Easter Camp 2025 was held at Orleans Park School from Monday 14th to Thursday 17th April, with classes for Intermediate & Advanced students and for Beginners & Novices.
Tournament Play on Day 2 of the Easter Camp
There were two tournaments played:
- Easter RR – for the top six players who attended all four days, there was an ECF rapid rated double Round-Robin
- Easter Swiss – for the remaining Advanced and Intermediate players there was a ECF rapid rated Swiss.
The games for the Easter RR can de downloaded in the following pgn file: RJCC Easter Advanced RR 2025-04-17.pgn.
The theme for this year’s Easter Camp was “Sicilian Defence”.
During the first day, the Advanced & Intermediate students explored White’s thematic pawn sacrifice e4-e5, using an example from the game Kryvoruchko – Smirin, European Ch., Plovdiv, 2008, which is nicely explored in Understanding Chess Middlegames, John Nunn, Gambit, 2011, ISBN 978-1-906454-27-2.
Some brief notes:
- e5!? gives White fine compensation for the pawn, with open lines and access to the e4 square for the knight, but the standard prophylactic moves 10. a4 and 10. Kh1 or development with 10. Qf3 are reasonable, quieter alternatives. There are many valid ways to play chess!
- 10… Nfd7 11. Qg4 0-0 12. Qh3 g6 13. exd6 Bxd6 14. Ne4 would have given White an attack for free
- Bf4! makes the problem with the immediate acceptance of the sacrifice with 11… Qxe5 clear, as the Black queen gets driven to a precarious square, far from the centre.
- Ne4! threatens to eliminate the knight on f6, which defends against Bg4 winning the queen. It also prepares attacks against the queen with Nf2 or Ng5, e.g. 15… Nbd7 16. Nd4! (removing the queen’s flight square on f5).
- 15… e5 attempts to cover attacks against the queen with Bg4, but allows the e-file to be fatally opened against the uncastled Black king, as illustrated by the game.
During the second day, Black’s thematic pawn sacrifice Rxc3 was explored, using an example from the game Abergel – Negi, 26th Cappelle la Grande Open Swiss, Cappelle la Grande, 2010, also nicely explored in Nunn’s book.
Some brief notes:
- 5… a6 with the pawn on d6 and the knight on f6 defines the Najdorf variation. This is one of Black’s most popular and uncompromising counter-attacking systems in the Sicilian Defence.
There are very many alternatives for White on move 6 in the Najdorf variation. In historical order, these are 6. Be2 (the Classical Variation, a favourite of World Champion Karpov, with unpretentious, but sound development), 6. a4 (a solid line, with prophylaxis against Black’s intended b7-b5 advance), 6. Bg5 (aggressive, and for many years the mainline), 6. f4 (controlling e5 and preparing to push a pawn to e4 or e5, but loosening the dark squares on the kingside, this was particularly popular in the 1980s and 1990s), 6. Bc4 (the Sozin Attack, a favourite of the World Champion, Fischer, but perhaps the complicated lines now favour Black a little), 6. h3 (preparing the pawn push g4), 6. g3 (many variations of the Sicilian have a fianchetto variation, concerned with securing the pawn on e4, controlling d4 and eventually preparing an advance on the kingside), and finally 6. Be3 (the English Attack, the most popular line in the present day, White will play f3 to strengthen the e-pawn and prepare an eventual g4 push, castle queenside and may later attempt a kingside pawn storm ). A great variety of other moves have also been tried by strong players. - 6. Qf3 is a rather uncommon alternative, which sets some difficult traps for Black’s development. For example 6… b5? 7. e5 with a double attack; 6… Nc6 7. Nxc6 bxc6 8. e5! is excellent for White; 6… Qc7 (often the square of choice for Black’s queen, but here the Qf3 defends e4, freeing up the Nc3) 7. Nd5 Nxd5 8. exd5, again with a very pleasant position for White; 6… e5 (one of the main ideas in the Najdorf is e5, followed by a later equalising d5) 7. Nf5 leaving the knight aggressively placed, a 7… Bxf5 does not seem wise when White does not have to recapture with the e-pawn; 6. e6 (the Scheveningen small centre with pawns on e6 and d6 is very popular in the Najdorf) but here 7. g4! seems to lead to a strong type of Keres Attack
- 6… g6 is fairly unusual in the Najdorf, but for the reasons given above, it is the main response to 6. Qf3, sometimes played after a preparatory 6… Nbd7. Setups which combine the Najdorf’s a6 and the Dragon’s g6 are sometimes called “Dragodorf”
- 13… e5! It is very unusual in a Dragon type of set-up for Black to block his fianchettoed bishop in this manner. However, here it drives the bishop from defending the Nc3, preparing the exchange sacrifice. Perhaps White might have avoided this fate by retreating the knight with 11. Nb3 or 12. Nb3
- 14… Rxc3! is absolutely devastating. White’s queenside pawn structure is shattered and his king is left without defence. The rest of the game is a entertaining and instructive procession of attacking moves by Black, with inevitable defeat for White. This exchange sacrifice on c3 should be second nature to an exponent of the Sicilian Defence.
On Day 3, the Sveshnikov Variation was explored, followed by a thematic blitz tournament.