12/03/2008 20:26

Somerset beat Devon by 9 points to 7 in a first team match played on 5th December 2004 whilst the result was reversed in the second team which Devon won by 10½ points to 5½

The selected games below (with the exception of the last two) have been annotated by Jack Rudd for which our grateful thanks.

Since this article has been published, one or two errors have come to light and have now been corrected.  The first is the score of the game Hewson - Purry which was not correct.  This has now been altered.

The second error was in the annotation of the game Cox - Rudd. after White's 24th move.  This annotation has been removed.

Our thanks to Dave Regis for bringing this to our attention and to Brian Hewson for supplying the correct score of his game.

Since these games were published a further error in a game score has come to light.  This affects the game Therrien - Chaplin.  The moves from Black's 25th move to the end of the game have been amended.  Our thanks to Peter Chaplin for bringing this to our attention.

(1) Cox,Michael S - Rudd,Jack [B07]
Somerset v Devon Village Hall, West Buckland, 05.12.2004
[Rudd, Jack]

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 c6 4.Nf3 A quiet line, allowing black a relatively easy development of his pieces.

4...Bg4 5.Be2 e6 6.Be3 d5 The apparent loss of tempi compared to a French Defence is illusory - the position of the bishop outside the pawn chain is worth the loss of time, and white's minor pieces are on nothing like their optimal squares.

7.exd5 [7.e5 Nfd7 allows black to break up the white centre very quickly with ...c5 or ...f6]

7...cxd5 8.0-0 Nc6 9.h3 Bh5 10.Ne5 The exchanges of pieces that result from this move don't really help white. It might have been better to play an immediate Na4, with the idea of c4 to come.

10...Bxe2 11.Qxe2 Bd6 12.Nxc6?! Bolstering the black centre. (12. f4) would shore up the knight on a strong square and give white reasonable chances.

12...bxc6 13.Na4 0-0 14.c4 Re8 15.cxd5 cxd5 16.Rac1 #

16...e5!? I thought this was a justified risk. The isolated pawn is weak, but passed, and the white minor pieces are horribly badly placed.

17.dxe5 Bxe5 18.Qd3! White prevents the threat of ...d4 and ..Bh2+ and blocks the pawn's further advance.

18...Qa5 19.b3 Ne4 20.Rfd1 #

20...d4!? Well, I don't know if this is objectively a good sacrifice, but the alternatives are clearly worse. [20...Rad8?? 21.Bd2 +-; 21...Nf6 Bd4 +/-]

21.Bxd4 Bf4 [21...Rad8 -my original idea- 22.Qe3 leads to little for black.]

22.Be3 If white doesn't do this, I'll pin the bishop with ...Rad8.

22...Rad8 23.Qf1 # [23.Qxd8 , bailing out into a level-material ending, may well have been safer.]

23...Ng3! 24.Rxd8 Qxd8 25.Qd1 [25.Qe1 Nf5 Qa6? Rxe3!]

25...Bxe3 26.fxe3 Qg5 At this point, white had 10 minutes left to reach move 40, black had 79.The important thing here was to keep up the pressure and hope white couldn't find a defence.

27.Qf3! Defending e3 thanks to my back-rank weakness.

27...h5 28.Re1 h4 29.Qg4 Qf6 30.Qf3 Qe5 #

31.Qg4? This may be the critical mistake, as my reply allows me to bring my rook into the attack with gain of tempo.

31...Qa5 32.Qd1 [32.Kf2 Qd2+ Rd1 Rxe3 Qxh4 Re1+ Rc1 Qd2 wins back the pawn, with my attack still raging.]

32...Rd8 33.Qc1 Rd2 34.Qc8+?! Bashed out instantly, but it only makes things easier for me. (Nc3!) still leaves me with work to do.

34...Kh7 35.Qc3 Qd5 36.e4 Qg5 #

37.Qe3? walks into a mate, but white's position is pretty far gone anyway. (Qf3 Rxa2) regains the pawn and leaves black with extremely dominant pieces.

37...Qxe3+ 38.Rxe3 Rd1+ 39.Kf2 Rf1# 0-1