English Seniors 65+ Round One

I AM staying in the old part of Kenilworth as I believed the venue-hotel is miles from anywhere.

But I was confusing it with somewhere else as the Kenilworth Holiday Inn is very near many shops, cafes and restaurants.

My hotel is a 10-minute walk away through abbey ruins and fields, which is a bonus.

The old barn of St Mary's Abbey

In round one I faced the defending champion* on board one.

Spanton (1972 ECF/1860 Fide) - Paul E Littlewood (2328 ECF/IM 2347 Fide)

Sicilian Bb5(+)

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Qxd7 5.0-0 Nc6 6.Qe2!?

This is fifth-most popular in ChessBase's 2022 Mega database. The main line runs 6.c3 Nf6 7.Re1 e6 8.d4 cxd4 9.cxd4 d5 10.e5 Ne4 11.Nbd2 Nxd2 12.Bxd2 with a dead-equal game, according to Stockfish14.1 and Komodo12.1.1.

6...Nf6 7.Rd1 g6 8.c3 Bg7 9.d4 cxd4 10.cxd4 d5 11.e5 Ne4

How should White proceed?

*****

*****

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12.Nbd2

"Solid," as PL remarked in the postmortem. The critical question is whether 12.Ne1!?, threatening to win the white king's knight with f3, is good. The engines give the remarkable reply 12...Rc8!?, which was essayed by an unrated player in 1995. The point is 13.f3!? is met by 13...Nxd4, when 14.Rxd4? Rxc1 15.fxe4 Bxe5 16.Rxd5 Qc7 seems good for Black. So after 13...Nxd4 the engines continue 14.Qd3 Qa4, when 15.fxe4 and 15.Be3 are unclear. Instead of 13.f3!? the engines reckon White should probably try 13.Qd3 with maybe a slight edge.

12...Nxd2 13.Bxd2 0-0 14.Rac1 f6?!

This seems to be a novelty, and is not liked by the engines. They prefer 14...Rfc8 or 14...a6.

15.exf6

The engines like 15.e6!?, meeting 15...Qd6 with 16.g3.

15...exf6 16.Qb5

More solid may be 16.Qd3.

16...Rfe8 17.Re1 Re4 18.Bc3 Rae8 19.Rxe4!?

This seems to keep the balance.

19...dxe4 20.d5

PL said he was more worried about 20.Nd2, which may be slightly stronger.

20...exf3

In the postmortem we looked at 20...Ne5 21.Qxd7 Nxd7 22.Nd2 Nb6 23.d6, when the engines reckon 23...Bh6 may give Black an edge.

21.dxc6 bxc6 22.Qc4+ Qe6 23.Qxe6 Rxe6 24.gxf3 f5 25.Kf1 Bxc3 26.Rxc3 Kf7 27.Ra3

Creating counterplay to distract from White's kingside weaknesses, but 27.h4 is also fine, according to the engines.

27...Re7 28.Ra6 Rc7 29.Ke2 Ke6 30.Kd3 Kd7 31.Kc4 Kc8 32.Ra3 Rb7 33.Rb3 Rd7 34.Rd3 Rb7

Or 34...Re7 35.Re3, when 35...Rxe3?! 36.fxe3 gives White an edge, according to the engines.

35.Rb7 ½–½

*Correction 6/5/22: Paul Littlewood is the defending 50+ champion; the defending 65+ champion is Kevin Bowmer.