Cape Argus E-dition

NICK BARNETT CHESS Strugo)

(by

Victor

Few SA tournaments of the 1980s didn’t feature Timothy Kett. When he later moved to England, he earned FIDE’s Candidate Master title and now resides in Cardiff with four Welsh championships under his belt. Tim emphatically won last month’s Fareham Congress (near Portsmouth) with 4.5/5 points. Along the way, he came up against a young (born 1997) Pretorian now studying economics in the UK.

Tim Kett (2250) – Roland Bezuidenhout (2315) (King’s Gambit Declined): 1 e4 e5 2 f4 d5 (Falkbeer Counter-Gambit is a comfortable and quick way to at least equalize against the KGD but Black needs to know the theory and must not catnap)

3 exd5 exf4 4 Nf3 Nf6 5 Nc3 Nxd5 6 Nxd5 Qxd5 7. d4 Bd6?! (Looks natural but is a mistake well-known to aficionados of the 5 Nc3 variation. Black should prefer the modest but solid 7... Be7 8 c4 Qe4+ 9 Be2 Nc6 10 O-O) 8 c4 Qe4+ (Better is 8... Qe6+ after which Tim gives the typically provocative 9 Kf2?! O-O 10 c5 Be7 11 Bxf4 as about equal, but to me 9 Be2 c5 10 b4 cxd4 c 11 c5 Bc7 12 Qxd4 0-0 13 Bb2 looks like more fun) 9 Kf2 Bf5 (Castling looks more prudent, though it appears very passive, e.g., 9 … 0-0 10 Bd3 Qe8 11 Re1. However, as I suggest in the next note, the Q would do a useful job on d8, defending the e7 Bishop) 10 c5 Be7 11 Bb5+ c6

12 Re1 Qd5 13 Ba4 Bg4? (The losing move. Here 13 … Qd8 14 Qe2 Na6 seems mandatory to me as 15 Bxf4 Nb4 16 Bd6 is met adequately by 16 … Be6 17 Bxe7 Qxe7 18 Bb3 0-0-0! When White’s backward d4 occupant isn’t worth more than half a Pawn. Tim considered 13... Be6 14 Bb3 Qd7 as the only way to hold things together though 15 Bxf4 O-O 16 Bxe6 fxe6 17 Bg3 Na6 18. Kg1 is still a clear plus for White) 14 Bxf4 Bxf3 15 gxf3 Kd8 (He has to move his King to avoid losing a piece to Bd6, but this still leaves his royal family as sitting ducks) 16 Re5 Qd7 17 d5 Bxc5+ (Hastens the end though after 17 … Bf6 18 dxc6 bxc6 19 Re4 Re8 20 Qxd7+ Nxd7 21 Rxe8+ Kxe8 22 Bxc6 Rc8 23 Ba4, White’s Bishops laser Black much as Goldfinger did to the recumbent 007) 18 Kg2 Kc8 19 Qc2 Bb6 20 Rd1 Qc7 21 dxc6 Nxc6 22 Re4 Black resigned.*

THE XFILES

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2021-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

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