Junior Club Match Report

Rathmines Junior Chess Club have now over 16 members who meet on Wednesday evenings.

On Wednesday 23^rd March we had our first team event where 11 members travelled to Stillorgan to take part in a friendly match hosted by St. Benildus College.

There was a great team spirit amongst our 11 players ranging in age from 8 to 13. Frank Scott created a great atmosphere with a warm welcome, pairing our lads off against their St Benildus opponents.

Peter C, Scott and Philip all won on the first 3 boards. Two of these games were close run things with board 3 being very exciting right to the end, with the game eventually being won by a Knight fork of a King and Queen. A decisive win by Peter followed on board 1.

Alex, one of our youngest members, was first to finish with a very nice win on board six. Last to finish was David who was pipped by a very good player, in a game which was close until a Knight fork changed everything. All the games were very interesting and hard fought but in the end the experience of the St. Benildus players  won out against our remaining juniors, Oscar, Fiachra, Andrew, Thomas, Isaac and Peter O‘B, who played in his first competitive game.

The final score:  St. Benildus 7  -  Rathmines Junior Chess Club 4

Maura Osborne

St Patricks Day

The club will be CLOSED on St Patricks Day, Thursday 17th March.

Rathmines Championships – Dates

The Championships will start on Thursday, March 31st and continue for the next two weeks, the 7th and 14th of April. There is a one-week break for Easter, then the final three rounds take place from April 28th. There will be a Senior, Intermediate, and Junior championships.

 

McPhillips vs. McCabe

Another game from the Kilkenny match, this time a superb win for Darren over the brilliant Karl McPhillips. All annotations and text are from Darren:

Karl McPhillips (2281) vs. Darren McCabe (1889),
Armstrong, Kilkenny vs. Rathmines ‘A’, played Saturday 19th February 2011.
Annotated by Darren McCabe

REPLAY GAME

Its always difficult to play against a friend but to play a friend who is 2300 and knows every opening you are likely to play is horrible. On the other side of the coin, I knew every opening he could play so it wasnt all bad.

Benko Gambit
1.d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. Nf3

The line I had prepared. This move is not too dangerous and usually leads to a quiet position. White has no real chance of getting an advantage here. However Black shouldn’t disregard the move completely or he can easily end up worse. Black has to play accurately. 4…Bb7 Black’s main objective is to destroy White’s centre. If White is allowed to calmly build up behind it his position will be very pleasant. The main idea of the Nf3 variation is the following variation. 4… g6 5.cxb5 a6 (5… Bg7 6. Nc3 a6 7. e3 when whites a tempo up on another Benko Mainline.) 6. e4 Nxe4 7. Qc2 f5 8.Nbd2 Qa5 9. b4Qxb4 10. Rb1 with a strong initiative. For example Qc3 11.Qd1 when Bb2 is coming! 5. Nbd2 White wants to play e4 quickly. (5. cxb5 Bxd5 and Black has traded a wing pawn for an important central pawn.)