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Andy's chess
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The chess diary of a hard-worked club secretary, team captain and ardent player.
Current | Sept-Dec 2007 | April-June 2007 | Jan-Mar 2007 | 2006
21 June 2008 This year the South Lakes Congress was held, as usual, on the first weekend of June at the Cumbria Grand Hotel, in the picturesque village of Grange-over-Sands. Four of us from Penrith entered this year. Round 1 Dave Siddall and Kevin Thompson played in all five rounds, or at least intended to. Lewis and I took a half point bye in the first round, which was played at 6.30 pm on Friday evening, as we thought that a four hour game would be too much after a hard day's work. Kevin proved my point when he blundered away his queen and lost the game. Dave Siddall fared better, as he won without making a move, after getting a full point bye. Prospects Dave had decided to book a room for the weekend but as the venue is only 50 odd miles down the road, I decided to drive there and back. When we picked Kevin up at 8 am on Saturday, he was still despondent at losing the night before, but by the time we got there he was determined to make amends. Lewis, who last year had decided that he was going to win his section before the tournament had even started and ended up somewhat disappointed, set his sights a bit more conservatively this year. He entered the Minor 1 (U110 ECF) where, being only 87 ECF, he considered his prospects for getting a grading prize to be pretty good. I was hoping to get through my first game without blundering. Round 2 I played Andrew Wiggins of Greenlands CC, Birmingham, in the Intermediate section (U130 ECF). I prefer open games, which is why I always open with 1.e4, but after Andrew had played five pawns to his third rank in his first six moves, I had to assume that he liked closed positions. Looking back, I can see that his strategy was not to win the game but to sit back and allow me to lose it. I duly obliged. After a pawn sacrifice to give myself time to bring a knight into an attacking position, I figured that his defences would be overloaded. It was only after I had donated a knight and another pawn that I began to realise that his defences were probably adequate. By now I had little choice but to carry on with my ill-fated attack, so I decided to chuck more wood on the fire and hope that Andrew would go wrong in the complications. Andrew, however, was up to the task, and by move 28 I had run out of pieces to sacrifice and resigned. Lewis got off to a good start when he beat Bob Heyman from Gosforth. Lewis' passed pawn on Bob's third rank could only be stopped by giving up a piece, so Bob resigned. Kevin's spirits had lifted after his game. He lured Frank Tanner (Crusaders CC) into a trap by playing his king to where Frank could fork it and Kevin's rook. It was only after Frank took the proffered rook that he realised that his knight was now too far away to stop Kevin's passed pawn. Sadly, Dave Siddall's long-awaited first game ended in defeat at the hands of Ian Campbell of Aigburth. R & R With over an hour to the next round, Kevin, Lewis and I headed for the local chippy and then to the Commodore for a pint. Lewis and Kevin were, understandably, in high spirits after their wins and were discussing their brilliant moves. I, on the other hand, sat quietly contemplating how anyone could possibly lose after sacrificing three pieces and two pawns. Round 3 When we got back for the third round, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my opponent's grade was only 91 ECF. I thought that I might be in for an easier game. No such luck. Brian Whitaker of The Griffin, Cleveland, played his opening, against my Two Knights Defence, spot on. In fact, I was the one that went wrong on move 8, after playing my knight back to b8 instead of the more usual and better, e7. My error was further compounded when I played a dubious 11....d5.Now Brian had me in all sorts of trouble and I was glad when he decided to make complications in an already complicated position. After giving up the exchange in return for a three pawn advantage, Brian's attack began to falter and I was able to exchange queens. A few moves later, I found myself in, what I believed to be, a winning endgame, having two rooks and four pawns, with my king near the centre of the board, against Brian's rook, knight and 6 pawns. On move 38 Brian took my passed pawn with his rook and offered a draw. I thought about this for a while as, after 38...Rxa5 39.Nxa5 Kd5!, I get my pawn back and I'm in a better position. I knew I could win with a rook and two pawns against a knight and three, but it wouldn't be easy and I didn't think Brian deserved to get nothing from the game, so we shared the point. Lewis was also down to an endgame with Mark Higgins of St. Helens. It looked drawn to me but somehow Lewis managed to win it. Kevin had a very good position against Richard Barker of Wantage, Oxfordshire. It was such an interesting position that I went through to the analysis room and set it up on the board. Eventually I was convinced that Kevin would win. Dave Siddall arrived and agreed with my prognosis. Sadly, Dave's game, against Robert Wallman of Olton, didn't go so well, so, like me, Dave was now on only one point from three games. After a short while, Kevin came in and announced that he had lost! When we pointed out that we thought that he was winning, he agreed but said that he was concentrating too hard and his mind went blank, resulting in a fatal mistake, which cost him the game. So, with only two rounds left to play, it looked as though Lewis, on 2½ out of 3,was the only one from Penrith with any chance of winning anything. On the way home, I consoled myself with the knowledge that I couldn't do much worse and was determined to win a game on Sunday. Lewis was gaining in confidence and pointed out that, as he had already beaten the highest graded player in his section, he could see no reason why he shouldn't win the tournament. |
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19 May 2008 We were twenty minutes late when we got to the Marchesi Centre in Windermere to play Barrow A for the 1st division 3rd place play-off. The good weather had brought out the tourists, who never seem to be in any hurry to go anywhere and seem to try their best to prevent anyone else from getting anywhere in a hurry. The match between Cockermouth and Windermere A was already well under way so we agreed to play a slightly shorter time control and settled down to play. Board 2: not good On second board, Dave Siddall, defending against George Horne's Queen's Pawn Opening, quickly got the better position. George had his queen on b3, backing up his bishop on c4, hitting f7. Dave, however, had his bishop on g4, defending the crucial e6 square. Now after 6...Na5, white has to give up his bishop for two pawns. Of course, Dave saw this but decided that in some lines white gets counter play with his knight on f3. So the logical solution was to play 6...Bxf3 first. There followed 7.Bxf7+ Ke7 8.Qe6 mate. It was about now that Dave realised that his bishop was no longer on g4.Board 3: no better I played against Tony Kirby on board 3 and managed to transpose his Nimzowitsch Defence into a kind of Scotch Gambit. Tony, however, never let me get any compensation for the pawn and eventually managed to trap my rook with his king's side pawns. With no hope of salvaging anything from the game, I resigned. This meant that, under the Cumbria rules, even if we won the other two games, we would lose after eliminating the bottom board. Ironically, if the tie-break rules had been the same as in our last match, in the NCCU competition, we would have won by having the lower graded team.Board 4: improving Dave McMath, on board 4, had to exchange two minor pieces for Bob Mitcheson's rook. Looking closer, though, it was obvious that Dave was going to win a piece back and have a much better position. Bob tried in vain to defend his piece but this enabled Dave to create a series of pins and Bob's position soon collapsed.Board 1: better By now Robert and Matthew McKenzie were down to a light squared bishop and five pawns each. Robert had a passed pawn on f6 supported by pawns on g5 and h4. This meant that Matthew had to keep the f7 square defended always. Realising this, Robert jettisoned his centre pawn in order to create another passed pawn on the a file. With his king too far up the board and his bishop overworked, Matthew was powerless to stop one of the pawns from queening and resigned.So although we drew the match, we actually lost for the second week on the trot on tie-break. Oh well, it'll soon be October, when we start all over again. There may be a few changes next season, though, as most of Cumbria's clubs are in favour of reuniting the North and South, at least in the 1st division. We are also going to have to find a new home for our club as, sadly, the RAFA is closing down at the end of the month. |
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11 May 2008 We were expecting to have to travel to Blackburn to play Crusaders in the next round of the NCCU club championship, but Michael Horne, Crusaders captain, asked if we could play at Penrith as he was having difficulty fitting in a match at their place. Naturally I was not too reluctant to agree to this and arranged to play on Sunday, May 4th. Grades When the match score sheet was filled out, I was surprised to see that we out-graded Crusaders on every board and thought at the time that this would be in our favour. Alas, this was not to be the case. Penrith lost the toss and so, under the competition rules, had white on boards 2 and 3. Board 4 Lewis, black on board 4, played a rather dubious knight sacrifice in the opening. His opponent, Danny Reeves, quickly forced the exchange of queens thereby denying Lewis any compensation for his piece. Danny then set about exploiting Lewis' lack of development on the queen's side and soon won another piece. Lewis was forced to resign a few moves later. Board 2 In my game, on board 2, Michael Horne defended with the Kalashnikov variation of the Sicilian. By move 13, I was quite happy with my position as all of my pieces were developed nicely, whereas Michael had both bishops and rooks still on their starting squares. Actually, my last developing move, 13.O-O, was a mistake that could have cost me the exchange. Michael played 13...Nd4 attacking my rook on b3 and a bishop on e2. Here I blundered with 14.Rb2 allowing 14...Qxc3!!. Then if 15.Qxc3 Nxe2 check, forking king and queen, wins a whole piece. Luckily for me, Michael missed this and traded knight for bishop instead. This left me with an enormous lead in development and I was able to gain the initiative by exploiting Michael's exposed queen. After winning a piece on move 22, I set about his king and Michael resigned when he realised that he was in a mating net. Boards 1 and 2 Dave Siddall seemed to be holding his own on board 1 against John Whitfield, even though John had a rook and queen on Dave's 2nd rank. Meanwhile, on board 3, Dave McMath and Danny Walmsley were down to a rook and pawns endgame and Danny offered a draw. Dave took me to one side and asked if he could accept the offer. I looked at the position and saw that it was probably drawish, but after looking at Dave Siddall's game I thought it best that he played on. My decision turned out to be justified in that Dave McMath went on to win whereas Dave Siddall blundered a piece in what should have been a winning attack. Surprising result So the match was drawn at 2-2 and everyone agreed that, after the elimination of the bottom board, Penrith had won. I emailed the result to Dave Farley, who runs the competition, stating that Penrith had won on boards 2 and 3 and so had won the match. The next day I received a reply from Dave, saying that he assumed that we must have won on grades as the board count was 5-5. It was only then that I realised that we had in fact lost the match and quickly sent an email back to Dave, confirming this and apologising for my ignorance. I have never actually come across this method of deciding drawn matches, although I must say that it seems a fairer method than simply eliminating the lower boards to determine the result which, in my opinion, favours teams that default boards. Unfortunately my email did not arrive in time to stop the wrong result being published on the NCCU website, but this will, no doubt, be corrected shortly. Congratulations Crusaders and all the best for your match at Hartlepool in the next round. |
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2 May 2008 Our B team did enough to finish ahead of Carlisle A in the league by beating Austin Friars A 3-1 on Saturday 26 April. To be fair, Austin Friars didn't have any of their regular A team players as they were all unavailable, and so they had to play with a weakened team. Board 4 Lewis on board 4 attacked Sam McStay from the outset, and when the dust cleared was a good two pawns ahead. With both his rooks on Sam's second rank, Lewis managed to finish the game in two hours. Board 3 The game on board 3, between Steve Murdoch and Saathvik Shetty, lasted only a couple of minutes longer. Steve had both his bishops lined up against Saathvik's king's position, and when Saathvik pushed his centre pawns too early Steve was able to get his forces behind them and force the win. Boards 1 and 2 The remaining games were both agreed drawn shortly after, as Penrith B had achieved the two points they needed to avoid relegation. Dave McMath kept Syd Cassidy's Scotch under control and Brian Mackay, playing his first game of the season, generously offered Stephen Lowis a draw, even though he was a piece ahead. We won't know until after the county AGM whether the B team will remain in the first division next season, as there is a proposal being put forward that could rejoin the North and South, thereby requiring some restructuring. |
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16 April 2008 Two of our teams played their last league fixture of the season at the weekend. Penrith C were at home to Austin Friars C in Division 2 and our A team were away to Carlisle A in Division 1. Penrith C win Penrith C beat Austin Friars C by 2½ - 1½ to put them in a respectable third place, two points ahead of Austin Friars D who have one more match to play. Penrith A win Our A team, no thanks to me, did just enough against Carlisle A to secure second place in Division 1. Boards 1, 2 and 3 Dave Siddall, on board 2 against George Glover, quickly managed to get a couple of pawns ahead and proceeded to make his advantage count. I seemed to come out of the opening, against Tony Baker on board 3, with a clear edge and tried in vain to get at his king. Tony defended admirably and eventually managed to gain total control of the open e file. When the moment was right, Tony infiltrated my position with his heavy pieces and I was powerless to stop him. Robert's game against Steven Barnes looked to be very drawish but, Robert being Robert, he somehow managed to win the endgame. Board 4 The last game to finish was on board 4, between Steve and Daniel O'Dowd. Steve had a slight time advantage in a king and pawns endgame, although both players had less than 10 minutes on their clocks when Daniel offered a draw. Steve didn't consider the offer for long, as he had seen a way to create a winning passed pawn. Daniel, faced with this new threat, didn't have the time to work out an adequate defence, if there was one, and failed to move before his flag fell. So a good result against a strong Carlisle team, which puts us in the North-South playoffs against Barrow A on the 10th of May. Our B team still have two matches to play. Next Saturday we play Carlisle A, who are only half a point behind us. Then we play Austin Friars A. Two very tough matches, but I'm confident that we will do enough to avoid relegation. |
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9 April 2008 |
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23 March 2008 Going into the fourth and penultimate round, the race for the trophies was still very close. In each section no one player seemed to be able to pull away from the chasing pack. Round 4 of the Open Robert faced yet another Cockermouth player, this time in the form of Philippe Gleizon. John Jarmany played George Horne, Stephen Barnes played Roger Hart and, in the first meeting of two Penrith players, I faced Dave Siddall. Dave defended with the Sicilian and after 2....d6, I played 3.Bb5+, sometimes called the Nimzo-Rossolimo Attack but it has numerous other names. I was quite happy with this opening as I know it quite well, at least I thought I did. After a bit of a blunder on move 19, Dave, to my relief, won a pawn. He could have won a lot more but thought at the time that, although he could win my queen, it would have cost him a rook, a knight and a bishop and so he settled for an endgame advantage. By now, Robert was all over Philippe like a rash. I didn't see what defence Philippe opened with but it seemed to involve sacrificing most of his pieces. With this overwhelming material advantage, Robert forced home the win. John, obviously aware of the fate of his team mate, now had to put the pressure on George, and eventually George cracked, leaving John still only half a point behind Robert. With the result of the remaining two games hardly likely to influence the tournament results, a couple of "Grandmaster draws" could have been expected but, although the games were drawn, they were actually hard fought. Dave failed to mobilise his king's side pawns against mine and elected instead to try and force home his passed d pawn. This plan was slightly flawed in that it allowed me to equalise and claim a share of the point on move 40. Stephen and Roger called a truce shortly after. Round 4 of the Major In the Major, Dave McMath kept his hopes alive with a win over Cockermouth's Neil Jones. Lewis' rook sacrifice against Bob Mitcheson never quite came off after Bob was able to force the exchange of queens, nullifying any threats that Lewis had. Peter got his first over the board win against another Cockermouth player, Peter Hornak. Round 5 of the Open Everyone knew what they had to do going into the last round and this made for some really exciting chess. Robert was to discover that beating former Cumbrian Champions was not that easy and John soon realised that Robert was not the only Penrith player to pack a punch. The rest of us just wanted to avoid being bottom of the table. In my game, Philippe opened with 1.b3, Larsen's Opening. This took me a bit by surprise but I thought that I was better for a while, at least until I decided to trade pieces with him. We soon reached a position where we both had the rook pair, four pawns and a minor piece. Here I offered a draw, which Philippe justifiably rejected as he had four connected pawns against my rather disjointed ensemble, consisting of doubled f pawns and isolated h and d pawns. My only saving grace was that I had a bishop to Philippe's knight. John could see that Robert was getting the better of Stephen and must have decided to play all or nothing against Dave. Dave has held his own against some very good players in the past and this time he more than held his own. In his desperate effort to win, John overlooked a very good move by Dave which resulted in John getting mated on the next move. An excellent game by Dave. Robert now realised that a draw was all that was required of him to win the title. Already queen for rook ahead, Robert grabbed a pawn but that almost proved to be his downfall. With Robert's queen "offside", Stephen infiltrated Robert's position with both his rooks and a knight, setting up a mating net. Robert looked to be in serious trouble but somehow, he was able to find the moves to force a draw. With the tournament now effectively over, George and Roger agreed a draw. Meanwhile, I had dropped a pawn against Philippe but was able to force rooks off, leaving me with a bishop and pawn against knight and two pawns.Philippe could make no progress so yet another draw for me. Round 5 of the Major Sadly, Dave McMath slipped up against Ian Mackay in the Major, so Ian Stone's draw, against Carlisle club mate Bruce Wallace, was enough to win him the trophy. Lewis won his second game of the competition. Unfortunately Peter was Lewis' opponent.So Robert Patla is now the new Cumbria Champion and I challenge anyone to say that he does not deserve it. How many players have gone undefeated for two full seasons? Also, well done Philippe for running a very competitive Cumbria Championships. |
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18 March 2008 The next morning we were joined by all those who took a bye in the first round. Well almost all. George Horne, who was scheduled to play Dave Siddall, missed his bus from Barrow. When he arrived he was over an hour behind on the clock. Pairings The pairings for the second round were arranged so that those who took a bye in the first round played each other and, as the Swiss system dictates, Robert played John Jarmany, as they were both on one point, and I played Roger Hart as we had both lost. Whilst I know that this is how the Swiss system works, I thought that the fact that the two favourites met so early in the tournament was a bit of an anti-climax. My own opinion, for what it is worth, was that, as four out of eight took a bye, then they could have been paired against those of us who didn't. That way the crunch game, between Robert and John, could have been delayed until the later stages, perhaps even the last round. As it happened, this early encounter did not detract from the excitement of the competition. It was so competitive that no one scored more than 4 out 5 in any section. Round 2 of the Open There were one or two surprises when the second round commenced. Robert played a King's Gambit, which probably surprised me more than John. I was expecting some kind of weird gambit from Roger but was surprised to find myself in a (comparatively) tame Ruy Lopez. Perhaps Roger thought that all the Penrith players had examined his gambit repertoire and so decided to play a more orthodox opening. Meanwhile Dave Siddall waited patiently. Robert, it would seem, was not too familiar with his choice of opening, as he got his move order wrong and looked to be worse out of the opening. I, on the other hand, managed to exploit a few inaccuracies in Roger's opening play and soon found myself with an opportunity to win the exchange. Perhaps unwisely, I decided to play for positional advantage rather than material gain as, at the time, I was a little concerned that if I were to surrender my only king's side defender then Roger could whip up an attack that I couldn't repel. Meanwhile Dave Siddall waited patiently. Robert was forced to allow John to win the exchange but had some compensation in that John could not easily extricate his knight after taking the rook on a1. He did try but was forced to play it back to a1 or lose it altogether. So now Robert had an active knight and bishop against John's sorry knight and rook. Things were beginning to look up for Robert, who by now also had a couple of dangerous looking advanced centre pawns. George Horne turned up about now and, with a serious time deficit, began to rattle out his moves against Dave, who was happy to take his time and wait for George to make a mistake. George, however, played well enough to get down to an endgame, albeit slightly worse. Roger did indeed mount an attack on my king but I defended it adequately and mounted a counter offensive. Here again, though, I bottled out and forced the exchange of queens, along with a few other pieces and found myself in no position to refuse Roger's draw offer. By now Robert's advanced pawns had become passed pawns after he was allowed to take John's c pawn with his knight. Unable to stop one of the pawns from promoting, John resigned. Dave had worked out a plan against George and set it in motion with a combination that he was sure would win. There followed a series of more or less forced moves, half way through which Dave suddenly resigned. For some reason known only to Dave, he thought that when the combination was over George would be able to take his rook with his king. Of course, as Dave would have had the rook defended by his own king, then this was never going to happen. George must have thought that this was his lucky day. The remaining game in the open was won by tournament organiser Philippe Gleizon against a former Cumbrian Champion, Stephen Barnes of Carlisle. Round 2 of the Major In the Major section, Dave McMath got off to a good start with a win against Carlisle's Bruce Wallace. Sadly Lewis, Peter and Kevin all lost their games. Lewis found himself drawn against Mark Finlay, formerly of Cockermouth chess club, who has been having a few years rest from over-the-board chess. Lewis performed admirably but Mark, who had once had a grade of 170 ECF, proved to be too strong for him. Wins and losses Peter succumbed to the wily Syd Cassidy and sadly Kevin did it again. In what was almost a replay of his first round game, Kevin found himself winning over the board but not on the clock. This time it was Bob Mitcheson, from Barrow CC, who preferred to win on time rather than take Kevin's draw offer. This was to be Kevin's last game in the competition. Disillusioned by what seemed to him to be an unsporting attitude by his opponents, Kevin withdrew from the tournament. Round 3 This left an odd number for the third round but, as it happened, Peter and Kevin would have been playing each other, so Peter got a full point bye and was able to take Kevin home. After a break for lunch and in some cases a couple of pints of ale, we were back at the boards to commence round three. Robert played George Horne, who was probably still elated from his incredible win against Dave. Board 2 was an all Cockermouth affair, Philippe against John. Dave Siddall played Roger Hart and I was white against Stephen Barnes. My Round 3 game Stephen, like Roger, normally likes to play gambits and this game was to be no exception. After my invariable 1.e4 Stephen played 1...Nc6, the Nimzowitsch Defence, as he had when we last met over the board three years ago in this very competition. That time I played 2.d4 and, although I probably got the better of the opening, I went on to lose the game after blundering on move 22. This time I played 2.Nf3 and was greeted by 2...f5!? which I think is known as the Colorado Gambit, although I did not know this at the time and had no idea how to play against it. Usually I tend to take what is on offer but this time, I hadn't a clue what I was up against, so I pushed my pawn on to e5, planning to create some kind of pawn blockade. Eventually I was able to exchange off all but the rooks and, with a reasonably sound pawn structure, I offered a draw. Stephen elected to play on but must have started to regret his decision as, when I managed to open the h file and threatened to penetrate his position with both my rooks, he offered me a draw. I considered playing on as I knew that he was now on the defensive, but with my king tied down to blockading his passed pawn I thought that it could all turn pear shaped and so I took the draw. Round 3 results Dave Siddall and Roger Hart also agreed to draw. Robert found George Horne no push over and had to settle for half a point. A good day's chess from George, who could not have hoped for anything more after turning up an hour late that morning. John's win over Philippe put him back in with a chance of winning the title. Dave McMath also took a draw in the Major against Ian Stone of Carlisle. Dave was now well placed on 2 out 3, half a point behind Ian, who was in the sole lead going into the third round. Lewis was the only Penrith player to win, beating Cockermouth's Peter Hornak. |
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16 March 2008 Four of us braved the appalling weather to get to Cockermouth in time for the first round of the Cumbria Individual Championships. There were seven entries from Penrith in total, but 6.30 on a Friday evening proved to be inconvenient for some, and consequently there were quite a few byes taken. Kevin was kind enough to give Peter and myself a lift and, buffeted by heavy rain and strong winds, we made our way tentatively to the Globe Hotel. Robert arrived shortly after us looking determined to get on with the job. Out of 29 entries, only seven had entered in the Open section with the majority in the Major (Under 130 ECF). I didn't actually know what section I would be in until I arrived as, although I had entered the Major, I told Philippe Gleizon, the organiser, that he could move me into the Open if there were odd numbers. The first round in the Open was like a mini Penrith vs. Cockermouth match. Robert faced Roger Hart's Blackmar-Diemer Gambit whilst I had the dubious pleasure of playing the white side of a Sicilian Sveshnikov against John Jarmany. The remaining entrants in the Open had taken a bye. My game After thirteen moves I produced a knight check on c7 forking king and rook and promptly offered a draw. John thought for over twenty minutes before playing queen takes knight, allowing me to take his rook on a8 with my queen, checking his king in the process. Onlookers would, no doubt, have been surprised that I offered a draw in this position but something in my subconscious must have told me to do it. Had I played the correct 15.c3! after 14....Ke7 then, perhaps I would have been able to hold the draw but I hastily grabbed a pawn with my queen and was unable to fend off John's well thought out counter-attack. Ironically, when I got home, I searched through my database for the position after John's 14th move and found that I had indeed reached this position four years earlier on gameknot .com. In that game I did play 15.c3 and the game was agreed drawn ten moves later. Robert's game Meanwhile Robert, having accepted Roger's proffered pawn, was starting to make his material advantage count. I don't profess to be an expert in the Blackmar-Diemer but it seems to me to be suicidal to give Robert a whole pawn in the opening. Whilst Roger did get quick development of his pieces, he never seemed to get the chance to mount any kind of serious attack. Robert gradually got all of his pieces co-ordinated and Roger, realising that his opening strategy had failed and faced with the loss of more material, resigned. More games Sadly, Peter lost a piece quite early in the opening and never recovered. Kevin was the exchange and a pawn up but, as usual, was a long way behind on the clock. Ian Mackay offered a draw but Kevin declined. Although behind in material, Ian realised that he could hold his position until Kevin's flag fell and when Kevin too, realised this, he offered Ian a draw. Ian elected to play on and won on time. Kevin was naturally disappointed that he had lost a game which he was clearly winning, but in tournament play a win on time is as good as checkmate. So Robert was one step nearer to achieving his goal, but for the rest of us it was back to the drawing board (pun intended in my case). |
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29 February 2008 Our A and B teams were in action at the weekend against Austin Friars A and B. The fight for the top is all but decided. Only divine intervention can now stop Cockermouth, who were gifted four more points by Carlisle, who could not raise a team. A v. A Austin Friars A were on level points with our A team, in second place, when we met them at the historic King's Head pub on Saturday. Lewis, on board 4 against Sam McStay, got us off to a flying start, when he enticed Sam's king into the open with a few well judged sacrifices and mated him in 24 moves. On board 3, Dave McMath came out of the opening better than Syd Cassidy and kept up the pressure for the whole game to emerge a point to the good. I was, yet again, up against Steve Cunningham, who nullified my Nimzo-Indian with unsettling ease. I was determined not to suffer a slow painful death as in our previous encounters, so I sacrificed a piece for two pawns which gave me two connected passed pawns. Unfortunately for me, those pawns never actually managed to get going, and with his queen and knight Steve conjured up a mating attack. Robert and David Brown, on board 1, looked to be heading for a draw, but although they had equal material in a rook and pawns ending Robert had a better position in that he had a more active rook, and he won yet another nail-biting finish. So we move into clear second position, with a good 3-1 result in our favour. B v. B Our B team played Austin Friars B on Sunday, again at the King's Head. Dave McMath played Syd Cassidy again but this time Dave had to settle for a draw. Our boards 2, 3 and 4 all won, with Kevin, Gerry and Lewis beating Ian Mackay, Saathvik Shetty and Stephen Lowis respectively. A good result which puts our B team in a respectable 4th place in the table. There is a short break in the league now, for the Cumbria Individual Championships at the Globe Hotel in Cockermouth. Philippe Gleizon tells me that Ben Morgan, champion for the last six years, is unable to make it this year. What a shame. Robert was hoping to play against him for the title. |
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212 February 2008 We're out of the cup. We couldn't manage to beat Cockermouth on Sunday even with the handicap in our favour for the first time in the competition. Needing only one and a half points from the match, Kevin, Steve and Peter all failed to score against Roger Hart, Philippe Gleizon and Neil Jones respectively, although all games came close to being drawn. Since Cockermouth had already won the match, John Jarmany offered Robert a draw, to which Robert replied "No chance", and John had to suffer defeat for the second week on the trot at the hands of Robert. |
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10 February 2008 The most crucial game of the season, for our A team, took place on Sunday. The good news is that we won. The bad news is that we didn't win by a big enough margin to prevent Cockermouth from winning the title. Cockermouth fielded a strong team and, with Dave Siddall away, we were not at full strength. Board 1 Board 1 saw Cockermouth's recent signing, John Jarmany, with white against Robert's Sicilian Dragon. Although John seemed to have a strong attack against Robert's king's position, he was forced to exchange queens and Robert was able to turn his attention from defending to attacking, which is what Robert does best. Welcome to Cumbria, John. Board 2 Whilst I didn't like the result of my game, against Roger Hart, on board 2, I did enjoy the game as I felt I was winning for most of it. With queen and rook and two connected passed pawns against Roger's queen, knight and bishop, I was faced with a dilemma. I wasn't sure whether to swap queens or keep them on. Ultimately I made the wrong decision and elected to keep them on the board. Roger then forced me to give up my rook for bishop and pawn and forced the queen exchange, leaving him with a knight and four pawns to my 5 pawns. Needless to say, his material advantage and skilful use of it was too much for yours truly. Board 3 Dave McMath on board 3 seemed to be going down to Philippe Gleizon, but faced with the loss of a piece Dave decided on an all out assault on Philippe's king. Dave had worked out that, if Philippe were to take his piece, then he had good prospects of a perpetual check and a draw. Philippe, sensing that his king was in danger, neglected to take Dave's piece and moved to defend his beleaguered king. Dave, now with material advantage and a strong attack, soon realised that he had more than just a draw by perpetual check and forced a quick win. Board 4 Kevin and Neil Jones were still battling away on board 4, but with only pawns and opposite coloured bishops the outcome was a predictable draw. So a good result for us but probably not good enough. If Cockermouth do no worse than draw their three remaining matches then we will have to win all ours by better than 3 - 1. I'm sure our A team is up to the task but I think, at this stage in the season, a disastrous performance by Cockermouth is our best hope. |
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4 February 2008 Board 1 Robert played with white, against Dave McMath, on first board. Dave at one point was two pawns ahead but Robert's aggressive play forced Dave to play defensively and Robert was able to recover the pawns to make it even on material. Both players now had three pawns, a queen and a rook each so Dave offered a draw. Robert decided to play on, confident that his endgame technique would bring him the full point and, sure enough, Dave missed a chance to force queens off, which would have secured the draw and, convinced that he was about to lose another pawn, Dave resigned. Perhaps Dave was a bit hasty in resigning the game, as later he realised that, if Robert were to take the pawn then there was the possibility of a perpetual check. Board 4 Gerry seemed to have an overwhelming attack against Lewis on board 4. Lewis was prevented from castling and Gerry had all his pieces lined up for the kill, but somehow Lewis managed to hold on albeit at the price of a piece. Gerry, unable to find the killer blow, exchanged most of the pieces and entered the endgame with a bishop and knight against Lewis' lone rook. Lewis made one last effort to salvage the game and pushed his queenside pawns. Gerry attacked Lewis' rook with his bishop, sure that he could win it, but Lewis ignored this and pushed his, now passed, pawn onward. Gerry didn't have time to take the rook; in fact he now realised that he was unable to stop the pawn either. A few moves later, Lewis was able to promote his pawn and, faced with mate in two, Gerry resigned. Board 3 Bob and Steve, on board 3, were involved in strategic warfare and I was unsure who was actually better for most of the game. Bob looked to be trying to come through the centre whilst Steve was concentrating his forces on the queen's wing. I missed the finish, as I was concentrating on my own problems at the time. I heard Steve say "Thank you very much" to Bob but when I turned to look at the final position, Bob had already started to pack the set away. Generous addition by Steve Murdoch. Reflecting on the game with the aid of my chess program, I was pleased to find that my instincts at the board were largely correct: Bob was in the game right up to the end and had chances to win. I had that feeling but didn’t know what to do about it. I certainly didn’t feel as if I was winning until the error at the end. It was a close game. Board 2 My game against Kevin was nothing like Steve and Bob's game, in fact just the opposite. We both had pieces en prise at various times in the game, and although the exchange down at one point I managed to emerge from the confusion a pawn ahead. We were now down to a knight each, opposite coloured bishops and my four pawns to Kevin's three. Now, we all know that an extra pawn doesn't amount to much in an ending with only opposite colour bishops but I was convinced that if I didn't exchange the knights, then I would lose my passed pawn. Kevin offered a draw at this point but I wanted to play on a little longer as I know that not all endings of this type finish in draws. This game, however, was a draw and two moves later we agreed to share the point. A good result for our A team but it could easily have gone the other way. Next, we face the league leaders, Cockermouth, again without our usual board 2, Dave Siddall, who is away for the whole of February, while Cockermouth have strengthened their squad with a new signing on first board. We might be up against it but we'll certainly give it our best shot. |
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27 January 2008 Penrith C against Austin Friars C, 12 January 2008 Division 2 restarted a week earlier when our C team narrowly lost to Austin Friars C. Lewis had an overwhelming material advantage against Ben Spedding on board 2. With such an obvious win in sight, Lewis switched his brain off and marched his b pawn up the board toward the queening square, oblivious to the fact that Ben had run out of legal moves! Stalemate. Board 1, anyway With Graham and Vicky having lost to Bill Hardwick and Sam McStay, Kevin had to try and salvage something from the wreckage. As Kevin was getting very short of time, Ian Mackay offered a draw but although he could see no forced win, Kevin battled on. His perseverance paid off when, with only 19 seconds remaining on Kevin's clock, Ian walked into a mate. There was one other match played just before Christmas, in the Whitaker Trophy. Penrith progressed to the semi-final stage at the expense of Carlisle. The match was not without some controversy, and although I wasn't actually there at the time I might share my thoughts on the matter. Robert beat George Glover on board 1 and Steve lost to Ian Stone on board 2. This meant that Carlisle only had to draw on both the bottom two boards to win, as Penrith had a half point handicap. Board 4 Lewis was down to a pawn and king against Daniel O'Dowd's lone king on board 4. Now, as the time control is two hours each for all the moves, I would assume that if a player does not make all his moves in the allotted time, then he loses. Apparently this is not the case.Controversial draw Daniel was down to less than a minute and offered Lewis a draw. Lewis elected to play on. When Daniel was down to his last 20 seconds he stopped the clocks and announced that he was claiming a draw on the grounds that Lewis could not force a win. Syd Cassidy, who was spectating and happens to be the competition organiser, agreed with Daniel and the game was declared drawn. Lewis was not the only member of our team who was not altogether happy about this but the decision stood. So it would seem that you can run out of time and not lose, providing that your opponent cannot demonstrate how he can win! Imagine if you were to play 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3...then black sits there for 2 hours and claims a draw on the grounds that you cannot demonstrate a forced win!Not quite a controversy Now Peter needed to win, against Bruce Wallace, in order to win the match. Both were down to a rook each and a few pawns. Peter, playing the black pieces, had a passed f pawn supported by his king. Bruce had his rook in position to prevent Peter from promoting the pawn and offered a draw. Peter, knowing that a draw would lose the match, declined the offer. Just as in the game between Lewis and Daniel, Peter probably could not demonstrate how he could win, but when Bruce ran out of time Lewis pointed out that it was a Lucena position, which is a forced win, and so we won.I'm sure that Peter had never even heard of the Lucena position let alone knew how to play it but, in my opinion, justice was done. |
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