Match Reports
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A Team
Leamington A vs Shirley A : score 2-2
14 March 2012
Missing our regular top board player, the match was always likely to be close. So it proved, with the result in doubt until the dying seconds of the evening.
On Board 1 Steve Burnell had a difficult game against Matthew Long. Steve went slightly astray in the opening, missed a tactic whereby Matthew won Knight and Bishop for Rook, and then failed completely to hold the resulting endgame. On Board 2 Andy Price also lost in a difficult game against Dave Thomas. Although Andy won a piece, he could not hold on to it for long. Losing the piece back, then losing the exchange, proved decisive in a difficult position.
On Board 3 Ola saved the day for the Team, winning with only a few seconds left on the clock against Jonathan Dale. Onlookers were baffled as to how he managed to survive a difficult position, convert it into a Queen and Pawns ending, and then find some brilliant moves to swop off the Queens and end up with a won King and Pawn ending. All this when both sides were rapidly running out of time!
On Board 4 Adrian Walker had a somewhat less dramatic win against Gordon Christie. Adrian dominated much of the game when Gordon went into a line of the Sicilian which Adrian knew well. Eventually Adrian invaded down the b-file, trapped his opponents Queen which he was forced to give up for a Rook. There was no way back after that for Black.
Leamington A vs. Stratford A : score 0.5 – 3.5
By a strange coincidence, these two teams were due to meet on successive Wednesdays. This was the League Division 1 clash, next week the Open KO Cup match. The results were very different!
On Board 1 Mark Page played Richard McNally. Mark said that he was outplayed for much of the game, but did miss the opportunity of a simple win before eventually losing. On Board 2 Andy Price lost to Steve Willetts. Andy said he had a very comfortable game, but his opponent went for complications, got ahead on time, won the exchange and eventually the game. On Board 3 Steve Burnell had black against Wyatt Ropp. Steve felt he was outplayed in the opening, but then forced his way back into the game and what could have been a difficult end game fizzled out into a simple draw. On Board 4 Adrian Walker played Colin Searle. Adrian said he misplayed the opening and had the worst of it in a very complicated game. Colin won in the ending.
back to topB Team
Leamington B 3 v 1 Banbury A – Leamington Triumph in Christmas Cracker
Leamington B saw in the Christmas Season, with an early present - - our first of the season! Banbury were in Division 1 last season and outgraded us on every board. A 3-1 victory with everybody contributing was a great end to 2012.
On Board one, Ola had a very complicated game against Chris Evans and came out on top.
On Board two, Ben faced Neil Staples and an unusual line of the Pirc. An endgame was reached quite quickly. Both players worked away at the position until the time control, when it became obvious that the game was dead drawn. Much enjoyment was had in the bar afterwards as the position was analysed further, but with the same conclusion.
On Board three Tom Darling continued his excellent start to his debut season. He was Black against Egils Vikanis, and played the Alekhine. His opponent gave up the exchange and a pawn very early on in the game, but had pawns on e5 and d5 as compensation. This made it very hard for Tom to coordinate his pieces, and left him with threats of checkmate to worry about, as well as Egil’s of his pawns Queening. Fortunately, I was eventually able to exploit a pin to pick up one of the pawns, and was able to simplify to a won endgame from there. He resigned with a Bishop and 1 pawn against my Rook and 3."
On Board 4 David had a good game against Nick Martin. Again a very complex position ensued and both players offered draws during the course of the evening, before peace was finally agreed around the time control. A very interesting game and another good result for the team.
A great way to end the year, which lifts us to mid table. Bring on 2012!
Chipping Camden A 2 v 2 Leamington B
Leamington travelled to Chipping Camden and played out a tight 2-2 draw.
On board 1 Adrian had White against Richard Dobedoe, graded 147, whom he has played twice before, once with each colour. Because he had answered Adrian’s usual e4 with a Pirc last time out, Adrian spent a couple of days boning up on it, and sure enough, he played a sort of Pirc/Modern opening, featuring g6, d6, Bg7, a6 and c6. Adrian was a little thrown by the move order and lack of knight moves, and chose to put his Bishop on c4 instead of the usual d3. Richard managed to force a queen swap very early, and offered Adrian a draw on move 20. After thinking long and hard, Adrian could not see a way to force a decisive advantage and decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and took the draw. Fritz agreed with Adrian’s assessment that the final position was dead equal.
On Board 2, Ola had one of those nights against the canny Peter Drury and Peter picked up the point.
On Board 3, Ben had a frustrating night against Gordon Mills. He had much the better of the game and possibly had winning chances even in the endgame, but stubborn defence from Gordon meant a draw had to be agreed when a position of lone King v lone King was finally reached!
On Board 4, Tom Darling was Black against Bill Nash. Bill steered the game from the Alekhine defense into the Vienna, and we soon entered territory that neither of us was familiar with. Tom was able to win a couple of pawns after he went wrong in a complicated middle game, then Bill got his Bishop stuck behind my pawn structure and eventually had to sacrifice it. Even with an extra Bishop and Pawn in the end game, it was still a challenging position, but Tom held his nerve to ensure the team picked up a point on our travels.
1 e4 Nf6; 2 Nc3 e5; 3 d4 exd4; 4 Qxd4 Nc6; 5 Qd1 Bb4
Leamington B 2 v Daventry 2 A
This match was played just before the Cup disaster. A good result. A win for Tom and draws from Ben and David saw us pick up a solid point here.
Leamington B 1.5 v Kenilworth B 2.5
A case of what might have been. A good win for Tom and draw for David looked to have the team well placed. Unfortunately Ola and Ben both lost games that could easily have gone either way. Just not our night...
Daventry Disaster ... Leamington 1 crash out of the U-700 Cup
All credit to Daventry, who knocked us out of the U-700 cup on one of those nights when little went right for Leamington.
On Board 1 Steve Burnell had white against in form Tim Lawson. Tim made his intentions plain from the beginning by playing the Albin Counter Gambit. A very lively, double edged game resulted which could have gone either way. In the eventual rook and pawns ending, both sides promoted twice. In the final position, white had queen and rook's pawn against black's' queen. However, black had a significant time advantage and the agreed draw was a fair result. Observant onlookers pointed out after the game how white could have won during the ending - but that's chess!
On Board 2, Oladejo Olaleye had his debut win for the club, with a comfortable victory over Robert Stevens. Doubtless the first of many wins Ola will have for the club in the years to come.
After that, it’s probably a case of the least said, soonest mended. Adrian agreed a draw in a position that was actually much better for him. Ben went haywire and managed to lose. Reg put up tough resistance, but was ousted in the end.
So, we lost 3-2.
Congratulations to Daventry. Bring on next year!
back to topC Team
Leamington C vs Rugby
27 March 2012
| Leamington C | Rugby | |||
| 1 | Andy Collins (126) | 0 | 1 | Nigel Malka (131) |
| 2 | Roy Hadfield (121) | 1 | 0 | Gareth Bailey (-) |
| 3 | Mark Armitage (110) | 1 | 0 | Brian Gould (-) |
| 2 | 1 |
1) N Malka V A Collins:
- c4 Nf6 (I do not know much about the English therefore decided to keep things flexible and allow alternative transpositions in to the queens gambit or nimzo Indian etc)
- Nc3 e6
- a3 (this is not anything bad but just a waste of a tempo from white)Be7
- e4 d5 (I was worried about white gaining a very strong pawn centre so this simple move is virtually forced)
- cxd5 exd5
- e5 Ne4 (I realised my knight could have a few problems, moving it back to d7 is just horrible. I only realised at this point though that the text move sacrifices a pawn by force)
- Nxe4 dxe4
- Qa4+ Be7? (After Nc6 black has full compensation for the pawn, but after the text black has some compensation for the pawn at least initially anyway)
- Qxe4 Bc6?
- Qg4 0-0 (Objectively my position is not so nice here, but whites king is still stuck in the centre and he has worse development)
- d4 Re8
- Bh6 Bf8 (This holds things together but probably slightly better is g6)
- Be3 Qd5
- Nf3 (Here my opponent wants to complete his development quick, but it allows me some counter play chances on the queen side) Qb3
- Rb1? (This was a big mistake and I completely equalise after this) Bxa3 (Now my opponent thought I had made a mistake and was losing a piece after his next move)
- Nd2 Bb4 (This was the point!)
- Bc4? (Now my opponent blundered a piece)Bxd2+
- Bxd2 Qxc4 (Naturally picking up the piece)
- Rc1 Qd5 (Perfectly natural but missing at the time Rxe5+!)
- 0-0 Re6
- f3 Na6 (So I do not have to worry about my bank rank anymore)
- h4 Rd8 (With hindsight around this point I would have played differently, I felt like the game was won and was still trying to build up a winning attack, when all I needed to do was slow down consolidate my position, take away all whites counter play and he has no hope at all of saving the game)
- Bc3 Qd7
- h5 Rh6
- Qg5 Re8
- f4 Qe7
- Qg4 g6
- f5 (Pawns moves that should cause me no concern and simply further weaken whites position Rxh5
- Fxg6 Rg5?? (Its suffice to say that I simply lose after this, I was thinking I was being clever and just blundered, the simple hxg6 wins easily enough.
2) In his match against Gary Bailey, Roy Hadfield won in a positional encounter. He had constricted his opponent to a cramped position for most of the game, but Gary eventually managed to free his position and came back with dangerous counterplay, as the game became more tactical. However, Roy held firm and won after his opponent made an unfortunate but crucial miscalculation.
3) Brian Gould v Mark Armitage
Playing against a relative newcomer to the league, Mark had an unexpectedly easy time. The game was very even up until move 17, when Mark made a rather wild foray with a bishop check on the seventh rank. This unnerved his opponent who unnecessarily exchanged his queen for two minor pieces and the rest was fairly easy
D Team
Away to Solihull D, 14/9/11
1 Ravenscroft, Phil (-) 1 - 0 Greenland, Guy (113)
2 Akel, Simon (-) 1 - 0 Leggett, Peter (91)
3 Wood, Penny (113) 0 - 1 Warnes, Reg (91)
With Simon away on a business trip to Huddersfield, several other members of the squad also unavailable and a dearth of drivers, I had to borrow heavily from the C squad. Our opponents fielded a couple of strong newcomers on the top two boards, while their board 3 had a grade equal to our board 1.
Guy (tired, hungry and still convalescent from flu) had a good game until he blundered a piece and felt obliged to resign. He wasn't making any excuses, despite the reasons I've cited why he might justifiably have done so.
I faced Bird's Opening for the first time in my career but kidded myself that I was neutralising all threats then, when White started trading men, I suddenly realised that recapturing with Q would enable a bishop pin of Q to K - when the dust settled I was the exchange and two pawns down. However, two of his pawns were doubled and isolated and a third isolated while my bishop and rook (on the second rank) were better coordinated than his two rooks. Then I hallucinated a tactic that wasn't there, gave away a pawn gratis and in the process he undoubled the aforementioned pawns and reconnected them with the third isolani. The rest was painful...
Reg, manfully resisting both the strength and the charm of his opponent, had a splendidly wily win, the only one of the evening.
Away to Kenilworth D, 19/9/11
1 Mike Whatson (92) 0 - 1 Simon Harris (104)
2 Tony King (76) 1 - 0 Reg Warnes (91)
3 Steve Payne (51) 0 - 1 Andy Collins (-)
Despite Simon's availability I still had some difficulty in fielding a team from within my own squad, partly because I was on holiday in Kent. Obviously I wasn't missed.
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