Have just got back from Sunningdale, where we had a reasonably successful start to the campaign to stay in an all-play-all section.
Saturday we played South Wales Dragons 2. Stewart got extremely irritated with the constant throughput of players and spectators very close to his board and agreed a quick draw. My interesting Tromp petered out into a level ending and so I was second to finish. Marissa's opponent had arrived about 50 minutes late due to car/traffic difficulties, and never seemed interested in the game, and Marissa duly won. Meanwhile Jeremy had also agreed a draw. The other 4 games were much more interesting. Peter won a pawn with a good position, whereupon his opponent decided he had to mix things up to have any hope at all - a two piece sac looked very dangerous, particularly in time trouble, but Peter gave one back, then won an exchange, and finally got queens off the board. Mac found himself in a Blackmar-Diemer, declined the pawn, and simply outplayed his young opponent. Charles was playing Alan Brown, and after 6 hours they got to knight and one pawn each, so agreed the draw. Laszlo had got himself a winning position after move 20, then misplayed it, and had to win it all over again, only managing to do so at 8.58pm, just in time for last food orders in the restaurant. A 6-2 victory was followed by beer and wine in the bar (no surprise there, then).
Sunday we were playing North West Eagles 2, and overall were very evenly matched. Laszlo had a very peculiar game and agreed a draw with not much time left. I had the sort of position which Peter would have enjoyed wriggling with, but I missed my opponent winning a pawn and two bishops for two knights, and then in an effort to get counterplay got my queen trapped (oops). Jeremy lost shortly after me, and Marissa's opponent managed to block up the queenside, and neither player was able to do much on the kingside. So 3-1 down, and the Eagles were beginning to crow. But Peter outplayed his opponent very impressively, and Adrian eventually managed to win a bishop ending a pawn up. This left Stewart a pawn down and Charles a pawn up, looking as if Stewart could draw and Charles would win. Sadly, Stewart exchanged off the last pair of rooks into a lost position, but Charles rescued the day with another knight ending (clearly the practice against Alan the previous day was worthwhile), and again we were the last match to finish after 7 hours play.
Thanks as ever to all who played, especially Peter for his 100% score.
Richard
FCA Solutions 2 Rounds 1 & 2
The first weekend
of the 2007/2008 4NCL campaign for FCA Solutions second team in Division 4 saw
mixed fortunes. Drawn against Athenaeum on the Saturday, the team that prevented
us from being promoted last year, we were out for revenge – and the omens looked
good when they fielded a weaker team – indeed, desperately weak on the bottom
two boards. Two wins were on the cards by about half past two here and when Paul
K agreed his opponents draw offer we looked to the top three boards to deliver
at least a half point. However, one by one the dominos refused to fall, and we
were looking at three unfavourable endings; a queenside pawn majority (Board 2),
a knight v bad bishop (Board 1) and an outside passed pawn (Board3) were all
handled very effectively; so we watched as the score inevitably moved to 3.5/2.5
to Athenaeum – it is becoming a bogey team.
To put this result in perspective –
There were 31 teams in the Division, and on the day only six teams had a higher
average grade than us. However, these averages can be misleading, as many teams
‘fall away’ heavily. Our grades on the top four boards were pretty evenly
matched; but their average was 150 points less. There were also four defaults on
the day: which may or may not be a good sign for subsequent default numbers as
the season progresses. On the positive side, the Paragon Hotel is under new
management, the place has been cleaned up and refurbished and many old hands
commented on the improvements.
On the Sunday we played Halesowen, whose grades
were again a bit lop-sided, but now giving us an edge on every board. Although
Chris Majer was definitely having a bad day at the office, we didn’t in truth
look like losing this one. Brian again won quickly – he described it as 19th
century slaughter. Paul H won very efficiently, using minor pieces much more
effectively than his opponent. Graham’s opponent sacrificed a piece for two
pawns and an attack, but Graham held on and cashed in when white ran out of
steam. Kevin was in some trouble as a passed a pawn ran for promotion, but a
timely swindle removed the trouble, after which the game turned round and was
eventually won by Kevin in problem-like fashion. Paul K’s game took a while to
get going, but he eventually got strong threats on the kingside, forcing black
to give up material. There were two knight moves to clinch the game –
unfortunately Paul chose the wrong one. Despite advantage of the exchange and a
pawn he was lucky to escape with a draw; a result that pleased neither player on
reflection. Celebrations of our win were delayed for some time as Board six
searched for a mate with rook and two knights; eventually stumbling into it.
So, 50% for all players for the weekend, except for Brian who could probably have
given odds of a rook and still won both games.
Your correspondent attended a captains’ meeting on Sunday morning, where he learnt:-
1. In future there will be more ‘Midlands based’ venues
2. In future there will be more weekends on which all divisions play (ie fewer 4NCL weekends overall)
3. The prospect of all divisions at the same place at the same weekend is a possibility, but this large site has yet to be tested.
4. Attempts will be made to fix the year’s schedules even further in advance.
5. The easing of the eighty points rule, to help eliminate defaults, is generally