2006 AGM

by Travers Waker

The Annual General Meeting was held at the club on Thursday night. Too many things were covered for me to mention all of them in this article, so I'll just touch on a few of them.

The club committee remains mostly the same, with only Neelu not available for re-election this year and me being the only new member.

The 2007 committee is:

President: John van Ryneveld
Treasurer: Otto-Carl Marte
Secretary: Daniel Glago
James Gaylard
Travers Waker

Charles de Villiers walked away with most of the silverware (Club Championships and Club Blitz Championships). Stephen Galleid was mentioned for winning a tournament during the year, while James Gaylard and John van Ryneveld shared the coveted top spot in the candidates section of the Club Championships, which should see them playing in the championship section next year.

After the meeting, a consultation game was played between Charles and a team consisting of me, John, James, Otto, Andrew and Daniel. Those who didn't want to join the consultation game played blitz.

Below is the consultation game. The comments and analysis are mine, so don't take them too seriously. Although I am far from qualified to analyse games at this level, I hope my effort will inspire some discussion about the game in the comments section of this article. Click on the word "comments" at the bottom of this article to read other people's comments and leave your own.

I've included the game in PGN format in the comments section, so you can cut and paste it into your favourite chess database program (probably Fritz for most of you) to make viewing and analysis easier. I haven't used a chess engine to analyse the game yet, so feel free to tell us what the chess engines think if you do let one loose on this game.


Charles de Villiers - Claremont Chess Club 07.12.2006

1.d4 d5 2.c4

James suggested that Black play the Slav. Impressed that he, like Kramnik and Topalov, knew the Slav, the rest of the team agreed.

2...c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bf5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 Some of the team were considering 5...cxd5, but the team's Slav expert wanted 5...Nxd5.

6.Qb3 We'd now reached the limit of our Slav expert's knowledge, so the Black team took a long time to decide on...

6...Nb6 7.Bf4 e6 8.e4 Bg6 9.Be2 Be7 10.0-0 0-0 11.Rfd1 N8d7 12.a4 a5 13.Be3



13...Bb4 A move proposed by Otto, but initially rejected by the team due to the response 14.Na2. Andrew pointed out that 14...Qe7 keeps the line alive, so we played it.

14.Ne5 I think this move came back to haunt Charles later in the game. After 14..Nxe5 15.dxe5, the opening of the d-file and the diagonal leading to the knight on b6 looks good for White, but giving up contorl of c5 gives Black some play, and the White pawn on e5 becomes a target.

14...Nxe5 15.dxe5



15... Nd7 This odd-looking move turns out to be quite strong, since the knight is now heading for c5. I think Daniel was the main proposer of it.

16.f3 Qc7 17.Na2 Nc5 18.Qc4? Better looking is 18.Qc2.

18...Nxa4



19.Nxb4? Again, 19.Qc2 would probably still have been better, forcing the knight back to b6. [ 19.Qc2 Nb6 20.Nxb4 axb4 21.Qc5 Nd7 22.Qxb4 If Black plays 22... Nxe5, White's dark-squared bishop runs riot. 22...Nxe5 23.Bc5 Rfd8 24.Rxa8 Rxa8 25.Bb6 ( 25.Bd6 Qa5!) 25...Qb8 26.Rd8+ Qxd8 27.Bxd8 Rxd8 28.Qxb7]

19...Nxb2 20.Qc3 Nxd1 21.Rxd1 axb4 22.Qxb4 Ra2 23.Bc4 Qa5 24.Qe7 Ra1 25.Rxa1 Qxa1+ 26.Kf2 Qb2+ 27.Be2 Ra8 28.h4 h5 29.g4 Ra2 30.Qd8+ Kh7 31.Qd3 hxg4 Black's flag fell. 32.f4 g3+ 33.Ke1 Ra1+ 34.Bd1 Bh5

Charles said "Yup, that's good enough." There was some undignified celebrating by the consultation team (possibly unwarranted too considering that their flag had fallen). Charles muttered something about a "crass blunder".

Claremont Chess Club Blitz Championships

by Travers Waker

11 players battled it out for the title of Club Blitz Champion at the club on Thursday. The format of the event was round robin (11 rounds with a bye replacing the 12th player) and the time control was 5 minutes per side. The players and their scores were:

Charles 10, Stephen 8, James 7.5, Daniel 7, Otto 6, Andrew 5, Mischek 4, Errol 3.5, Manuel 2, Jonathan 2, Grant 0.

There's a bit of uncertainty about some of the scores, so please leave corrections in the comments section if you spot an error.

The atmosphere was typical of recent club events - competitive during play, but with plenty of friendly, light-hearted chatter between games. Otto managed to work the chatter into some of his games as a surprise weapon, but I'm not sure that it paid off. Charles and Stephen (in that order) were favourites on account of their ratings and lived up to expectations.

As always, there were plenty of exciting games and positions, but since this was a blitz event, many were not recorded. I arrived late and didn't play in the event, but was presented with a puzzle to solve by James, Otto and Daniel as I walked into the main playing room. Here it is (not 100% the same, but the essential features of the position are the same). White to play and win.



I stared blankly at the puzzle for while, until Charles glanced over from the where he was sitting and stated that the puzzle was flawed, and there was no forced win for White. Others, who shall remain anonymous, insisted that there was, and one even asked Charles if he was willing to bet (money!) on the existence of a forced win for White. Betting against the chess analysis of the highest rated player in the room probably isn't the wisest use for one's money, and Jame... er..., I mean, Mr X, was lucky to walk out at the end of the event with his shirt on his back and his wallet only as empty as it was when he walked in.

Daniel was the first to spot what Charles was on about, followed shortly by the others, and the puzzle was quickly repaired by replacing the Black bishop on d7 with a knight.

Daniel also played an attractive miniature against Errol, apparently similar to the Fried Liver Attack.

Daniel Glago - Errol Bathurst

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.Nxf7 Kxf7 7.Qf3+ Ke7 8.Bxd5 Nd4 9.Qf7+ Kd6 10.Nc3 Nxc2+ 11.Kd1 Nxa1 12.Ne4#



James reached a zugzwang position as White against Manuel that looked like it could come from a textbook explaining the concept of zugzwang. I heard him chuckle as he played his move (b3, I think) and left Manuel with nothing but bad options.



Well done to Charles for adding the Club Blitz Champion title to the Club Champion title that he won earlier this year and to Stephen and James for taking 2nd and 3rd places respectively. Thanks to everyone who came to the event for making it a fun evening.

Simul vs Charles de Villiers

by Travers Waker

Reigning club champion, FIDE Master Charles de Villiers, gave a simultaneous exhibition at the club on Thursday evening (and a little bit of Friday morning). I believe it was this year's rendition of the traditional annual simultaneous exhibition given by the reigning club champion.

When play began, shortly after 8pm, 12 opponents faced Charles. They were:

Errol Bathurst
Oaitse Wally
Rodney Daniels
Andrew Fereday
Manuel
Travers Waker
Daniel Glago
Imran Banderker
Thebe
Otto-Carl Marte
Jonathan Walters
Rowland


Before the start, Otto got a few people to predict what the result would be. The aspiring Nostradamuses, and their predictions, were:

Andrew 11.5 - 0.5
Imran 11.5 - 0.5
Daniel 11.5 - 0.5
Otto 10 - 2

I'm assuming all those predictions were in favour of Charles.

Charles played White on all boards. It seems that he wasn't in a defensive mood, since a poll by Otto on move 16 returned the surprising result that only Errol had a piece on Charles's side of the board (i.e. on or beyond the 5th rank from Black's point of view), and only a pawn at that. On the left is a photo of the historically significant position:

The Thursday night crowd were in determined mood and Charles worked hard doing laps of the ring of tables set up in the main playing room. Eventually, Charles began to whittle down the field, with Andrew's risky, attacking style making him one of the first casualties. Errol's brave pawn was unable to save him and he also resigned after a long fight.

Otto was sitting between between Daniel and Imran in the ring and he reported that both of them were involved in exciting, unbalanced games. Charles won both games in the end, though, and the score was looking a bit one-sided until Otto forced a draw by repetition. By now it was getting late. Shortly after midnight, the only games still in progress were mine and Rodney's. Charles offered Rodney a draw, which was accepted. He then came over to my board and I asked if I was going to get such an offer too. The offer was made and I (wisely, I'd like to think) accepted.

After spending 4 hours on his feet and focusing on 12 games of chess, Charles could finally go home, undefeated. The score was 10.5 - 1.5 in his favour. Well done Charles and thanks very much for a fun and instructive evening.

Below are a few of the games, including the 3 draws. The diagrams have Black playing from the bottom (i.e. they are from Black's point of view). As always, feel free to leave comments about the games or any other part of the article.

Charles de Villiers - Daniel Glago
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nc3 g6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 a6 6.e4 d6 7.Be2 Bg7 8.Be3 Bd7 9.0-0 Nc6 10.Rc1 0-0 11.Nc2 Na7 12.a4 Ne8 13.Qd2 Nc6 14.Nd5 f5 15.Bb6 Qb8 16.exf5 Bxf5 17.Nd4 Rf7 18.Nxf5 Rxf5 19.Bg4 Rf8 20.Be6+ Kh8 21.Rfe1 Bf6 22.Rf1 Ne5 23.Bh3 g5 24.f4 gxf4 25.Rxf4 Rg8 26.Qe2 Bg5 27.Rcf1 Bxf4 28.Rxf4 Ng6 29.Rf7 e5 30.Qf2 Rg7 31.Rf5 Rg8

32.c5? Daniel thinks this was a mistake. I assume his reasoning is that after 32... dxc5 33.Qxc5 Qd6 Black has started freeing himself from the the cramped position he was in and can start making use of his material advantage. 32...Nf4? 33.Nxf4 exf4? 34.Qd4+ Ng7 35.cxd6 Qe8 36.Rxf4 Rf8 37.Rxf8+ Qxf8 38.d7 Rd8 39.Qh4 Rxd7 40.Bxd7 resign 1-0

Charles de Villiers - Imran Banderker
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 Na6 Imran avoids the main lines of the Modern Benoni. 7.f4 Nc7 8.Nf3 a6 9.a4 b6 10.Bc4 Bb7 11.0-0 Be7

12.e5 dxe5 13.d6 Bxd6 14.fxe5 Bxf3 15.Qxd6 Qxd6 16.exd6 Bd5 17.Rxf6 gxf6 18.Nxd5 Nxd5 19.Bxd5 Ra7 20.Bc6+ Kd8 21.Bh6 f5 22.Bg7 Rg8 23.Bf6+ Kc8 24.Re1 b5 25.Re7 1-0

Imran reflected on his loss a few days later:

"Contrary to popular belief my game was not as exciting as it was made out to be (not from my point of view anyway). It was unbalanced as I had tried to avoid the theoretical lines of the Modern Benoni. This game looks very bad from a theoretical standpoint as the innovation turned out to be dubious. I felt that white had a significant advantage throughout which was confirmed in a 5 second review by a chess program."

Charles de Villiers - Otto-Carl Marte
1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.Nc3 d6 5.d4 0-0 6.Nf3 c6 7.0-0 Bg4 8.h3 Bf5 9.Nh4 Bc8 10.e4 Nbd7 11.Be3 Qc7 12.Qc2 b6 13.f4 e5 14.fxe5 dxe5 15.d5 Ba6 16.Qa4 Bb7 17.Rac1 Ne8 18.b4 Nd6 19.Qb3 cxd5 20.Nxd5 Bxd5 21.cxd5 Qd8 22.Rc6 Nb8 23.Rc2 Na6 24.a3 Qd7 25.Rfc1 Rac8 26.Qd3 Rxc2 27.Rxc2 Rc8 28.Nf3 Rxc2 29.Qxc2 Nc7 30.Nd2 Ncb5 31.Qd3 Nd4 32.Bxd4 exd4 33.Nf3 Qb5 34.Bf1 Qe8 35.Nxd4 Qxe4 36.Nc6 Qe1 37.g4 Ne4 38.Qe2 Qg3+ 39.Bg2

39...f5 [39...Ng5 Daniel though this might be better...] 40.gxf5 Bh6 41.Qxe4 Be3+ 42.Kh1 Qe1+ Forcing draw by repetition. 43.Kh2 Bg1+ 44.Kh1 Be3+ 45.Kh2 Bg1+ 46.Kh1 Be3+ ½-½

Charles de Villiers - Travers Waker
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 0-0 6.Nf3 Ne4 7.Bf4 a6 8.Qc2 Nxc3 9.bxc3 Nd7 10.cxd5 exd5 11.Bd3 h6 12.0-0 Bd6 13.Bxd6 cxd6 14.c4 Nf6 15.cxd5 Nxd5 16.Qb3 Qa5 17.Rfc1 Rb8 18.Qb2 Be6 19.Nd2 b5 20.Nb3 Qb6 21.Qa3 Rfc8 22.g3 Ra8 23.Qa5 b4 24.Qxb6 Nxb6 25.Na5 Nd5 26.Kf1 Rc3 27.Ke2 Rxc1 28.Rxc1 Nc3+ 29.Kd2 Bxa2 30.e4 Kf8 31.f4 d5 32.e5 Rc8 33.Rc2 Nb1+ 34.Kc1 Rxc2+ 35.Kxc2 Na3+ 36.Kb2 Bc4 37.Bf5 Nb5 38.Nc6 ½-½ Draw agreed. I intended playing 38...a5. Charles thought he might respond 39.Bc2.


Charles de Villiers - Rodney Daniels
1.b3 d6 2.Bb2 Nc6 3.c4 e5 4.g3 Bd7 5.Bg2 Nf6 6.Nc3 g6 7.e3 Bg7 8.Nge2 0-0 9.0-0 Re8 10.a3 Bg4 11.h3 Bd7 12.b4 Qc8 13.Kh2 Ne7 14.d4 Nc6 15.d5 Ne7 16.c5 Nf5 17.Rc1 Qd8 18.Qc2 Rc8 19.Rfd1 Bh6 20.c6 bxc6 21.dxc6 Be6 22.Ne4 Rb8 23.Bxe5 Nxe4 24.Bxe4 Qg5 25.Bf4 Qf6 26.Bxh6 Nxh6 27.Nf4 Re7 28.Nd5 Bxd5 29.Rxd5 Rxe4 30.Qxe4 Qxf2+ 31.Qg2 Qxe3 32.Qb2 Qf3 33.Rd2 Nf5 34.Rc3 Qe4 35.Re2 Qd5 36.Qa2 Qb5 37.Qc4 Qa4 38.Qd5 Rb5 39.Re8+ Kg7 40.Qd2 a5 41.Qb2 axb4 42.Rf3+ Kh6 43.Qd2+ Kg7 Draw agreed. ½-½


If you played in the event and your game doesn't appear in this article, but you'd like it to, please leave the game in the comments section of this article and I'll move it into the main article later. Please also identify a position from your game that you would like to have displayed as a diagram. Some brief analysis of the game and your thoughts/ideas at various points in the game would also be interesting.

Western Province Team Blitz 2006

by Travers Waker

The Western Province Team Blitz Championships took place at the club on Tuesday evening. We managed to put together 2 teams, with 11 teams making up the field. The format was round robin, with a bye making up the even number of teams.

The Claremont teams for the event were...

Claremont A: Charles de Villers, Jacque Tsalicoglou, Stephen Galleid, Reggie Solomon, Andrew Fereday.

Claremont B: Mischek Bwalya, James Gaylard, L..., Errol Bathurst, Daniel Brandt, with me replacing James for the last 4 games. If you know who the "L..." was, please tell me in the comments section for this article.

Overall, the event ran pretty smoothly. It started late, finished very late, and it appeared that a good time was had by all. There were no significant disputes that I was aware of - quite remarkable for 275 games of blitz.

Charles was in fine form, scoring 10/10 on board 1! Also impressive was returning prodigal son, Jacque Tsalicoglou, scoring 9/10 on board 2. Ironically, his only loss was to another of those prodigal family members, Tinto Seotloadi, who will hopefully become a "returning" one too one of these days.

It was an important event for Steinitz, who were going for their 10th consecutive win in this annual event. However, both Stellenboch and Mitchell's Plain were able to finish ahead of them this year, with Stellenbosch taking the title. Claremont A finished a very creditable 4th.

Claremont B struggled, with their highlight possibly being their performance against the bye, which was as good as any team managed all night.

Stellenbosch featured the father and son pair of Sarel and Henry Steel. Jacque very modestly put Henry's loss to him, in the Claremont A vs Stellenbosch match, down to Henry having to focus on exams at the moment. I did spot Henry carrying around a folder of notes, which I presume was something for his exams - or was it his opening repertoire?

I tried to record a few of the games before I was drafted into the B team to replace James, who had to leave, but I found out that it's not easy to keep up with good blitz players banging out the moves machine-gun style. I managed to get Charles' first game, against Benny Levin, though. It's probably one that Benny would rather forget, but since it's the only complete game I have from the event, I'll include it here:

de Villiers,C - Levin,B [A90] WP Team Blitz , 07.11.2006

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 f5 4.g3 Nf6 5.Bg2 c6 6.Nh3 Bd6 7.Bf4 0-0 8.0-0 h6 9.Bxd6 Qxd6 10.Nf4 g5 11.Ng6 Rf7 12.Ne5 Rg7 13.Qc2 Bd7 14.Rad1 Be8 15.cxd5 cxd5 16.Qb3 Bc6 17.Nb5 Qe7 18.Rc1 a6 19.Nc3 Qd6 20.Na4 Nbd7 21.Nxc6 bxc6 22.Qb7



22...c5 Played after much thought (by blitz standards). 23.Qxa8+ Benny let out a disappointed grumble and shook his head. 23...Kh7 24.Nxc5 Nb6 25.Qxa6 Ne4 26.a4 Qb8 27.Nxe6 Re7 28.Rc6 Nc4 29.Nc5 Qf8 30.Nxe4 fxe4 31.Qc8 Nd2 32.Qxf8 1-0