Witney 1 all but sewed up the Oxfordshire 1st division title by beating their closest rivals City 1 by 3.5 points to 2.5 on January 27.

Witney are a powerful outfit, in a class of their own and the fact that City ran them so close despite being considerably out-rated on every board, says a lot for City’s fighting spirit this season.

This week’s battling encounter – played on board 4 – was City’s only win in the match.

White: Csaba Koszta (Witney)

Black: Sean Terry (City)

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c4!? e6 4.Nc3 a6 5.a3 Qc7 6.Be2 Nf6 7.0–0 Nd4 White was eventually going to get around to playing d4 and presumably Black got fed up waiting.

8.h3 h5!? 9.d3 Ng4!? Tricky! One point being that 10.Nxd4 allows 10…Qh2 checkmate.

10.hxg4?! Perhaps White feared that 10.g3 would loosen his king’s position too much – but in fact there’s nothing better for Black, after 10.g3, than 10...Nf6.

10...hxg4 11.g3 gxf3 12.Bxf3 Bd6!? Fairly obviously threatening to sacrifice on g3.

13.Kg2 Be5 Planning 14...b6 (or 14...b5) and 15...Bb7 14.Bg4 g6 15.f4 Bg7 16.Ne2 f5!? Interesting – but it was probably better to keep to the original plan with 16...b5.

17.Nxd4 Bxd4 18.Bf3 d6 19.Rh1 Qg7 20.Rxh8+ Qxh8 21.Rb1 a5 Black needs to activate his rook and getting this piece to the h file would be a bonus. With this in mind the move 21...Ra7! might have been played – though to be fair to Sean, an ‘unnatural’ move like this is very hard to see. If Sean had found 21...Ra7 then White would have had to be very careful. For example 22.Qa4+ b5! 23.cxb5 Rh7 leaves White without a defence.

22.exf5 gxf5 23.Qa4+ Bd7 24.Qb3 Rb8 25.Qb6 Ke7 26.Bd2 White has no time to take on a5 since ...Qh6 and ...Rh8 are threatened.

26...a4 Missing 26...Rg8! 27.Rh1 Rxg3+!! 28.Kxg3 Qg7+ 29.Kh3 Bf2! and amazingly White gets mated.

27.Rh1 Qg7 28.Bc1 e5!? 29.Qc7 White could prevent Black’s next move with 29.Bd5! and then it seems like it’s White who is attacking.

29...Rg8 30.Rh3 e4! 31.dxe4 fxe4 32.Bxe4 Qg4! 33.Rh7+ Ke8 34.Qxd7+ White is forced to sacrifice the exchange – but it is only an exchange and he has a pawn and the two bishops.

34...Qxd7 35.Rxd7 Kxd7 36.Bxb7? The losing move. After 36.Bc2 Ra8 37.Kf3 there’s very little to choose between the two sides. Black is slightly ahead on material – but White has the natural plan of pushing his kingside pawns.

36...Rb8 37.Ba6 Bxb2! 38.Bb5+ Rxb5 39.cxb5 Bxc1 0–1

  • I saw this week’s puzzle in a new Everyman Chess book called Finding Chess Jewels by Polish Grandmaster, Michal Krasenkow, in which you will find well over 200 positions – many from Krasenkow’s own games.

The tests are designed to stretch one’s imagination and develop calculating ability.

If you are anything like me then you’re sure to enjoy trying to solve the puzzles in this terrific little book.