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| Charles Watson |
Today's game features one of Australia's top players, Charles G. M. Watson (October 22, 1879 - March 5, 1961, 81 years old). He was born in Buninyong which is not far from Melbourne in SE Australia.
Watson was Australian Champion in 1922 and 1930-31. His 1922 win ended the run of William S. Viner who had been champion since 1906. The Championship didn't return to Melbourne until 1931, when Watson again won.
His only international event seems to have been London 1922 (won by Capablanca ahead of Alekhine) where he tied places 14-15 out of 16. He scored a wins over Morrison (Canada), Davide (Italy), Marotti (Italy), Atkins (England) and, most significantly, Richard Reti (Hungary). Chessmetrics assigns him a high rating of 2456 on the June, 1926 list placing him at number 53 in the world.
He started playing chess at the age of 10 with his father and later joined the Melbourne Chess Club, winning the club championships in 1898, 1902, 1904, 1905, 1914, 1921, 1931 and 1936.
A tactician who eschewed strategy, Watson was known for his uncanny ability to win lost games.
Watson also had a very brief football (i.e. soccer) career; he played 11 games for the Melbourne Demons in the inaugural season of the Victorian Football League Australian Football competition in 1897. Later in life became a big fan of bridge. He passed away in Melbourne in 1961.
His opponent in the following game was Barbato Rometti (June 23, 1896 - August 22, 1975) who was born in Italy, but became a naturalized French citizen on September 1, 1929.
At the beginning of his career, he played in Nice 1930, in the B tournament. In 1937, also in Nice, he finished 2nd behind Alekhine behind in a quadrangular tournament.
Rometti played in many French Championship. His best showing were in 1932 (shared 2nd), 1935 (shared 2nd) and 1945 (3rd). His last appearance was in 1965 where he finished 24th
He played for France in 3rd unofficial Chess Olympiad at Munich 1936 and in 8th Chess Olympiad at Buenos Aires and for Monaco at Tel Aviv 1964.
A game that I liked (Komodo 14)
Charles Watson–Barbato Rometti1–0A15Australia vs France Radio Match1946Stockfish 15
English Opening 1.c4 f6 2.f3 e6 3.e3 d5 4.b3 bd7 5.b2 e7 6.e2
White has also played 6.Nc3, 6.d4 and 6.Qc2 here. c6 7.0-0 0-0 8.c2 e4 9.d3 d6 10.bd2 f6 Black evidently intended to followup with ...e4, but
Watson's next move puts the quietus on that idea. Better was 10...b6 11.d4
Rather awkward, but now 11...e5 is met by the for 12.Ne6 11.d4 was a
better way if preventing the advance of the e-Pawn. e5 His best move was
probably 11...f5 12.dxe5 fxe5 13.cxd5 cxd5 14.xe5 xe5 15.xe5 e6 11...e5 12.c5 After this black's pieces are all gummed up, but the closed nature
of the position makes it difficult to assign white more than a slight
advantage. e8 13.f4 f7 14.4f3 He still wants to prevent ...e5 c7 15.d4 Still hindering ...e5 f5 16.b4 b6 17.b3 f6 18.d3 d7 18...g5
aiming for counterplay was the correct strategy 19.e5 gxf4 20.exf4 e4
and the chances are even. 19.e2 b5 20.c3 e4 21.e1 h8 22.e5 xe5 23.dxe5 g5 24.c1 d8 25.d4 e8 26.f3 26.xe4 was better. Then after dxe4 27.b3 g6 28.d1 e8 29.d6 white has a promising position. xd6
This is wrong. Better would be 29...Rg8 30.cxd6 g8 31.fxg5 xg5 32.c5
with excellent compensation for the exchange. 26...h5 27.c2 27.fxg5
can get tricky. xg5 28.xe4 fxe4 29.xf8+ xf8 30.xh5 xe3+ 31.f2 xf2 32.h1 xc1 Black only has a R and B for his Q, but the position is not at
all clear. In Shootouts white scored +3 -0 =2, but the games were quite long,
a couple well over 100 moves. 27...g8 28.f1 f7 29.d1 gxf4 30.exf4
d8 This passive move makes little sense. Better was 34...Rg6 30...g6 31.h1 ag8 32.xe4 fxe4 33.c3 but even here white has the
better game and scored 5-0 in Shootouts. 31.xe4 fxe4 32.c3 h6 33.f5 h7 It's amazing that black's position has collapsed so quickly, but a somewhat
better defense was offered by 36...Qe8 33...e8 34.f6 f7 35.f4 g6 36.h4 h7 37.e2 Heading for f4. Black's position is badly compromised. 34.fxe6 e8 35.f5 Threatening to win with 36.e7 e7 36.d6 g6
This meets with a great refutation but there was nothing better. 37.f6
Of course the R can't be safely taken. g5 37...xf6 38.exf6 h7 39.f7 xf7 40.exf7 g7 41.xg7 xg7 42.f2 f8 43.d2 d4 44.f1 White
is clearly winning. 38.f7+ xf7 39.exf7 Less strong is 39.xf7 g6
and white's progress is almost at a standstill. 39...g6 Black resigned
without waiting for white to reply. 39...g6 40.xg6 xg6 41.e6+ h7 42.f2 f8 43.d4 Analysis shows that while there is no forced win for white
and black can put up some semblance of resistance, in the end he will
gradually be outplayed. 1–0
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