David vs Goliath?
Leam Lane Bullets 1½ – 3½ Forest Hall Ensigns (Tuesday November 7, 2017)
Match report by Ian Rook (Captain of Forest Hall Ensigns)
I’m not sure what I was looking forward to least, finding the venue through the rabbit warren of side streets (even if I was following Simon McIntosh!) or the imposing grades of our opposition, but as it turned out I needn’t have worried about either!
We were out-graded on all 5 boards, but my Baldrick inspired cunning plan worked a treat when I put the ‘D’ teams’ 4/4 Rolf Millar on top board, so that Jamie McIntosh and myself could each play a board lower. Praise be to the league’s rules, that because Rolf was less than 15 grading points behind myself and Jamie, I could carry out my theory.
Rolf played an absolute blinder, completely outplaying Jason Daglish. He was already Queen for Rook up and when he was about to win another piece, resignation arrived with 40 minutes still left on Rolf’s clock against Jason’s 2.
Jamie played a terrific end game with David Stewardson, which to my naïve eye seemed a dead duck draw, but a second inspired victory was winging its way to the underdogs.
Kuba won his first game for Forest Hall against Clive Briggs and was on top from very early on. It would have been just a matter of time but a blunder from Clive handed Kuba mate on the move. But hey, it’s always a great feeling gaining that important first victory no matter how it arrives!
Sadly, Ryan was outplayed from early on by a strong player in Robert Forsythe, who was the only Leam Lane player to show his true strength, and I managed (though I say so myself) an excellent draw against Alan Young. Dropping a pawn in the middle game, I clung on and managed to manoeuvre to a N+2P vs B+3P ending. I offered him a draw but it was brushed aside with a firm ‘No’ and a smile, but on his very next move Alan captured a pawn with his King, I recaptured one of his with my Knight and I knew he’d blundered away a tricky win as he couldn’t prevent me giving up my Knight for his last 2 pawns. So a 3.5 – 1.5 win was wrapped up.
A really terrific evening’s chess from the ‘E’ team and to be honest, it was a deserved win as we played out of our skins. A better victory will be very hard to find this season.
Leam Lane Bullets 1½ – 3½ Forest Hall Ensigns
Jason Daglish (147) 0-1 Rolf Millar (114)
Alan Young (144) ½-½ Ian Rook (128)
David Stewardson (134) 0-1 Jamie Mcintosh (122)
Robert Forsythe (127) 1-0 Ryan Duff (U)
Cllive Briggs (86) 0-1 Kuba Jacvbowicz (U)
Jamie McIntosh v David Stewardson (ending)
[ctpgn id=fen fen=”8/8/2Kp4/3Pp1k1/4PpN1/5Pbp/8/8 w – – 0 1″] 1…h2 {( if 1…Be1 2.Nh2 Bb4 3.Kb5 Bc5 4.Kc6 Kh4 5.Nf1 h2 6.Nxh2 Kg3 and black wins)} 2.Nxh2 Bxh2 3.Kxd6 Kf6 4.Kc6 Bg1 {(if 4…Bg3 5.d6 Be1 6.Kd5 Bb4 7.d7 Ke7 8.d8=Q+ Kxd8 9.Kxe5 and the game is drawn)} 5.d6 Ke6 6.d7 Bb6 7.Kxb6 Kxd7 8.Kc5 Ke6 9.Kc6 1-0 [/ctpgn]
Alan Young v Ian Rook
[ctpgn] [Event “Leam Lane Bullets v Forest Hall E”] [Site “?”] [Date “2017.11.08”] [Round “3”] [White “Alan Young”] [Black “Ian Rook”] [Result “1/2-1/2”] [ECO “C24”] [EventDate “2017.11.07”] 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 Be7 4.Nf3 d6 5.c3 O-O 6.Bb3 Be6 7.Bc2 h6 8.Nbd2 Nbd7 9.Nf1 d5 10.Qe2 dxe4 11.dxe4 Bd6 12.Ng3 Re8 13.O-O Nf8 14.h3 Ng6 15.Rd1 Qc8 16.Nf5 Bxf5 17.exf5 Nf4 18.Bxf4 exf4 19.Qc4 Nd7 20.Bb3 Re7 21.Re1 Nb6 22.Qd3 Rxe1+ 23.Rxe1 Qf8 24.Re4 Re8 25.Qe2 Rxe4 26.Qxe4 c6 27.Ne5 Bxe5 28.Qxe5 Nd7 29.Qxf4 Qe7 30.Qd2 Nf6 31.Kf1 Kf8 32.Qe3 Ne4 33.Bc2 Nc5 34.Qxe7+ Kxe7 35.Ke2 Kf6 36.f4 Na6 37.b4 Nc7 38.c4 b5 39.cxb5 cxb5 40.Be4 Ne8 41.Bc6 Nd6 42.g4 h5 43.a4 bxa4 44.Bxa4 hxg4 45.hxg4 g6 46.fxg6 fxg6 47.Kd3 g5 48.f5 Nf7 49.Kd4 Ne5 50.Bd1 Nd7 51.Kd5 Nb6+ 52.Kc6 Ke7 53.Kb7 Nd5 54.Kxa7 Nxb4 55.Kb6 Nd5+ 56.Kc5 Ne3 57.Bf3 Kf6 58.Kd6 Nxf5+ 1/2-1/2 [/ctpgn]