Summer Club: Round Four

AM playing in a summer daytime tournament organised by Surrey's Coulsdon Chess Fellowship.
It takes place on 10 Wednesday afternoons, the time control being 90 minutes with a 30-second increment.

Spanton (1960 ECF/1937 Fide) - David Howes (1445 ECF/1593 Fide)

QGD Triangle/Semi-Slav

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c6 4.e4 dxc4!?

The main line in ChessBase's 2025 Mega database runs 4...dxe4 5.Nxe4 Bb4+ 6.Bd2!? (the Marshall Gambit) Qxd4 7.Bxb4 Qxe4+ 8.Be2, when Stockfish17 and Dragon1 reckon White has more than enough for a pawn.

5.Bxc4 g6?!

Black has fallen behind in development and allowed White a classical centre, which add up to a positionally won game for White, according to the engines

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6.Nf3 Bg7 7.0-0 h6?! 8.d5 exd5?

Helping White open the e file is wrong.

9.exd5 Bg4 10.Re1+ Kf8

Not 10...Ne7? 11.d6.

11.b3??

Not only blundering the queen's knight, but allowing the white rooks to be forked too.

11...Bxc3 12.Ba3+ Kg7 13.Re4?

Better is 13.Re3!?, when after 13...Bxa1 14.Qxa1+ f6 15.Qe1! the engines reckon Black has a lot of compensation for a rook, and certainly practical chances. However the less-greedy13...Bf6! leaves Black a knight up, and with the king looking fairly safe.

13...Bf5 14.Rd4 Bxd4!?

The engines agree this is the right rook to capture.

15.Qxd4+ Qf6 16.Ne5 Nd7 17.f4 Kh7

This is Dragon1's second choice, at least for a while, but possibly best is the engines' 17...cxd5!?, although the position remains sharp.

18.Bb2 b5!? 19.Be2 c5 20.Qd2 Nxe5 21.Bxe5 Qe7

How should White proceed?

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22.d6!

22.Bxh8 Kxh8 23.Bxb5 wins the exchange and a pawn, but Black's king is no longer endangered, and Black emerges up knight for pawn. After the text Black remains a rook up, but White's dark-square bishop is better than either black rook, and the passed d pawn is dangerous.

22...Qd7 23.Qd5 Rc8

Black can prevent White's next with 23...Rb8, but 24.Rc1 maintains pressure.

24.Bxb5! Qe6

The only move (24...Qxb5?? 25.Qxf7#), but winning.

25.Qb7 Rf8?!

Almost certainly better is 25...Nf6.

26.Rd1

The engines prefer 26.Qc7 or 26.Qxa7.

What should Black play?

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26...Qc8?

This throws away all of Black's advantage. The engines reckon Black is still winning after 26...Rd8!? or 26...Nf6 (and possibly after 26...h5!?).
27.Qxa7 Qb8 28.Qxc5 f6?!

Seemingly better is 28...Rc8, although 29.Bc6 gives White at least a slight edge, according to the engines.

29.Bb2

Best is 29.Bc3!, and if 29...Rc3 White has 30.Qd5, when 30...Rxc3?? loses to 31.Qf7#.

29...h5?

Black should still play 29...Rc8, with equality, according to the engines.

White to play and win

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30.d7! Nh6

The engines suggest 30...Rd8, but 31.Bc3 is winning.

31.d8=Q??

Both 31.Bc4 and 31.h3!? (restricting the knight) win, according to the engines.

31...Rxd8 32.Qe7+ Nf7

Forced, but winning.

33.Qxf7+ Kh6 34.Rxd8

Black to play and win ... or lose

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34...Qxd8??

Winning easily is 34...Rxd8, when White has two pawns and the bishop-pair for the exchange, but the white king is too exposed, eg if, as in the game, 35.Bxf6, then 35...Rd1+ leads to a quick mate.

35.Bxf6

The only winning move, but there is no good answer.
35...Qd1+ 36.Bf1 h4 37.Qg7+ Kh5 38.Qxh8+ 1-0

Marvellous Meran

THIS is the second in an occasional series on How The Openings Got Their Names.
The Meran System, aka the Meran Variation, is a series of lines, many of them very sharp, in the Semi-Slav arising after the moves 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 e6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5.

Start of the Meran … the early moves, especially Black's second, third and fourth, can be played in various orders

The Meran is named after a town-sized city in the South Tyrol that was part of Austria but was given to Italy, and renamed Merano, after World War One.
The city hosted a tournament in 1924 in which Rubinstein used the "Meran System" as Black to beat Grünfeld, who later in the same tournament switched to the black side of the system to beat Spielmann.
It probably will not surprise anyone to learn that the Meran had been played long before it got its name, including by Bernstein to draw with Capablanca in 1914.
When I discovered that an international tournament, the Gold Cup, is still played for in the city, I could not resist going. That was in 2013, and I have been back twice since.
Meran(o) - the linguistic split in the wider commune is apparently almost exactly 50% German, 50% Italian, but with the latter dominating in the city itself - has a beautiful setting amid snow-capped mountains whose lower slopes are covered in vineyards and apple orchards.
The modern Gold Cup is organised as part of the German-based ChessOrg.de series of tournaments, which includes Bad Wörishofen and Malta.
The Gold Cup is that rarity of modern tournaments of being a nine-rounder that is not Fide-rated.
I never managed to play the Meran in Meran(o), not least because 2.c4 is a rare follow-up to 1.d4 d5 at club level.
But here is a double-d pawn opening from round two of the 2014 Gold Cup.
Franz-Josef Schleime (1749) - Spanton (1949)
London System
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bf4 Bg4 4.e3 e6 5.Nbd2 Bd6 6.Bg3 e5!?
As is usual in the London System, White has two pawn breaks - e4 and c4. Black is using a pseudo-Chigorin set-up in which he has only one pawn break, ...e5, but White's move-order has allowed Black to get in his pawn break first, albeit at the cost of moving a man for the second time in the opening.
7.dxe5 Nxe5 8.Be2 Ng6?!
White was threatening to win a piece, but probably a better way of meeting that was to exchange on f3.
9.Bxd6 Qxd6 10.Nd4
Stockfish10 and Komodo9 want to dissolve Black's little centre with 10.c4, as grandmaster Nigel Davies played against me in a similar position in this month's South Wales International (https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2019/07/grandmaster-crush.html).
10...Bd7 11.Nb5 Qb6
I cannot recall why I did not play the simple 11...Bxb5 12.Bxb5+ c6.
12.Nc3 Nf6 13.Rb1 0-0 14.Nf3 Rad8 15.0-0
Not 15.Nxd5? Qa5+ 16.Nc3 Bh3.
15...Be6 16.Nd4?!
White's kingside proves surprisingly vulnerable after this. The engines suggest 16.b4!?
16...c5 17.Nxe6
Best, according to the engines, as 17.Nf3?, for example, runs into 17...d4.
fxe6 18.Bf3?
White is in big trouble after this, which is why the engines give 18.Bd3, albeit with a slight edge to Black.
18...Nh4 19.Bg4??
19.Be2 would have been met with the same move as in the game, so it seems best was 19.g3, but Black has the initiative after 19...Nxf3+.
19...d4
White loses a piece. The game finished:
20.exd4 Rxd4 21.Bxe6+ Qxe6 22.Qc1 Nxg2 0-1