THE VICTORIAN COUNTRY CLUB COMPETITION 2001

The good old tradition of organizing a team competition between the Victorian country towns was restored this year.

The last such a tournament was completed two years ago between the four major chess towns Geelong, Albury, Bendigo and Ballarat. Albury, in 1999, won the grand final in convincing style against Geelong for the first time.

The main attraction, apart from playing chess of course, is the social aspect of these telephone matches, which are generally played at the homes of the players with the exception of the Geelong team. Waiting for the opponents moves to be transferred, the participants enjoy the nibbles, and drinks provided, and have a chat in between moves.

Black has just played the great move 1...c6!.It is difficult to find anything sensible for white, oddly enough. White, not realising the danger he is in, played 2.f5,Rxb2! (notice the potential knight forks at d3 and a4. Hence:) 3.Kxb2,Bxc3+ 4.Kxc3 (forced again), Qa4+ 5. Kb2 (?) (Kc4 was of course better but not very attractive either)...Qb4+ 6.Kc1, Qxe1+ 7.Kb2, Qe5+ 8.Kc1, Qxg3 and it was all over for white.

We have not spoiled the party (although we did seriously try..!) and like
the other teams also drew this match 2-2.
Although our team was not at full strength, our position looked promising
after a few hours of play. The battle between the 2 club presidents on board
2 was virtually over when Bill Stokie systematically blundered a pawn, then
a piece and finally the exchange. Our first big blow came when our board 4
apparently misplaced an enemy knight and being unaware of this at the time,
moved his queen within reach of the actual knight. That was the end of queen
and game!
A fluctuating game was played on board 1, both players missing chances. At
the end with 7 moves to go, Alistair lost on time in a very bad position.
At that time, our Geoff Davis, was fighting a long rook ending with a pawn
down. Since it was a double-pawn, we all believed that it would be a draw.
Babic, however, played the ending very well and managed to win the game,
securing the draw for Geelong".

Ballarat-Geelong 2-2 (B'rat white on boards 1,3)

Brd1. B.van Riel (1808)-A.Anderson (1921) 1-0
Brd2. P.Cook (1700)- B.Stokie (1724) 1-0
Brd3. G.Davis (1534)- Z.Babic (1570) 0-1
Brd4. S.Stewart (1396)-P.Power (1589) 0-1

The second round for the Ballarat team was played on May 20th and reported below:

Last night, we played the Albury-Ballarat telephone match (2^nd round). And I am happy to inform you that it saw the first decisive outcome of the current competition. In our favour, that is..! However, it was an immense battle. It could have gone either way, and it was decided only after midnight.

Unfortunately, the undersigned was the only ‘looser’ on the Ballarat side, but someone has to carry the ‘can’, I presume…!?

Rob Simmons, when hearing that he had to play Peter Lumsdon, reminded us (t his own peril) that he had beaten him in their last encounter. He should not have done this, because Peter pulled up is breeches extra high and was determined to give Rob a flogging this time. And that is what happened indeed, in spite of Peter initially confusing the Sicilian for a Scottish opening and loosing a pawn in the process. But after this initial hiccup the game developed into a classical example of the strength of the bishop pair, lots of space, a large advantage in development and plenty of weak points. Rob Simmons never stood a chance…

My game against Joe Santavec took too much of my time in the opening phase, as I never looked ‘happy’. Still, after I had about 5 minutes left on the clock for 15 moves, I found myself suddenly with a pawn up, but in a very complicated position. Joe played a few unassuming but strong moves, followed by a nice winning combination after I had made some weak moves. Weak, at hindsight/post-mortem of course.

Albury was winning from the start of the game at board 3, and our Geoff Davis was moaning and groaning in a terrible position. But all of a sudden he was left inexplicably off the hook and an unstoppable passed pawn won the game for Ballarat. On board 4, where the positions remained very even until the middle game, Scott Stewart built gradually a better game from there on. He won the exchange, and a mating threat saw him with a full rook up. This advantage was converted into surrender by the gallant Bruce Rowston only after 1am in the morning!

Round 2 - Sunday 26th May
Geelong v Castlemaine     3-1
Bendigo v Warrnambool   postponed
Albury v Ballarat                1-3

The above match was played last night. Important not only for the outcome of the ultimate positions on the ladder, but also because of its traditional ‘grudge’ aspect between the two competing cities. Peter Lumsdon, who had just found out that the only reference to his name on the Internet was a loss against David Schepisi, and my own recent bad results against some of the Bendigo players in particular, and at least two of the Ballarat players were ‘neurotically’ motivated to play well.

At one stage, it looked like a trashing, and 4-0 in favour of Ballarat was a distinct possibility. At the end, however we were quite relieved to ‘get away’ with a win of 2.5-1.5.

Right at the start Patrick Cook (against Chris Bradly), made a clever piece sacrifice. He got his piece back a few moves later, although Chris probably could have defended better via the manoeuvre Nf3-g1-e2). Patrick netted two extra healthy pawns plus the attack, and he smoothly cruised to an early win.

Nigel Barrow (against Bas van Riel) decided to adopt one of his pet-systems by playing f5.In combination with the inefficient development of some of his pieces, that was not a good idea. Bas suddenly created a strong attack, with a bishop sacrifice and after that it was more a matter of reaching the time control (about 15 moves in 5 minutes), than doubts about the position itself.

Peter Lumsdon on board 3, soon had a better position against David Schepisi, locking up David’s rook and winning the exchange for a pawn in the process.

However, Peter had somehow misplaced one of the pieces in the telephone transfer, lost another (important) pawn and suddenly his position looked ominously bad. To our relief, Schepisi offered a draw which was gladly accepted because it secured Ballarat’s overall win.

Something similar had happened in the game between Scot Stewart and Max Mollard, where the former (playing black) took a pawn at e4 with a rook, believing that whites f-pawn was at f4 instead of f3! So, that was the end of Scot’s full rook, all of a sudden. From there on it became obviously an up-hill battle for Max, and he didn’t make a mistake to win.

Round 3 - Sunday 16th June
Ballarat v Bendigo             3-1
Warrnambool v Geelong   1½-2½
Castlemaine v Albury        1-3

The Ballarat version of events after reading John Lavery’s report on the telephone match between Ballarat and Castlemaine on Sunday 9 July 2001.

As co-leaders with Geelong, I must admit that our team was comprehensibly outclassed by Castlemaine. We were on the back foot right from the start. As the non-playing captain it was not a pretty sight, I can tell you…

Scott Stewart, on board 3, upon a piece capture by his opponent, decided to take a pawn instead and that was all he got for the loss of a piece. Thanks to the simplified positions and Michael Lane keeping his cool the result was never in doubt although it took a long time to finish it off.

Board 4 was a strange affair, with Castlemaine gobbling up material. Very soon our position was a terrible sight. However, when Willem Debruyn suddenly blundered a piece, the possibility of a draw was very real. Even this hope was smashed when our man lost the plot in the small ours of the night.

In the mean time, the two top board played some good and exciting chess. Jacob Sherry on board 2 sacrificed 2 pawns for an excellent position and ultimately in a deadly kingside attack. His opponent Kevin Perrin underestimated the sting of the attack. He could have done better by chasing the enemy queen out of its powerful position. All in all a very good win by Jacob.

Patrick Cook on board 1 against John Lavery had the advantage soon after the opening, which he gradually built into a strong kingside attack. Unfortunately, John’s pieces were very un-coordinated. No wonder that he went under after a series of elegant moves by Patrick.

Round 4 - Sunday 7th July
Ballarat v Castlemaine         1-3
Bendigo v Geelong              0-4
Albury v Warrnambool        1-3

Following is the short report on the Warrnambool-Ballarat telephone match played on Sunday 29 July 2001

This was a very well played match by the supposedly underdog and newcomer Warrnambool. Colin McKenzie must be doing a fantastic job training and motivating his young team.
From the start, Ballarat was on the backfoot, with the Warrnambool team showing that they were familiar with opening theory.
Robert Bailey on board 4 played his first game for Ballarat. After spending much of his time in the opening, he then had to play faster resulting in minor inaccuracies and overlooking an important pawn grab. Scott Stewart on board 4 is a strange story. He lost from the beginning without being able to make any counterplay or fist. In this competition Scott has scored only 1 point from 4 games.Yet, in the Ballarat Club Championship, he is leading with 11.5 from 12 games winning the most unbelievable games.
Patrick Cook (brd2) against Bruce Murley thought that he was 'cruising' until Murley produced a very strong series of moves culminating in a very nice final combination. See the diagram and notes above.
On board 1, where Colin McKenzie was distracted by his telephone and captaincy duties, Bas van Riel tried to salvage some of Ballarat's pride. He nearly managed to score the full point in an interesting endgame, but had to settle for a draw.
Detailed Results:
Warrnambool- Ballarat 31/2-1/2
Brd1 Colin McKenzie (white)-Bas van Riel 1/2-1/2
Brd2 Bruce Murley (black)-Patrick Cook 1-0
Brd 3 Greg Collins (white)-Scott Stewart 1-0
Brd 4 Neil Hull (black)-Robert Bailey 1-0

Round 5 - Sunday 26th July
Geelong v Albury 2-2
Castlemaine v Bendigo
Warrnambool v Ballarat 3½-1½

	Albury	Ballarat	Bendigo	Castlemaine	Geelong	Match/Board points Warrnambool
Albury	x	1-3	2-2	3-1	2-2	1-3 4/9
Ballarat	3-1	x	2½-1½.	1-3	2-2	½-3½ 5/9
Bendigo	2-2	1½-2½	x	-	0-4	- 1/3½ (2)
Castlemaine	1-3	3-1	-	x	1-3	2-2 3/7(1)
Geelong I	2-2	2-2	4-0	3-1	x	2½-1½ 8/13½
Warrnambool II	3-1	3½-½	-	2-2	1½-2½	x 5/10(1)