4NCL: 24-25 October 2009
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WESSEX 1 |
v |
BROWN JACK |
|||
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1 |
w |
Simons,
Martin J |
2200 |
½ - ½ |
Richmond,
Peter A |
2247 |
|
2 |
b |
Kawuma,
Steven Male |
2187 |
½ - ½ |
Padilla
Cabero, Pablo |
2169 |
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3 |
w |
Lock,
Gavin R |
2188 |
1 - 0 |
Truran,
Michael C |
2215 |
|
4 |
b |
Jenks,
Bruce |
2127 |
½ - ½ |
Haydon,
Richard |
2184 |
|
5 |
w |
de
Coverly, Roger D |
2101 |
1 - 0 |
Rabbitt,
Michael |
2074 |
|
6 |
b |
Yeo,
Michael J |
2153 |
1 - 0 |
Richmond,
Jane (F) |
2118 |
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7 |
w |
Kawuma,
Moses |
2178 |
1 - 0 |
Headlong,
Fenella (F) |
1906 |
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8 |
b |
Thilaganathan,
Jessica (F) |
1900 |
1 - 0 |
Tanner,
Gary J |
1690 |
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A new
season, but the same old faces! Roger’s
opponent went to college with Bruce many years ago and described his hairstyle
then as frizzy, orange and lots of it!
Bruce claims that all photos of that era have been destroyed, but if you
know differently we may reinstate the Gallery page specially.
The
opposition had provided Wessex 2 with their only point in the previous season,
so hopes were high that we could do better.
However, the score line is utterly misleading as we were completely lost
on Boards 5 and 8, and Bruce was probably lost when his opponent agreed to his
draw offer. Against that, Martin was
better, if not winning, for most of his game until he blundered the exchange,
so something like 4½ - 3½ would have been a fairer reflection.
Moses
broke his 4NCL duck with a characteristic Queen’s Gambit. My game was a
characteristic mess, helped by my opponent not noticing that 0-0-0 check(!)
enabled me to snaffle a stray rook on b7. Jessica was under a lot of pressure
throughout until in time trouble her opponent swapped off into a lost K+P
ending instead of winning a crucial pawn.
Roger sacrificed a pawn for reasonable activity but then donated a
further two pawns to an increasingly lost cause. Left playing for swindles his opponent duly
obliged. Bruce turned down a draw offer
but overreached in his winning attempt and should have lost. Gavin won the exchange for a pawn, turned
down a hopeful draw offer and won competently.
We left Steven having sacrificed a knight for 2 pawns in a difficult
position where his opponent wasn’t making much progress. They went the full 7 hours before reaching
R+N v R.
As I had
feared, the Italian restaurant’s “live entertainment” made conversation rather
difficult but we might still revisit in May when returning to Sunningdale.
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KINGS HEAD |
v |
WESSEX 1 |
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1 |
w |
McMichael,
Richard J |
2286 |
½ - ½ |
Lock,
Gavin R |
2188 |
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2 |
b |
Kwiatkowski,
Feliks J |
2248 |
½ - ½ |
Yeo,
Michael J |
2153 |
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3 |
w |
Whiteley,
Andrew J |
2292 |
1 - 0 |
Simons,
Martin J |
2200 |
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4 |
b |
Spivack,
Simon SY |
2176 |
1 - 0 |
Kawuma,
Steven Male |
2187 |
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5 |
w |
Thomas,
Rik H |
2220 |
½ - ½ |
Kawuma,
Moses |
2178 |
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6 |
b |
Mackenzie,
Colin |
2120 |
1 - 0 |
Jenks,
Bruce |
2127 |
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7 |
w |
Davey,
Mark * |
2020 |
0 - 1 |
de
Coverly, Roger D |
2101 |
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8 |
b |
Haria,
Ravi (J) |
1828 |
½ - ½ |
Thilaganathan,
Jessica (F) |
1900 |
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A crucial match for our promotion
chances so already I foresee another season of mid-table
mediocrity.
Gavin went an hour behind on the
clock but it was time well spent as his opponent decided that his position was
too boring to continue. Moses had to
overcome some positional weaknesses, but successfully swapped most of the
pieces off to draw. Jessica had a very
wild position against a Benko. Once most
of the pieces came off it looked as though she might have a winning ending but
her young opponent defended well. I
managed to churn out 25 moves of Sveshnikov theory to reach an unclear ending
of R + 6P v R+N+3P which I thought offered winning chances until I had to play
it. Having repeated moves, I then had to
leave to sort out a car battery flattened by leaving the sidelights on. Roger had a very promising attack which
fizzled out to a less promising ending which he appears to have won by showing
(again) that Black pawns move faster than White ones. Bruce declined a draw offer on move 9 which
seems to have lulled him into getting his queen trapped in the middle of the
board. Martin had a classic Benko position
that he thought he was holding, but by the time he won his pawn back on a2 his
opponent was generating unstoppable threats on his kingside. Steven was again the last to finish. From an unclear position at the time control
he managed to win 2 pawns, only to then blunder a piece. 4-4 might have been a
reasonable result; 3-5 is depressing!
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WESSEX 2 |
v |
BRISTOL 2 |
|||
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1 |
w |
Pleasants,
Allan J |
2079 |
1 - 0 |
Ponter,
Ian P |
2046 |
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2 |
b |
Tunks,
Dominic |
2076 |
1 - 0 |
Humphreys,
Jerry G |
2082 |
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3 |
w |
Marsh,
Roger DW |
2074 |
½ - ½ |
Stewart,
Joseph |
1994 |
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4 |
b |
Clark,
Ian C |
2072 |
½ - ½ |
May,
Michael |
1898 |
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5 |
w |
Gregory,
Keith DF |
2056 |
½ - ½ |
Richardt,
Michael |
1963 |
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6 |
b |
Taylor-Bowd,
Philip J |
2043 |
½ - ½ |
Bromilow,
Edward T |
1922 |
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Allan Pleasants reports:
After a fairly miserable drive up the motorway in the rain and drizzle we settled
down to play our first match in Division 3. I sensed that the games
particularly on the lower boards were pretty cautious affairs with Phil happy
as always to accept a draw, Ian pushing slightly to make something of an
isolated queen pawn and only gaining the very slightest of advantages once the
IQP had gone. Keith was happy to accept a draw after spending the first half
hour on move 2. In fairness he went to look after Jo who wasn’t feeling too
well. Roger held an advantage, but the closed position offered no real winning
chances. Roger sacked a pawn to try open the position up on the queenside, but
I’m not sure the position justified the risk even if it was quite small.
Dominic continued his fine form from last year and when his opponent failed to
respond to the a5 pawn push early on in the game. Dominic saw no reason why it
shouldn’t just march it all the way down the board with fairly devastating
effect. In a complete reversal of fortune from last year I managed to continue
my recent good form by winning fairly calmly on top board.
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AMCA RHINOS |
v |
WESSEX 2 |
|||
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1 |
w |
Tart,
Peter K |
2078 |
1 - 0 |
Pleasants,
Allan J |
2079 |
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2 |
b |
Sparkes,
Daniel A |
2066 |
0 - 1 |
Tunks,
Dominic |
2076 |
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3 |
w |
Stille,
Alexander M |
2054 |
0 - 1 |
Marsh,
Roger DW |
2074 |
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4 |
b |
McLaughlin,
Noel S |
2022 |
0 - 1 |
Clark,
Ian C |
2072 |
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5 |
w |
Owens,
Trefor H |
1946 |
½ - ½ |
Gregory,
Keith DF |
2056 |
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6 |
b |
Marley,
Andrew |
1930 |
0 - 1 |
Taylor-Bowd,
Philip J |
2043 |
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Captain Allan:
This was likely to be another close match, and following a sleepless night my game quickly went from poor to bad to atrocious. I resigned as soon as the match was won and will have to do some research to prevent this happening again. Dominic won after an unjustifiable piece for two pawns sacrifice from his opponent. With a couple of nice active moves the game was over. Keith drew in a position where I thought there was still plenty of play though who was winning I wasn’t sure! Ian won after getting a knight vs. bad bishop ending, his opponent already a couple of pawns down didn’t want to go through the depressing formalities of being pushed off the board [I know exactly how he felt]. Phil gained a nice kingside attack which he was able to convert comfortably to a win and in so doing gave us the match. Roger’s game was looking rather bleak, but after a series of tactical exchanges he emerged a pawn up in a rook and opposite colour bishop ending. Last time I looked he was 3 pawns up so I assume he went on to win it.
A great start to the new season after last year’s hard efforts, and disappointments. I’m sure we will face stronger opponents later in the season, but I think it also shows that there is a big rift between the standards in Divisions 2 and Division 3. It will be interesting to see how well the teams that got promoted last year from division 3 do in division 2. Ability wise we sit right in the middle between the two divisions. To me this suggests that the new league arrangement is somewhat flawed.
We have a break now until the New Year. Hopefully see some of you at the Hampshire Individual Championship or at Torquay.
Last modified: November 14, 2009
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