Things didn’t start particularly well. Chern was playing Richard Hall for the 3rd time this season. Richard plays rather in the unmoveable style of a mountain. With a brick wall around it. In their previous two attempts Chern had been unable to find a way past. Again Chern was clearly stretching for win but his knight made the summit of e4 only to be swept off. A white Bishop then ran along a crevice to b5 with a nasty pin which Richard exploited by detonating a hole in the A file – a valley down which his heavy cavalry entered Chern’s defences. It looked very exposed but Chern defended well and despite a White rook locating behind his army, an ugly pawn formation and a passive rook, he held on to draw.
Douglas’ game was remarkably similar. His opponent had also infiltrated. A White Knight and Bishop appeared to have parachuted into the critical area behind Douglas’ central pawns. Douglas had two knights scouting way off on the King side but they looked to belong in a different game. However Douglas found an ingenious way to repel the invasion by ransoming his queen for a rook, a bishop and a pawn. It was a well made bargain and allowed the Black knights to counter attack. To me it seemed Douglas made a mistake in enabling his bishop to get trapped on h2 after it had grabbed another pawn with check but when I returned to the board a few minutes later one of those black knights floated down to fork the White King and Queen. At that point Douglas turned the match. The position was still not straightforward but Douglas played with a beautiful calm and precision to utterly annihilate his opponent and force resignation.
Dave and Gleb had the most sensible games in the match. Dave's Kings Indian position gradually expanded. He took space on the King side with g5 and made lengthy manoeuvres with his knights to gain what seemed a slender edge. He had always be slightly behind on the clock however and with about 5 moves to make in the last 5 minutes before the control he became transfixed in the complexities of the position and unnecessarily lost on time.
Gleb played a strong match from the start. Paul Lea Kime must be a student of Richard Hall. I’ve drawn with him twice but I don’t think in either game he put a pawn across half way. Gleb was more busy transferring tiny gains into more tiny gains. The game ended with our Meercat holding an edge but not one that would have interested Fritz. Paul had passive rooks but his pawn formation was treble butted and set in cement. It was the sort of position that it’s easy to lose against through over-extending and when the draw was agreed, giving us 3 points and at least a tie in the match, I was pleased.
Except this meant I had to look at Srini’s game with Brian Holdsworth. Oh Srini! The Ying and Yang of our team! He faced the Albin Counter Gambit and tried to hold on to the captured e pawn which I think is a very difficult thing to do. He had a damn good try. Certainly he thought about it all for long enough. 41 minutes for his first 11 moves leaving 19 minutes for 19 moves. The position was complex and at one stage I was sure he was behind but his opponents’ clock was catching up and when they both made the time control with less than a minute left Srini was material up although Chern spotted a missed mating opportunity for Brian, exploiting Srini’s exposed king. There were also lines which exploiting the potential skewer on Srini’s king-queen. We looked at these afterwards and they were very complicated. But then a little miracle occurred, Srini rightly ignored a poisoned Bishop, seemingly left en prix, and instead, an exchange and a pawn up, offered a draw. We all know how hard this must have been for Srini who thinks a draw is something you should only insist on after you have lost! It was a noble sacrifice for the team, exemplifying the incredible spirit we have. George, who had turned up to watch and Bill who had been playing for the A Team shared our delight. Someone kissed Srini. (Very stubbly!)
Man of the match was Douglas but everyone who played played really well. Chern defended superbly, Gleb, without his fake cigarette toy, was faultless throughout, Dave gave me hope for most of the match so it was ironic he lost but he had already done his work against Uni and Ecclesall, and Srini! Beautiful, smiling, scowling, stubbly Srini. What a team you are!
