Here are the scores for the teams:Nova Scotia
(13.5 points) ================== Ed Urquhart - Pictou - Rating 2224 - (3.5) Glenn Charlton - Halifax - Rating 2140 - (4.0) Brian Pentz - Halifax - Rating 2060 - (1.0) Antoni Wysocki - Halifax - Rating 2030 - (3.0) Alvah Mayo - Pictou - Rating 1913 - (2.0)New Brunswick
(11.5 points) ===================== Anthony Howarth - Saint John - Rating 2256 - (3.5) Robert Breau - Moncton - Rating 2038 - (1.0) Richard Papenhausen - Saint John - Rating 2020 (2.0) Fred McKim - Saint John - Rating 2002 (2.5) Bill Buckley - Saint John - Rating 1983 (2.5)
The first game done was Breau-Wysocki. Antoni is known for playing some offbeat openings but also playing strategically sound chess and anwsered Breau's e4 with the Scandinavian d5!. After exd Nf6 c4 Antoni played e6 the Icelandic Gambit I beleive it is called. Robert tried to hold the extra pawn but it became clear after 10 moves that the gambit was perfectly sound when black had perfect development while white with the extra pawn was having trouble coordinating. When Robert decide to return the pawn it was probably too late and in a difficult position blundered and the game was over on move 17, a rare occurence at this level. Glenn Charlton showed a sign of things to come simply outplaying Fred McKim who continued a lot longer then was necessary another indicator of the fighting spirit involved in the match. Bill Buckley surprised a few by Drawing Ed Urquhart when Ed didn't find the right middle game plan and took a draw in a slightly inferior position. Richard Papenhausen won against Brian Pentz who was not in his regular form along with Breau on this weekend although both fought well. Anthony Howarth walked over Alvah mayo when Alvah never found any counter play as black. Result after Round 1 2.5/2.5.
Glenn Charlton again displayed some very strong positional chess in crushing Papenhausen with a f4 Sicilian after the mistaken recapture 9...bxc6. Pentz and Breau maybe played their best games against each other and drew after a small combo by Pentz in a difficult position. Antoni Wysocki drew with Anthony Howarth after playing a strange and deep combo that some of us were calling brilliant at the time but Antoni revealed humbly that he had made the most out of it when he had missed a key move and came out with a slightly better position that was soon drawn. This game is worth checking out! Ed Urquhart played a nice game against Fred McKim to win when Fred misplayed the opening and then went into complications which Ed handled masterfully. Alvah lost for the first time with his pet opening f4 Sicilian after 11 wins he told me but it was from going into an inferior endgame without reason that led to his demise to Bill Buckley. Score after Round 2 5.5/4.5 for Nova Scotia.
Fred Mckim played what I thought was a rather passive opening and Alvah was almost if not quite equal
when he started to drift and Fred quickley mounted a kingside attack which he capped off with a nice rook sac forcing mate after a blunder from Alvah. Glenn continued to play strong chess outplaying Breau who again showed it was just not his weekend. Howarth played a game against Pentz that showed why he is so dangerous playing quietly only suddenly to lash out when the time was right to reveal that he was winning all along. Antoni won against Buckley by defending the barbarian attack and two piece sac that was not without some venom but ultimately unsound in my opinion. Antoni although agreeing with me expressed his discomfort at defending the poistion since although quite tactically capable he is more at home in a positional game. Urquhart won a fine game from Papenhausen that left Richard baffled and shaken as well as drained it would seem. Ed won a pawn that Richard gave up the best way for some dangerous play. Richard in time trouble didn't find the most testing moves and had to go into a probably lost endgame. Was there a draw for white? I think this plauged Richard for the remaining rounds but Ed insists he was winning all along. What will the analyisis show us? I look forward to checking that one out myself. Score after Round 3 NS 8.5 NB 6.5.
In the only quiet draw of the tournament Charlton and Howarth were probably smart to save their energy as three other games were also drawn after feirce and draining contests. In one of the more bizzarre occurences Papenhausen nearly duplicated his position against Charlton while playing Mayo and discovered it was still lost. Everyone was shaking their heads during this game including Richard who had to take some ribbing afterwards; maybe he was still playing against Eddie in his head :-). Antoni and Fred drew a Benko after Antoni wasted a few tempi and missed the best plan to continue with his extra pawn and came close to getting a lost game after Fred's King traversed the board to gobble it up. Eddie went astray in the opening and showed why he is a master by fighting and harrassing to ultimately get a won game that sadly he did not fully adjust to allowing Robert a nice peice sac that forced a perpetual and a draw, probably Robert's best game. Pentz and Buckley played the most crazy game of the tournament both dropping peices trading advantages and squandering forced draws in time pressure to finally reach a position that both could not vary without losing with about 3 minutes each left after 6 hours of play. In a last act of resolve Pentz thought for a minute or so while all the onlookers squirmed before accepting Buckley's draw offer with less than 2 minutes left. Score after Round 4 NS 11.5 NB 8.5.
So after 4 rounds Nova Scotia had a 3 point lead and New Brunswick needed 4.5/5 to win and 4/5 to draw the match. Nova Scotia is rightly confident but cautiously so as well. New Brunswick, I am happy to say, made it an interesting round and refused to go down quietly. Things were not at all clear after 1hour of play or so as Fred had demolished Pentz with a vicious attack of Pentz's dubious setup around his king and Antoni had played out of character for him neglecting development and getting a bad game against Papenhausen .Charlton had seemingly miscalculated a pawn sac and Buckley was defending well. Urquhart and Howarth was up in the air after Ed got a good game with Black but seemed to miss the best line. Only Alvah was doing well against Breau. Things resolved though after Alvah played a fine tactic that Robert missed although he was lost anyway and Buckley accepted a draw offer from Charlton not wanting to push his luck after partying till 4 in the morning:-) This clinched the match for NS. So Antoni fought back to get a rook and pawn endgame down a pawn with some drawing chances but Papenhausen was not to be denied and finished nicely to win. All that was left was the battle of the two top boards Urquhart had seemed to be on the way to winning with a nice advantage and with Howarth in terrible time pressure when Ed overlooked a fine shot that I am sure even Anthony could not have fulled considered in his time pressure. Anyway the tables were turned and it is quite possible that Anthony blew a win before the time control since at one point in the game he had to make 20 moves in 10 miuntes and again 4-5 in less than 2 I beleive. At any rate he made the time control with a nice advantage and I was happy to have made it through the match without forfeiting anyone on time. Things were not over though as Eddie was forced to sac an exchange and Anthony proceded to torture him for 40 moves or so before concedeing the draw leaving Eddie happy but drained keeping his undefeated record against Anthony. Final Score 13.5 -11.5 for Nova Scotia!
TD/Arbiter Jim Brennan.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CROSSTABLE WILL LIKELY BE WONKY UNLESS VIEWED WITH A FIXED-PITCH FONT (e.g. Courier)
Old Perf New 1 2 3 4 5 T
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1.ED URQUHART 2214 2221 2215 =10 +9 +8 =7 =6 3.5
2.GLENN CHARLTON 2110 2301 2160 +9 +8 +7 =6 =10 4.0
3.BRIAN PENTZ 2060 1821 2012 -8 =7 -6 =10 -9 1.0
4.ANTONI WYSOCKI 2030 2141 2052 +7 =6 +10 =9 -8 3.0
5.ALVAH MAYO 1889 1981 1910 -6 -10 -9 +8 +7 2.0
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TOTAL NOVA SCOTIA 13.5
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6.ANTHONY HOWARTH 2256 2221 2250 +5 =4 +3 =2 =1 3.5
7.ROBERT BREAU 2053 1821 2007 -4 =3 -2 =1 -5 1.0
8.RICHARD PAPENHAUSEN 2014 1981 2007 +3 -2 -1 -5 +4 2.0
9.FRED MCKIM 1995 2061 2008 -2 -1 +5 =4 +3 2.5
10.BILL BUCKLEY 1986 2061 2001 =1 +5 -4 =3 =2 2.5
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TOTAL NEW BRUNSWICK 11.5
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AR = 2061
[Event "NS-NB match "] [Site "Halifax"] [Date "May 97"] [Round "5"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [White "Glenn Charlton"] [Black "Bill Buckley"]1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 d6 3. f4 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bb5+ Bd7 6. Bxd7+ Qxd7 7. O-O Nc6 8. d3 f5!? (This is an interesting idea seemingly slowing whites play) 9. Bd2 Nf6 10. h3 fxe4 11. dxe4 O-O 12. Qe1 Nh5 13. f5 (Glenn had miscalculated here he said and had to improvise on the next moves) gxf5 14. Qh4 ( the best try) 14... fxe4 15. Ng5 Bd4+ 16. Kh1 Nf6 17. Rae1(here is one spot where I feel white had better in Ngxe4 the text allows for the sac Nxd5?! after 17..d5 but it appears to be ok for Black after 18 ..Qxd5 (Nxd5 of course allows mate on h7) 19.Rxf6 Rxf6 20.Qh7+ Kf8 21.Nxe4 Rd8 22.c3 Be5 23.Bh6+ Ke8 and white doesn't have enough. After 16.Ngxe4 White looks to be ok 16...Nxe4 Bxb2 17.Bh6! with a strong attack and 16...Ne5 17.Rxf6 exf6 18.Nxf6 Rxf6 19.Qxf6 Rf8 20. Qg5+ with only a minute advantage to black.) e6 18. Ncxe4 Nxe4 19. Qxe4 Be5 20. Nf3 ( Here a few of us were suggesting Qg4 for white which Glenn rejected after the variation 20. Qg4 Kh8 21.Nxe6 Re8 22.Bh6! Bxb2 and not seeing a good line for white but Qf5 is very strong here so better for Black is 22...Nd4 forcing trades 23.Nxd4 Qxg4 24. hxg4 Bxd4 25.Rf7 Bxb2 26.Rxb7 with a complicated roughly equal ending maybe slightly better for black. The thing is white can simply play Qxe6 after Kh8 in this line and the game is quite level after 21...Rxf1+ 22.Rxf1Qxe6 23.Nxe6. After Nf3 as played in the game on move 20 black can go for the win with 20...Bxb2 since after 21.Qxe6 Qxe6 22.Rxe6 Nd4! wins an exchange) Qg7 ( this safe move allows white to equalize) 21. Bc3 (Draw and now it seems justified in this position things being fairly level)
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