Cavendish II vs Cavendish I

Cavendish I won the traditional season opener against Cavendish II by 8½-3½. However, the score hides the fact that many of the games were very hard-fought. Some in-depth post-match anaylsis revealed that at least one of the decisive games could easily have been reversed while only John Cox's lucky rabbit's foot saved the game for him after a piece went astray against Julian Farrand. Results below:

If anyone would like to send me a game from this, or any other match, we'll get it included on the website. In the meatime, and in response to the numerous enquiries I had along the lines of "What went wrong in your game?", I have included an analysis of what went wrong in my game below.

Many thanks to all who played in the match. Good luck to all Cavendish teams in the coming season!

Piper, M

Wright, D

A Polish Defence had worked very well for Black. White had emerged from the opening with weak a- and c-pawns and had lost them both around the 30-move time control. Two pawns up with a bishop versus a knight should surely be an easy win?! What I still find surprising is how easily I threw the win away! 32.Kd3 d5? [32...Ne5+ is an ugly move, doubling Black's pawns but may be the simplest route to victory, as pointed out by John Cox after the game. After 33.Nxe5 dxe5 34.Nd2 Kf8 35.Nc4 Bc7 36.Kc3 Ke7 37.Kb4 Kd7 38.Kc5 e4 White will eventually be zugzwanged into allowing either the Black king to advance or the Black bishop into his position winning the White pawns, e.g. 39.Nd2 f5 40.Nc4 g5 41.Nd2 (41.Kd4 Kc6-+) 41...Ba5 42.Nc4 Be1-+] 33.e4 Bxf2 34.exd5 exd5 35.Ne7+ Kf8 36.Nxd5 Black's pieces are uncoordinated and the a6 pawn is hard to defend. 36...Ne5+ 37.Ke2 Bg1 38.Kf1! Posing Black difficult problems despite being in severe time trouble. The obvious 38.h3 lost to 38...Nc6 and 39...a5 and the a-pawn is safe. 38...Ba7? [38...Bxh2! still would have posed far more difficult problems for White and is possibly still winning for Black. An interesting endgame would have arisen after 39.Kg2 Bxg3 40.Kxg3 Nc6 41.Nc5 a5

If White defends passively by blocking the a-pawn he will lose. While the endgame with knight versus three conected pawn on the kingside is a draw if the pawns are short of the 5th rank, the drawing technique involves sacrificing the Knight for the f- and g-pawns leaving a drawn K+P endgame. With the extra Knights and the a-pawn that technique no longer works. So White must try and win the a-pawn: 42.Nb6 Ke7 43.Nc4 f5 44.Nb3 when Kf6 45.Nbxa5 Nxa5 46.Nxa5 g5 47.Nc6 reaches a theoretically drawn position. So Black must try 44...a4 45.Nc5 g5 46.Nxa4 h5 47.Nc5 Kf6 when I suspect the extra pair of knights makes the position winning for Black although I haven't found a definitive answer.] 39.Nb4 [39.Nc7? a5 40.Nxa5 Bb6-+] 39...Nf3 40.Kg2 Nd4 41.Nxd4 Bxd4 42.Nxa6

If Black had an extra e-pawn and White an extra f-pawn this position would be winning for Black as he can create a passed e-pawn and eventually pick-up the g- and h-pawns. Here, however, any passed f-pawn just gets taken by the White knight (assuming the g-pawns get exchanged) leaving the wrong-coloured rook's pawn. Maybe the endgame would have been winning on the other side of the board. 42...Ke7 43.Nb4 Ke6 44.Kf3 Kf5 45.Nc6 Be5 46.Ne7+ Ke6 47.Nc6 f5 48.Na5 Kd5 49.Nb3 g5 50.h3 h5 51.Nd2 Bc3 [51...g4+ was again a better try but White can still build a fortress, e.g. 52.hxg4 hxg4+ 53.Kg2 Kd4 54.Nf1 Kd3 55.Nh2 Bd4 56.Nf1 and Black cannot shift the White knight from f1 and h2.] 52.Nf1 Bd4 53.g4! Ke5 [53...fxg4+ 54.hxg4 h4 55.Nd2 Be5 56.Ne4 Bf4 57.Nxg5 Bxg5 and it's a draw as the bishop is the wrong colour.] 54.Ng3 [54.gxh5 Kf6 55.h6 Kg6 56.Ng3 f4 57.Ne4= was also good enough] 54...fxg4+ 55.hxg4 h4 56.Ne4 h3 57.Nxg5 h2 58.Kg2 Kf4 59.Kxh2 Kxg4 ½-½

An interesting endgame. Danny defended very well, especially given how short of time he was. In fact, his play seemed to improve considerably once we reached the quickplay finish. A place in next year's Summer Rapidplay team awaits! Drawing an endgame from two pawns up is becoming something of a habit for me having done the same in the 4NCL last season. In fact, a couple of years ago I found myself in an endgame three pawns up in the London League only to lose all three to separate knight forks. Tricky pieces knights!