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Club Championship – Final (10th June 2008)
The
John Dalton Trophy has been won by Paul Byway! Congratulations Paul and well
done Simon for getting to the final.
The Final was played last night (10/6/08) and was a hard fought game from
what I heard.
I have put an order in for the trophy (over a month ago) but am still waiting
for it. I plan to present it to Paul at our AGM in September.
Thanks all for contributing to an enjoyable and successful tournament. See
attachment for complete results. Also, let me know if you would like to play
in the competition again next year. I may change the format a little as we
were all pushed to complete the games.
Phil Borman
Club Championship – Semi-Final
We
have finally reached the final stage in the internal HCC John Dalton Trophy
The two semi-finals couldn't have been more different. Simon beat Barry with
black in a blood-fest - good contender for game of the season.
Paul and Phil had a war of attrition with the first two standard games being
drawn (over sixty moves played in both). Both missed chances with the white
pieces. Rapid play games were then used on another evening to decide the
encounter. Again Phil came close to winning with the white pieces but
ended up drawing in the first (30mins) play-off. Paul then proceeded to
win the fourth game (20mins rapid play this time) and booked his place in the
final after a grueling 4 game series with well over 200 moves being played!
I expect Paul and Simon will be playing on w/c 9th June as both will be
playing in the Russell final next week. Good luck both in the final!
If I don't hear from anyone in the next few days then I'll assume the cross
tables from the two leagues are now complete with the last few remaining
games left unfinished.
Match reports by Phil Borman.
Watford 1 v Hertford 1 (15th
April 2008)
Our worst
performance of the season so far... Nobody really looked like winning at any
stage. Simon had a space advantage but his opponent managed to force a
perpetual. Stephen played an unorthodox queen exchange combination out of the
opening which lead to his opponent having more space. Holland eventually
created a central passed pawn which proved too strong however the game went
right down to the wire in a blitz finish. Alan and Jerry agreed peace early
on. Phil equalized comfortably playing black and had the better of the
middlegame but never managed to get quite enough to win. Simon playing in his
usual cavalier style reached a very double edged position with kings castled
on opposite wings. Unfortunately his opponent got in first...
Not to worry
as this match didn't matter. Lets make sure we beat Watford in the Russell
for the third year running!
Watford 1
Hertford 1
Board 1 :
Stone, Andrew M (196)
1/2 Knott, Simon JB
(213)
Board 2 :
Holland, Edward N (184) 1-0
Swanson, Stephen (204)
Board 3 :
Rudge, Jerry F
(179) 1/2 Hanreck, Alan
(196)
Board 4 : Sayers,
Ray
(174) 1/2 Borman, Philip J
(173)
Board 5 :
Lancaster, Roger (156)
1-0 Morris, Simon P
(130)
3.5 - 1.5
Hertford
1 v Hemel 1 (25th March 2008)
Simon and
Stephen did the business in this match. Alan was slightly better at
adjournment but agreed the draw. Phil's position is bad with slim chances of
drawing due to opposite coloured bishops. Paul is probably winning his adjudicated
position so looking like a 3.5 - 1.5 victory.
Hertford 1
H
Hempstead 1
Board 1 :
Knott, Simon JB
(213) 1-0 Bonafont, Philip R
(177)
Board 2 : Swanson,
Stephen (204) 1-0
Tebbs, Howard
(ug)
Board 3 :
Hanreck, Alan
(196) 1/2 Lambourne, Dan
(170)
Board 4 :
Byway, Paul V
(171) A-A Whayman, Peter
(170)
Board 5 :
Borman, Philip J
(173) P-P Law, Stephen
(157)
2.5 - 0.5
Match reports by Phil Borman.
Welwyn 1 v Hertford 1 (4th
March 2008)
A comfortable win with Simon, Stephen and Paul all winning. I had a scare
against the 'evergreen' Wali and drew a game I should have really lost.
Gordon has a dodgy looking adjournment so probably looking like 3.5 - 1.5.
Gordon duly resigned his game.
WelwynHatfield CF
1
Hertford 1
Board 1 : Milovanovic, Aleksander
204 0-1 Knott, Simon
JB
213
Board 2 : Gordonsmith, Roger
H 143
0-1 Swanson,
Stephen 204
Board 3 : Fisher,
Jim
126 0-1 Byway, Paul
V
171
Board 4 : Wali, Mir
M
117 1/2 Borman,
Philip J
173
Board 5 : White,
David
115 P-P Davies,
Gordon 149
Match Score
:
1.5 - 3.5
Match reports by Phil Borman.
Hertford
1 v Barnet 1 (19th Feb 2008)
Paul and Brian secured early
draws. Stephen was involved in a complex tussle but then agreed a draw as
both Simon and Phil looked better in their games. Simon playing black played
a nice middlegame where he created a strong knight outpost which dominated
his opponent's bishop. As the time control approached Simon applied the
pressure and his opponent's position eventually fell apart with Simon winning
a whole rook with a neat combination. Meanwhile Phil had just won a pawn but
with the match safe agreed a draw.
Hertford
1
Barnet Elzs 1
Board 1 : Knott, Simon
JB
213 1-0 Ethelontis, Alexandros
N 186
Board 2 : Swanson,
Stephen
204 1/2 Gavriel, Tryfon
C
185
Board 3 : Byway, Paul
V 171 1/2 Royce, Roy
M
169
Board 4 : Borman, Philip
J
173 1/2 Hotham,
David
153
Board 5 : Judkins, Brian
D
138 1/2 Jones, Michael
N
119
Match Score
:
3-2
Match report by Duncan Marshall
Hertford 4 v Hertford 3 (12th Feb
2008)
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Hertford 4
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12-02-08
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Hertford 3
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Players
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Grade
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Result
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Players
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Grade
|
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Bruce Toper
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120
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½ - ½
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Simon Morris
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130
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Nick Wooster
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119
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1 – 0
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Rudd Dave
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134
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Duncan Marshall
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96
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1 – 0
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Andrew Du Boulay
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134
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Allan Hutton
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103
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0 - 1
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Alan Riddoch
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125
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Steve Zsibrita
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100
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½ - ½
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Dave Green
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100
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3 - 2
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Naseby. The reprise. The Hertford 4 band of brothers pitting
their wits against the haughty Hertford 3 players who looked down their noses
at their poorer cousins in the club.
Oh how they mocked! Oh how they
huffed and puffed. Oh how they poured scorn on our lowly grades … (actually
they did nothing of the sort, but it makes for a better story…) and then came
the chess!
Allan
Hutton contrived to be a pawn down early on and this continued throughout the
game. His threats came to nowt and
with pieces rapidly disappearing from the board Alan Riddoch calmly converted
his advantage.
Duncan
just made the time-control, with a move that caused much comment, - and
Andrew’s resignation. The blinding
obvious move (37 .… Qg1+, - see diagram) was enough to blind Duncan and Qxh3
was played. The spectators concluded
that this was weak and that 38. Kxp leaves white with good chances “After
the game I felt sorely embarrassed at this but at the time I saw a
non-existent way out for Andrew’s king.
Probably explains a lot of my defeats…”. But none of those spectators (including
Duncan) saw the obvious 38 …..Qh2, - picking up the white queen. “I didn’t see that until later and was
just expecting to get another pawn and leave Andrew with a stranded king.” What is the legal limit on question marks
in chess annotation? Maybe it should
be extended in this case.
Marshall
– du Boulay. After white move 37. Rf5
After
Andrew’s premature (?) resignation, Duncan, “confused by being on this end
of a glorious win” looked across and saw Dave Rudd’s king squared up to
Nick’s rook, with no place to go, and asked “what happened?” Silly question. But here’s the answer…
“A night of (or
should that be a Knight of?) comebacks. Basically I played the white side of
a Nimzo-Indian very badly, ended up a pawn down and with the roof of the
world about to cave in was left to clutch at straws. However, those straws
were stronger than either of us imagined as Dave sent his king the wrong way
after a rook check on the open e-file and into, first the loss of a knight
and then worse, straight into mate. Was he suffering under time pressure or
was he distracted by Charlton's thrilling 0-0 at Sheff Wednesday and Andy
Gray's (current value ca. £1.1M and falling) failure to score once again?, or
Burnley's great 4-2 win at QPR after being 2-0 down...we're behind you!
Anyway if the 3rds
get relegated maybe we can sell them some players!”
Bruce
and Steve went to adjournment but in both games a draw was agreed.
Match reports by Phil Borman.
Hertford
1 v Royston 1 (5th Feb 2008)
A top of the
table clash. 5 hard fought games were played. 2 games finished on the night.
Paul got a good position out of the opening and appeared to be cruising until
he went wrong in the late middlegame. Phil reached a dubious defensive
position but defended well and eventually won two pieces and the game. Barry
blundered a pawn early on and faces a tricky ending with some drawing
chances. Simon appears to have a good initiative for a pawn and Stephen has
bishop and 2 pawns for rook in an interesting endgame with queens on the
board. So, all to play for with all three results still possible.
Hertford 1
Royston 1
Board 1 :
Simon Knott (213)
adj
Lorin D'Costa (228)
Board 2 :
Stephen Swanson (204) adj
Kevin Clark (193)
Board 3 :
Paul Byway (171)
0-1
Norman Hutchinson (172)
Board 4 :
Philip Borman (173) 1-0
Paul Kemp (176)
Board 5 :
Barry Cheal (162)
adj
Peter Rice, (157)
Match
Score :
1 - 1
Hertford
1 v Watford 2 (22nd Jan 2008)
Won the
whites. Drew the blacks. Gordon and Paul both played solid Sicilian defences
getting comfortable positions. Gordon agreed to a draw early on and then Paul
followed suit as his game simplified down to a drawish late middlegame/endgame
position. Phil had a positional edge throughout his game following his
opponent delaying queenside development. Despite Morris sacrificing a pawn in
attempt to free his game, Phil managed to force mate down the back rank.
Stephen was next to finish in what was an unusual tactical affair (no
grinding this time!). In a complex position, Stephen prevailed as Boyce ran
short of time. Simon beat off what looked like a dangerous white initiative
and has a very slight edge in a knight endgame - probably drawn. So looking
like 3.5 - 1.5.
Hertford 1
Watford 2
Board 1 : Simon Knott (213) adj Hamza
Syed (ug)
Board 2 :
Stephen Swanson (204) 1-0
Mike Boyce (158)
Board 3 :
Paul Byway (171) draw
Roger Lancaster (156)
Board 4 :
Philip Borman (173) 1-0
Barry Morris(153)
Board 5 :
Gordon Davies (149) draw
Antony Hall (145)
3-1
H
Hempstead 1 v Hertford 1 (14th Jan 2008)
Hertford
1 romp it against bogey team
4-0 on the night
and looking like 5-0 as Stephen has a clear edge in his game. We have finally
managed to beat Hemel convincingly (we have slipped up against them
repeatedly over the past few years). However the score probably flattered us
a bit. Simon was in control for much of his game playing a very complex
looking middlegame extremely well. Paul defended well as black and appeared
to be maybe slightly better; next time I looked at his position his opponent
had allowed one of his rooks to be forked and so he duly resigned. Phil
played the opening badly allowing his opponent to win the bishop pair and
build a mighty centre - however as time pressure loomed his opponent went for
a misguided kingside attack which backfired. Barry was under a lot of
pressure out of the opening with his opponent appearing to have a nice attack
with the bishop pair. Barry defended really well and was just getting on top
when his opponent's flag fell. Stephen meanwhile was grinding it out as usual
and at the time control had a nice endgame position where he has all the
winning chances. Tebbs duly resigned the morning after so our first clean
sweep of the season...
H Hempstead 1
Hertford 1
Board 1:
Philip Bonafont (177) 0-1 Simon Knott (213)
Board 2:
Howard Tebbs, (180)
0-1 Stephen Swanson
(204)
Board 3:
Peter Whayman (170) 0-1 Paul Byway (171)
Board 4: Dan
Lambourne (170) 0-1 Philip Borman (173)
Board 5:
Matthew Simmons(163) 0-1 Barry Cheal (162)
0-5
Match reports by Duncan Marshall.
Hertford
3 v Hertford 4 (8th Jan 2008)
Win
for H4!
Praise be! It was Naseby for the
toffs of Hertford 3 as they were roundly routed by the massed ranks of
Hertford 4 in an eagerly contested mid-table clash. Hertford 4 marched
into the fray with heads held high as they arrived at the away venue before
their hosts. But neither the doom laden venue of Hertford 3 nor the
expected outcome was ever going to intimidate us.
In true fashion, the first to get stuck
in, and out, were the juniors, - thrashing out the moves in a truly cavalier
fashion. However, with few mistakes on offer it petered out to
stalemate early on (preparing for the glorious day when ‘an early finish =
more pints’, perhaps?).
Next to finish were Duncan and Dave.
Duncan: “I didn’t accept Dave’s
Blackmar-Diemer gambit on move 2 chiefly because I didn’t notice the pawn was
up for grabs! Fortunately really, because after years of accepting
dodgy pawns I still haven’t learned. So we ended up playing a kind of
fantasy Karo-Can with a peculiar move order and after about 10 moves I
decided that I had genuinely won a pawn and then discovered that it was the
same poisonous creature that had been offered earlier. So, - lots of
defending to do and not enough development. Eventually Dave regained
his pawn but then couldn’t find anything to do with his pieces other than a
perpetual check and we agreed a draw.
With draws agreed on boards 4 and 5, the
top three continued their skirmish until half an hour before adjournment,
when Steve (Hertford 4) and Andrew (Hertford 3) almost simultaneously
blundered pieces. With Allan looking to be under pressure, it was nail
biting stuff for Hertford 4, but then after another 10 minutes of play and
still a rook down, Steve mated his opponent mid board!!! It was
difficult to tell who was most embarrassed by the way the game had
gone. So, 1 – 2 in favour of Hertford 4, and as Nick didn’t make any
mistakes following his opponent’s blunder, Hertford 4 won the match.
The Hertford 3 captain remained calm and dignified, despite his defeat, his
team’s defeat and the ignominy of having to endure his young board 5 protégé
telling him where it all went wrong!
Nick: “Following on from the weekend of cup shocks this
was all set up as a rerun of the Clarets vs. Arsenal, but this time
Lafferty's header went in instead of crashing back off the bar and no
jack-shit, bent as an eight quid note referee to mess things up!
Ok so I am exaggerating the gap in standard this time, but
nonetheless still a tough game for us. In all honesty I didn't see the other
games, so intensely was I concentrating on my own and the first I saw was
when our captain pointed out we had two draws from the bottom two boards.
My game went as follows, Andrew countering my Queens
gambit with a Slav defence, giving a solid position for both players. I was
happy with my position but the thorn in my side was his light coloured
bishop which was dominant, but with threats against his queenside he offered
me a queen exchange which I thought I was obliged to follow, total collapse
being the alternative. With the queens off I advanced down the kingside, so
he castled queenside, by his own admission a mistake, but not a fatal one. I
pressed again down the queenside but could see nothing more than a draw and
so offered such, but was turned down (his second mistake?). As things started
to open up I retreated to defend my back rank and found his weakness, an
isolated pawn, was now a strength, a passed pawn! Just when it looked like I
would be slowly roasted by the advance of this pawn he blundered allowing me
to win a piece.
The rest was technique, although I was still uncomfortable
with the pawn and his strong bishop in the centre, but eventually managed to
neutralise them and record another win against a higher graded opponent.
A good game but with a few errors, fortunately most of
them were not mine!”
The remaining match went to
adjournment. Allan had spent most of the game on his back foot but
hadn’t succumbed and could still hope for a draw.
And how is the middle of the table
looking following this internecine affair?
Hertford
3
Hertford 4
Board 1 :
Andrew du Boulay (134) 0/1
Nick Wooster (119)
Board 2 : Dave Rudd (134)
1/2 Allan Hutton (103)
Board 3 : Alan Riddoch (125)
0/1 Steve Zsibrita (100)
Board 4 : Dave Green (100) 1/2 Duncan
Marshall (96)
Board 5 : Michael du Boulay (u)
1/2 Matthew Worby (u)
Match Score :
1.5 - 3.5
Match reports by Phil Borman.
Hertford
1 v Welwyn 1 (27th Nov 2007)
Hertford are comfortably
winning against Welwyn. Simon had slightly better of the draw with what
looked like a strong passed pawn at one stage. Stephen defended well to draw
an opposite coloured bishops middlegame/ending. Alan, in his first outing of
the year, won a solid pawn and is clearly better in his adjourned position.
Paul won bishop and knight for rook and duly converted. I have a positional
advantage which I'm hoping to convert. So looking like a 3.5-1.5 or 4-1
victory...
Hertford 1
WelwynHatfield CF 1
Board 1 :
Knott, Simon JB 1/2
Savage, Ben DM
Board 2 :
Swanson, Stephen 1/2
Milovanovic, Aleksander
Board 3 :
Hanreck, Alan
adj Faulkner, David J
Board 4 :
Byway, Paul V
1-0 Gordonsmith, Roger H
Board 5 :
Borman, Philip J adj
Read, Matthew
Match Score :
2-1
Hertford
1 draw with Watford 1 (13th Nov 2007)
We were
1.5-0.5 down on the night after Simon lost to Venkat and Paul drew a tight
game with Jerry. Barry adjourned a solid pawn up and Stephen looked like he
still had winning chances. As for my game I should have resigned after 15
moves when I blundered horribly. Despite being a knight and three pawns down
at one stage I fought back to adjourn in a slightly less horrible position
where I was 'only' two passed pawns down...So looking like a drawn match
would be the best possible result we could hope for.
The three
adjournments were played on the same night however Barry and Stephen were
playing at Hertford and I was playing on in Watford. Barry duly did the
business and converted his pawn advantage into a win. Stephen pushed too hard
for the win, eschewed a three fold position and ended up losing.
Unfortunately Stephen wasn't to know that a draw would have been enough for
Hertford to have won the match because... in an incredible turnaround I
managed to checkmate my opponent after staring down the barrel of defeat for
over 50 moves. Shameless stuff I'm afraid but the morale of the story is to
never give up. Truly 'Barry Houdini' material.
Hertford 1
Watford
1
Board 1 : Knott,
Simon JB
0-1 Tiruchirapalli, Venkataramanan
Board 2 :
Swanson, Stephen
0-1 Stone, Andrew M
Board 3 :
Byway, Paul V draw
Rudge, Jerry F
Board 4 :
Borman, Philip J 1-0
Syed, Hamza R
Board 5 :
Cheal, Barry A 1-0
Boyce, Mike A
Match
Score :
2.5 - 2.5
Match report by Phil Borman. Barnet 1 v Hertford 1 (Division 1) (22 October 2007)
Reserves
Simon Morris and Gordon Davies play a blinder!
A
great night for our two reserve players made it an enjoyable trip back from
Barnet for the match captain who travelled up with Gordon and Simon M.
Phil was first to finish agreeing a draw in
a dubious looking position; after missing a few chances to apply the pressure
in the opening Phil got a knight stuck out on the queenside and was
probably about to lose a pawn when his opponent offered the draw.
Gordon played a smooth positional game
leaving his opponent with two bishops biting granite. After creating a
dominant knight outpost on e4 Gordon proceeded to trap and win his opponent's
queen in the centre of the board and then later won more material (a whole
rook) at the time control after which his opponent resigned.
Simon M got a lasting initiative out of the
opening after sacrificing a pawn putting his opponent under a lot of
pressure. Ben-Nathan defended well and managed to claw his way back to what
looked like a double-edged position; however he then played a bad blunder
which allowed Simon to win a piece and crash through.
Simon K appeared to have it all his own way
- having a dangerous attack on the kingside as well as wiping out all of
black's queenside pawns. Simon K won the exchange by promoting one of his
three queenside past pawns to a queen and in the adjourned position looks
completely winning.
Meanwhile Stephen was grinding it out again
and adjourned in a closed complex position – a draw has been agreed with the match
almost being decided so looking like a 4-1 victory...
Barnet 1
Hertford 1
1.A.
Ethelontis (Black) adj
(-/+) S. Knott
2.T.
Gavriel 0.5-0.5
S. Swanson
3.R.
Royce
0.5-0.5 P. Borman
4.P.
Zajicek
0-1 G. Davies
5.D.
Ben-nathan
0-1
S. Morris
1 - 3
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Match report by Phil Borman. Royston 1 v Hertford 1 (Division 1) (15 October 2007)
Not a great start to the season...
Phil and Gordon both agreed early draws
after quiet opening play. Barry got his typical Houdini position out of the
opening but this time could not turn around a nasty looking kingside attack.
After a desperate knight sacrifice by Barry, Kemp proceeded to force mate on
the kingside.
Simon got a promising looking position out
of the opening but with both players running short of time (last 20 moves
played in 10mins) Lorin managed to turn the position around and win a couple
of pawns and the game.
Meanwhile Stephen was grinding his way
against Morgan and at the time control appeared to have a slight advantage
with the more active pieces.
Royston 1
Hertford 1
1. Lorin D'Costa (Black) 1 - 0 Simon Knott
2. Ben Morgan
adj
Stephen Swanson
3. Kevin Clark 0.5-0.5 Phil Borman
4. Paul Kemp
1 - 0
Barry Cheal
5. Martin Pinner 0.5-0.5
Gordon Davies
3 - 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Match report by Simon Morris. Little Heath 2 v Hertford 3 (Division 4) (10 October 2007)
The match was played at Chris Cooks house, so I took my pipe and slippers and
made myself at home.
Dave Rudd played Michael Turner, a youngster rated 17 points below him. To
cut a long story short, Dave’s Sokolsky failed to achieve the desired result
and he found his king wandering around the back rank on about move 15. 0-1 to
Little Heath.
I played Barry David, the guy that played for Barnet last year. He is rated
13 points below me. I played the Scandinavian. This opening is proper poo. I
play the 2.Nf6 variation to try to confuse my opponent and only ever succeed
in confusing myself. Avoid this opening! I went down easy.
Alan Riddoch had white against another117 rated player. His opponent had a
knight on c6 and pinned Alan’s Nf3 with his light squared bishop, threatening
the d4 pawn. Alan was busy looking at my game, then looked back and played
h3?! His opponent took the knight, when Alan realised he had to take with the
g pawn to save his d pawn. Eeeeer?! And his queen side was already weakened,
so where’s the king going? He castled king side any way and won with ease.
1-2 to Little Heath.
I didn’t see much of Bruce’s game, but he won easily, winning his opponent’s
queen. Let’s hope this signals a return to winning ways for Bruce. 2-2.
Alan Hutton played on bottom board and was playing a youngster rated 78,
going on 178. In the adjourned position the material is level, but the
opinion is that he has a strategically won game so we could, possibly, win
the match.
Peter Morish sadly dies
Tim Thurstan has asked me to pass on the news that Peter Morish has died.
Peter used to bring his Tournament Chess Supplies bookstall to the Hitchin
Congress each year and to most of the local congresses. In the days before
the internet, computers and chess databases this was the main source of chess
material to the Herts players.
If anyone would like to know more they can contact
Tim Thurstan (tt-chamberlins@btconnect.com)
or
Tony Corfe, 51 Borough Way, Potters Bar, HERTS, EN6 3HA
Capel, Burn and Bunce
(U115) tournament - this weekend
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