EZRA Turner has clinched the Kemper Memorial Trophy by beating Phil Shadick in the sixth and final round of the competition. The results were as follows:

Ezra Turner 1-0 Phil Shadick

Nick Faulks 1-0 Allan Smith

Neil Trott 0-1 (def) Nathan Wharerimu

Sami Lill 1-0 Larry Ebbin

John Kessaram 1-0 Alvin Amore

Perhaps it was foolhardy to hold a tournament through the summer, and only nine players stayed the course, but much good chess was played and I think it was a worthwhile event. The final scores were:

Ezra Turner 5

Nick Faulks 4|0xbd|

Phil Shadick, Nathan Wharerimu 4

Allan Smith, Sami Lill 3|0xbd|

Larry Ebbin, John Kessaram 3

Alvin Amore 1|0xbd|

Congratulations are due to Ezra (pictured<$>), for whom this represented his first tournament win at the club but not, I suspect, his last.

Nathan Wharerimu and Allan Smith should also both be mentioned for their creditable results, and for playing several excellent games against far more experienced opponents.

Turner’s win in the final round looked very interesting, and I hope to publish it next week. However, I shall first comment on another critical game, to which I alluded in last week’s column by showing an apparently simple pawn ending.

This came from the fifth round encounter between the two top seeds, with Shadick playing White against Nick Faulks.

We join the game after Black’s 40th move, with the first time control just reached. Neither player had many minutes to spare, but both had handled the clock quite sensibly and time pressure had not caused any major mistakes.

My own problems had occurred earlier, when I played optimistically in a reasonable position, only to find that my opponent had looked rather more deeply into the position. By the time I had managed to fight off his counterattack two pawns had gone missing, bringing about the position shown in Diagram 1.

Although things do look quite grim I had not given up at this point. White may still face some technical difficulties, and one amusing idea is that if I can somehow eliminate all of the pawns, even at the cost of both of my minor pieces, he will be left with the awkward task of checkmating with K+B+N v K. Many years ago I faced this problem myself, in a weekend Swiss tournament with only a couple of minutes left on the clock, and didn’t get close.

41. Ke3, Bd7 42. g5, hxg5 43. hxg5, Nf5+

Not really consistent with my plan of eliminating all the pawns, but that already looked unpromising.

44. Bxf5, Bxf5 45. Nf3, Bf1 46. Nd4, g6 47. Nf3, Kc5 48. Ne5, Bf5

See Diagram 2. Probably White will at some point have to take the plunge and give up his knight, and he decides this is a good moment.

49. Nxg6!, Bxg6 50. b4+, Kc4 51. b5, Kxb5 52. Kd4, Kc6 53. Ke5, Kd7 54. f5, Ke7!?

I was very pleased with this shot, which I had planned several moves ago, and briefly believed that I was going to draw this ending.

55.fxg6

Reaching Diagram 3, the position given as a quiz in last week’s column.

What followed was a comedy of errors. First of all, I immediately concluded that I was lost, and resigned. My opponent agreed that this was a correct evaluation, and after some brief analysis we went home.

However, the next day he had another look, and followed the game forward with 55. . . . Kf8 56. Kf6, Kg8 57. g7, Kh7, reaching Diagram 4. What can White do, given that 58. Kf7 brings about a stalemate? This had, of course, been my plan (which I then forgot!), so did I really resign in a drawn position?

No, fortunately I did not. Instead of 58. Kf7??, White can play 58. g8=Q+!, Kxg8 59. Kg6!, reaching the familiar pattern where White’s king is in front of the pawn and he wins. Justice was done after all. Next week we shall start the final tournament of the summer, a two-week rapidplay event with three rounds each evening. We are hoping for a good turnout, so please be at the Chamber of Commerce no later than 7.45 p.m. for the first round draw to be made.