We
played Rugby C last night in the quarter finals of the Coventry Divisional Cup
and ran out 4-0 winners to proceed to the semi-finals. Rugby C are a Division 3
team and as a result, we needed to win 3.5 – 0.5 on the night to go through.
Given the saying about Chess being a game played on grass, rather than on paper
(or some such) we weren’t taking anything for granted. Despite the massive
rating difference between the teams, we knew one slip from anyone (or one
mobile phone that wasn’t switched off) and we would be out. As it was, the
upset never looked likely, once we got down to business…
Three
Cup matches were going on in the Club, so it was a pretty packed room. From what
I saw all the favourites were winning heavily, but that’s by the by. It
certainly made for a good atmosphere, even if it was a little cramped. I was
practically sitting on Carl’s lap at one point. Carl was the first to land a
point. (Perhaps keen for some more space!) It looked like a lot of Carl’s games
with White. Kings castled on opposite sides (Carl on the Queenside) with the
Kingside ripped open. Pawns were sacrificed, Carl’s Kings side attack looked much
faster/ more menacing than Malcolm Harding’s Queenside punt and so it proved.
Carl’s Rooks and Queen broke through to mate. 1- 0.
I
was next to finish. I played a new opening, but unfortunately forgot some of
the theory and was actually a bit passive. However, after a bit of
consolidation/ development and an ill-advised king side pawn foray from my
opponent, which just seemed to give me a lot of targets, I regained the
initiatives. I trapped a piece and bagged a Rook a few moves later and Jim
Macdonald resigned.
On Board 3, Mike was doing a better job
of remembering his openings than I had, as his opponent played down a line of
the Queens Fianchetto that Mike had reviewed for a magazine in 1976. Well, hey,
we’re not a first division team for nothing… (The Queen's Fianchetto Defence,
Chess (Sutton Coldfield), p200-205 March and p234-237 April 1976
MJDonnelly, for those who would like to read more.) Mike said, “my
opponent actually played the opening quite well and only went astray around
move 20 weakening the white square (f7 and g8) around her king. This was
exploited by the rather hidden idea of playing Bc2-b3 threatening the
fatal c5 as White had pawns on a2-b3 and c4 and a queen on d5. This won a piece
and the game…
On Board 4, Dave looked like he was
playing skittles rather than Chess, as we was roughly 800 points up when I
first looked. Credit to his opponent for showing tenacity/ a reluctance to give
up that even I wouldn’t have been able to match, but it wasn’t exactly a
cliff-hanger and I’d left before Dave delivered the long inevitable kill…
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