This weekend the A team went on tour! First stop was Rotherham (more particularly Rotherham Juniors). We avoided Rotherham's opening gambits. The team was practically up to full strength, bearing in mind it was a Friday night, and we managed to get everybody there more or less on time. Nobody got lost.
John Fletcher was the first out of the blocks, with a very quick win with his beloved Backmar-Diemer Gambit. How many games has he won with it? Alan Coupe, his victim, obviously doesn't frequent Youtube enough: see this http://youtu.be/srGcegnDqz0. Shane soon followed with a good win against a young dangerous opponent. He told me that the opening played was the result of deep, Bulgarian analysis! Paul Blackman brought out the antique and raely seen Evans' Gambit against John Trafford. John remained calm as always, worked it out over the board and a draw was agreed when the play was balanced.
I was playing an opponent who had a cold and who, as far as I could see, wanted a draw. I got to a position in which he had an isolated Queen's pawn but I didn't have enough pieces left to exploit it. At least that's my story!
Everything seemed very comfortable at this stage. George Harriott, playing very well against Claes Hackner had an overwhelming position and seemed to be winning comfortably. However it was here that the Friday Night Gambit finally kicked in. George was obviously tired, made a mistake and his Queen was gone. George resigned soon after in his usual gentlemanly fashion. I think if he had played on, he would have still given his opponent a scare!
Roundabout this time, Chern won a fine attacking game. He had played aggressively, in something that ressembled the anti-Moscow Gambit. Eventually he won on time in a good position and there were a lot of Woodseats thought waves floating around the room, willing him to look at his opponent's clock!
So it was down to Paul and Andrew on boards 1 and 2. Paul was playing one of the raising stars of Sheffield Chess, Oskar Hackner. See Oskar's recent, spectacular win on the Sheffield Asssociation website: http://www.sheffieldanddistrictchess.org.uk/. Much to his credit, Paul attacked vigorously. However in the process, he dropped a pawn and then the exchange. Oskar didn't let him off the hook. On Board One, Andrew was playing Peter Shaw. The opening was a semi-slav and according to Andrew in the car on the way back home, he didn't play it quite right. Well, it looked OK from where we were standing and towards the end of the game his opponent seemed a bit like a rabbit in the headlights. I think a lot of Andrew's opponents have that feeling.
Then it was on to Worksop on Monday. The team was different but still strong. Allan was on board one against Jonathan Tait and Mark Allison and Bill were welcome additions. Cunningly, Worksop had changed venue but we found them in the end and play eventually commenced. My opponent was very worried that the lighting on our board wasn't good enough. Was he pretending to be Bobby Fischer?
If I, at my age, could see the board...Anyway he banged down ten moves of a Naijdorf Sicilian, with which I wasn't very familar , although I've been playing both sides of that opening since I was sixteen. He slowed down a lot after move ten and I ended up in a nice endgame in which I had an extra pawn. Meanwhile we had moved to another table because of my opponent's unhappiness with the light. His pieces were Black, I suppose. It ended up in a draw. Back to Reuben Fine's Basic Chess Endings for me!
Bill and Phill Beckett played very symmetrically and agreed a draw when one of them had to deviate from playing the same move! Shane was next to contribute. He played very well with the Black pieces and agreed a draw in a basically level position. All was going well and peacefully and I was thinking that we take them by surprise towards the end of the evening, when suddenly Chern lost. Something to do with the Chinese New Year. He should have played the Sicilian dragon! Then Mark who had been doing well, unfortunately, dropped a piece. John Trafford pulled things back by steadily outplaying his strong opponent, Chris Chambers. John hasn't lost for a year now. I think he deserves a special award.
Again it was down to the last two men standing - Paul Fletcher and Allan Potts. Allan was very much in command of the position-rooks and queen tripled on the 'a' file. With something of a flourish, he offered a queen sacrifice. Jonathan Tait looked at it for a very long time...and resigned soon after. Turns out it should have been a draw...
Paul had Black against a very strong opponent, Jim Burnett, who's played something like sixty gradeable games this year and beaten a GM in a rapid play tournament. Paul defended a difficult position for a very long time, with, as far as I could see, a great deal of ingenuity. However pressure of the clock and position told in the long run. So, we lost by the smallest possible margin - one point! We can do better. Next stop Rotherham...again.
