Division 2 4NCL
Third Weekend, Sunningdale Park, 11th-12th Feb
2012 by John Carleton
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De Vere Sunningdale
Park in February |
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We arrived at the southernmost venue in the 4NCL panoply
determined, as promised, to show what we could do to
ignite our season and begin in earnest the big battle
against relegation. The snow cover gave the grounds of
Sunningdale Park a Christmas-card feel on the crisp
sunny Saturday morning that awaited us but provided an
extra worry for the captains and management of teams
such as ours.
Thus concerns about travel conditions from the North
added to pressure on the captain already feeling the
heat about his lack of IT skills in general,
specifically the apparent lack of skill of texting
ability [here, unlike one slightly more high profile
manager, I can categorically state that I have sent a
text and quite often notice when I receive one], lack of
a cat, let alone a bank account in the cat's name, poor
results, mounting criticism of the Martin Johnsonesque
policy of trusting the players, not to mention general
concerns over recent hand-shaking fiascos.
All-in-all it was another 4NCL weekend and the team were
looking forward to keen competition.
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Christmas card
scenery awaited us |
South Wales Dragons were missing some of their big guns
so surprisingly perhaps, we were the higher rated team.
The match started brightly for us with all our whites
[on the even boards] generating play. As to be expected
our black boards were experiencing some pressure too
but, it seemed, not to the same degree. Dave Latham on
board 3 was first to down tools agreeing the draw in a
level but not totally flat position. Andy Smith on board
5 was playing one of his offbeat lines but had run into
an opponent bent on knocking him off the board and
looking quite capable of doing it. Top board saw Nick
mixing matters with John Cooper who could claim an edge
but was not having matters all his own way. Steve on
board 7 had turned down a draw after ambivalent advice
from his captain ["please yourself" as I recall].
Thereafter his instincts to play on were proved correct
by Rybka which demonstrated gain of material, but his
analysis did not match his instincts and Steve soon
found himself defending an awkward ending.
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Captain: John
Carleton |
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Peter on board 6 delivered us a win to gain the lead,
firstly he forced his opponent to sacrifice, then
leaving his king to keep out the first wave of the
attack, finally launched unstoppable counter play on the
long diagonal. Andy Mort's advantage on board 8 by now
seemed to be only minimal. Sheila's control appeared to
spread across the board but opponent Jeff Smith, showing
tenacity and skill, managed to dig in and engineer
enough exchanges to reduce that control and a draw was
agreed.
I reached a draw by, having finally found a way to break
into my opponent's position, joining him in a
time-scramble, not startling inaccurate for that genre
but typically leading to great changes in the nature of
the position, but then repeated moves once too often
[past the time limit of course] allowing him to claim
the draw in a position in which I would otherwise have
been entitled to play on. Andy Mort too produced a
surprise, managing to a reach a difficult but probably
won ending which proved a quick win when his opponent
went astray.
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Jades Fountain
Sunninghill |
So we were two up with three games in play, varying
through difficult to very difficult to hopeless. Nick on
board 1 was in "very difficult", an ending with rook,
bishop and 3 pawns against rook, knight and 4 pawns all
the pawns on the kingside. Despite Nick's careful
defence John converted the victory in fine style, an
excellent game not least because of the quality of the
resistance shown by the Atticus player. In the
"difficult" Steve finally scrambled a draw after having
hovered on the brink for a few moves. Andy Smith had
been totally lost for many moves and so resigned the
"hopeless" with a clear conscience and the team headed
for Sunningdale town centre and sustenance.
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We started with a toast with the wine provided by Dave
Robertson, recuperating after illness and therefore
unavoidably missing, for the first time ever, a Spirit
of Atticus weekend. Whereas it was admitted that
substitute wine taster Nick did an adequate job it was
noticed that the bouquet was not perhaps given the
attention it deserved [and would certainly have got from
Robbo] and the waiter was not kept waiting nearly long
enough before being told that the wine was fine. The
toast was to Dave himself and his unsuppressable
optimism, spirit and love of chess. Thereafter, over the
next four hours we enjoyed a pleasant banquet,
interspersed with long gaps inducing pangs of acute
hunger. The management of the restaurant were shamed
into providing free wine in recompense for the delays
and this, it was generally agreed, added to the quality
of discussion, particularly on the topic of diplomacy in
modern Britain, in which area it transpired that we had
several experts.
Next morning saw us start play bottom of our section of
Division 2 because the only team previously below us,
Rhyfelwyr Essyllwg, albeit only on game points scored,
had landed a fine victory against our opponents of the
day, Brown Jack, and had thus overtaken us. These
erstwhile opponents might justifiably be called 'boing
boing' Brown Jack because of their yo-yo antics between
Divisions 2 and 3 in recent years, but in our brief
experience of the 4NCL we had also found them perfect
exemplars of the great competitive yet sporting and
friendly ethos which is a hallmark of the league.
The match was tense from the start with our odd numbered
boards demonstrating early pressure with the white
pieces and our even boards likewise less comfortable.
Thus on board 1, Nick was setting up gentle long-term
pressure and on board 2 I had unnecessarily allowed a
slight weakening of my pawn formation and as a result
was facing long range discomfort. Board 3 was brewing
nicely with Andy Smith lining up Paul Girdlestone's king
position but Paul countering classically with central
pressure. Board 4 saw Sheila take a small space
disadvantage in return for simplifying exchanges and on
board 5 Dave Latham was starting to eye the black king
position, his advantage in space granting some room to
manoeuvre. Peter on board 6 had accepted a slightly
inferior French ending but his game terminated abruptly
when he demonstrated the old adage that "the mistakes
are all there just waiting to be made" when a blunder
dropped the exchange, resignation soon following. Steve
on board 7 had the more comfortable position but stage
by stage his opponent became more active and a level
ending justified the draw. Andy Mort on board 8 came out
of the opening phase well gradually, it seemed, taking
control. However as her position became critical Megan
Owens struck back and guided matters into a flat drawn
ending, peace terms quickly being concluded.
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The well
appointed and spacious playing room
for the Division 2 players at
Sunningdale |
With the approach of the first time control matters
cleared up. Dave won impressively on board 5 having
systematically stripped the black king of defenders.
Nick's pressure was neatly broken up by Peter Richmond
and a position which neither side could attempt to win
saw the draw agreed on board 1. Andy and Paul on board 3
gave great entertainment in a time scramble which saw
Andy's aggressive and optimistic play justifiably
rewarded by the full point. Thus we had just two games
in progress. I had a slice of luck when my opponent left
a pawn en prise but thereafter he blocked virtually the
whole board and I had no winning chances and thus Sheila
was left in play against Mike Truran who was clearly
determined to give this blocked position with 3 minor
pieces and 5 pawns each where he had a space advantage
and potential targets his best shot to try and draw the
match. Gradually the drama unfolded with plenty of
support from team mates for the gladiators and the
tension mounting as it became clear that Mike had some
dangerous possibilities based on his various knight
tours. The game reached its climax with the 50 move rule
imminent and Mike setting up his most dangerous
possibility, a deadly zugswang following if Sheila got
it wrong. Sheila didn't get it wrong and the draw was
agreed; Atticus hugs all round after finally winning a
match in this tough season.
The long and belated journey North was thus bearable and
we look forward to continuing our fight against the drop
back to the Northern League in the upcoming 4NCL
matches. On my return I was greeted by congratulations
to the team from Dave Robertson who had watched the
action from the gradually emptying tournament room via
the webcam. The pictures he watched doubtless recalled
the days of his youth when the equally dashingly
handsome actors and beautiful actresses adorned the
silver screen to provide tension, but never more than
for this production.
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Rd5 results •
Rd6 results
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Spirit of Atticus team page
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Division 2b Table •
Games in PGN
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This report is also available here
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