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De Vere Wokefield Estate |
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It did not require a Mystic Meg
to predict the result of our round 7 encounter
with the all conquering Guildford 1. We had
hopes of stealing a crumb or two from the
champion's table but recent results made even
that limited aspiration unlikely [round 4:
Guildford 1, 7-1 White Rose 1; round 5: White
Rose 1, 7½-½ Spirit of Atticus A]. We had
"lost" a player during the week, and try as we
may, we could not arrange a replacement and thus
had to concede a board and a half point penalty,
our first ever default by absence in the history
of the A team. This could not be regarded as
actually downgrading our prospects to any
significant extent.
The opening phase of the match
saw us reasonably placed in most of the games
but the dreaded outcome duly happened, but not
quickly, with a clean sweep for Guildford. We
entertained hopes on a few boards but gradually
class won out. The closest to earning a half
point was Sheila Jackson on board 5, our last to
lose, who stood toe to toe against GM Nick Pert
and missed an opportunity to slip in to a
theoretical draw after over 50 moves of battling
chess. Watching via the internet, my on-line
analyst and technical adviser rated Brett Lund's
performance as the best for the team. Indeed his
opponent GM Laurent Fressinet told Brett after
the game that he did not believe he could have
broken through without the error 37/... Kf8 [my
additional observation, not Laurent's: induced
by the cunning 37. Kf1] which ultimately allowed
the breaking open of Brett's kingside. Brett
registered our penultimate defeat. And so, for
the second Saturday in a row, we set a new
unenviable record defeat, the new mark being set
at 8 to -½.
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Captain: John Carleton |
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Rounds 7 & 8,
Weekend 4, 2018 |
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The evening meal saw us visit
the relatively local Red Lion Restaurant and the
evening just melted away as we dismissed
negative thoughts of the afternoon and indeed
put thoughts of the challenges ahead to one side
to enjoy the Italian fare placed before us. Some
of our number chose to take a nightcap in the
hotel bar where we discussed some issues of the
day with other Northern folk. Many chess related
topics arose but it was the inflated cost of
food, drink, particularly drink as I recall,
petrol and taxis in this Southern paradise that
struck a chord before we retired to bed.
And so Sunday arrived and with
it life in the demotion pool. We were somewhat
dismayed by the snow that had descended
overnight but cheered by the fact that our
numbers were up to 8 with the heroic arrival of
Dave Latham who finished work in Chesterfield[
where they do have really deep snow] at 10:00
p.m. on Saturday evening and arrived at the
venue around 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. Dave
was gobsmacked [Editor's note: colloquial,
particularly Northern England, "rather
surprised".] that some players had failed to
arrive from London. Dave did admit that his
journey had been rather tricky, and indeed for
the first time ever he had failed to arrive
before his SAT-NAVs estimate. Dave put this down
to there being too many vehicles on the road
suggesting that only chess players and emergency
services should be allowed on motorways during
inclement 4NCL weekends.
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Our round 8 pairing was against
Alba who were all-conquering in last year's 2nd
division scoring 100% including a 5-3 victory
over us at this very venue. The early stages of
the match saw the Alba team gaining the
initiative in each of their white games with no
corresponding advantage for us in our whites and
this largely set the pattern of the match.
Thus
the results that arrived with the approach or
arrival of the time control saw draws for David
Phillips on board 8 against Ali Roy and for Dave
Latham on board 6 against Declan Shafi. My loss
on board 3 against Roddy McKay was the logical
outcome of my passive performance. Sheila, had
prepared an improvement for her game against
David Findlay on board 5 but the Alba player got
his improvement in first and try as she may,
Sheila could not resist successfully in the lost
ending that arose.
The remaining two games with
the white pieces saw Glen House on board 4 gain
an initiative from a level position when
opponent Neil Berry gradually let matters slip
under time pressure. Glenn soon gained our
first, and as it transpired, only win of the
weekend.
This win was matched by Clement
Sreeves on board 2 for Alba against Brett after
the opening saw perhaps a marginal edge for our
man. Clement gradually improved the activity of
his pieces, gaining a pawn, and then unleashing
a snap combination to seal the win. We thus
remained 2 down with 2 games remaining. Martin
Mitchell on board 1 against Andrew Greet
successfully completed a long rear-guard action
to hold the draw, which left Peter Ackley in
play against Stuart White on board 7. Peter's
pawns were somewhat messily placed and this
allowed Stuart to probe. Peter seemed to have
solved the main problems of the position but,
with pawn moves in hand, Stuart could manoeuvre
for hours should he be inclined. He appeared to
be so inclined but the imminent departure of the
Glasgow plane meant a draw offer appeared after
six and a quarter hours the match concluded with
Alba, never seriously threatened it must be
admitted, winning 5-3 as they had in our
previous encounter.
Division 1d after round 8
And what of the final stages of
our campaign? If you want a sober well-rounded
assessment, you are probably reading the wrong
article. [May I suggest Rhys Cumming for such
an assessment].
We will fight to retain our
first division status, we will fight against
"achieving" any more negative records [notably
my losing streak which is by far the longest of
any Spirit of Atticus player in any team, in any
of the 8 years of our existence] and we will
enjoy the final weekend, come what may, as we
enjoyed this weekend.
© 4NCL | Steve Connor
In the above games you can
activate the engine analysis board by clicking
the E8 (assuming White on bottom, D1 otherwise)
shortcut square on the main chessboard.
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explore variations by
clicking the from and to squares for the
intended move
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click the arrow buttons to
move back/forth through the variation being
analyzed
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click the plus button at the
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following the position of the main
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click on the side to move
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click on the principal
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click on the evaluation mark
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