Team A: Division
2, Fourth Weekend, Holiday Inn, Birmingham, 28-29
Mar 2015
by John Carleton
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Holiday Inn, Birmingham Airport |
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We had finished weekend 3 in
high spirits knowing that a draw in round 7
would guarantee us a place in the Championship
Pool and probably only an overwhelming defeat
would see us in the Demotion Pool. Our opponents
BCM Dragons were firmly ensconced in the last
chance hotel knowing that the Demotion Pool
option could be avoided for sure only by a
victory and a draw would leave them in with some
chance but precariously placed awaiting the
efforts of teams below them in the league.
These matches for weekend 4 had
been a long time coming and our appetites had
been whetted by the tough games of our B team in
division 3 the previous weekend, as the
fixtures, due to circumstances beyond our
control, had spread over two weekends. This
contest was keenly contested in the early stages
with no major advantages emerging for either
team; our opponents were surely ready to have a
go and although not afraid of draws we were also
keen to test our aggressive potential.
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Captain: John Carleton |
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Gradually the results
trickled in: on board 8 Dave Robertson's
youthful opponent, Jagdeep Dhemrait, was
able to force a repetition but no more and
this heralded further draws on boards 5 and
4.
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Spirit of
Atticus A (Round 7) |
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On board 5 Peter Ackley and
opponent Colin Purdon had played only 18
moves but had used plenty of time so agreed
the draw in the rather murky position that
had arisen. Sheila's position on board 4
seemed balanced and neither she nor opponent
Alan Scrimgour wished to risk unbalancing
matters.
We took the lead when, after a
somewhat inept opening by me, the central pawns
were cleared away and it gradually dawned on
Chris Fegan and myself that his position was
extremely dicey. There were with no obvious
anchorage points for his bishops and my pieces
were pointing menacingly at his king; the finish
was not long arriving. Boards 2 and 7 saw a win
apiece with Tom Farrand on board 2 showing a
better feel for the intricacies of the complex
position than Nick Ivell following an
approximately level opening.
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Roy Ellames, on debut for the A
team played a coherent and impressive game: he
virtually forced John Foley to sacrifice the
exchange but gave it back for a pawn and despite
messy looking pawns his activity ensured that he
was able to move into an easily won rook and
pawn endgame. David Phillips on board 6, playing
Justin Hadi was perhaps rather pessimistic of
his chances but agreed a draw having confidence
in Brett Lund in the remaining game to at least
maintain our lead. Brett on board 1 justified
the confidence: a complex opening saw both he
and Clive Frostick having problems completing
their development. The resulting middlegame
seemed fairly level but Brett increased the
pressure and broke through with a neat finishing
combination to bring in, by 5-3, the victory
that ensured our progress into the Promotion
Pool.
Whereas the meeting
up and travel to Solihull's finest
Chinese Chinese and Thai restaurant
left something to be desired, once
we had assembled inside, a range of
fine food and drink was consumed in
bulk with gusto. We were, and
remain, very proud of our historic
achievement: In our 5th year of
existence and at the third attempt
we had made it into the 2nd Division
Championship Pool. Five of the six
who had played in the first ever
match for Spirit of Atticus at
Darlington in November 2010 played
over the two weekends for rounds 7
and 8.
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Spirit of
Atticus A (Round 8) |
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At this meal were four of the
five: Dave Robertson, Peter Ackley, Steve Connor
[present as half 4NCL webmaster and half
non-playing vice captain of our team] and
myself. Of the five only B team captain Andy
Mort was not at the meal and we are assured he
had celebrated all eventualities in depth the
weekend before.
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Everbright Thai & Chinese
Restaurant |
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As we reminisced I was sure I
saw a tear in Grubmeister Dave's eye but equally
it may have been a glint of anticipation for
further challenges.
The casual reader may feel that,
within the framework of chess history this is
not such a big deal. However, we must refer you
our esteemed colleagues and fellow competitors
from Grantham Sharks who also celebrated on
Saturday evening [in the hotel bar]. Admittedly
they had two teams making the appropriate
Championship Pool but on learning of their hotel
champagne bill, our noble Grubmeister sagely
observed [with admiration of course], "These
Sharks can certainly put it away".
The loss
of the hour sacrificed to bring in summertime
did not disturb our traditional routine of a
leisurely sojourn in the Hotel bar before
retiring to bed. Thus Sunday saw us arise
refreshed for what was to be, and I'm not sure
if I've mentioned this, our first contest in the
new mini-league that will ultimately decide the
honours in the Second Division [Editor's note:
That's enough of that, thank-you].
This match against Cambridge
University 2 saw generally sharper openings than
on Saturday and the early action saw our
opponents establish a strong foothold in the
match. They could claim a reasonable advantage
on boards 1, 5 and 6 [probably, this was Basman
territory so it was hard to be 100% sure of
anything] and a potentially winning advantage on
board 3 where Nick Ivell had been caught in a
sharp gambit variation by Chris Beckett. Board 4
saw us welcome back Andy Smith into the team
following his heroics in the recent Bunratty
tournament but his opponent Stuart Robertson was
trading blows in a long opening variation and
had grabbed a pawn to boot, generally giving us
cause for concern.
On board 8 Dave Robertson
was meeting another young opponent, Atreya
Mandnikov, who was content to generate
activity with a view to simplifying the
conflict. Board 7 was a tough game to call
with both David Phillips and his adversary
Ian Gooding showing aggressive intent. Only
board 2 was progressing smoothly from our
point of view, as Brett serenely conducted
another master class in simple chess and his
which had seemed inevitable from an early
stage was the first result on the board.
Almost immediately the nature of the
struggle changed when Dave Robertson won on
board 8 after a blunder by his opponent in
only a slightly worse position. Nick by now
had threaded his way out of the opening
complications and his bishop proved far
superior to his opponent's pawns in the
ending. 3-0 became 3-1 when on board 6
Alexander Gordon-Brown proved to have a calm
approach through the mess and Peter Ackley's
position just crumbled.
Then a real match
changer arrived in our lap: Sheila
on board 5 had appeared in grave
danger of taking an early K.O. as
Adrian Somerfield's opening edge
just grew and grew. Sheila dug in
and fought tooth and nail giving up
her queen for rook and minor piece.
Although Sheila was theoretically
lost at the end, she had lots of
play and the position was difficult
for both players when Sheila won on
time at move 30!
My game had seen Alistair Hill
maintain an opening edge into the middlegame but
when we arrived in a bishop v knight endgame my
knight and ragbag of isolated and doubled pawns
proved far superior to the bishop and "tidy"
pawns.
So 5-1 and an important victory
even though in the remaining two games we seemed
doomed. Andy duly lost on board 4 after
entertaining play but David Phillips on board 7
battled and meandered through a variety of lost
rook and pawn endings before against all the
odds arriving at a drawn one after 6 hours play.
Bravo! A 5½-2½ victory seems unjust in the
cool light of day but we will enjoy the moment,
since we, just like all chess players the world
over, will have plenty of opportunities to beat
ourselves up when things swing against us.
Team B: Division
3, Fourth Weekend, Daventry, 21-22 Mar 2015
by
Andy Mort
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Daventry
Court Hotel with 155 bedrooms, free WiFi and parking. |
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For the
first combined North and
South Divisions weekend, our
team was similar to that
which competed at Pott
Shrigley on Weekend 2 - i.e.
none too youthful. Our
motivator from the A Team,
Mr. David Robertson,
complacent in the knowledge
that the A Team’s next
challenge had been postponed
for a week, had provided
early encouragement by
informing us gleefully that
in Round 7 we were to be
confronted by KJCA Knights,
a team of “under-graded
juniors”.
By Saturday
morning, firing the troops
up looked a challenging
task, given Mike’s potential
demoralisation after
spending Friday evening
watching Derby County lose a
crucial match, and
considering that other
members of the team would
doubtless have preferred to
be watching the rugby.
Full
of trepidation, we sat down
to face a team whose
combined age was less than a
third of our own. Which
would prevail – the
sharp-witted vigour of youth
or the stolid accumulation
of experience?
First to
finish was John on the black
side of a Sicilian, having
exchanged a number of minor
pieces to relieve his
slightly cramped position
and equalise before
accepting the draw offered
by our only adult opponent.
Steve, our self-appointed
coach, had earlier advised
that the way to beat juniors
was to play slow positional
chess; he was dismayed to
watch me venture into a
dubious gambit against the
Dutch which my young
opponent defended
accurately, avoiding all
pitfalls; I was outplayed.
More was said about my
choice of opening in the
pub, and for the first time
I sensed signs of rebellion
from the more subversive
members of the team; but it
wasn’t fair - I don’t often
have much fun in the
opening.
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OCH's Hanging Kebab |
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Spirit of
Atticus B (Rounds 7&8) |
Prospects of
salvaging even a point from
the match looked dire when
Richard, facing a Modern
Benoni Defence, exchanged
his black-squared bishop for
a hostile knight and
subsequently surrendered
crucial black squares. His
opponent infiltrated the
queenside and netted a piece
to enter a won ending. It
was not obvious at this
point where wins might come
from in the remaining games.
Mike agreed a draw in an
unclear but ‘balanced’
position, having shown great
resilience in defending a
Grunfeld after his opponent
had established a powerful
centre which Mike succeeded
in undermining via the
queenside.
A feature of
the games was how quickly
and aggressively our
opponents played, putting us
under considerable
time-pressure. The young can
be impulsive, however, and
over-confidence by our
opponents played a part in
the two wins we achieved on
the remaining boards to
ensure that age ultimately
matched youth in the 3-all
draw. Steve’s game had
looked pretty much equal
throughout, perhaps slightly
better for him when he took
over the a-file, but the
endgame might well have been
drawn had an impulsive
pawn-grabbing foray not lost
the KJCA player a piece.
Lloyd had faced an
aggressive version of the
Leningrad Dutch in which his
opponent decided that the
whole kitchen sink should be
thrown. Marching all his
kingside pawns to his 4th
rank, however, left his king
potentially vulnerable.
Lloyd utilised the classical
strategy of defeating a
flank attack by reacting in
the centre, doubling rooks
on the d-file, taking over
the 7th rank, and winning a
couple of pawns before, with
little time on his clock,
converting to a clearly won
bishop, rook and pawn
ending.
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The
Olde Coach House Inn, Country Pub and Restaurant |
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The fare at
The Old Coach House,
including the popular Lion
Ale, was enjoyed by all, and
Lloyd and I had our culinary
horizons expanded when we
ordered Espedata, or
“hanging kebabs”, which
arrived in what looked like
instruments of medieval
torture - and which were
hazards to the numerous
glasses of alcohol on the
table. Served horizontally,
I’m sure that the kebabs
would have been much less
tasty, however.
On Sunday we
faced Barnet Knights, a
replica of the KJCA Knights
team, except that the five
juniors were even younger; I
swear that, in my day,
they’d still have been in
short trousers – but we now
had experience of this
particular brand of
opponent, had we not?
The impetus
of Sunday’s match was
completely different from
Saturday’s. Mike’s opponent
played quickly but with
scant regard for his pawn
structure, and our man “got
us off to a flier” by
demolishing his opponent’s
two sets of isolated pawns.
It was his shortest game in
the 4NCL by a country mile,
and he was able to avail
himself of the opportunity
to watch how football is
played in the Premiership.
Richard drew quite quickly
after neutralising his
opponent’s kingside play in
a Bird’s Opening to reach a
lifeless double rook ending.
Steve had followed his
impassioned coaching advice
of the previous day too
closely, perhaps, in that
his King’s Indian Attack led
to completely locked pawn
chains, indicating quite
early on that no progress
was likely by either side.
My opponent blundered away
the exchange for a pawn in
the opening, but chanced on
significant compensation in
the form of active and
harmonious minor piece play.
Having quickly achieved a
lost position, I was
fortunate in that my
opponent carelessly enabled
me to take over the d-file
and exploit his vulnerable
back rank. The crude tactics
I then employed to confuse
him left me the exchange to
a pawn up but with little
time on the clock. As it had
been clear for some time
that John would win his game
following an overwhelming
kingside attack in an
English Opening, I was more
than happy to offer a draw
which I was confident would
win us the match. When John
won shortly after, Lloyd
immediately resigned a lost
ending; he had won a pawn in
the middle-game only to have
an aggressively posted
bishop trapped in an unusual
manner.
A very
satisfactory weekend, then -
‘upstarts’ pretty much
repulsed! Robbo, stick to
your Grubmeister role in
future. It is hoped that we
can recapture something like
this form in Weekend 5.
Unfortunately, John, who has
scored heavily for us on the
top boards, will not be able
to join
us. He has played
consistently the best chess
of any of the team,
tempering aggression with
sound judgement. Nonetheless
we look forward to the challenge.
Chess Photos © Steve Connor
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