Swale Chess Club on Thursday 7th July was the latest stop in our “Chess for Life” tour. While the German and French football teams battled for a place in the finals of the European Championship, more than 20 keen chess players gathered at the UKP Leisure Centre in Sittingbourne to discover the mysteries of Alekhine’s attacks and Keith Arkell’s endgames!
Matthew kicked off proceedings with a quick taster of an Alekhine theme: rampant knights roaming in unison all over the board!
After that, it was Natasha’s turn to demonstrate one of Keith Arkell’s wins, featuring such typical themes as exchanging the queens to safeguard the king, the Minority Attack in the Carlsbad pawn structure and Keith’s special way of creating a passed pawn in rook and pawn endgames.
Finally, Matthew rounded matters off with a demonstration of 2 wonderful attacking games: Morphy’s win against Count Isouard and Alekhine’s defeat of Bogolyubow in the 1st game of the 1929 World Championship Match. Matthew showed the parallels between both of these attacks and showed why Morphy’s and Alekhine’s attacks always seem to move faster than other people’s!
After some drinks, sandwiches and sausage rolls and some enthusiastic book buying, it got serious with a simultaneous display by Matthew while Natasha tried to solve a series of chess problems set by Steve Giddins!
The participants in the simultaneous display were: Ron Browning (at 88, Swale’s oldest club member), Trefor Owens, Tyrone Jefferies, Dave Barnes, Kevin French, Andrew Gillard, Keith Nevols, Steve Pike, Alan Evans, George Hollands, Karl Lewis, James Essinger, Rob Thompson and Ian Lappin.
All 14 games were hard-fought, but in the end Matthew conceded just one draw, a tough topsy-turvy fight with George Hollands in which Black was first clearly winning after a very sharp tactic, and then fighting hard to save the endgame after a few inaccuracies had allowed Matthew to escape. King vs King was a fair result!
We’d both like to thank Trefor Owens for organising everything so beautifully and for the lovely warm welcome we received! We also want to congratulate Trefor on the birth of his 6th grandchild, born on Thursday morning!
To finish off, a couple of games from the simultaneous. First of all, the draw with George Hollands:
Sadler,Matthew D – Hollands,George
Swale 7th July 2016
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bf4 c6 4.f3 Bf5 5.g4 Bg6 6.e3 e6 7.h4 Qb6 8.Rb1 h6 9.Nge2 Nbd7 10.Bg3 Rc8 11.Nf4 Bd6 12.Qd2 c5 13.Rh3 cxd4 14.exd4 Rxc3 15.Nxg6 Rxf3
16.Bxd6 Ne4 17.Qb4 Rxh3 18.Qxb6 Re3+ 19.Be2 Nxb6 20.Nxh8 Nxd6 21.Kf2 Re4 22.c3 Kf8 23.Bf3 Rf4 24.Kg3 Rf6 25.g5 Rf5 26.g6
26…Kg8 27.Nxf7 Nxf7 28.gxf7+ Kxf7 29.b3 e5 30.Bg4 Rf4 31.dxe5 Re4 32.Rf1+ Ke7 33.e6 Re3+ 34.Kg2 Rxc3 35.Rf7+ Kd6 36.Rxb7 h5 37.Bf5 d4 38.Rxa7 Re3 39.Rxg7 d3
40.Rg3 Nd5 41.Bxd3 Nf4+ 42.Kf2 Rxg3 43.Kxg3 Nxd3 44.a4 Kxe6 45.a5 Kd6 46.Kf3 Kc6 47.Ke4 Nc5+ 48.Kf5 Nxb3 49.Kg5 Nd4
½–½
Secondly another interesting game against a club mate from my old (or young!) Kent days: Dave Barnes
Sadler,Matthew D – Barnes,Dave [C44]
Swale 7th July 2016
1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 d5 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.cxd4 Nc6 6.Nf3 Nf6 7.Nc3 Bb4 8.Be2 Ne4 9.Bd2 Bxc3 10.bxc3 0–0 11.0–0 Nxd2 12.Qxd2 b5 13.a4 bxa4 14.Rxa4 Bd7 15.Rfa1 Rfe8 16.Bc4 Qh5 17.Ra6 Rab8 18.d5 Ne5 19.Nxe5 Rxe5 20.Rxa7 Qg6 21.Bf1 Qd6 22.c4 Rh5 23.g3 Bh3 24.Bxh3 Rxh3 25.Qe3 Rh5 26.Rb7 Rd8 27.Raa7 Re5 28.Qf4 g5 29.Qg4 Rd7 30.h4 Rde7 31.Ra8+ Kg7 32.Rbb8
32… h6 33.Rg8+ Kf6 34.Qh5 Kf5 35.hxg5 Ke4
36.Qe2+ Kd4 37.Qd2+ Ke4 38.Qe3+ Kf5 39.Qf3#
1-0
And lastly, probably the nicest game I’ve played in a simultaneous! Pawn, rook, knight and queen sacrifices leading to the win of a piece! Apologies to my opponent for all the diagrams, but there were some spectacular mates!
Sadler,Matthew D – Essinger,James
Swale 7th July 2016
1.e4 c5 2.b4 b6 3.bxc5 bxc5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Bc4 e6 6.Nc3 g6 7.0–0 Bg7 8.d4 Nxd4 9.Nxd4 Bxd4 10.Nb5
10…Bxa1 11.Bf4 Bg7 12.Nc7+ Kf8 13.Bd6+
13…Ne7 14.Nxa8 Bb7 15.Nc7 Bxe4 16.Qe2 Bc6 17.Rb1 Kg8
18.Nxe6
18…dxe6 19.Rb8 Nc8 20.Qxe6
20…h6
20…fxe6 21.Bxe6#
21.Qxc8 Qxc8 22.Rxc8+ Kh7 23.Rxc6 Re8 24.g3 Re1+ 25.Kg2 Bd4 26.Rc7
1–0