Oxford 1 suffered a highly predictable 7-1 drubbing at the hands of national champions Guildford 1 in round 7 of the Four Nations Chess League – but bounced back magnificently to defeat 3C’s 1 by 5-3 in round 8.


The win gives Oxford a great chance of avoiding demotion and remaining in the first division of this prestigious competition.


The undoubted star for Oxford this season has been new signing Justin Tan. The 16-year-old Australian remains unbeaten and will secure an International Master norm if he performs to par over the competition’s final weekend in May.


Here is his impressive round 8 victory over a dangerous opponent.


White: Justin Tan
Black: Alexander Longson


1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 The Sicilian Najdorf — one of the most theoretical of Black’s defences. I think you have to be pretty serious about your chess to play this opening as Black — and even more serious to take the White side.


6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.Qd2 Be7 9.f3 0–0 10.0–0–0 a5 This is one of four alternatives at this point — illustrating how much theory White needs to know in order to venture down these main lines. The other commonly played moves are 10...Nbd7, 10...b5 and 10...Qc7.


11.Bb5 Na6 12.Qe2 Qb8 13.g4 Rc8 14.g5 Nh5 15.Kb1 a4 16.Nxa4 Nb4 17.c3! The first new move and not a bad one. Previously, 17.Nc3 had been played — but this allows the thematic sacrifice 17...Rxc3! with reasonable play for Black.


17...Rxa4 Missing an amazing resource. After 17...Nxa2!! 18.Kxa2 Rxa4+! 19.Bxa4 Qa8 it appears the best White can do is acquiesce to a draw with 20.Qb5 Bc4 21.Qd7 Be6 22.Qb5.


18.Bxa4 Bc4 19.Qe1 Bd3+ 20.Rxd3 Nxd3 21.Qf1 Nhf4 Better was 21...b5! 22.Qxd3 bxa4 23.Nd2 Nf4 with decent compensation for the pawn.
 

22.Bb5 Nc5 23.Nxc5 dxc5 24.h4 Qc7 25.Bc4 Rd8 26.Rg1 Not giving up his attacking ambitions, White intends 27.h5 and 28.g6.


26...Qd7 27.Bxf4! Correctly judging that with opposite coloured bishops the attack will be hard to resist.


27...exf4 28.Bd5 b5 29.h5 g6 30.hxg6 hxg6 31.Rg4 Bd6 32.Rh4 Be5 33.Rh6 Qd6 Dropping another pawn. Clearly  33...Kg7 34.Qh1 was hopeless — but 33...Kf8! offered Black a chance to hang on.


34.Qxb5 Kg7 35.Qf1 Rh8 Fearing for his life, Black jettisons yet another pawn — the third! In fact 35...Rb8 36.Qh3 Kg8! is not as bad as it looks. There’s no immediate way through for White — but he does remain two pawns up.


36.Rxh8 Kxh8 37.Bxf7 Kg7 38.Bd5 Qd8 39.Qg1 Bd6 40.Qg4 Be7 41.Qxf4 Bxg5 42.Qf7+ Kh6 43.f4 Bf6 44.a4
It’s plain to see that even with opposite coloured bishops the winning process will not be too taxing for White, so Black resigned. 1–0