Ashley Lewis (photo 2009)
The joint 2006 Durban champion was university student Ashley Lewis,
who shared the title with Keith Rust on a score of 7/9, good enough
to win the title outright in most years! Ashley went undefeated in
this event.
Ashley has also been the runner-up on two occasions, namely in 2004
and again in 2007.
The following complicated game was critical for the 2006 championships:
[Event "Championship"]
[Site "Durban"]
[Date "2006.03.30"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Lewis, Ashley"]
[Black "Danisa, Cyril"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Na4 0-0 7.e4 Nb6
8.Nc5 e5 9.Bg5 f6 $6 {blocking his dark Bishop cannot be right}
(9...Qd6 $1 {looks equal}) 10.Be3 Qe7 11.dxe5 fxe5 12.Be2 Nc6
13.0-0 Nd4 $2 {losing a pawn for nothing} 14.Nxd4 exd4 15.Bxd4 Bxd4
16.Qxd4 c6 17.Bd1 h6 18.Bb3+ Kh7 19.a4 Bg4 20.f3 Rad8 21.Qc3 Bc8
22.a5 Na8 23.e5 Nc7 24.Ne4 Nb5 25.Nf6+ $2 {both players missed a trick here}
(25.Qc5 Qxc5+ 26.Nxc5 {was clearly better for White}) 25...Kg7 $2
({Cyril was moving quickly, and overlooked} 25...Qxf6 $1 26.exf6 Nxc3
27.bxc3 Rxf6) 26.Qe1 Nd4 27.Bd1 Bf5 28.Qg3 Bd3 29.Re1 Nf5 30.Qf2 Qb4 31.Ra4 Qb5
32.Rg4 Ne7 33.Qh4 Qxa5 $2 ({objectively} 33...Qc5+ 34.Kh1 Nf5 {was correct,
but recovering his lost pawn looks natural with his opponent in severe time
trouble}) {Diagram [#]} 34.Nh5+ {Ashley saw the spectacular sacrifice
34.Qxh6+ mating, but lacked enough time to check all the variations.}
(34.Qxh6+ $3 Kxh6 {taking the Queen loses by force eg.} 35.Rh4+ Kg5
(35...Kg7 $2 36.Rh7#) 36.f4+ $1 Kf5 (36...Kxh4 37.g3+ Kh3 38.Bg4#)
37.Bg4+ Kxf4 38.g3+ Kg5 39.Nh7#) 34...Kh8 35.Nf4 Bf5 $2
(35...h5 $1 36.Nxd3 Rxd3 {was still playable}) 36.Qxh6+ $2
(36.Nxg6+ $1 {forces the win after} 36...Nxg6 37.Qxh6+ Kg8
38.Rxg6+ Bxg6 39.Qxg6+ Kh8 40.Qh6+ Kg8 41.Bb3+ Rd5 42.Re4 {etc})
36...Kg8 37.Bb3+ Rd5 38.Bxd5+ cxd5 39.Rc1 Qd2 40.Rf1 Qe3+ $2
(40...Bxg4 41.fxg4 Qd4+ 42.Kh1 Qc4! 43.Kg1 {was equal})
41.Kh1 Qxe5 42.Nxg6 {the sealed move; Cyril decided not to play on}
1-0