K is too far away from the a-pawn.
(Apologies, my reconstruction may not have been exactly right so if you see David Maycock's moves, you might well get different move numbers but the diagrams above were reached.)”
After this subtle last miss from white, Graeme was able to consolidate and head into a R + 4P versus R + 4P ending. Unbeknownst to the players who were both playing on little more than increment (definitely Graeme, presumably also David who had been in worse time trouble throughout), the result of the match hinged on the result of this final game.
The position on the board looked drawn, and Graeme duly offered this, but David quickly declined. Both players continued to blitz out moves, with white continuing valiantly to make progress. Two pawns were exchanged, with both players able to get their rook in behind the other’s pawns. Finally, after any realistic chances of a win for either side had been extinguished, the players started to repeat moves and a draw was agreed. With that, both teams shared the match point with a 4-4 draw overall.
This was a performance for Epsom to be proud of, showing great fighting spirit up against very strong opposition, all but guaranteeing our safety in Surrey’s premier division for another season. Kingston meanwhile edge closer to regaining their crown.
Puzzle Answers
1) 15. Bxe6!
2) 24. d5!