Woodseats C Battle to Victory
Chess is very much a team sport with Woodseats C. In battle and after it feels like we win or lose together. It’s a great chess team we have in a great chess club and the fighting spirit was evident as we came back from the brink last night.
We found ourselves in no-mans-land and under heavy fire. Two-nil down and Chern looking like he was critically injured. However the four still playing all won to seal a remarkable turnaround.
With the opening moves out of the way I couldn’t see a clear advantage to any of the 12 players. Its always a relief to see that Bill has made 10 moves and is not more than one pawn down. It’s a relief to see Douglas make 10 moves and not be a queen down. And it’s a relief just to see Srini make 10 moves.
Chern’s games always move fast and I couldn’t recognise the opening when I took a first look at his board. When he showed us the game afterwards I still didn’t recognise the opening. It was weird. Chern (Black) massed a wall of centre pawns but left d6 and c7 as a playground for White’s knight and bishop. The result was that Chern lost a rook for bishop and his queen-side pieces could not be roused.
Douglas had sent his Queen on a premature foray into enemy territory. She had to be rescued and found her castle gone when she returned. Like Chern, Douglas battled back from an exchange down to equalise but then ‘forgot’ that he was due another 15 minutes and played frantically to finish the chess match within his first hour of allotted time! Not surprisingly he blundered and when he did get his additional time he had to resign.
Bill never felt comfortable. His position was fine. But just not Bill-like. He had an Italian set up but was blunted by a Maginot line of pawns and pieces on Black’s third rank. We looked at the game after and there were numerous continuations that gave White a clear advantage but, for once, these escaped our President and a stranded d-pawn became rather a prisoner of war and led to our second defeat.
At this stage a drawn match appeared reachable only by ceasefire. Then Dave emerged after 2 hours without lifting his head above the trenches to cleverly create unstoppable mating threats in what looked a drawn position. The swing continued when man of the match Chern trapped a White Bishop and executed a precise finish.
Srini had responded to a Nimzo with the Saemisch. He found an aggressive variation with an early e4 giving him a dominant hold on the centre and well placed bishops ‘crossed like two blinding swords (or something),’ he said. Apart from his clock he looked great. I had glanced at his board position a few times to see him a piece up but his clock, as ever, seemed set to detonate. 21 seconds to make 4 moves and I had to look away. He converted. He always does. Nearly.
It was left to me, myself a piece up after the dust of a queen side melee had cleared, to round of a tremendous comeback.
A proud performance against a University team whose play exceeded their ratings. Our next match at Ecclesall Chess Club promises to be an even harder battle.
