Round 3 (Tuesday October 30th)

Games

As predicted in round 2's report, another tough draw.

Wales (38) - Switzerland (28)
1. Richard Jones FM 2327 (B) 0 - 1 Y. Pelletier GM 2609
2. Charles Morris 2198 0 - 1 F. Jenni GM 2511
3. Alan Spice 2170 0 - 1 J. Gallagher GM 2497
4. John Trevelyan 2191 0 - 1 R. Ekstroem IM 2478

Games in the order they finished (without having analysed them)

Charles played a King's Indian g3 system, with about a dozen moves of standard theory, then seemed to come up with a dubious idea of 'un-developing' his c3 knight to b1 to move the Bishop from b2 to c3. Black just ignored this and continued his play on the k-side, with White's king becoming rather exposed. Black then sacrificed the knight on a5 to create a decisive breakthrough against the king with White's q-side pieces still in a tangle, including the knight still on b1 (and a rook on a1).

Alan played the Guimard variation against the former British champion's French Tarrasch (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nc6) and an intricate manoeuvring game ensued, with Black holding the balance even though his king's rook and bishop were still undeveloped. With all the play going on on the a/b/c files W was starting to put some pressure on and seemingly winning material. Alan thinks he may have resigned slightly prematurely, but White was certainly making significant inroads.

John had played his opponent in the same competition in 1989, but Ekstroem was then playing for Sweden (!). John played his stock response against the Benoni/Benko, and his opponent transposed the game into a Caro Kann Panov-Botvinnik Attack (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.e3 cxd4 4.exd4 d5 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nf3 Bg4). Rather than play the critical Qb3 line, John kept things steady, but in doing so conceded Black a slight initiative. John subsequently liquidated into an ending by moving his pawn to d5, but this proved awkward for White, initially against the 2 bishops (I've said that a few times in these reports !), then with a weakened k-side against better placed pieces. Black finished neatly.

Richard played many theoretical moves in a Classical King's Indian, but in his own words (well I've to paraphrase them actually !) got the move order wrong by playing f4 too early. Very unusual for Richard, and his accomplished opponent remorselessly pressed on on the Q-side before Richard's k-side counterplay had really materialised. White won a pawn, then exploited a multiple pin against Black's knight on d7.

So after 3 rounds we unfortunately still haven't got on the board, but what score should one realistically have expected having played 9 GMs and 3 IMs. We are going out for drink now (don't worry we're still having a good time !) on the (99%) assumption we will get the bye tomorrow.

It's disappointing that this situation has arisen in the Championship, but we have to accept it, and when we play again in round 5 it would be nice if we could commence our 'mini-tournament' against the other 4 bottom rated teams mentioned in my preliminary report. To us that will be the crunch, and that's when we will need to be at our best to at last score some game, and hopefully some match points.


Stuart Hutchings
Captain, Wales