Playing with the clock
THE STRONGEST weekend tournament ever held in England has just finished with C. Pritchett of Scotland defeating Grandmaster B. Kurajica (Yugoslavia) in the final round to take the £1000 first prize.
Second equal were six players: M. Chandler (NZ), M. Fuller (Australia), with A. J. Miles, J. Littlewood, J. Speelman and R. Bellin (all from England).
The Evening Standard congress sent one grandmaster, three international masters and several· British masters home with nothing but bottle-of-wine consolation prizes.
Max Fuller and I were largely responsible for the downfall of titled players.
Fuller crushed A. J. Miles (GM) and J. Nunn (IM) in successive rounds, leaving me to ensure that neither H. Bohm (IM) or G. S. Botterill (BM) reached the prizes.
Chandler, Murray G - Botterill, George Steven - National Bank of Dubai op 1976
1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.Qe2 Nc6 "No-one knows" said Leonard Barden at the prize-giving ceremony, "why George Botterill, who has written two books on the Pirc defence, took one-and-a-quarter hours to play his first five moves in this game!" 6.e5 Ng4 An unclear theoretical position, but one which has never arisen in a master game, comes from (6...Nxd4 7.exf6 Nxe2 8.fxg7 Rg8 9.Ngxe2 Botterill knew this position well but preferred to try an alternative which has never been analysed extensively ) 7.Nf3 I rejected (7.e6 because of 7...Nxd4 8.Qxg4 Nxc2+ 9.Kd1 Nxa1 and Black is threatening d5. In view of the time Botterill had taken. I preferred to sacrifice a pawn and make him think some more. ) 7...dxe5 8.dxe5 Ngxe5 9.Nxe5 Nxe5 10.Bb3 Nc6 11.Be3 The idea of the pawn sacrifice - to open lines and gain a lead in development. 11...Nd4 12.Bxd4 Qxd4 13.O-O Qe5 14.Qc4 O-O (14...Be6 15.Qb4 Bxb3 16.Qxb7 O-O 17.axb3 gives White better chances because of the anaemic black 'a' pawn ) 15.Rfe1 Qg5? Already struggling to make the time control, 54 moves in two-and-a-half hours, the Welsh board one gives back the pawn for a non-existent attack. ( I had analysed as equal 15...Qd6 16.Rad1 Be6! ) 16.Qxc7 e5 17.Rad1 Bg4 18.Ne4!
Moves are clickable
White's lead in development is now overwhelming. 18...Qf4 19.f3 Bc8 The bishop makes a humiliating retreat to defend the 'b' pawn. 20.Nd6 h5 21.Nxf7! Kh7 Obviously (21...Rxf7 22.Rd8+ Bf8 23.Rxc8 is hopeless for Black. My two rooks now come into the game, forcing immediate resignation ) 22.Re4 Qf6 23.Rd6 The black queen, hassled throughout the game, can find no shelter. The loss of a piece is forced. 23...Be6 24.Bxe6 1-0