English Women's Championship 2018

[LawrenceCooper]

Pairings/Results
Round 4 on 2018/09/02 at 1000
Bo. No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
1 13 Wei Naomi 1781 3 ½ - ½ 3 WIM Lauterbach Ingrid 2010 6
2 11 Rahulan Thivyaa 1829 2½ 0 - 1 2½ WFM Bhatia Kanwal K 2042 4
3 8 WIM Regan Natasha K 1942 2½ 0 - 1 2 WFM Longson Sarah N 2120 2
4 3 WGM Jackson Sheila 2068 2 1 - 0 2 Sheremetyeva Elizaveta 1717 16
5 9 Gamal Alaa 1862 2 0 - 1 2 WCM Sheikh Anum 1686 18
6 12 Jaufarally Nadia 1828 2 1 - 0 2 Zhu Yaoyao 1836 10
7 19 Maladkar Lavanya 1671 1½ ½ - ½ 2 Wang Susie 1490 23
8 1 WFM Head Louise 2161 1½ 1 - 0 1½ Volovich Julia 1731 15
9 7 Varney Zoe 1986 1½ 1 - 0 1 Frostick Helen M 2037 5
10 14 Chowdhury Feroza 1742 1 1 - 0 1 Eccleston Bryony 1225 26
11 22 Dicen Imogen 1513 1 1 - 0 1 Milewska Agnieszka 1687 17
12 20 Walker Kate 1667 1 0 - 1 1 Posadas Rayelynn 0 30
13 24 Dicen Elis Denele 1390 1 0 - 1 1 Denning Julie L 1658 21
14 29 Naudé Nanette 0 0 1 - 0 ½ Kluckova Alzbeta 1281 25
15 28 Meng Hanzhi 0 0 1 bye
16 27 Jafarinejad Shohreh 0 0 0 not paired

[JustinHorton]

the game developed quietly and was generally balanced except for an interesting moment in the endgame where it seems Natasha missed a big chance with 32…d3 33.Kf1 Kf6

The bishop is occupying that square. Should it be e6?

Not unless there is another mistake in the diagram - 32.Kf1 d3 would allow 33.Ne5+ winning the pawn if the bishop was on e6.

It was the square to which the king had moved to which I referred

[LawrenceCooper]

Round 5 on 2018/09/02 at 1500
Bo. No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
1 4 WFM Bhatia Kanwal K 2042 3½ 3½ Wei Naomi 1781 13
2 6 WIM Lauterbach Ingrid 2010 3½ 3 WCM Sheikh Anum 1686 18
3 2 WFM Longson Sarah N 2120 3 3 WGM Jackson Sheila 2068 3
4 8 WIM Regan Natasha K 1942 2½ 3 Jaufarally Nadia 1828 12
5 23 Wang Susie 1490 2½ 2½ WFM Head Louise 2161 1
6 7 Varney Zoe 1986 2½ 2½ Rahulan Thivyaa 1829 11
7 10 Zhu Yaoyao 1836 2 2 Dicen Imogen 1513 22
8 21 Denning Julie L 1658 2 2 Chowdhury Feroza 1742 14
9 16 Sheremetyeva Elizaveta 1717 2 2 Maladkar Lavanya 1671 19
10 15 Volovich Julia 1731 1½ 2 Posadas Rayelynn 0 30
11 5 Frostick Helen M 2037 1 1 Meng Hanzhi 0 28
12 17 Milewska Agnieszka 1687 1 1 Naudé Nanette 0 29
13 26 Eccleston Bryony 1225 1 1 Dicen Elis Denele 1390 24
14 25 Kluckova Alzbeta 1281 ½ 1 Walker Kate 1667 20
15 9 Gamal Alaa 1862 2 0 not paired
16 27 Jafarinejad Shohreh 0 0 0 not paired

[benedgell]

Is the second one 13......f5!?

Yes - the game continued 13...f5 14.Nxf5 Bxf5 15.Bxf5 Nxc2+ 16.Bxc2 Rxf3 17.gxf3. Material is level but black has a clear advantage as white will find it difficult to develop properly and find a safe haven forher queen. However, with stubborn defence the game isn't over and in the game white acheived a light square dominance - it wasn't entirely clear to me where black went wrong (apart from the missed shot on move 20).

In Jaufaraaly - Lauterbach, 11.Nxb5 snatches a clean pawn

I thought about 13...f5 pretty much straight away, took me too long to spot the ...Nxc2+ idea, then I began wondering about 14. Bd3.

I was pretty tired to think about it in much depth, and don't have an engine to do the work for me, but is it a better or worse option then the line you mention?

One line that got me thinking was 13...f5 14. Bd3 e4 15. Ngxe4 fxe4 15. Qxe4 Bf5 16. Qxf5 Rxf5 17. Bxf5.

Probably not optimal play by either side, but the end position with R + 3 v Q was one I found quite interesting.

[Alex Longson]

the game developed quietly and was generally balanced except for an interesting moment in the endgame where it seems Natasha missed a big chance with 32…d3 33.Kf1 Kf6

The bishop is occupying that square. Should it be e6?

Sorry - what I should have wrote was

"it seems Natasha missed a big chance after 32.Kf1? with 32...d3! 33.Ke1 Bc3+ 34.Kd1 Kf6"

Big problems for white as the bishop dominates the position and the king & pawnendgame is lost after 35.Ne1 Bxe1

[Alex Longson]

One line that got me thinking was 13...f5 14. Bd3 e4 15. Ngxe4 fxe4 15. Qxe4 Bf5 16. Qxf5 Rxf5 17. Bxf5.

Well 14.Bd3 would be quite difficult to make psychologically having played 13.Be4 !

Objectively though it isn't very strong either- in the line you give white gets a rook and 3 pawns for queen but the three pawns don't really count for anything here and black is effectively playing a middlegame a queen for rook up with better development. The computer makes it look easy as always but I think the line Zoe played was best and, as she showed, had some practical chances of establishing a fortress on the light squares.

[Alex Longson]

Round 4

At the start of the round we have the two players on 3/3/ playing on board 1, two players on 2.5 on board 2, 2.5 v 2 on board 3...and another 7 players on 2. Probably the winner will come from one of the top 2 boards but the players starting the round on 2 still have a chance if they win.

On board 1 (Naomi Wei - Ingrid LAuterbach) Ingrid was doing well and missed some chances to land the decisive blow. Perhaps the critical position arose in the diagram below. After the move in the game the advantage passed to white though the game ended in a draw allowing others to catchup.
r6k/1p4b1/7p/p3p1pP/2Q1N3/3r3q/PP6/K3R2R b - - 0 1
Black played 38…Qd7? How did white take advantage (clue – involves 2 knightforks)!

Board 2 (Thivyaa Rahulan - Kanwal Bhatia) was another topsy-turvy encounter with Thivyaa missing a chance to transpose into a decisive rook endgame. Instead of 36.Qxf5 white soon lost the h-pawn and black was winning.
2kr1Q2/1p5q/p1p4P/4Pp2/8/8/6PK/5R2 w - - 0 1
36.Qxf5 Qxf5 37.Rxf5 a5 38.g4 and white is quicker

Board 3 (Natasha Regan - Sarah Longson) was over quickly in 17 moves and was mostly decided by preparation. The line with 8.d5 is quite bad for white and 11.Ng3 makes things worse. A bit of a disaster for Natasha but hopefully she can bounce back in the final round.
r1b2knr/ppp2ppp/8/1BPPb3/6nq/P3PQN1/R5PP/1NB1K2R b K - 0 15
Black to play and win

Board 4, Sheila Jackson – Elizaveta Sheremetyeva was decided by a blunder in the opening by the youngster. Elizaveta has played a good tournament so far and I’m sure she won’t be repeating the same mistake again.
r3kbnr/pp3ppp/1qn1p3/1BppP3/Q2P2b1/2P2N2/PP3PPP/RNB1K2R w KQkq - 0 8
Black has just played 7…Qb6?? How was this refuted?

On board 5 Anum Sheikh played a nice game in a Dutch Hybrid and executed a nice kingside attack to win the game.

On board 6 Yao Yao Zhu went on the offensive early on with the black pieces in the Italian/Hungarian and her kingside attack was crashing through. An inaccuracy however let Nadia back into the game and in the end White even managed to win.

[Alex Longson]

Going into the final round 7 players could still win the title.

Three players on 3.5:
Kanwal Bhatia
Naomi Wei
Ingrid Lauterbach

Four players on 3:
Anum Sheikh
Sarah Longson
Sheila Jackson
Nadia Jaufarally

[LawrenceCooper]

Ingrid has won to reach 4.5. Kanwal could still catch her if she can win her rook ending.

[Alex Longson]

Kanwal looks like she is winning - Naomi missed some chances earlier.

Sarah also looks to be winning her rook endgame - got some good training material for rook endgames with this round...

[LawrenceCooper]

Kanwal & Ingrid finish on 4.5/5 with the England place to be decided by the June 2019 rating list. Sarah won to finish on 4.

Final standings: http://chess-results.com/tnr374829.aspx ... =5&flag=30

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Some nice puzzles here. Maybe when the final reports are out they could be grouped together with the answers also provided?

[Alex Longson]

Round 5 Report

Board 1 (Kanwal Bhatia – Naoi Wei) transitioned to a rook endgame which should have been easily holdable for black but Naomi failed to spot the most decisive equalizing line. After this white was pressing resulting in a 3 v 1 on the kingside (though with doubled isolated f-pawns).
1r4k1/4R1pp/1p6/p7/P2P4/5p2/1P3PPP/6K1 b - - 0 1
What is the simplest way for black to equalize?

Board 2 (Ingrid Lauterbach – Anum Sheikh) – white was pressing for a long time but in a complicated knight v bishop endgame white slipped and allowed black a chance. The dramatic conclusion can be seen in the diagram below. It is blacks 54th move and the choice is between 54…Kxh2 and 54…Bc8. Black chose wrong and white won just three moves later.
8/3b4/6p1/PNK4p/5P2/6Pk/7P/8 b - - 0 4
54…Kxh2 or 54…Bc8 and why?

Board 3 (Sarah Longson – Sheila Jackson) saw another rook endgame after Sheila essayed the French Defense for what is only the second time according to the database. Sarah was a pawn up with a technically winning position but rook endgames are never easy. After 49.Rh8 the position below was reached. Although Rh8 looks quite passive – white has the simple plan of starting to walk the c-pawn up the board. Sheila brought her king to the centre but white captured both black pawns and was left with c and g pawns - winning
7R/5kp1/6p1/6P1/5r1P/2P5/2K5/8 b - - 0 1
Looks like no salvation for black

Board 4 (Natasha Regan – Nadia Jaufarally) saw a rather speculative exchange sacrifice from Natasha but after Nadia failed to consolidate (28…Re5 was winning) Natasha got more than full compensation and finished things off with a nice “simplifying combination” – the main line of which is deeper than first appears
8/1ppn1p1k/3p2qP/1P2rRP1/p1PQP3/7B/P6K/8 w - - 0 1
How did white simplify to a winning endgame (warning – ends with a pawn race)!

Ingrid and Kanwal’s victories resulted in a two-way tie for first position with Sarah finishing sole third. Ingrid and Kanwal share the trophy and prize money and the place in the England Team for next years European Championship will go to the player with the highest rating on the June 2019 list. The race is on!

In conclusion – once again congratulations to the organisers on a much improved event. Hopefully this event will continue to grow and improve. And huge credit to all the players for the fantastic fighting chess – just 8 draws in 70 games (an impressive 89% decisive percentage). Maybe the event could be expanded or lengthened – but then would it attract as many participants?

As well as the two deserving winners I note with pleasure the emergence of some talented and enthusiastic young girls such as the Dicen sisters (Imogen and Elis Denele), Julia Volovich and Elizaveta Sheremetyeva. I hope they continue to compete and receive the support required to progress.

As my wife will inevitably be reading these reports now the tournament is finished – I better finish with a quick shout out for Sarah, who finished with the highest TPR of 2209!

[Mick Norris]

Great reports Alex

Photo of the winners on the ECF website (well done for those responsible for getting this up so quickly)