Paying Homage to the Master
By Nick Larter
Ennis Chess Club and IM Gerard Welling have ‘Previous.’ It’s 2005 in the sleepy Val’d’Aostan backwater of Saint
Vincent, our first venture into the dizzy heights of the European Club Cup and our captain John Cassidy and this
creative and hugely respected IM serve up a classic c3 Sicilian battle that Welling, playing Black, finally shades when
his king marches fearlessly up the board to support his remaining Queen and Knight [1]. His team HMC Calder
whitewashed us 6-0 that day and so, four years on in the delightful southern Macedonian city of Ohrid there’s a bit of
pride at stake when we draw the palpably misfiring 21st seeds in the last round – our reward for our best ever ECC
return of four points – and it’s my turn to test my mettle against the man.
From my preparation it seemed that my 1.e4 would be most likely met with one of 1…d6, 1…c5, 1…g6 or 1…d5. I could
aim to transpose any of the first three into my usual Botvinnik English type set-up, confident in the expectation that a few
well timed off-the wall moves from my opponent would soon get us into unknown territory. For the last, I was faced with
daring to play my normal transposition into the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit against a player who, certainly in his younger
days if maybe somewhat less so today, was an acknowledged BDG aficionado and expert.
So this is the story that unfolds below and whilst I would generally be reticent in assuming that anyone would be much
interested in one of my chess games, I’m persuaded to make an exception here, firstly because of the amusing backstory that emerges and secondly because of the brain-twisting and highly theoretical dénouement that may be new and
of interest to some, as it certainly was to me. Scene setting done, let’s see what happens…
Welling has revived the entire line –
yes I’m playing the very variation that
my opponent himself had invented
almost 30 years ago! By now our wry
grins across the board had attracted
the attention of the neighbouring
games and one or two of the HMC
Calder players, including GM Giri,
came over for a look and
immediately grasped the joke.
9…Bxd1 Clearly not 9…Kxf7?, which
gives White a raging attack, eg.;
10.Qg4 Qd7 11.Bg5 Na6 12.Bxf6
gxf6 13.d5! Nc7 14.dxe6+ Nxe6
15.Rae1 Re8 16.Ne4 Bxe4 17.Rxe4
Bc5+ 18.Kh1 Re7 19.Qh5+ 1-0,
Welling – Marzik, Biel 1981. 10.Nxd8
11.Rxd1 Nd5 12.Re1 Kd7
Kxd8
Alternatively, in Welling – Wrobel,
Luxembourg 1982, Black tried to free
his position through some exchanges
with 12…Bb4 13.Rxe6 Nxc3 14.bxc3
Bxc3 but failed and lost after
15.Bg5+ Kd7 16.Re7+ Kd6 17. Rd1
18.Re6+ Kd7 19.Bf4 Re8
h6
20.Rd6+ Ke7 21.Rd3 Bb4 22.Re3+
Kf8 23.Rf6+ 1-0. But back to the
game... 13.Bg5 h6 14.Bd2 I think
this is best – the immediate 13. Bd2
And for those of you still in the dark, doesn’t create the potentially useful
let’s hand over to IM Gary Lane to hole for me on g6, whilst the retreat
reveal the novelty of what is 14. Bh5, although weakening the
transpiring, for of this move he important f6 post for Black’s Knight
writes.[4] This tremendous move by after 14…g5 15.Bg3, gives him the
24 | P a g e
N. Larter 1799 – G. Welling IM 2372
European Club Cup (7), Ohrid, 2009
1.e4 d5 2.d4 So BDG it is... 4...dxe4
3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 c6 ...and
naturally enough we enter the Ziegler
defence, a bastard cousin of the
Caro-Kann, which usually forms the
basis of the purported refutations of
the BDG that appear in print from
time to time, of which IM Andrew
Martin’s ‘Shopping for a Tombstone’
[2,3] is perhaps the best known
example. 6.Bc4 Bf5 7.Ne5 e6 8.0–0
Bxc2 I was playing for this line and
was a little surprised that Welling
went into it. 9.Nxf7!?
a1-h8 diagonal and leaves my piece
offside – it’s more flexibly placed on
d2. 14...Be7 15.Ne4 b5 16.Be2
Again more flexible than 16.Bb3 and
the pressure on e7 can potentially be
renewed later with Bg4. 16...Nf6
17.Nc5+ Bxc5 18.dxc5 a5 19.Bf4
Na6 20.Rad1+ Nd5 21.Bd6
So Black has engineered a passed
pawn but White has a lot of positional
compensation – the threat 22.Rf1 is
difficult for Black to meet (21…Ke8
fails to 22.Bg4; 21…Nf6 fails to
22.Bf8+) and I think Welling, in
opting to sacrifice the exchange to
thwart this move whilst removing the
annoying piece on d6 in
compensation, finds the best plan.
21…Rhe8 (Not 21…Rhf8? 22.Bxf8
Rxf8 23.a4! 22.Rf1 Re7 23.Bxe7
Kxe7 24.Rfe1 Nxc5?! I was initially
Irish Chess Journal