On Monday 10th February, Newark 3 were narrowly defeated by Radcliffe Bingham 4, with a 1.5 – 2.5 result.
Martyn gives us some insights into the draw on board 1 between Stephen Morley and Ben Poultney:
Although Newark suffered a tough loss to R&B in this match, Ben was kind enough to share his score sheet with me afterwards. I was particularly interested in reviewing the game because Ben’s immediate reaction was that he felt fortunate to secure a draw – he believed he was in a losing position and should have been defeated.
So far this season, Ben has remained undefeated and has had very few draws. He’s always a difficult player to beat, consistently finding strong moves whether he’s ahead or behind.
The position I want to highlight comes after 20. … Rhe8.
Leading up to this moment, Black had lost a pawn early in the game after White found a clever “in-between move” capturing a pawn while simultaneously attacking Black’s queen before recovering the piece. White then gained a second pawn when Black misjudged a threat to his light-squared bishop and opted to ‘save’ it at the cost of his a7 pawn.
Despite these setbacks, Ben continued to find strong ideas and centralized his pieces effectively, bringing us to this critical position.
While Stockfish evaluates the position as a +3.03 advantage for White, it’s always up to the player in the winning position to actually convert their advantage. As I mentioned earlier, Ben is a resilient player who continues to find good moves regardless of the engine’s evaluation, making him a tough opponent.
21. b4?
It’s unclear whether White played this move out of fear of Qd4+, which could lead to the loss of the b2 pawn via a fork, or if he believed his queen was well-placed on a8, pinning the dark-squared bishop and supporting a pawn storm. However, by playing b4, White still allows Qd4+, which happens to be the only strong move for Black. The position, previously evaluated at +3.03 for White, immediately drops to 0.00, completely equalizing the game.
A stronger move for White would have been Be3, eliminating the threat of Qd4+ while simultaneously introducing a new idea: Ba7, attacking the pinned bishop and threatening checkmate.
As expected, Ben spotted the opportunity and played 21. … Qd4+. White responded with the inaccurate 22. Kf1, which, surprisingly, shifts the position slightly in Black’s favour despite the two-pawn deficit!
From here, Black’s best move was Bg6, adding pressure to the crucial e4 square. However, this is a difficult move to find over the board – as is doesn’t create an immediate threat, and without engine assistance, it wouldn’t necessarily make a player feel better about the material imbalance.
Instead, Ben played the very solid 22. … Qf6+, inviting White to repeat moves and ultimately agree to a draw – an excellent result given the material deficit.