Division 3n, Weekend 4, Cedar Court Hotel,
Wakefield, 19-20 Mar 2016
by Andy
Mort
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Cedar Court Hotel, Wakefield |
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On the basis of the opposition’s
grading and positions in the League Table,
Weekend 3 promised to be very tough for the C
Team and relatively comfortable for the B Team.
However, teams had been finalised earlier than
usual, and we were not this weekend bedevilled
by late withdrawals due to illness, so entered
the fray undaunted.
Owing to the fact that the two
matches were situated far apart, I wasn’t able
to follow closely the B Team games v Manchester
Manticores 2, all of which finished long before
some of our C Team battles. Essentially things
went to plan, with draws on the top three boards
and wins on the bottom three.
As White against a King’s
Indian, Dave developed a weakness in the form of
a backward pawn on b3, and his opponent created
a space advantage, but our man soaked up the
pressure to reach a drawn knight and pawn
ending. Queens came off early in Roy’s game, and
he equalised easily without gaining sufficient
advantage to press any harder. Peter’s game
began less staidly when he played 2.g4 in a
symmetrical English (infected by drunken games
with Simon Williams?), but when queens came off,
manoeuvrings by both sides led to nothing, and a
draw was agreed. At this point Peter began to
relish the prospect of a pre-prandial trip to a
canal-side pub with his captain – which also led
to nothing. Robbo is wont to invoke “The Spirit
of Atticus”, a form of bellicose determination;
an equally important part of our ethos is “The
Spirit of Ackley”, a form of opportunistic
hedonism.
Mike won a pawn following the
liquidation of centre pawns in a Q.G.D., and
then netted a rook following a blunder. Queens
were exchanged early in Tom’s game, and in a
rook and knight endgame he won a pawn, after
which his passed h and g pawns won the day,
shepherded forward by his more active pieces.
After winning a pawn, Lloyd then converted his
advantage to complete a comfortable victory for
the team.
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Spirit of
Atticus B v Manchester Manticores 2
(foreground). Standing, Martyn Hamer
(MM2). |
Photo by Lara Barnes |
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The C Team, facing Bradford
Knights A, were heavily out-graded and suffered
our biggest defeat of the season, whilst
offering stern resistance after early setbacks
on the bottom boards. Keith succumbed to a
ferocious attack on the weakened white squares
around his king, and Steve blundered after he
achieved a solid King’s Indian set-up which
appeared to offer him equal prospects.
On Board 3, Mike’s opponent’s
cavalier opening play quickly back-fired on him,
leaving Black with an active rook and
centralised king which won him a passed a pawn.
For a long time, it looked as if Mike would win,
and although a computer would have done so, over
the board his opponent had enough counter-play
from his own passed pawn to sacrifice a rook and
draw. On Board 1, Colm was able to eliminate his
opponent’s dangerous white-squared bishop with a
‘trick’, but his own bishop of the same colour
was permanently ‘bad’. Having survived a
king-side attack at the cost of a pawn, in the
subsequent rook and pawn ending his opponent
played cleverly to create a winning outside
passed pawn. The crucial point in John’s game
occurred when his opponent might have taken a
pawn to create his own ‘runner’, but he judged
John’s counter-play against his king, with his
queen offside, to be too dangerous, and after
Black’s unconvincing attempt to create a mating
net, a draw was agreed. Unusually, my game was
the last to finish (sorry, Peter!). I had looked
to be holding Adam Lang for most of the game,
though his passed b pawn probably always
promised him an ultimate advantage. The later
advance of this pawn, and my opponent’s precise
play in warding off a number of dangerous
tactics I managed to create, settled the issue
in his favour. And so, we achieved a sort of
‘creditable battering’.
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Spirit of
Atticus B & C (Rounds 5 & 6,
13-14 February) |
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Evening revelry took place
at The Kaye Arms, ‘out in the sticks’.
Though busy on Valentine’s Day, the service
by the young staff was efficient and
friendly, and the food enjoyable enough to
encourage us to envisage a further visit on
Weekend 4.
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Kaye Arms,
Wakefield |
On Sunday, the B Team beat
Bradford C comfortably, again without losing
a game. First to finish was Tom,
unfortunately owing to a default, but Tony
followed shortly after, winning a pawn with
his Grand Prix Attack and converting his
advantage in the endgame efficiently. Peter
then drew a Sicilian position which
transposed from a Modern Defence, little
exciting having happened.
On Board 1, Dave weathered some
pressure down the a file, and then created a
passed b pawn to match his opponent’s passed d
pawn, a ‘monster’ which won Dave a piece for two
pawns following a clever tactic. His bishop and
rook created mating threats, and the two active
pieces and two connected central passed pawns
soon settled the issue. Mike agreed a draw in a
fairly lifeless position after developing some
early pressure, leaving Lloyd to lose the
exchange trying to develop some queenside
pressure in what looked like an even position.
Nevertheless, his two bishops and extra pawn v
bishop and rook were sufficient to draw the
endgame comfortably.
More exciting was the C Team
match v 3Cs 2, who had started the weekend equal
first in the table on match points. It is hard
to be very combative when playing old friends,
and, as I played with Phil Adams as a junior
some fifty years ago, it perhaps came as no
surprise that we agreed a draw in seventeen
moves. Almost as quickly, Daniel completed his
demolition of his opponent’s French Defence in
an impressive display of aggression that
indicated genuine talent and promise for the
future. We can only hope that he remains happy
to play alongside geriatrics. In a Modern
Defence, Keith lost a pawn when his kingside was
‘busted’, and then looked to be back in the game
following the exchange of queens. However, his
opponent doubled on the f file and won a piece,
after which the endgame was not defensible.
Honours even, then, and the top
three boards to finish. ‘Supersolid’ John more
than equalised with his Centre Counter defence,
and a draw was agreed. On Board One, matched
against a very strong opponent, Mike became
embroiled in a complex English v King’s Indian
middle-game. When the air had begun to clear,
Mike sacrificed the exchange, whereupon his
opponent offered a draw, testifying to the
soundness of his decision. Colm’s position did
not entirely settle our nerves. In an unusual
Modern Benoni, he had never really generated
much kingside play as White. His opponent took
the initiative, giving up the traditionally
strong black-squared bishop for dominance of the
c file. Following the exchange of both sets of
rooks, Colm won a pawn on the queenside, but his
queen and knight were then not in a position to
defend weak squares around his king, and a draw
was agreed when perpetual check was inevitable.
And so we achieved a 3-3 draw,
very much our best result of the season. We
remain in good spirits; in the final two
weekends we can expect less formidable
opposition, and hope to climb up the table.
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