Captain’s Report
|
Board |
Colour |
|
Score |
Surbiton
A |
Score |
|
1 |
B |
Tim Seymour |
0.5 |
Chris Briscoe |
0.5 |
|
2 |
W |
Paul McKeown |
0 |
Nick Pelling |
1 |
|
3 |
B |
Colum Jezerierski |
0 |
Edgar Flacker |
1 |
|
4 |
W |
Derek McGovern |
0 |
Paul Shepherd |
1 |
|
5 |
B |
Michael Jackson |
0 |
Ian Henderson |
1 |
|
6 |
W |
Julian Doddimead |
0 |
Angus James |
1 |
|
7 |
B |
Martin Conlon |
0 |
Heiko Cassens |
1 |
|
8 |
W |
George Lucas |
0.5 |
Malcolm Groom |
0.5 |
Well that is one way of curing the away day
blues! Our first away win of the season turned out to be emphatic. This despite
On Board 1 Chris came up against some solid
play by Tim. Chris ended up with quite a messed up pawn structure in the middle
of the board and it seemed like he might be drifting into a difficult position.
At the vital moment he picked up his rook, placed it emphatically on b1, eyeing
Tim’s queenside and offered a draw. Tim agreed. Well done, Chris.
Board 2 was a classic Nick Pelling
game. He trotted out an unconventional opening and soon Paul made an inaccuracy
that cost not only a pawn but also, more importantly, control over the dark
squares. Nick ratcheted up the pressure and Paul’s position got more and more
passive until they reached this position:
Paul resigned here in
the process of moving 29.Bh3-g2, which loses to 29…h3. Is this one of the worst
bishops of all time? Certainly the bishop is not helped by the fact that
White’s set-up would not be out of place on a draughts board!
After the game Nick was showing his scoresheet to Heiko when Paul
came up to them, grabbed the scoresheet, screwed it
up and threw it into the corner of the room. Our suggestion would be to make it
into a paper plane next time as it will fly further. Hence this game will enter
Surbiton legend as the “Origami Game of Doom”! Well played Nick!
Board 3 saw a rather more conventional game as
Edgar got on top of Colum in a highly theoretical
line. With King’s castled on opposite wings the speed of attack is everything
and an inaccuracy by Colum allowed Edgar to seize the
initiative and strip away the Black king’s defences. Well played Edgar!
My game on Board 4 was a somewhat lower quality
affair. After making some inaccuracies in the opening I faced the prospect of a
stinging attack on my king if I castled short or some murky complications if I
castled long. Long it was and the game was balanced until I made an absolute
howler which allowed Derek to win a piece for a couple of pawns. After that I went
into total hack mode and got very lucky when Derek repaid the complement and
allowed me to get the piece back. My resultant two pawn advantage became three
in the time scramble and so I got a rather undeserved win.
Board 5 saw Ian forced on to the defensive by
Michael after Michael’s pawn sacrifice that gave him some nice open lines to
attack on the queenside. Ian hung on in there and eventually out calculated
Michael such that he ended up with an unstoppable c-pawn in the ending. Well
fought Ian!
On Board 6 Angus established and early
advantage in the centre and soon found himself two pawns to the good. Angus
made no mistake. Well played Angus!
Board 7 was actually the first to finish. While
I was still trying to remember anything about my new opening Heiko had managed to conclude his game. Basically it was
not long before Martin seemed obliged to shed material. When it got to the
point when he was looking at greater than a rook deficit he called it a day.
Well played Heiko!
Malcolm provided some weird entertainment on
Board 8. Having established an overwhelming position early on he seemed
determined to eschew the easy wins in favour of keeping us on the edge of our
seats. Still with bishop and three vs knight and one
it seemed he was heading to a comfortable victory until….he dropped his passed
pawn for nothing! After that it may well have been a theoretical draw. In any
case, draw it ended up being. Unlucky Malcolm.
Paul Shepherd