Wanstead 4 – 1 Metropolitan, 4 July 2004
2 August 2011 Leave a comment
THIRD TIME LUCKY
Wanstead has enjoyed a fair amount of success in the National Club Major in recent years, winning the Plate and twice being runners up in the main competition, without ever taking the title. In the 2004 final, held at the Redbridge Institute alongside three other matches, there was familiar opposition from Metropolitan: the two clubs had both been promoted from Division 2 of the London League this season after a 5 – 5 tie in their individual match.
Li Wu, Ian Hunnable and Paul Barclay preparing to start
The first game to come to the boil was on board 4, where Terry Whitton countered the Vienna game with the Frankenstein-Dracula variation, in which Black gives up the exchange early on. Kathy Djabri never looked comfortable as Terry generated attacking possibilities, and he eventually crashed through and elected to simplify int a completely won king and pawn ending, although Fritz later identified a forced mate in 7 commencing with 26…Rxc3.
Mark plays 1,d4. as Terry watches
This lead was particularly welcome as Metropolitan were doing well elsewhere at the time, going a pawn up on boards 2 and 5, and standing no worse on boards 1 and 3. However, matters were to take a dramatic turn on board 5. Facing the Metropolitan captain, Mark Murrell and recovered his pawn to reach a rook ending where each side had two connected passed pawns. With a mate threatened, Black felt obliged to give up his rook and duly lost, but subsequent analysis showed that he had a clear drawing continuation.
A Wanstead win was now highly likely, and any remaining Metropolitan hopes were largely extinguished when Ian Hunnable steered his pawn down position against fellow Insurance Chess Ckub member Ian Calvert into a queen ending where he achieved perpetual check. It fell to Paul Barclay to confirm the overall victory when he accepted the draw offered by Zafer Djabri who had exgausted all possible tries to exploit a small structural advantage.
The final game to finish also went Wanstead’s way when Nick Noden went astray on the very last move before the time control, to give the overall scoreline an unbalanced appearance which did not really reflect a hard fought encounter.
| WANSTEAD | METROPOLITAN | ||||||
| Board | Colour | Home team | Grade | Score | Away team | Grade | Score |
| 1 | W | Li Wu | 199 | 1 | Nick Noden | 170 | 0 |
| 2 | B | Ian Hunnable | 161 | ½ | Ian Calvert | 164 | ½ |
| 3 | W | Paul Barclay | 151 | ½ | Zafer Djabri | 164 | ½ |
| 4 | B | Terry Whitton | 145 | 1 | Kathy Djabri | 156 | 0 |
| 5 | W | Mark Murrell | 139 | 1 | Noel Stewart | 136 | 0 |
| TOTAL – Home | 4 | TOTAL – Away | 1 | ||||
John receives the trophy from Roy Heppinstall
Djabri,Kathy – Whitton,Terry [C27]
National Club Major, 07.2004
[Ian Hunnable]
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Qh5 Nd6 5.Bb3 Nc6 6.Nb5 g6 7.Qf3 f5 8.Qd5 Qe7 9.Nxc7+ Kd8 10.Nxa8 b6 11.Qf3 Bb7 12.Nxb6 axb6 13.h4 Bg7 14.Ne2 Nd4 15.Qh3 f4 16.Nc3 N6f5 17.d3 h6 18.Bd2 g5 19.0–0–0 Nxb3+ 20.axb3 Nxh4 21.f3 Rf8 22.Rhe1 Nf5 23.Qh1 Bc6 24.Qg1 Kc7 25.Na2 Ra8 26.Bb4 Qf7 27.Nc3 Nd4 28.Ne4 Bd5 29.Kd2 Bxb3?! 30.cxb3 Qxb3 31.Rc1+ Kd8 32.Ba3? [The wrong way! 32.Bc3 Ra2 33.Bxd4 exd4 34.Rc2+-] 32…Bf8 33.Rc3 Bb4 34.Rec1 [34.Bxb4 Qxb2+ 35.Kd1 Ra1+] 34…Rxa3 35.Qd1 Qxb2+ 36.R1c2 Nxc2 [After 36…Rxc3 37.Ke1 Fritz found mate in 7: 37…Rxc2+ 38.Kf1 Rc1 39.Nf2 Be1! 40.Kg1 Qxf2+ 41.Kh1 Qh4+ 42.Kg1 Bf2+ 43.Kf1 Rxd1#] 37.Qxc2 Qxc2+ 38.Kxc2 Rxc3+ 39.Nxc3 Bxc3 40.Kxc3 Kc7 41.Kc4 Kc6 0–1
The 2004 winning team, minus Paul Barclay
Click here for the 2003/4 National Club page.
About johnu175