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Division 1(a), Weekend 2, Holiday Inn, Birmingham,
23-24 Jan 2016
by John Carleton
[Brief reference will also be made to Weekend
2, Wychwood Park Hotel, Crewe 16-17 January
2016]
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Holiday Inn, Birmingham Airport |
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For the superstitious amongst
the assorted ranks of the Spirit of Atticus
there are many reasons to be wary of the second
weekend of competition. Our biggest defeats have
happened in the second weekend. And even last
year the A team, although on the way to
promotion to their current lofty first
divisional status, contrived to lose both
matches.
To intensify the sense of
nervousness within the A team was the awareness
that the first half of the second weekend, the
weekend before [if you understand the principle
of the 2nd weekend being spread over 2 weekends
it does make sense] had seen the Atticus 3rd
division captain Andy Mort waiting in agony in
his local A&E rather than assembling in
Crewe with his fellow team members.
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Captain: John Carleton |
The squad rallied to provide
replacements for Andy on each day and a
reasonable return of 1 win, 2 losses and 1
draw was obtained by the B and C teams in
their 4 matches.
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Spirit of
Atticus A (Rounds 3 & 4, 23-24
January) |
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A few highlights spring to
my mind but others will doubtless have
different recollections: On the Saturday
Rokas Valantinas won his debut match in
style and late substitute David Hulme did
likewise in his first match of the season.
The Sunday saw the first ever junior in
Atticus colours, Daniel Savidge winning with
aplomb on top board for the C team, well
done indeed! The B team's Sunday match saw 5
draws and one decisive result. In that game,
around move 20, Tom Bimpson was the exchange
and 2 pawns up when he put a bishop en
prise; this extended the game by about 50
moves but fortunately for us did not affect
the match result. Other players over the
weekend with plus scores were John Hall and
Mike McDonagh. [Editor's note Mr. Mort's
injury was NOT alcohol related].
When the individual pairings
were published for round 3 our expectations of a
searching weekend were confirmed with opponents
Barbican 1's top 7 boards all outranking all our
players. Those with a sensitive disposition are
advised to skip the rest of this paragraph and
the one marked * and concentrate on the other
two paragraphs which describe Saturday evening
and how well we are going to do next weekend.
The match started brightly enough for us with
Brett Lund on board 1 seemingly holding a
dangerous edge with black against Matthew Turner
and I equalised on board 3 against Ryan
Griffiths who allowed a weakening of his
king-side pawn formation in an interesting bid
for activity. Sheila Jackson on board 5 seemed
to be coping with the pressure applied by John
Cox on 5 and of those with the black pieces only
David Latham seemed uncomfortable having
employed the recommendation of a well known
English GM which just left him a pawn down
without real prospects. With white we seemed to
have the edge in Nick Ivell's game against Sam
Collins on board 2, Peter Ackley's game against
James Jackson on 6 and Dave Robertson's match
against Ingrid Lauterbach on 8.
Alan Merry equalised against
Martin Mitchell's early break and so overall we
had hope. And then reality kicked in: Brett was
gradually driven backwards, Ryan Griffiths
played a visually attractive piece sacrifice
which in "truth" was unclear but proved too much
for me as I fell to a nicely co-ordinated
finish. Martin lost a pawn and despite a
sustained rearguard action could not hold. John
Cox found a crushing advance to end Sheila's
hopes. Dave Robertson's position collapsed when
he slipped and Ingrid was quick to take
advantage. Dave Latham's game went as
anticipated and Peter Ackley was gradually
ground down as his rook and two pawns proved
insufficient against James Jackson's two minor
pieces. In the meantime Nick had given us
something to cheer with a fine win on the white
side of a Lopez. The nature of his advantage
moved through various phases and culminated in
an ending where his bishop dominated his
opponent's knight. Final result 1-7; a record
defeat for us against our fine opponents.
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Round 6, Spirit of Atticus A v White
Rose 2.
Foreground IM Gary Quillan alongside
FM Glenn House |
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Photo ©John
Saunders |
The evening meal at a local
restaurant [here "local" falls within the
Grubmaster's definition which can lead to a fair
bit of travel] and the atmosphere was convivial
and relaxed with the food spot on and the wine
flowing freely. The return to the hotel bar for
a night cap saw an extended stay as periodically
the staff, responsive to needs of the gathered
chess players, advised of extensions to the
serving arrangements. The team retired relaxed
and determined to meet the new day positively.
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Spirit of
Atticus B&C (Rounds 3 & 4, 16-17
January) |
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* Sunday started similarly to
Saturday; on this occasion too opponents Wood
Green HK had a top 7 all of whom's ratings were
greater than all of ours. The Grubmeister, Dave
Robertson was quick to notice that the top 4
boards of our opponents' team had a fine array
of chess books to their credit [which is not to
say that the books of Sam Collins and John Cox,
two of our opponents of the previous day, are
not appreciated: they are]. Additionally, Wood
Green's top board, Jon Speelman, has something
of a mini fan club within our squads both for
his historic achievements over the board and his
current chess columns. In fact Andy Mort
recently felt compelled to write to The
Independent admiring Jon's column but concerned
about the bellicose tone of some recent
articles. The great man sent a reassuring email
in reply [Editor's Note: The Decision by Mr.
Mort to send his letter was NOT alcohol
related]. Given the quality of the opposition it
was no surprise to see keen battles from the
outset. On board 1 with me white against Jon the
game rather meandered along with some
fluctuations in advantage. With the game
eventually heading towards an ending with my
having two pawns but endemic passivity for the
exchange, Jon sprang properly to life and
gradually squeezed me off the board.
On board 2 Nick was black
against John Shaw and as anticipated John took
the opportunity to attack when it arose and
fearlessly sacrificed thematically to open lines
towards the black king. The gradual bringing up
of reserves drove Nick's king into the centre
where it duly perished. Brett on board 3 played
a long game of probe and counter probe against
Andrew Greet and a draw was eventually agreed,
the penultimate game of the match to finish.
Board 4 saw Martin choosing to mix it against
Neil McDonald by advancing the pawns in front of
his king to open lines. The grand master showed
that he was able to use the lines more
efficiently and soon Martin's defences were
stripped away. Board 5 saw Dave Latham locking
horns with David Fitzsimons; many interesting
positions arose with a draw apparently a fair
result, this wording in place because of the
complexity of the battle and the uncertainty of
this commentator's judgement. On board 6 Dave
Robertson dropped a pawn to a neat tactic in the
early middlegame and try as he might he could
not revive his chances against Benjamin Arvola.
Board 8 saw another draw for us with Peter
Ackley grabbing a pawn but experiencing some
problems of cramp under time shortage and thus
content to negotiate peace with Sarah Hegarty.
The last game in play in the
match and indeed on all of the live boards
concluded after six and a half hours' play with
Sheila on board 7 resisting the inventive
probing and indefatigable determination of
Jesper Lauridsen to calmly earn the well
deserved draw. Another big reverse, 2-6, but we
are not down-hearted since we did not expect
that living the dream would be easy.
Rounds 5 and 6 are soon to be
upon us and we feel a change in fortune coming.
The team is together, positive and ready to
fight on. The season is just starting following
the warm-up phase.
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