Round 7 (Sunday November 4th -

I didn't guess right again, this time we were paired against Luxembourg, and what an absorbing and fluctuating struggle it turned out to be.

Wales (38) 2 - 2 Luxembourg (37)
1. Richard Jones FM 2327 (B) 1 - 0 F. Berend IM 2344
2. Tim Kett 2257 0 - 1 S. Brittner FM 2274
3. Charles Morris 2198 1 - 0 J-M. Weber 2248
4. John Trevelyan 2191 0 - 1 P. Gengler 2195

Games in the order they finished (without having analysed them), though I might not have time to do them full justice.

Having lost in the 1st 3 rounds (the 3rd game rather heavily), then not having played for 4 days (the bye, rested by myself, the rest day, rested by Charles' own wishes), there was no doubt that this was going to be a stern challenge for Charles. To his credit Charles had worked very hard during those 4 days, and today he elected to play the Tarrasch against the QGD, probably a very good choice under the circumstances, as B's long term weaknesses are compensated by active play, a very positive approach from Charles. After 8 or 9 standard moves, W seemed to be struggling for a coherent plan, whilst Charles continued to improve and activate his pieces further. W exchanged his own 'a' pawn for B's 'd' pawn, in theory a favourable exchange, but Charles just kept pressing forward and crashed through elegantly along the 7th rank and down the 'e' file. A nice game and a test of character for Charles, which I'm very pleased he passed with flying colours.

Richard's opponent played the in vogue anti-Sicilian line 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5, with W having a minimal advantage for some time. To cut a long story short, W converted this into a (same colour) bishop and 6 pawn ending, where he was comprehensively outplayed by Richard. Well played again.

John's game transposed into a Hedgehog system, where both players were content to move pieces around their own halves for more than 20 moves. W's ideas include a k-side pawn push, whilst B builds up for a b5 or d5 pawn break. B eventually achieved the latter and was perhaps slightly better, but after a few more exchanges a number of moves later, things went wrong for W and John won a pawn (R + N + 5 v R + B + 4). At this point Richard won, and he came back to the hotel thinking the match was over. Alas not, John gave back his extra pawn to create winning chances with a passed 'a' pawn and 2 v 3 on the k-side, however he allowed his K to get awkardly placed. He would still not have lost but for a momentary lapse where he put his rook on the wrong square, allowing B a mini-combination to win W's N, otherwise he would be losing the rook to a bishop fork. John fought on, but to no avail. Chess can be a cruel game and I have great sympathy for John following his efforts throughout the game.

Tim's game was a French Winawer (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4) where Tim played an unusual early c4, resulting in W conceding a pawn. Tim did well to create good counterchances, but in so doing allowed his pawn structure to become very weak. Tim pressed hard down the now open 'g' file in a Q + 2R position, but B held on, then started playing against the weak pawns. Both pairs of rooks came off, to leave a Q + p ending, where W was still his 1 pawn down, and well as he did to put up rearguard action, not aided and abetted by literally having to play '30 second' moves, Tim succcumbed in a Q + 2 pawns v Q + none position.

So you can say we were a bit unlucky not to get to 2.5 to get 2 mtach points (1 each for a drawn match), but great fighting spirit was shown by the players.

As for tomorrow's pairing, your guess is as good as mine (!), as the situation is complicated by the bye, and by Cyprus now being 2 match points adrift. We could downfloat to them, or downfloat to Scotland (one of the 2 teams on 3 points), or play one of the teams who are on 4 match points as ourselves, but one of them has to have the bye ..... I'm going for a drink (!), but rest assured we're ready and raring to take on whoever we're paired against tomorrow.


Stuart Hutchings
Captain, Wales