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HARTLEPOOL CHESS EVENT FUND We had a splendid new venue for this year’s Congress, the Staincliff Hotel, on the sea front at Seaton Carew. Sadly the numbers at the Congress, a bare fifty, hardly did justice to a playing hall that would have held twice that number. Organiser, Graham Marshall, must have sustained a considerable financial loss on the event. Nor can the excellent bookstall from Chess Suppliers (Scotland) have really justified their long journey south. All that being said the players who did take part enjoyed four excellent tournaments with some very competitive chess. Jonathan Hawkins of Leam Lane won the Open Section with some ease. He conceded an ultra-quick draw to Bret Addison of Harlepool in R3, but was otherwise untroubled. Bret dropped further half points to the Rose Forgrove duo of Michael Round and Eddie Hurwitz. Bret and Michael shared second place. Leslie Wells of York won his first four games in the Major before taking a draw with Antonio Moneva-Jordan of Tynemouth to clinch top spot in the final round. Antonio shared second place with Tony Foster of Sunderland. In the Minor Section, Gary Clarke of Consett also won four games in a row to start with, but he came a real cropper in the last round against Jesmond’s Dave Walshaw. I give this game (with comments) below. As a result the Minor ended in a four-way tie between Gary, Dave, Timothy Allen (Battersea) and John Reddington (Peterlee) all on 4 points out of 5. 4 points out of 5 was also sufficient to give Frank Brown (Billingham) and Eddie Glass (Hartlepool) a share of top place in the Foundation Tournament. Walter Greenwood (Billingham) and Mark Priest (Hartlepool shared third place. Eddie Glass headed the Hartlepool team that won the ‘Teams of Four’ competition, narrowly ahead of Billingham.
1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. Be3 Nf6 5. f3 Nc6 If Black wants to develop this N then Nd7 is probably better. O-O or c6 are the usual moves. 6. Qd2 e5 7. d5 Ne7 8. O-O-O Nd7 As played in Tangelder-Cynolter, Hungary 1995. Tiger gives White a clear advantage. suggesting 8. ... O-O, but I still prefer White. 9. Bh6 O-O 10. g4 Bxh6 Simply allowing White's attack to gather momentum - this does nothing to cure Black's chronic lack of development. Tiger suggests an immediate ...f5. 11. Qxh6 f5 12. gxf5 gxf5 13. Nh3 Rf6 14. Rg1 Rg6 15. Rxg6 Nxg6 16. exf5 Qh4 17. Qg5 Black hopes for the exchange of Qs to relieve the pressure, but now White forces the exchange on his own terms. Black is already lost. 17... Qxg5 18. Nxg5 Ngf8 19. Ne6 Nxe6 How else defend the c7 pawn? 20. dxe6 Nc5 21. Bc4 Kf8 22. Nd5 Bxe6 Desperation - but Black has nothing better. 23. fxe6 Nxe6 24. Rg1 Re8 25. Nf6 Re7 26. Bxe6 Rxe6 Simple stuff. White adds to his material advantage. 27. Nxh7 Ke8 28. Rg8 Kd7 Blunder losing the R. But 28 ... Kf7 loses to Ng5+ and ... Ke7 only prolongs the agony. 29. Nf8 Black resigns
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