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Team A: Division
2(b), Third Weekend, Holiday Inn, Birmingham, 14-15
Feb 2015
by John Carleton
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Holiday Inn, Birmingham Airport |
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The team set off with stirring
words from an unclear combination of Dave
Robertson, William Shakespeare, King Henry V and
several others ringing in our ears and urging us
into ferocious action. We felt we had not given
it our best shot over the previous weekend and
were determined that would not be the case this
weekend even if that proved insufficient for
victory.
In the event traffic chaos left
this new venue almost inaccessible from the
South following two horrendous pile-ups and the
consequent clogging up of the motorways. The
normal default time of 1 hour was suspended and
many was the phone call from Birmingham to try
to establish the whereabouts of missing team
members.
Our main concern was regarding
the progress of Andy Smith who had delayed his
start but was desperately trying to plan a route
around the mayhem. For our opponents, Kings
Head, already having had to give us a default on
board 8 because of a late illness in their team,
things were far worse.
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Captain: John Carleton |
At the scheduled start of
play none of their players had arrived at
the board. Play was not delayed too long and
when Jochen Wittmann arrived, he and Sheila
on board 6 settled to the struggle. It has
to be stressed that although a number of
teams, including us, were a player or two
short in these early stages, Kings Head were
by far the worst affected over both
divisions 1 and 2. Any belief that things
could not get any worse for them were
expunged when Jochen was defaulted because
his phone went off.
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Spirit of
Atticus A (Rounds 5) |
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Gradually, play got
underway on another 4 boards with the Kings
Head players down on time. One of these
finished quickly when Daniel the 8 year old
son of captain Colin Mackenzie, in the team
to conform with the requirement to play a
female or junior, played, and lost his first
ever serious game to Dave Robertson. Well
done to Daniel and Kings Head for the never
say die spirit.
On board 2 Nick Ivell
equalised against Richard McMichael and a
draw was agreed in a position which, in a
more normal match situation, would surely
have been continued. Brett Lund on board 1
could claim some advantage but, again within
the match situation, was content to draw and
thus halt the 100% start to the season of
the dangerous Jochem Snuverink. My opponent
was the worst off for time of any player and
this was the reason for his below par
performance.
The last contest to start was
the game between Andy Smith and Andrew
Gilfillan; it would have been a double
default but with the blessing of the control
team a new fast time rate was fixed and the
clocks started when the first of them
arrived. This proved to be the shortest game
as the players evaluated the match context
and voted for peace.
There was thus one game in play
with Colin Mackenzie under pressure from time
shortage, his captaincy duties and a sharp
Martin Mitchell. Martin served up the win to see
us reach six and a half points. Thus play
finished early and the bar proved a comfortable
resting place both for us and our opponents who
impressed with their calm dignity in face of
insuperable obstacles.
There was a certain mellow
quality to the gathering for the evening
meal maybe brought about by the afternoon's
activities, maybe brought about by the
flowing wine carefully selected and provided
by the Grub Meister [GM] or maybe even the
Valentine's Day decorations adorning our
chosen Italian Restaurant. In short it was
an enjoyable evening, and being close, as we
were, to the birth place of GM Dave the
assembled group gained many an insight into
the unique romantic outlook, lyrical accent
and eternal optimism of the modern day
Brummie. The evening nightcap in the bar saw
a smaller turnout than usual but the new day
was soon to be upon us.
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Spirit of
Atticus A (Rounds 6) |
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I as skipper did have a few
worries as the squad emerged for breakfast but
was content as the well known nerve-calming
qualities of the full English set in, and, as we
set off to play opponents Barbican Youth, was
confident that we were in good shape for the
coming action.
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Old friends Dave Robertson and
John
Hall in good spirits after their
games |
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photo | Brett Lund |
There was no sign of diminution
of the intensity of battle on any board until
the first result came on board 4. This saw Guy
Moss equalise against Andy Smith and then uncork
a snap finish as Andy unwisely avoided
simplification by not contesting the only open
file.
Next to finish was Sheila on board 6
against the splendidly named Thomas Goldie.
After messy complications Thomas had apparently
conquered the seventh rank but equally Sheila
had strong counter-chances and the draw was
agreed. Thus we were one down with six games in
play; we appeared better in two matches whereas
it was Barbican for choice in the other four.
Gradually matters crystallised - Nick Ivell
after hours of patient defence held a most
uncomfortable position on board 2, John Hall,
having sat round 5 out because of the default,
carefully nurtured his advantage of an extra
doubled pawn to bring a levelling victory on
board 8 and Brett drew on board 1 after having
been in serious danger of being swept away in
the opening.
Martin briefly gave us the
lead with an impressive win on board 5 for
his second point of the weekend with the
black pieces. It was back to all square when
Dave Robertson on board 7 eventually had it
proved to him by opponent Ashley Stewart
that his bad bishop could not cope with
Ashley's good knight. That left me in play
against Conor O'Donnell and after a
fluctuating struggle had finally settled to
an approximate balance the draw was agreed
and with it the match at 4-4 and the play
for round 6 was completed with play into the
seventh hour.
We had been impressed with
Barbican Youth when we played them for the first
time a few years ago. Now we are even more
impressed and will watch with interest the
continuing progress of these fine young players;
we were equally pleased with our resilience
under pressure and move on to the crunch fixture
of round 7 in good spirit.
Team B: Division
3n, Third Weekend, Buxton, 14-15 Feb 2015
by
Andy Mort
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The 122-room
Palace Hotel, built in 1868, is a prominent
feature of
the Buxton skyline on the hill above the railway station. |
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The Palace Hotel in Buxton,
our venue for Weekend 3, towers majestically
above the town. Its interior is no less
impressive as you enter the foyer to be
confronted by its grand staircase. Not being
a suburban island, it is an excellent venue
for accompanying WAGS – and the breakfast is
damned good. A pity, then, that there are no
prospects of the 4NCL being able to stage
chess weekends here in the foreseeable
future.
Having won our two
matches the previous weekend, we
expected to meet strong opposition, and
were not disappointed when we were drawn
against Cheddleton 2 on the Saturday.
Three of our team and three of theirs
play in the Derby and District League
and are on friendly terms, but we were
under no illusions about how competitive
the match would be. We were out-graded
by our opponents, though not
significantly, but having recruited a
couple of ‘big beasts’ from the A team,
we were confident of success. Moreover,
our youth policy seemed finally to be
coming to fruition, four of the team
being juniors (‘juniors’ in our parlance
being ‘under 60’). Peter, in particular,
was buoyed up by his bracing Derbyshire
walks rather than jaded by the social
experiences that followed them. We were
also pleased to be supported by David
Hulme, acting as reserve for the
weekend’s games whilst availing himself
of retail therapy opportunities.
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Selection from Spirit of Atticus B
(Rounds 5 & 6) |
The match proved to be
extremely close, looking for a long time
as if it might result in six drawn
games.
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Essentially the match
was a story of our Black players
fighting hard to equalise and our White
players failing to achieve perceptible
advantages from their openings. John was
able to play an early d5 in his Sicilian
defence at the expense of cohesive
development. Having defended with great
resilience, he accepted a draw, no doubt
with some relief, to discover that he
was probably better in the final
position. I, as often, got nothing out
of my white opening, sacrificed a pawn
to activate my two bishops and created
some threats which my opponent defended
ingeniously, but, when offered a draw in
his time-trouble, accepted, having
failed to find any convincing
continuation. Dave withstood some
pressure in the middle-game, but,
typically, kept active, and reached a
rook and pawn ending a pawn ahead,
which, however, he was not winning. So,
three draws, and the remaining positions
looking pretty even.
Mike Johnson found
himself an hour behind on the clock, but
with a position that was not
strategically complex, with two rooks
each and knight v bishop. After losing
the game, Mike said that he regretted
missing an opportunity to trade his
knight for his opponent’s bishop, which
became very powerful after the pairs of
rooks had been exchanged. Using his
recent research on the French (and yes,
I have seen him reading the book!),
Peter managed eventually to reach what
seemed to be an even knight and pawn
ending, but his opponent played with
greater accuracy to convert the king and
pawn ending. A really good effort from
Peter, described as ’unlucky’ by more
than one of his team-mates. Newcomer
Mike McDonagh’s game was the last in the
room to finish, thus partly salvaging
the reputation of the other Mike.
Neither side seemed to have a very
marked advantage at any point in the
game, though at one point Mike’s
opponent had a strong bishop outpost on
d4. In the subsequent rook, knight and
pawn ending, it was Mike, if anyone who
was pressing, but to push too hard
looked risky, the match was lost, and a
draw was agreed, leaving the result 2-4.
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The
award-winning Royal Oak in Hurdlow, Derbyshire |
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For all its old-world
charm, Buxton town centre seems devoid
of reputable eating places, the most
highly recommended being The Royal Oak,
several miles out of town, but I had
little hesitation in plumping for a pub
whose food and service had impressed the
teams last year, and decided to book a
table well in advance in view of the
fact that it was Valentine’s day. Thanks
to John, David and Angela for offering
to drive.
The journey would have
been uneventful but for the vagaries of
Dave’s satnav, which decided that, when
in The Peak District, a tour of
picturesque nearby villages is a must.
Owing to a free meal which resulted from
a waitress error, and in the absence of
any assertive request for the purchase
of wine (absolutely a first), the total
bill was undoubtedly the cheapest ever -
possibly less than Robbo’s wine bill at
Giovanni’s. The food was adjudged
excellent, though one pudding-lover paid
the price for not heeding the advice of
his captain that if you have a Royal Oak
pie, you don’t have a starter –
especially a hearty bowl of soup.
There is no truth in the
rumour that we had deliberately lost to
Cheddleton 2 in order to avoid playing
North East England in the last round.
Accurate Swiss pairings have been
impossible in the latter rounds because
of the necessary triangular tournaments,
and we were surprised to find that we
had been drawn against Cheddleton 3, who
were propping up the table, on Sunday.
The match went the way of many such
potentially one-sided encounters, many
of our opponents choosing potentially
drawish opening lines and maintaining
equilibrium for most of the first
session, only to succumb to greater
experience eventually.
Peter suffered one of
the least exciting games I have seen for
a long time, setting up a Stonewall
formation which was then mimicked by his
opponent, leaving a locked and
inflexible centre. In the subsequent
sterile position he agreed an early
draw. Ultimately, we won all the
remaining games.
John was well on top
from the opening, his opponent making
too many pawn moves and failing to
develop his kingside until his position
was seriously compromised. Mike Johnson,
as Black in an Exchange French,
eventually won an equal knight and pawn
ending against his less experienced
opponent.
Dave overcame his opponent’s
Sicilian Dragon Defence in impressive
style, manoeuvring his opponent’s queen
into an offside position and shattering
any illusions that the opposite coloured
bishops might be a drawing factor by,
with typically energetic play,
sacrificing the exchange for a couple of
pawns, both passed and connected and one
well advanced. As white, my opponent
emerged with an equal position from the
opening, but played passively and was
slowly ‘strangled’ before shedding
pawns, initially as a result of an
unusual combination. On Board 2,
newcomer Roy Ellames patiently increased
small advantages from a middle-game with
a symmetrical pawn structure before
emerging from complications into a rook
and pawn endgame two pawns up which he
won with ease.
All credit to the
Cheddleton team for fighting with such
spirit. Their three juniors (yes, they
have juniors!) will have gained, and
will continue to gain invaluable
experience from their encounters with
more highly rated and experienced
opposition this season; we will watch
their progress with interest. The next
two weekends take place at Daventry,
where we will be ‘married’ with the
Division 3 South. There, the greater
number of teams should enable the Swiss
system to operate more effectively, and
we can expect encounters with more
evenly matched teams.
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Chess Photos © Steve Connor
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