London Calling (From Bucks Free Press)

London Calling

1:02pm Thursday 5th January 2012

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The London Junior Championships take place every December at the Northwick Park campus of the University of Westminster. With the different age groups split across two periods either side of Christmas, they are arguably the most formidable test on the entire junior calendar. This is primarily because everyone there has had to qualify from various preliminary tournaments that occur from September onwards. 3½/6 is good enough to qualify for any of the Minor events, whereas 4½/6 qualifies you for the Major and the chance to compete for the titles. As the name of the tournament would suggest, only London-based players are eligible for the London age group crowns, but the prestige of winning the tournament is open to anyone.

By national rating, the two strongest active players in the county at the moment are Hans Hansen of Aylesbury and Steve Dishman of Wycombe & Hazlemere. Hans is the current Chairman of the Bucks Youth Chess Association and is doing well to fly the flag in the wake of esteemed predecessors like Paul Basham, Brian Lacey and Bill Hughes. Both took on the role of supportive father and coach during the tournament as William Claridge-Hansen and Matthew Dishman fought for the Under 14 and Under 10 titles respectively.

Absent from the Under 12s, which was won by his perennial rival Matthew Wadsworth of Berkshire, William recovered from an early setback to finish tied 2nd with Wadsworth on 4½/6. William is ranked 4th for his age in the country and will have two further opportunities to win the Under 14s. His younger brother Douglas competed in the Under 10 Minor and scored 2/7. Scoring 50% in a London final is a mark of competitiveness on a national scale, and that's exactly what Matthew Dishman achieved in the Under 10 event.

Bucks so nearly had a winner in the Under 10 Minor. Sean Cohen stormed to 5/5, drew in round 6, but still found himself half a point clear of six others on 5/6 going into the final game. Sadly he lost and was overtaken by four others to finish tied 5th with 5½/7. Nevertheless, a magnificent performance.

Sean's last round opponent Harrison Willmoth also has a very strong chess-playing father. In the Middlesex League last season, I had a fascinating struggle with him. This game was played on board 3 in the Muswell Hill - Hendon derby.

Phil Makepeace - Rob Willmoth 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 The Pirc system, characterised by black's first two moves, is a quiet way to meet white's aggressive setup while maintaining counter-attacking opportunities.

3. Nc3 c6 4. a4 Qa5 5. Bd2 e5 6. Nd5 I quite liked the look of the positions that followed, so I took an early opportunity to relieve the pressure on d5 and e4.

6... Qd8 7. Nxf6+ Qxf6 8. Nf3 Bg4 9. Bc3 Nd7 10. Be2 Bxf3 11. Bxf3 Be7 12. Bg4 An attempt to exploit the bishop pair. And, frankly, designed to annoy black as much as possible.

12... Nf8 13. O-O h5 Fair enough. 14. Bxh5 Qh6 is horrible so I'm pretty much forced to shove the bishop into an outpost. However, black is now almost certainly not going to castle so I can start building plans around the destruction of the centre.

14. Bh3 g5 15. Bf5 Ne6 16. d5 Ng7 Having eliminated the bishop pair, I think Rob was feeling pretty good at this point. However, I have a shot that blows the position wide open and probably maintains a small plus as a result of my snug king.

17. f4 gxf4 18. Rxf4 Qg5 19. Rf3 Nxf5 20. exf5 f6 Time to take stock. And I liked what I saw. While black's bishop is obviously very unhappy with life, mine still needs to get properly involved. But I felt most confident about going after his king, so that's what I decided to do.

21. Qd3 Qg8 Going backwards to go forwards. It also very importantly prevents my queen coming to c4 followed by penetration on e6.

22. dxc6 bxc6 23. Rd1 Unnecessary prophylaxis. I had considered the alternative 23. Qa6 but considered that 23... Qd5 24. Rd3 Qc5+ 25. Kh1 Qb6 wasn't so great. However, 24. b4! or the extraordinary 24. Be1! would have been enormous.

23... Kd7 The last chance for black to shut up shop on the queenside with 23... a5.

24. Bxe5 One of those deliberations. And one which tends to appeal to my 'what the hell' psyche. It just looked too good. 24. Bb4 maintains the advantage and creates holes everywhere after the forced 24... d5.

24... fxe5 25. f6 Bf8 26. f7 Time to bail out, or so I thought. I had considered the game sequence to be forced, however black had better options.

26... Qg4 27. Qa6 Rc8 28. Qxa7+ Rc7 29. Qb8 Rc8 30. Qb7+ 27... Qb4! would have been crushing in view 28. Rb3 Qc5+ 29. Kh1 Qxc2 30. Rb7+ Ke6 31. Rf1 when the black king is quite safe.

Draw agreed.

There'll be something new every Wednesday, with bits and pieces thrown in on other days when I can. I encourage anyone to send me queries, games, reports and photos to makepeacewithchess@gmail.com. You can also follow me on twitter @buckschess.

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