On friday august 17th a team of the Lancashire Chess Association challenged a team of FICS players. 3 rounds of 3 games were played, all games being 25 0. The Lancashire CA Team was lead by GM Keith Arkell, who recently qualified 2nd in the British Chess Championship, and included IM Malcom Pein, Howard Hughes and Chris Dunlop. Non playing captain was Carl Tillotson (Sonoftill on FICS).
The match had been previously organized as a rematch between the Lancashire CA and a chess.net team, the englishmen having triumphed last year by 5-3. This year chess.net has been unable to ussamble a team, and FICS was contacted as a substitution on august 14th. Even on such a short notice, the entusistic response of FICS users has allowed non playing captain frengo to assemble a very strong team including:

FICS Handle	FIDE Rating
IMStern	2477
neukku	2330
cormarc	2326
uvo	2313
nonspiego	2266
morphy	2245
RMG	2340 (UCSF)
alexeyl

First Round	Second Round	Third Round
Pein IMStern 0-1 nonspiego Hughes 1-0 Dunlop alexeyl 0-1	neukku Arkell 1/2 Pein cormarc 1-0 uvo dunlop 1-0	Arkell morphy 1/2 alexeyl Pein 0-1 Hughes RMG 1/2

Here follows one of the games commented by the player

1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. d4 cxd4 5. cxd4 e6 6. Nc3 Nxc3 7. bxc3 Qc7 8. Bd2 b6 9. f4 As far as I know, noone else is playing f4 here. I am not sure why, it looks quite natural, and I used it with great success, especially in rapid games. 9... Be7 10. Nf3 Ba6 Since the white pawns are standing on black squares, it is important for Black to trade off those bishops; otherwise, White can launch a powerful attack, for example 10... O-O 11. Bd3 Ba6 12. Be4 Nc6 13. h4 (threatens Bxh7+) h6 14. g4, followed by 15. g5, and I don't see how Black could survive. 11. Bxa6 Nxa6 12. Qe2 Qb7 13. O-O An inaccuracy. There are some weak squares in the white position, namely c4 and d5. To prevent Black from exploiting them, White has to play a4 and c4 sooner or later. But since there are no current threats against the white king, White should play 13. a4 immediately. 13... g6 Is this move really necessary? I don't think so. Maybe later on White could play f5, but not yet. Instead of g6, Black could play 13... b5. White can not allow Black to tighten his position with Nc7 and a6, so he should react immediately: 14. a4 b4 15. c4. After 15... f5, it is not clear to me who has advantage now. Note that White could have avoided the whole variation by playing 13. a4.

Position after 20. ... bxc5

14. a4 Nc7 15. c4 O-O 15... d5 16. exd6 Bxd6 17. f5! gxf5 18. Ng5 +/- 16. Rfb1 Since Black has weakened his king-side position by playing g6, White plans to trade-off his most important defender, the black bishop. 16... Qc6 17. Bb4 Bxb4 18. Rxb4 d5 19. Rc1 Qd7 While playing this game, I was afraid of 19... Na6 20. Rb3 dxc4. This leads to very interesting variations: 21. Rxc4 Qd7 22. Ng5 Kg7 23. Rh3 h6 24. Ne4 Nc7 25. Nf6 Qd8 Qe7 26. Rhc3 Nd5 27. Nxd5 exd5 28. Rc7 Qe6 29. Qc2 +/-) 26. f5! exf5 (gxf5 27. Rg3+ Kh8 28. Qh5 +/-) 27. d5 Ne8 (Nxd5? 28. Qd2 +/-) 28. Qd2 Rh8 29. Nxe8+ Qxe8 30. Qc3. I think White is winning here. 20. c5 bxc5? This opens a wonderful square for the white knight. Black is lost now. Black should have tried to defend passively with Rab8. 21. dxc5 Rab8 22. Qb2 Na6 23. Rb5 Rfc8 24. c6 Qe8 25. Nd4 Nc7 26. Rb7 White's position is playing itself. 26... a6 27. Rb1 Ra8 Of course, 27... Rxb7 28. cxb7 Rb8 29. Qb6 is hopeless. 28. Qb4 Qf8 29. Qd6 Ne8 30. Qd7 Ng7 30... Rd8 31. Nxe6! Rxd7 32. Nxf8 Rxb7 33. cxb7 Rb8 34. Nd7 +/- or 31. c7 Nf5 32. Nxf5 gxf5 33. Qd6 Qe8 34. Rb8 Kg7 35. Rxa8! (35. Rxc8? Rxc8 36. Rb8 Qxa4) Maybe there is an eternal check, maybe not. But White doesn't have to think about it. Rxa8 36. Rb8 Qxa4 37. Qf8+ Kg6 38. Qg8+ and Black resigns

 

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