IF you read last week’s chess column, you’ll know that Eric Kemper was in a plane crash. One thing I left out was the fact that his son Joseph (pictured) was with him in this crash as well. Since that day Joseph has not sat down at a chess set as you see in this photo. However he did want to be at the Chess Club to start the tournament off. So, on Tuesday night he made the first move on Board One on behalf of the tournament that is named after his father.

I can recall a time when Eric would bring Joseph to a Chess Club tournament and every now and then he would leave his own game to look at Joseph’s game. He has also been present at prizegivings. They were the father and son chess team that played in most tournaments. Another father and son team was Carlton Williams and one of his eight sons. Also Nick Faulks and his son William.

This week’s game was one that I played against Eric in January 1996. This tournament was called the Butterfield Cup. You can see that Eric made short work for himself when he played me in 19 moves. It was Eric Kemper playing White and Larry Ebbin playing Black.

As you can see from Diagram 1, Eric has a good double pawn chain plus an attack on my castled king. The king has only h8 one square to move. In Diagram 2 this knight is hard for me to attack and when I tried to, as you can see in Diagram 3, it’s too late. Moving this bishop does not help me. Now you see why, as in Diagram 4 with a queen check and the combination with queen and knight checkmate at h7 square, I resigned.

Eric Kemper <\m> White

Larry Ebbin <\m> Black

Butterfield Cup 1996

1. e4 c6 2. d4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Bd2 Ne7 5. Nf3 d5 6. e5 0-0 7. Bd3 b5 8. a3 Ba5 9. b4 Bb6 10. Ne2 Bb7 11. c3 a5 12. Qb1 axb4 13. cxb4 Qc7 14. Bxh7+ Kh8 15. Bc2 Qd7 16. Qb3 Nf5 17. Bxf5 exf5 18. Ng5 Bd8 19. Qh3+