We've passed the halfway point of the championships now, so competition for the final places is heating up.
Team Sprog
David continued his fightback from his earlier loss with a fine victory over 179 graded Ifan Rathbone-Jones. That now puts him up to 3/4 with 4 rounds remaining, so hopes for the title are certainly well and truly alive.
Team PAYE
A slightly drab day for me this one, with two draws; both games in which I was pressing for large sections of the game, and apparently had wins which I failed to spot. However, given that one of them involved letting my opponent queen and then giving checkmate with a pawn, I don't feel too bad about not spotting that. I am, however, rather less impressed that my reward for only being on 50% after 5 rounds is a game against an FM - life can be cruel.
Andy also had a day to forget, blundering a tactic in a level position to end his run of fine form. It was left up to Ben therefore to keep the team on track which he duly did, a win in the morning followed up with a draw against the brother of a player I had already drawn against earlier this week. Clearly a family prone to playing unexciting chess.
Team Charlemagne
Roy recovered from yesterday's two defeats with two victories today, though both against players rated considerably lower than himself, so it was only to be expected. Mark was deeply distressed at missing an opportunity to gain a positionally crushing advantage early in his game, when the opportunity arose and was squandered to leave his opponent with a queen on d1, knight on b1 and rook on a1 all trapped and unable to develop. It didn't change the result in the end though, with a double rook endgame proving slightly advantageous for Mark, mainly due to both his rooks being on the seventh rank. A clean sweep has completed by Bernard, who also ground his opponent down in a long game to make it 4/4 for the team today.
Team Eclectic
A day to forget for this grouping today. David Howell failed to win, Brice failed to draw, and so better things are needed going forwards, even if my appalling form means competition for bottom place in the table is likely to be intense.
Current standings:
Team Sprog: 75% (12/16)
Team PAYE: 58% (10.5/18)
Team Charlemagne: 62% (10.5/17)
Team Eclectic: 47% (9/19)
Team Sprog
David continued his fightback from his earlier loss with a fine victory over 179 graded Ifan Rathbone-Jones. That now puts him up to 3/4 with 4 rounds remaining, so hopes for the title are certainly well and truly alive.
Team PAYE
A slightly drab day for me this one, with two draws; both games in which I was pressing for large sections of the game, and apparently had wins which I failed to spot. However, given that one of them involved letting my opponent queen and then giving checkmate with a pawn, I don't feel too bad about not spotting that. I am, however, rather less impressed that my reward for only being on 50% after 5 rounds is a game against an FM - life can be cruel.
Andy also had a day to forget, blundering a tactic in a level position to end his run of fine form. It was left up to Ben therefore to keep the team on track which he duly did, a win in the morning followed up with a draw against the brother of a player I had already drawn against earlier this week. Clearly a family prone to playing unexciting chess.
Team Charlemagne
Roy recovered from yesterday's two defeats with two victories today, though both against players rated considerably lower than himself, so it was only to be expected. Mark was deeply distressed at missing an opportunity to gain a positionally crushing advantage early in his game, when the opportunity arose and was squandered to leave his opponent with a queen on d1, knight on b1 and rook on a1 all trapped and unable to develop. It didn't change the result in the end though, with a double rook endgame proving slightly advantageous for Mark, mainly due to both his rooks being on the seventh rank. A clean sweep has completed by Bernard, who also ground his opponent down in a long game to make it 4/4 for the team today.
Team Eclectic
A day to forget for this grouping today. David Howell failed to win, Brice failed to draw, and so better things are needed going forwards, even if my appalling form means competition for bottom place in the table is likely to be intense.
Current standings:
Team Sprog: 75% (12/16)
Team PAYE: 58% (10.5/18)
Team Charlemagne: 62% (10.5/17)
Team Eclectic: 47% (9/19)
A slightly strange position to share from one of my games today. Even if the whole game isn't interesting enough to be worthy of repeating, and it essentially looks like someone has just heard a set of pieces randomly at the board, I do always enjoy positions where both sides manage to have passed pawns on the same file. I'm sure we all know the famous Tarrasch quote:
"In complicated rook endings the most important rule is one paid down by the author: The Rook's place is behind the passed pawn; behind the enemy pawn in order to hold it up, behind one's own in order to support its advance."
If he was around today I would be showing him to position below and pointing out the sheer impossibility of following that rule in this situation.
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