4NCL: 2-4 May 2009
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WESSEX 1 |
v |
OXFORD 1 |
|||
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1 |
w |
Simons,
Martin J |
2225 |
0 - 1 |
Rose,
Matthew |
2259 |
|
2 |
b |
Lock,
Gavin R |
2227 |
0 - 1 |
Savage,
Ben D |
2330 |
|
3 |
w |
Rutter,
Nicholas |
2181 |
˝ - ˝ |
Rawlinson,
Aidan |
2242 |
|
4 |
b |
Yeo,
Michael J |
2147 |
0 - 1 |
White,
Michael J R |
2265 |
|
5 |
w |
Jenks,
Bruce |
2201 |
0 - 1 |
Smallbone,
Kieran |
2235 |
|
6 |
b |
Kawuma,
Steven |
2168 |
0 - 1 |
Eckersley-Waites,
Tom |
2224 |
|
7 |
w |
de
Coverly, Roger |
2070 |
˝ - ˝ |
Shaw,
David A |
2228 |
|
8 |
b |
Moore,
Gillian A (F) |
1935 |
0 - 1 |
Tidman,
Sophie (F) |
2093 |
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1 - 7 |
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A dismal
result that finally killed off any lingering promotion hopes we might have had as
other results also didn’t go our way.
There was
an amusing pas de deux with the top
two boards. Martin agreed to play on
Board 1 to try and repeat his 5 move win against Ben Savage. Ben however had asked to be dropped to Board
2 as he didn’t want to face Gavin, presumably also because of a past game that
I cannot trace. The instruction to the
Black players to start the clock proved too difficult for the Oxford players on
Boards 5 & 7. Roger wisely took his
offending clock to the arbiter for a replacement. Bruce and his opponent unwisely pressed a
random series of buttons that appeared to resuscitate their timepiece to their
satisfaction. However at move 20, the
Oxford player noticed that despite having pressed the right button, his clock
was still going. The arbiter took ages
to provide a replacement showing the correct times and everyone was happy until
the Oxford player unfortunately spotted that he had been given 25 seconds to
reach move 40 rather than 25 minutes!
That was about the closest we came to winning anything.
Roger
gained an hour on the clock due to some difficulties with move order and
managed to smoothly remove most of the pieces.
Nick got into his typical worse position against the Sveshnikov but
without losing a pawn which I guess was enough to persuade his opponent to call
a halt. I won a pawn in the opening and
then played like an idiot. Martin also
won a pawn but overlooked a trick winning it back in very favourable
circumstances. Gavin described his game
as very poor although he looks to have been equal for some while. 4-1 down at
the time-control didn’t bode well. Gillian
had seemed to be in some trouble as her knights undertook some very extensive
manoeuvres even for an Alekhine but she had almost equalised before blundering
in the 5th hour. Steven
sacrificed a pawn for reasonable compensation, but all the heavy pieces came
off to leave a lost ending. Bruce had
the first of 3 R&P endings for the weekend.
In this one he was a pawn down but didn’t really ever look like saving
it. You may eventually be able to read
what Oxford thought of our hapless display here.
While
most of the rest of the squad met up for dinner at a local pub that I had
booked for them, I had to embark on a 250 mile roundtrip to Southampton to
return home two last-minute substitutes who were not playing on the
Sunday. I arrived back at the hotel just
before the diners returned. I began to
suspect a conspiracy when they all reported that the dinner had been excellent
and the best of the season so far!
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POISONED PAWNS 1 |
v |
WESSEX 1 |
|||
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1 |
w |
Posazhennikov,
Alex |
2249 |
1 - 0 |
Yeo,
Michael J |
2147 |
|
2 |
b |
Swanson,
Stephen |
2245 |
˝ - ˝ |
Lock,
Gavin R |
2227 |
|
3 |
w |
Dunn,
Andrew |
2204 |
˝ - ˝ |
Simons,
Martin J |
2225 |
|
4 |
b |
Byway,
Paul |
2156 |
0 - 1 |
Kawuma,
Steven |
2168 |
|
5 |
w |
Richter,
Hans |
2148 |
1 - 0 |
Jenks,
Bruce |
2141 |
|
6 |
b |
Jarvis,
David |
2160 |
0 - 1 |
Rutter,
Nicholas |
2181 |
|
7 |
w |
Rosen,
Daniel B |
2142 |
˝ - ˝ |
Gregory,
Keith D |
2057 |
|
8 |
b |
Mountford,
Corinne (F) |
1645 |
1 - 0 |
Vann,
Monica (F) |
1755 |
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|
4˝-3˝ |
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Another
disappointing result in a close match that mattered a lot more to our opponents
as it kept their promotion hopes alive.
Martin
was concerned that his opponent might repeat a dull drawing line from a
previous game, so decided to shock him instead with 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 d6 3.Nf3 c5 4.g3
g5!?! He managed to agree a draw within
2 hours. I had wrongly assumed that he
had an urgent appointment in the health club, but it seems there was a vitally
important episode of “Britain’s Got Talent” that he might have missed. For the second day running with Black, I
contrived to play h6?? Monica turned up
at 1.30 p.m. expecting to be half an hour early. She went for an all-out attack
which missed and lost after the time control.
Nick’s opponent donated his a8 rook and never got enough in
exchange. Steven always looked to be a
bit better and swapped into a won R&P ending. Gavin prodded a hedgehog sufficiently to win
a Q for R&B, but the pieces had enough activity to draw. Bruce’s R&P ending this time saw him 2
pawns down. We had thought that his only
hope was for his opponent to drop dead before delivering mate, but then the
fire alarm went off. I have been assured
that there is no truth in some of the rumour that it was caused by a Wessex
player trying to draw the match.
Dinner
was at a pub 5 miles drive away and was much better than outside appearances
might have suggested. Subsequent drinks
in the hotel bar might have been detrimental to our chances the next day but
weren’t!
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WESSEX 1 |
v |
JUTES OF KENT |
|||
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1 |
w |
Rutter,
Nicholas |
2181 |
˝ - ˝ |
Williams,
Simon K |
2512 |
|
2 |
b |
Simons,
Martin J |
2225 |
˝ - ˝ |
Mack,
Andy |
2236 |
|
3 |
w |
Lock,
Gavin R |
2227 |
0 - 1 |
Harakis,
Alexis |
2248 |
|
4 |
b |
Jenks,
Bruce |
2141 |
1 - 0 |
Naylor,
John |
2186 |
|
5 |
w |
Kawuma,
Steven |
2168 |
˝ - ˝ |
Cooley,
Chris |
2265 |
|
6 |
b |
de
Coverly, Roger |
2070 |
1 - 0 |
Rice,
Chris |
2116 |
|
7 |
w |
Yeo,
Michael J |
2147 |
1 - 0 |
Wilson,
Alexandra (F) |
2040 |
|
8 |
b |
Daley,
Eugene (J) |
1689 |
˝ - ˝ |
Howell,
Christopher |
2083 |
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5 - 3 |
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I was slightly puzzled as to why we
should have produced easily our best result of the season until I read the
opposition account of their weekend here.
One good thing to come out of
Wessex 2 being relegated on Sunday was that I didn’t feel obliged to get up at
5.30 a.m. to make another round trip to Southampton. We were able to promote Eugene to the first
team and play Eugene’s brother in the second team. The reaction of our top boards when I told
them they were on the DGT boards live on the internet was entertaining. Gavin groaned. Bruce was visibly excited and
set about phoning all his friends.
Eugene’s opponent somewhat
recklessly started with 1.e4 c5 2.a3 g6 3.h4, a move order that has previously
been adopted by the Jutes of Kent Board 1.
Eugene reacted calmly and was unlucky to reach a position where his
opponent could bale out with a draw by repeating moves. A number of us were amused to find out on
Sunday evening that Nick had never heard of the Dragadorf. He has now and he produced an interesting
sideline that might make the second edition of his opponent’s forthcoming book
on the opening. Martin’s opponent joined
a long queue of those who have played a line that is supposed to refute the
Nimzowitsch only to find that it doesn’t!
I was initially rather concerned about Roger’s position but his opponent
made some mistakes while running short of time which left Roger with a winning
double rook and pawn ending. I played
the Tarrasch French again which came as a surprise to my opponent who clearly
doesn’t keep her database up to date.
Having missed the opportunity to play e6-e5 I was allowed to win the
backward e-pawn and the game. Bruce, no
doubt conscious that the world was watching, entered another R+P ending this
time a pawn to the good and displayed impeccable technique. How can we arrange for all his games to be on
DGT boards?!
Steven’s game became extremely
complex after his opponent found a dangerous piece sacrifice. Even after an extensive post-mortem the
players were not sure who stood better.
In the time-scramble Steven suddenly stopped the clocks to complain that
his opponent wasn’t recording his moves.
He was completely unaware that the rules permit this when a player has
less than 5 minutes left. In the Olympiad of course they play with increments
when this rule would not apply, but I am surprised that he has not had any such
time-scrambles in the Southampton League.
Chris Cooley reacted impeccably (I might have been tempted to claim an
extra 2 minutes for the distraction) but had to be restrained from using one of
the DGT boards to reconstruct when his time expired at move 42. In a position I
thought was still unclear, Steven offered a draw with his next move which was
accepted. Although we had won the match,
Gavin’s game was of great significance as it turned out that his opponent had
to win for his team to gain promotion.
Gavin had had a huge advantage out of the opening but went wrong in time
trouble to reach a difficult but defendable ending. Fortunately for the opposition he went wrong
soon after the time control and his opponent made no mistake to deprive Kings
Head of the 4th promotion place.
Mid-table mediocrity is arguably
better than we might have expected at the start of the season, but is another
reflection of a downside of the new format.
One of the many reasons I have given for disliking this format is the
difficulty in ensuring that the two initial sections are of equal
strength. It is a fact that the 4
promoted teams came from 2a, the section Wessex 2 found themselves in. It does seem unfair that 4 teams from 2b
didn’t get to play any of the promoted teams; especially Cheddleton-Pointon who
I think would have beaten at least 3 of the promoted teams. Had Wessex 1 been in 2a and Wessex 2 been in
2b, I think it likely that Wessex 2 would have survived and Wessex 1 might have
been relegated. Unfortunately, we are now in the same position as the French
League who would like to revert to the previous format but are unable to devise
a fair means of doing so.
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WESSEX 2 |
v |
CELTIC TIGERS 1 |
|||
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1 |
w |
Pleasants,
Allan J |
2088 |
0 - 1 |
Wippermann,
Till |
2434 |
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2 |
b |
Clark,
Ian C |
2093 |
0 - 1 |
Hoffmann,
Hendrik |
2210 |
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3 |
w |
Wilkinson,
John R |
2035 |
˝ - ˝ |
Kemp,
Peter D |
2167 |
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4 |
b |
Gregory,
Keith D |
2057 |
0 - 1 |
Haldane,
Robin |
2155 |
|
5 |
w |
Buchkremer,
Felix |
2076 |
0 - 1 |
Mueller,
Jan |
2118 |
|
6 |
b |
Taylor-Bowd,
Phil |
2037 |
˝ - ˝ |
Pedersen,
Carsten |
2167 |
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7 |
w |
Coburn,
Joe |
1950 |
˝ - ˝ |
Thomas,
Robert K |
2155 |
|
8 |
b |
Daley,
Eugene (J) |
1689 |
˝ - ˝ |
Owens,
Megan (F) |
1738 |
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2 - 6 |
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FCA SOLUTIONS 1 |
v |
WESSEX 2 |
|||
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1 |
w |
Tippleston,
Charles |
2167 |
0 - 1 |
Tunks,
Dominic |
2013 |
|
2 |
b |
Macdonald-Ross,
Michael |
2169 |
1 - 0 |
de
Coverly, Roger |
2070 |
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3 |
w |
Reuben,
Stewart |
2102 |
˝ - ˝ |
Buchkremer,
Felix |
2076 |
|
4 |
b |
Almond,
Richard |
2114 |
˝ - ˝ |
Taylor-Bowd,
Phil |
2037 |
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5 |
w |
Smith,
Graham |
2122 |
˝ - ˝ |
Pleasants,
Allan J |
2088 |
|
6 |
b |
Habershon,
Paul |
2081 |
1 - 0 |
Clark,
Ian C |
2093 |
|
7 |
w |
Majer,
Chris E |
2078 |
1 - 0 |
Coburn,
Joe |
1950 |
|
8 |
b |
Evans,
Helen (F) |
1745 |
0 - 1 |
Daley,
Eugene (J) |
1689 |
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|
4˝-3˝ |
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WESSEX 2 |
v |
SOUTH WALES DRAGONS 2 |
|||
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1 |
w |
Gregory,
Keith D |
2057 |
˝ - ˝ |
Brown,
Alan M |
2116 |
|
2 |
b |
Buchkremer,
Felix |
2076 |
1 - 0 |
Miles,
Richard |
2067 |
|
3 |
w |
Tunks,
Dominic |
2013 |
1 - 0 |
Burton,
Graham P |
2059 |
|
4 |
b |
Taylor-Bowd,
Phil |
2037 |
˝ - ˝ |
Mort,
Andrew J |
2015 |
|
5 |
w |
Clark,
Ian C |
2093 |
0 - 1 |
Bennion,
David A |
2030 |
|
6 |
b |
Pleasants,
Allan J |
2088 |
0 - 1 |
Dixon,
Chris |
1895 |
|
7 |
w |
Coburn,
Joe |
1950 |
˝ - ˝ |
Davies,
G Brian |
1833 |
|
8 |
b |
Daley,
John James * |
1500 |
0 - 1 |
Menon,
Davin (J) * |
1564 |
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3˝-4˝ |
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Last modified: May 8, 2009
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