Sheffield Woodseats Chess Club

A strangely lack lustre performance at a venue quite unsuitable for chess saw the C Team crash to their first defeat of the season in Barnsley.  Woodseats, with Gleb travelling as a mascot, were bolstered by the debut of Shane and sat down similalry graded to the home team. We had travelled with realistic hopes of victory but plans went array from the moment of our arrival.  No home players were in the building which was frequented by a bar full of abusive regulars who insisted, that 'there was no chess on Thursdays'.  (And almost, 'did we want to fight about it?')  The home team arrived in dribs and drabs as the start-time passed. Boards were set up and moved back and forth from the snooker room to an open alcove beside the main bar.  Ironically their captain encouraged me to 'get started quickly' as one of their team wanted to leave early.  Laughable when we were ready to play at 7.25 but none of them were there! When we had settled down all that protected us from the blare of the wide screen TV were the drunken shouts and laughs of the chess despising regulars at the bar.  Shane, playing nearest to the horde, got the greatest abuse partly because he was nearest and partly because he had a flask; but everybody's play was effected.  I found myself following the screamed arguments from a particularly vicious episode of Emmerdale far more closely than I traced the themes from my own game.  I was struggling too much to take much note of how the other games were developing.  Dave was making lots of uncomfortable noises but I couldn't tell if this was a reaction to events on his board or in the soap opera.   My own game epitomised much of the match.  I began in an unfamiliar setting with Black, - something called the Blackmar Deimer Gambit, I believe, - seemed ok for a while, better even, but my brain never really engaged and my thoughts were swept away in the maelstrom distracted ideas.  Apart from Shane, who methodically and chancelessly overcame very little opposition to finish first and Chern who once again seemed to play relatively flawlessly, we all struggled.  George was unable to transform a pawn on the 7th into a winning advantage.  He later critised himself for not playing more aggressively and took a draw. Srini and I lost, neither of us had ever been able to establish a comfortable position, and when Dave joined the list of defeated the match was over so that Chern's generous acceptance of a draw offer when a pawn up could not have altered the result.  Credit to Shane and our hosts for dealing with the conditions better than the rest of us - they played the better games.  Whilst they apologised and it was the same for both sides this was no way to play chess.  An unsatisfactory night for us all but we return to the sanctuary of home soil in 10 days for the visit of SASCA.

Jon