James shares top spot in EACU Championship

Our own James Gardener continued his impressive season by sharing first place, with John Anderson and Graham Moore, at the EACU Closed Championship last weekend – very well done!

He shares a couple of his games:-

   [Event "EACU Closed Championship"] [Date "2019.03.24"] [White "Moore, Graham"] [Black "Gardner, James"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A16"] [Annotator "Gardner,James"] [PlyCount "76"] [SourceVersionDate "2019.03.31"]1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 c6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 g6 5. O-O Bg7 6. cxd5 cxd5 7. d3 {Anything resembling commonly seen before play ends here really with d3 being played instead of d4, black is basically equal already after d3 given he already has more space in the centre.} O-O 8. Nc3 Nc6 9. Bf4 Nh5 (9... d4) 10. Bg5 h6 11. Bd2 e5 12. e4 (12. Qc1 Kh7 $2 (12... d4 13. Na4 Kh7 14. b4) 13. Nxd5 $1 Qxd5 14. Ng5+) 12... d4 13. Na4 (13. Nd5 Be6) 13... b6 14. Rc1 Bd7 15. b3 Re8 16. Nh4 Qf6 {Played as a waiting move and to discourage 17. Nf5 but better was either 16.Nf4 immediately or waiting with 16. Bf8.} (16... Nf4 $1) 17. Qe1 { To protect the knight and prepare f4.} (17. Nf5 gxf5 18. Qxh5 f4 19. Nb2) 17... Nf4 18. gxf4 Qxh4 19. f5 Rac8 20. fxg6 fxg6 21. Nb2 Bf8 22. Nc4 (22. a4 { would have been better first so secure the knight outpost on c4}) 22... b5 23. Na5 Ba3 24. Rc2 Nxa5 25. Rxc8 Rxc8 26. Bxa5 Rc2 {I wanted 26. Bc1 immediately but then the bishops journey round the board to e3 or f4 can be blocked with Bd2, hence Rc2 first. Best now was to play f4 straight away, get the queens off and hope to hold the endgame which is still quite a bit worse.} 27. Bb4 $4 Bc1 28. f4 Qxe1 $2 {Played too quickly, even though end game was winning there is a much prettier mating attack that could have been played by leaving the queen en prix!} (28... Be3+ 29. Kh1 Bh3 $3) 29. Bxe1 Bxf4 (29... Be3+ 30. Bf2 exf4) 30. Bf2 g5 31. Ra1 Bxh2+ 32. Kxh2 Rxf2 33. a4 Rb2 34. axb5 Bxb5 35. Rxa7 Bxd3 36. Kg3 h5 37. Ra8+ Kg7 38. Ra7+ Kf6 0-1

         [Event "EACU Closed Championship"] [Date "2019.03.24"] [White "Gardner, James"] [Black "Bonafont, Phillip"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D93"] [Annotator "Gardner,James"] [PlyCount "89"] [SourceVersionDate "2019.03.31"]1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Qc2 g6 5. Bf4 Bg7 6. e3 O-O 7. Nc3 Bf5 8. Qb3 Qb6 9. h3 Nbd7 10. Be2 dxc4 11. Bxc4 Qxb3 12. Bxb3 Bd3 (12... Nb6) 13. O-O-O Ba6 14. e4 Rac8 15. Kb1 e6 16. g4 Rfe8 17. Rd2 (17. Rhe1 Nb6 18. Ne5 Red8) 17... Nb6 (17... b5 18. Ne5 c5 19. Nxd7 Nxd7 20. dxc5 Nxc5 21. Bc2 b4) 18. Ne5 Nfd7 19. Nxd7 Nxd7 20. e5 Nb6 (20... Bf8 21. h4) 21. Ne4 Red8 22. Bg5 Bf8 ( 22... Rd7 23. Nc5 Rdc7 24. Nxa6 bxa6 25. Rc1 Bf8 26. Rdc2) 23. Bxd8 Rxd8 24. Rhd1 Nc4 25. Bxc4 Bxc4 26. a3 (26. b3 Bd5 27. Nf6+ Kg7 28. Nxd5 Rxd5) 26... Bd5 (26... Bb3 27. Rc1 Be7) 27. Nf6+ Kg7 28. Nxd5 Rxd5 29. f4 Be7 30. f5 (30. Kc2 Bh4 31. f5) 30... Bg5 31. Rd3 Bf4 (31... exf5 32. gxf5 gxf5 33. Rg1 Kh6 34. Rf3 Rxd4 35. Rxf5 Bd8 36. Rxf7) 32. fxe6 fxe6 33. Kc2 g5 34. b4 a6 35. Kc3 h6 36. Rf1 Kg6 37. h4 Rd7 38. h5+ Kg7 39. a4 Kg8 40. a5 Kg7 41. Kc4 Kg8 42. Rdf3 Rf7 43. Kc5 Rd7 44. Rxf4 gxf4 45. Rxf4 1-0