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.