Division 3n, Weekend 3, Mercure Bolton Georgian
House Hotel,
11-12 Feb 2017
by Andy
Mort
We were expecting a tough match
in the first round of the Swiss stage following
our successes of the previous weekend, and in
Round 5 that challenge was provided by 3Cs 2,
always formidable opponents, if less youthful
than usual on this occasion. Our prospects did
not look too good after an hour, in that we
seemed to have no advantage on any board with
the White pieces and our Black defences were
being ferociously assaulted on the other three
boards. Within a few more hours, however,
matters would look quite different.
This was not so on Board 6,
however, where my passive position in a Czech
Benoni crumbled when my laborious counter-play
on the queenside was no match for the artillery
massed on the kingside. Nevertheless, I was a
little surprised to have been first to succumb,
having watched Colm’s opening on Board 4 with
some horror. Deploying his usually reliable
French Defence, he missed a tactic in the
opening, lost a pawn, and ended up having to
deploy his minor pieces in passive positions to
set up an ugly-looking defence. Exchanges of
pieces didn’t help much, as Black went into a
knight and pawn ending two pawns down, both
connected. I will leave Colm to tell the tale of
how he managed to sacrifice the knight for the
pawns and achieve an unlikely draw. One prisoner
let out of jail.
By this time, John Cooper had
agreed a draw in a messy but even-looking
position on Board 5, and, on Board 3 Mike drew a
after gaining no discernible advantage from the
opening, being able to defend pawn weaknesses,
which, however, gave him no opportunities to
press for anything more.
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Rounds
5 & 6,
Weekend 3, 2017 |
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Steve’s game on Board 2 had
by now become very complex, White having
unleashed a ferocious kingside attack as
White in a Catalan, which still looked
dangerous after Steve won the exchange with
an active knight. Steve was able to defend
key squares, however, before
counter-punching to secure the win that
hadn’t at one stage looked at all likely.
This left John Hall battling to
save his game and salvage a drawn match. In a
typical isolated pawn middle-game John was
unable to generate a kingside attack and pieces
were gradually exchanged in Black’s favour.
In the minor piece ending,
Stuart Clarke used his knight skilfully to
outmanoeuvre John’s bad bishop, and so we
went down, but only after displaying
considerable resilience.
Only being able to muster 3 team
members for the evening meal seemed a bit of a
betrayal of the spirit of The Spirit of Atticus.
Securing the most desirable booking times is
always difficult on this weekend because of the
proximity of Valentine’s Day, and a late booking
may have encouraged the consumption of more
alcohol than usual, but the meal at The Cherry
Tree gastropub was of excellent quality, and the
service slick and friendly.
There is relatively little to
say about the Sunday. We were unfortunate to be
paired against Enniscorthy, who had only been
able to bring 3 players over from Ireland
(nothing to do with Trump, one hopes). In the
games that were played
(to follow), Steve drew a lifeless
queen’s pawn game fairly early and Colm mated
his opponent’s king on f4 after it had
recklessly advanced from e1 to e2 to e3, and
this in a seemingly calm queenless early
middle-game. Colm has been one of our most
reliable players this season, and one should
refrain from invoking clichés about luck and the
Irish, but after this weekend I’d be inclined to
buy a few lottery tickets before he loses the
touch.
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The Mercure Bolton Georgian House
Hotel provides easily accessible and
spacious playing conditions |
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The most interesting (and
oddest) game was Mike McDonagh’s against a
talented junior. Mike’s provocative opening move
as Black, 1. Nh6, led to a queenless middle-game
which had odd features, making the position hard
to assess, Black having 4 pawn islands but a
passed a pawn, White a bishop hemmed in on a2
behind immobile pawns. Black went on a kingside
sortie to net pawns with knight and rook, but a
rook exchange undoubled White’s c pawns, and
ultimately Black’s pieces were in no position to
stop White’s queenside majority. Well played by
the young Irish player; young Alice O’ Gorman is
clearly a name to look out for.
In an increasingly strong
Northern League, our mid-table position is
respectable, a fair reflection of our personnel
and overall play.
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.
-
explore variations by
clicking the from and to squares for the
intended move
-
click the arrow buttons to
move back/forth through the variation being
analyzed
-
click the plus button at the
right of the arrow buttons to force the
engine analysis board to auto update
following the position of the main
chessboard; this is useful for instance when
following a live broadcast; limitations:
some pages might not offer this
functionality and some browsers do not
support this functionality
-
click on the side to move
indicator to switch the side to move; this
is useful to check for threats in the given
position
-
click on the principal
variation to execute its first move on the
engine analysis board
-
click on the evaluation mark
to activate/deactivate the engine
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