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:
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?! (blocking his dark Bishop cannot be right,
instead 9...Qd6! looks equal) 10.Be3 Qe7 11.dxe5 fxe5
12.Be2 Nc6 13.0-0 Nd4? (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+?
(both players missed a trick here, instead 25.Qc5 Qxc5+ 26.Nxc5 was
clearly better for White) 25...Kg7? (Cyril was moving
quickly, and overlooked 25...Qxf6! 26.exf6 Nxc3 27.bxc3 Rxf6 here)
26.Qe1 Nd4 27.Bd1 Bf5 28.Qg3 Bd3 29.Re1 Nf5 30.Qf2 Qb4 31.Ra4 Qb5
32.Rg4 Ne7 33.Qh4 Qxa5? (objectively 33...Qc5+ 34.Kh1 Nf5 was
correct, but recovering his lost pawn looks natural with his opponent
in severe time trouble. Have a look at the diagram for a combination.)
Lewis,Ashley - Danisa,Cyril
Championship Durban (2), 30.03.2006
