4NCL: 27-28 March 2010

Saturday 27 March

		AMCA DRAGONS		v	WESSEX 1
1	w	Webb, Richard M	2260	1 - 0	Simons, Martin J	2200
2	b	Richardson, Keith B	2168	0 - 1	Kawuma, Steven Male	2202
3	w	Norman, Kenneth I	2174	½ - ½	Lock, Gavin R	2188
4	b	Coates, Kenneth G	2220	1 - 0	Neil, David R	2157
5	w	Purdon, Colin	2067	½ - ½	Yeo, Michael J	2152
6	b	Hart, David PO	2012	0 - 1	Clark, Ian C	2072
7	w	Sparkes, Daniel A	2066	½ - ½	Marsh, Roger DW	2067
8	b	Holland, James P (J)	1973	1 - -½	default
				4½- 3

A largely forgettable weekend, notable more for events away from the board. Jessica pulled out due to pressure of school work. I was unable to find a suitable replacement for Saturday which meant incurring our first default for over two years. We did offer to field a competent male player on Board 8 to provide a proper game, but this was rejected. With hindsight I guess I should have fielded an incompetent player thus saving us the half point default penalty but providing a pointless game.

Of the games that were played, it looked quite close on paper and we did draw those 3½-3½ although for some while this looked rather unlikely. Quite soon, on the bottom four boards, we were a pawn down in each game for varying degrees of compensation. Dave looked to have a significant development advantage, but this soon evaporated and a blunder hastened the end.

Martin would have had equality in his game if he had played 14....f5! He had missed that after 15.b4 Qb5 16.a4 a backward diagonal queen move 16....Qd7 defends the pawn on f5. Instead 14....c6 allowed 15.Qf3 f6 16. c4! after which he is close to lost. The end was swift: 16....a5 17.a3 Qg5 18.Bxc6! bxc6 19. Qxc6+ Kb8 20. Qb6+ Resigns as 21. Re6 follows.

With the default, this left us 3½ points down with some rather dubious positions, but there was then a gradual recovery.

Roger had somehow managed to win his pawn back and retain dangerous threats to the White king. Here he played 41....g6 allowing 42.Qd4 swapping off queens into a drawn R + P ending. Instead, 41....f5 would have produced instant resignation as 42.Qd4 Qf1 43.g4 f4 leads to mate.

Ian’s opponent not unreasonably turned down a draw offer but then blundered in time trouble. I played the Grünfeld for only the fourth time in my life. I sacrificed a pawn, but as the book I bought after the game states “Black’s compensation for the sacrificed pawn is considered insufficient and the line has disappeared from practice”! Later, I was allowed to swap off into a drawn R+P ending. Steven was utterly lost apart from the small but significant detail that Steven’s opponent had left himself with 20 seconds for his last 10 moves. Somehow he kept his scoresheet up to date but lost on time with two moves still to make. There was an element of confusion as Steven thought the hour that was added to the clocks meant that he had made 40 moves. Fortunately, a spectator who is a qualified arbiter fetched the chief arbiter while the clock was still showing whose time expired first. Gavin won the exchange and had a completely won position, but in time trouble he allowed the liquidation of all the queenside pawns so only drew.

For the second year in succession I was forced to miss the dinner in the local pub in order to return home and bring back Gillian on the Sunday. Yet again, I suspect a conspiracy as everyone said the food was very good. Possibly unwisely, Ian kindly agreed to act as captain in my absence in order to submit a revised team list once we knew the identity of our opponents. I spoke to Ian on the phone at around 9.20 pm once I had got home. Ten minutes later I had another phone call from Martin. Having just had two mouthfuls of his dinner, Ian had complained of feeling unwell and was taken back to the hotel just remembering to pass the baton of the team sheet on to Martin before leaving.

Sunday 28 March

		BRISTOL 1		v	WESSEX 1
1	w	Beaumont, Chris R	2306	½ - ½	Kawuma, Steven Male	2202
2	b	Buckley, David E	2274	1 - 0	Yeo, Michael J	2152
3	w	Franklin, Michael	2190	1 - 0	Simons, Martin J	2200
4	b	Rudd, Jack	2267	½ - ½	Lock, Gavin R	2188
5	w	Collier, David O	2142	½ - ½	Neil, David R	2157
6	b	Dilleigh, Stephen P	2107	½ - ½	Marsh, Roger DW	2067
7	w	Curtis, John E	2106	1 - 0	Clark, Ian C	2072
8	b	Oliver, Martin (J)	1810	½ - ½	Moore, Gillian A (F)	1802
				5½-2½

Arriving from my marathon round trip, I wasn’t able to find our pairings.  This was my fault for going straight to the playing hall where the pairings had been put up the previous day.  Some of the pairings were on show, but not ours. I was worried at this point that their non-appearance was in some way connected with Ian’s condition.   I should have known to use the front entrance to the hotel and look on a pillar there!

Despite Bristol being White on odds in their previous two matches and Wessex having Black on odds in their previous two matches, it was ordained that Bristol should get White on odds in this match as well. Apparently this was entirely our fault for not having performed in line with our seedings. Had we been playing Bristol in the promotion pool the colours would have been reversed. I’m afraid that this is yet another in the long list of reasons why I dislike the split division format.

Ian had been returned to semi-working order but the bump on his head had clearly damaged his Houdini properties as he lost. Worryingly, he was still complaining of feeling unwell. (He has since visited the doctor and the hospital to undergo a battery of tests and is now feeling a lot better.) On the only board where we held a rating advantage, Martin made an old man very happy as his over aggression against the Colle backfired allowing Franklin to score his first win for Bristol. Gavin, David, Roger and Gillian all drew without too many dramas. I sacrificed a pawn and never quite got enough for it before blundering in time trouble. Steven’s position was extremely cramped and he was a pawn down in an ending at the time control. He was allowed to create sufficient counterplay so that by the end he was if anything slightly better.

This loss means that we slump to the bottom four in the relegation pool. All is not yet lost however as we should be capable of picking up some points in the final weekend. Whether it is worth making huge efforts to stay in the second division is another matter.

Saturday 27 March.

		ICENI		v	WESSEX 2
1	w	Crombleholme, Alan K	2106	0 - 1	Jenks, Bruce	2127
2	b	Reynolds, D Ian W	2085	0 - 1	Tunks, Dominic	2076
3	w	Calvert, D Ian	2020	1 - 0	Gregory, Keith DF	2060
4	b	Feavyour, John A	2076	0 - 1	Taylor-Bowd, Philip J	2043
5	w	Botham, C Paul	2040	0 - 1	Pleasants, Allan J	2038
6	b	Donaghay, Richard H	1975	0 - 1	Krawczuk, Michael J	1970
				1 - 5

Sunday 28 March

		WESSEX 2		v	CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY 2
1	w	Jenks, Bruce	2127	0 - 1	Tyomkin, Mykhaylo	2111
2	b	Tunks, Dominic	2076	0 - 1	Spencer, Carl J	2136
3	w	Gregory, Keith DF	2060	½ - ½	Lee, Richard WY	2058
4	b	Taylor-Bowd, Philip J	2043	0 - 1	Campbell, Mark C	1986
5	w	Pleasants, Allan J	2038	1 - 0	Gooding, Ian	2013
6	b	Krawczuk, Michael J	1970	0 - 1	Robertson, J Stuart	1986
				1½-4½

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Last modified: April 2, 2010

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