Two poisoned pawns

They say the best way to really know a subject is to write about it. I speculate it worked for the English grandmaster Danny Gormally, whose forthcoming book Tournament Battle Plan (Thinkers Publishing) perhaps inspired him to victory at the British Rapidplay Championships held in Peterborough earlier this month.

It must be said that Gormally was also the top seed. He won the title in a blitz playoff, after his winning score of 9/11 in the main event was matched by the Irish teenager Trisha Kanyamarala, who was awarded the title of British Women’s Rapidplay champion. (The event was open to Irish citizens.) Her patient and tactically alert play allowed her to far outshine her tournament seeding. The diagram position is from her final round game, where she has just played 24 Rd2-b2, chasing the black queen.

Trisha Kanyamarala-Tom Eckersley-Waites

British Rapidplay Championships, March 2024 (See above left)

24…Qxa3? Taking the bait, likely anticipating 25 Rxa3 Rc1+ 26 Qf1 Rxf1+ 27 Kxf1 Rxa3 with an equal endgame. After 24…Qc4 , the active black rooks promise good chances of a draw despite the pawn deficit. 25 Rbb1! Quite unexpectedly, the black queen is trapped. Nc3 Worth a try, but refuted by the counterthreat of mate on g7. 26 Qe5 Ne2+ 27 Kh1 Nxd4 28 Rxa3 Rxa3 29 Qxd4 Rb3 30 Qd1 Black resigns

Meanwhile in London, the 142nd event in the Varsity Match series was hosted and sponsored by the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall. Oxford achieved a rather comfortable 5-3 victory with wins for Tom O’Gorman (his fourth win in the Varsity series), Ashvin Sivakumar and Daniel Gallagher. Cambridge scored a consolation win from the following endgame, and still lead the series by 60 match wins to 59, with the rest drawn.

A pawn down for much of the game, White has defended well and the draw is within reach. It’s time to mop up the pawn on e4, and taking with the king looks more natural on several counts: the Re5 looks useful where it is, defending g5, and restricting the Nc7.